The Sharpening Thread
Discussion
24lemons said:
Just tread carefully with B&B. I had a dreadful experience which cost me over £150 to rectify.
I can wholeheartedly recommend Sheffield Knife Sharpening though. Knives were razor sharp and I have the scar (and photos) to prove it!!
Fair, looks good and personal recommendation is what you want. I can wholeheartedly recommend Sheffield Knife Sharpening though. Knives were razor sharp and I have the scar (and photos) to prove it!!
https://www.sheffieldknifesharpening.com/services
Knife Sharpening
Double Bevel.............. from £1.10/inch
Single Bevel............... from £2/inch
Serrated knives.......... from £2/inch
Have to say I was not impressed with B&D either. My Global knife set came back rather butchered. Reasonably sharp but not the right angle and one of the knives was substantially smaller than when I sent it off!
I took the plunge and bought a HORL sharpener a few weeks ago and whilst it is not 100% perfect you can get a very nice edge on your blades, especially once you have worked out a method to get the tip sharp too.
I took the plunge and bought a HORL sharpener a few weeks ago and whilst it is not 100% perfect you can get a very nice edge on your blades, especially once you have worked out a method to get the tip sharp too.
AdeTuono said:
Yes; I bought this one after watching a few comparison tests.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNTJK8HB?ref=ppx_yo2...
Seems fine, and on the face of it, identical to the Horl one. Without doing a back-to-back it's impossible to say if one is 'better', but it's certainly improved the edge on my Globals and a couple of others I've tried it on. The magnets are plenty strong enough that the knife doesn't slip while sharpening, a criticism of one or two other makes. There are companies out there who do replacement grinding discs in different grits too. Ultimately, I can't see it would be worth spending 5x the cost on a Horl; your opinions may differ....
Thanks for this, I've just received it and it puts a nice edge on my chefs knife.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNTJK8HB?ref=ppx_yo2...
Seems fine, and on the face of it, identical to the Horl one. Without doing a back-to-back it's impossible to say if one is 'better', but it's certainly improved the edge on my Globals and a couple of others I've tried it on. The magnets are plenty strong enough that the knife doesn't slip while sharpening, a criticism of one or two other makes. There are companies out there who do replacement grinding discs in different grits too. Ultimately, I can't see it would be worth spending 5x the cost on a Horl; your opinions may differ....
I like that's its simple and quick to setup and use. 10 to 15 passes on each side and I'm happy.
Having been down this rabbit hole with Straight razors, I know a thing or two about honing and using stones.
The rolling concept is a simple pleasure to use. Cheers.
TorqueDirty said:
Have to say I was not impressed with B&D either. My Global knife set came back rather butchered. Reasonably sharp but not the right angle and one of the knives was substantially smaller than when I sent it off!
Two strikes and they are out, wasnt my first go to either, website looks a bit to much like a swish marketing front to something less glamourous!24lemons said:
dhutch said:
Two strikes and they are out, wasnt my first go to either, website looks a bit to much like a swish marketing front to something less glamourous!
This was one of five I sent. They were all as bad. Incredibly they tried to defend their work.
21TonyK said:
Aside from the fact it looks like they've tried to sharpen it on a brick, looking at the picture at the point with the glass jars in the background, is the blade ground (shaped) evenly? Looks iffy in the pic?
No the bevel was wobbly, it was different depths one side to the other. One had a chunk taken out of the bolster, my nakiri and Japanese chefs knives had the straight heels carved into curves. 3 of the knives were from a set but they all had different depth bevels. They were a mess. Far worse than when I sent them off.
This was the petty knife after being repaired by Sheffield Knife Sharpening. The Santoku in the other picture is from the same set and looks the same now. All my knives had to be re profiled and they are still sharp 18 months later.
Nice video from an extreme sharpening geek about the tumbler rolling sharpener for those that were interested in it.
https://youtu.be/4OfjZGD_RxE?si=BJE8Nlw5yGB8cvju
https://youtu.be/4OfjZGD_RxE?si=BJE8Nlw5yGB8cvju
How was the new (I think) toy?
I got fed up of faffing about and delaying buying a sharpening 'system' and ordered a cheap whetstone from Amazon. £15-20 and had a little play with it last night with a blunt knife. Definitely better after only a couple of minutes and will have a proper go later.
I got fed up of faffing about and delaying buying a sharpening 'system' and ordered a cheap whetstone from Amazon. £15-20 and had a little play with it last night with a blunt knife. Definitely better after only a couple of minutes and will have a proper go later.
Edited by Miocene on Tuesday 23 January 17:04
24lemons said:
21TonyK said:
Aside from the fact it looks like they've tried to sharpen it on a brick, looking at the picture at the point with the glass jars in the background, is the blade ground (shaped) evenly? Looks iffy in the pic?
No the bevel was wobbly, it was different depths one side to the other. One had a chunk taken out of the bolster, my nakiri and Japanese chefs knives had the straight heels carved into curves. 3 of the knives were from a set but they all had different depth bevels. They were a mess. Far worse than when I sent them off.This was the petty knife after being repaired by Sheffield Knife Sharpening. The Santoku in the other picture is from the same set and looks the same now. All my knives had to be re profiled and they are still sharp 18 months later.
I see you have the test piece to hand!
Joe M said:
Nice video from an extreme sharpening geek about the tumbler rolling sharpener for those that were interested in it.
https://youtu.be/4OfjZGD_RxE?si=BJE8Nlw5yGB8cvju
Watched a few of his videos last night - all pretty helpful I'd say.https://youtu.be/4OfjZGD_RxE?si=BJE8Nlw5yGB8cvju
Essentially, but a shapton 1000 grit stone and learn!
Played a bit more with the cheapy Amazon stone which is entirely not recommended by the aforementioned youtuber and my cheap knife is definitely better. Not paper cutting sharp, but better - though I notice the bevel is larger than it was - is this being too flat with my angle, or is it to be expected?
I have two of the Amazon stones
400/1000
1000/6000
I've spent 4 hours over the last two evenings correcting the bevel angle on 6 knives, ranging from utility, tomato, cleaver, chef, Damascus kitchen and yanagiba. I do the bevel correction with the 400 & a Sharpie indicator when I can't quickly sharpen them on the 1000/6000 (about every 2 years or so on the cleaver, chefs and yanagiba.
The 1000 grit whetstone plus ceramic hone = razor sharp
6000 grit whetstone plus very light ceramic hone= Japanese knife sharp.
They are both between 12 and 5 years old and I use a stone conditioner stone. Technique is key. You can get razor sharp on the bottom edge of a coffee cup.
It's a very rewarding process.
400/1000
1000/6000
I've spent 4 hours over the last two evenings correcting the bevel angle on 6 knives, ranging from utility, tomato, cleaver, chef, Damascus kitchen and yanagiba. I do the bevel correction with the 400 & a Sharpie indicator when I can't quickly sharpen them on the 1000/6000 (about every 2 years or so on the cleaver, chefs and yanagiba.
The 1000 grit whetstone plus ceramic hone = razor sharp
6000 grit whetstone plus very light ceramic hone= Japanese knife sharp.
They are both between 12 and 5 years old and I use a stone conditioner stone. Technique is key. You can get razor sharp on the bottom edge of a coffee cup.
It's a very rewarding process.
Miocene said:
Joe M said:
Nice video from an extreme sharpening geek about the tumbler rolling sharpener for those that were interested in it.
https://youtu.be/4OfjZGD_RxE?si=BJE8Nlw5yGB8cvju
Watched a few of his videos last night - all pretty helpful I'd say.https://youtu.be/4OfjZGD_RxE?si=BJE8Nlw5yGB8cvju
Essentially, but a shapton 1000 grit stone and learn!
Played a bit more with the cheapy Amazon stone which is entirely not recommended by the aforementioned youtuber and my cheap knife is definitely better. Not paper cutting sharp, but better - though I notice the bevel is larger than it was - is this being too flat with my angle, or is it to be expected?
So if your cutting edge is now noticeably larger then yes you are grinding it flatter than it was - but that's not really a problem as in fact it should cut better with a shallower angle.
In all probability you've either not created a burr or you have created a burr but not removed it. If you have a burr you will feel it and need to remove it - you could do this with a 1000 grit stone by using half a dozen very very light strokes to finish off with. Or get yourself a leather strop and maybe some strop paste.
Tip: If your wearing denim jeans then they can be used as a strop - but FFS do it in the non cutting direction
Re grits
With the Wicked Edge I find that he 1000 grit is enough to give me a really good cutting edge. The 1200 / 1500 grit doesn't make much difference but oddly the 2200 / 3000 grit really does refine it to very sharp. The 0.6 micron ceramic stone they no longer make turns it into a razor blade (almost)
With the Wicked Edge I find that he 1000 grit is enough to give me a really good cutting edge. The 1200 / 1500 grit doesn't make much difference but oddly the 2200 / 3000 grit really does refine it to very sharp. The 0.6 micron ceramic stone they no longer make turns it into a razor blade (almost)
Day off after a week away with the wrong knife which as a chef is a little problematic!!! I have two identical (F Dick) knives, one is my work knife. This is ground to 12-15 degrees and I keep it in check when I am working away with a steel and thats about all it usually needs.
At home the same type of knife sits in the drawer getting battered about and is the factory 15-20 degrees, gets used for veg prep and hacking up chickens and wiped occasionally on a diamond steel. Its sharper than when it came out of the factory but not the sort of thing you want to be using for 60+ hours which is what I ended up doing!
Anyway, day off and time to sort out the home knife so I don't make the same mistake again. (Although I suspect it was swapped over by 21Jnr who prefers my work knife!)
Its not pretty but its functional. About 12 degrees, started at 240 working to 1000 then finished on a 5000 stone with a microbevel.
Edited by 21TonyK on Thursday 25th January 17:51
dickymint said:
First off when you say "bevel" do you mean the cutting edge? Some knives have a primary bevel and a secondary bevel (that is the cutting edge - ignore the micro bevel) as in this drawing..........
So if your cutting edge is now noticeably larger then yes you are grinding it flatter than it was - but that's not really a problem as in fact it should cut better with a shallower angle.
In all probability you've either not created a burr or you have created a burr but not removed it. If you have a burr you will feel it and need to remove it - you could do this with a 1000 grit stone by using half a dozen very very light strokes to finish off with. Or get yourself a leather strop and maybe some strop paste.
Tip: If your wearing denim jeans then they can be used as a strop - but FFS do it in the non cutting direction
I could definitely feel something on the side of the knife not being sharpened, so thinking that must be a burr! I don't have a strop at the moment, so used the light brushes along the stone and also the scrappy jeans I had on at the time to remove it, which it seemed to do.So if your cutting edge is now noticeably larger then yes you are grinding it flatter than it was - but that's not really a problem as in fact it should cut better with a shallower angle.
In all probability you've either not created a burr or you have created a burr but not removed it. If you have a burr you will feel it and need to remove it - you could do this with a 1000 grit stone by using half a dozen very very light strokes to finish off with. Or get yourself a leather strop and maybe some strop paste.
Tip: If your wearing denim jeans then they can be used as a strop - but FFS do it in the non cutting direction
The knife is definitely sharper than it was (very very blunt), so i'll keep going but also add a 400 grit to do this initial work in the future.
Enjoyed reading this thread over the past few weeks, it’s had my Amazon ‘buy it now’ finger twitching a few times. One of the roller sharpeners was favourite but baulked at the cost of the Horl 2 and didn’t fancy throwing money away on a copy.
Anyway, chef step-daughter came back home this weekend and the yacht she just left bought her a Horl 2 as a leaving present so I got a free trial period
It’s easy to use and the 4 test knives have never been sharper. 100% recommended for any beginner.
I’m no expert but these look like decent cuts for a big chefs knife?
Anyway, chef step-daughter came back home this weekend and the yacht she just left bought her a Horl 2 as a leaving present so I got a free trial period
It’s easy to use and the 4 test knives have never been sharper. 100% recommended for any beginner.
I’m no expert but these look like decent cuts for a big chefs knife?
swanny71 said:
Enjoyed reading this thread over the past few weeks, it’s had my Amazon ‘buy it now’ finger twitching a few times. One of the roller sharpeners was favourite but baulked at the cost of the Horl 2 and didn’t fancy throwing money away on a copy.
Anyway, chef step-daughter came back home this weekend and the yacht she just left bought her a Horl 2 as a leaving present so I got a free trial period
It’s easy to use and the 4 test knives have never been sharper. 100% recommended for any beginner.
I’m no expert but these look like decent cuts for a big chefs knife?
Ouch!! two slices of thumb Anyway, chef step-daughter came back home this weekend and the yacht she just left bought her a Horl 2 as a leaving present so I got a free trial period
It’s easy to use and the 4 test knives have never been sharper. 100% recommended for any beginner.
I’m no expert but these look like decent cuts for a big chefs knife?
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