Why are the tips of my knives not pointy?

S

speedfan

Joined
Sep 5, 2003
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390
I can get the cutting edge of the tip of my knives sharp, but the tip itself is always a tiny bit blunt when I'm done with them. What am I doing wrong? I use a sharpmaker, and I do have the diamond rods. The edge can shave my face, but the tip isn't as pointy as when new.
 
speedfan said:
I can get the cutting edge of the tip of my knives sharp, but the tip itself is always a tiny bit blunt when I'm done with them. What am I doing wrong? I use a sharpmaker, and I do have the diamond rods. The edge can shave my face, but the tip isn't as pointy as when new.
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Sounds like you're pulling the tip off of the rod. On the sharpmaker if you do a full stroke, and you pull the tip of the stones you can dull the tip.
YOu are suppose have the tip stop when it touches the base.
 
Could it be that as I turn the blade towards the stone (to get the edge of the tip sharp) I'm turning it too much? If that was the cause, how do I correct this? I'm hoping there's a way without having to redo the entire edge.
 
I sharpen the very tip of the blade freehand. I generally use bench stones, but you can flip the base of the SharpMaker over and lay a rod in one of the grooves in the bottom and use it for a benchstone to do the tip.
 
chococrazy said:
Sounds like you're pulling the tip off of the rod. On the sharpmaker if you do a full stroke, and you pull the tip of the stones you can dull the tip.
YOu are suppose have the tip stop when it touches the base.
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speedfan said:
I've read that can be the issue, but it isn't my issue. I'm really at a loss.
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How do you know that you are not doing that?

When sharpening the knife using the Sharpmaker corners, you cannot sharpen all the way to the tip. You can sharpen the very tip on the Sharpmaker flats, but only if you do not pull the tip across the edge of the stone.
 
Yup round rods will do this also. A common problem until you figure it out.
 
speedfan said:
Why can't you also do it on the corners? The corner isn't that fine a point that it approaches nothingness.
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I think the angle changes as you go into the curve. I haven't tested it out myself yet.
 
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speedfan said:
Because when I finish my stroke the blade is still on the stone?

Why can't you also do it on the corners? The corner isn't that fine a point that it approaches nothingness.
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THG said:
I think the angle changes an you go into the curve. I haven't tested it out myself yet.
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OK.

THG is right. As you go around the corner, the angle changes and you end up grinding away the tip. (Learned that the hard way when I first got a Sharpmaker. I rounded the tip on several of my knives.) Now when using the corners, I stop a bit before the tip and I have nice sharp tips on those knives.
 
Hey db! did you get the email I sent?
 
The other thing you can do to remedy blunt tips, use sandpaper, lay it flat and start removing metal from the spine towards the tip, my personal experience after hard use on several of my knives.

It doesn't take much to get a needle tip back, very easily done free hand.
 
Skimo said:
The other thing you can do to remedy blunt tips, use sandpaper, lay it flat and start removing metal from the spine towards the tip, my personal experience after hard use on several of my knives.

It doesn't take much to get a needle tip back, very easily done free hand.
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I do it with a belt sander. Doing it by hand leaves a lot of messy scratches for me while I can't tell the difference between the stock finish and the new finish using a sander.
 
Practice, practice and more practice.
You could always send it off to have it reground.
 
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Use a full stroke from the tang to the tip as you sharpen, and don't pull away from the tip.
 
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