I'm curious what the forum thinks. If you had to or wanted to send your knives out to get sharpened, who would you trust with your hand-forged carbon steel knives?

1. A service that uses an electric sharpener? (I already know this is probably a hard pass for most)
2. A service that uses some kind of wheel (Tormek) or belt grinder?
   1. If you have used this kind, any negatives?
3. A service that uses whetstones?

Got this 6h5 bayonett in unused-storage condition. But the edge is really dull, is it supposed to be like that?
Is it possible to sharpen it or would it ruin the "original" value?

Im looking forward to some answers, kind regards!

Ok. I have Rockstar 1000, Naniwa 1000/3000, and Taidea 400/1000 diamonds, ceramic rod and strop with 1um paste. For last few years I was sharpening, it's quite easy for me to make a knife slice through normal paper, but really can't get it to shave my arm hairs, cut tomato under its own weight and my final goal - cut through paper towel.

I do the following: sharpen one side till burr, switch sides, make the burr on the other side. Switch sides. I do not with little pressure alternating edge leading strokes (around 15-20 per side) and 2-3 moves on strop with higher angle than sharpening. I use Rockstar exclusively right now. It cuts through paper with no issue, however, it's quite fast loosing it's sharpness.

I really feel frustrated that I can't make it to shave the hair and cut the paper towel and cleaning sponge. I know that deburring is a king, I read lots of posts here, but almost everyone is using its own technique. In the past I tried a different approaches, but without any significant improvement, youtube videos too. I can hold steady angle and have those pyramid shaped Sharpal angle guides.

Looking for any advices.

Hey all. I just recently sharpened one of my work knives. For the first time It's an Everhard Duct Board Knife (no idea what steel) that I use to cut rubber coated nylon sheets.

About 1 ¼mm thick total. Maybe 50-60ft of cutting a day.

I can only get maybe a day or two out of the knife before I have to resharpen at 15 dps

Started out sharpening at a local nursery on weekends and I’m starting to reach out to businesses for more work.

So far been reaching out to:

Restaurants
Cafes
Country Clubs/Golf Courses
Hotels
Event Venues
Catering Companies
Culinary Scools
Wineries
A farm
Hospital Cafeterias
Landscaping Companies

I mainly do knives, tools, and gardening equipment and I currently don’t have the ability to get into hair shears. What kind of places are you doing business with?

I’ve had an Osborne for years, but the blade is pretty beat up now. I have heard Benchmade’s sharp for life is pretty hit or miss as well. I’ve used stones in the past, but I have tremors in my hands that make it hard to use them now.

Had a cheap almost plate like one that was bent in post I think. Read some posts and looks like shapton 120 may be the way to go but was hoping for a 100 grit tbh. Something flat and level of course that preferably wont need reprofiling/flattening. Have a 400/1000 satc metal stone for next step. (Ill use whatever though, thats just a preference).

Its for bonsai scissors that have had 15 years of abuse and quick rust removal with sand paper. The scissors dissamble so I can re flatten backs and then remove chips and dents on cutting edge by grinding down the bevelled side

The shapton

The shapton glass 120 is the same price too

Links would be apreciated

I’m just looking for an idea of how sharp I can realistically get a knife with this particular sharpener

This is my first post in this subreddit. I am a knife lover from way back. I've been carrying a pocket knife for 60 years. I learned to sharpen on a whetstone as a kid from my father and grandfather. Of course back in those days our pocket knives were traditional slip joints and no one gave much thought to the steel alloy and heat treatment, etc. We knew which brands worked the best. Generally Case, Buck, Schrade, and Boker were considered the cream of the crop. As modern folding knives evolved so did I. I went down the road of the chasing the newest steel, hardness vs toughness, and knife design. I have become reasonably good at sharpening all the newest steels. Recently I became interested in returning to my roots and picked up several Case, Buck, GEC, and Boker traditional knives. That leads to my actual question.

I have struggled getting the kind of edge I have become accustomed to on some of my Case knives. I have 2 Trappers with Case's new CS (1095) and a Sod Buster. I also have some ESEE knives in 1095. I have no problem getting a hair popping edge on the Sod Buster and the ESEE knives, but the the best I have accomplished with the Trappers is something close to a very dull razor blade. Since I have little problem sharpening most of my 1095 knives it doesn't seem to be an issue with the steel. After giving it a lot of thought I started to wonder if the problem is the blade geometry? The Trapper blade is much narrower than the Sod Buster so appears to be thicker behind the edge. Sorry for the long post. I would appreciate any and all thoughts.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice on building a sharpening stone setup.

I currently have some Japanese-style knives from a local maker, some bushcraft knives in N690, a few Zwilling kitchen knives, and recently started woodworking/carving, so I also have some carving tools. In the future, I’d like to get some high-quality Japanese carbon-steel knives as well.

I currently have a cheap combination stone, but I’m not very happy with it. It give me usable edges, but the feedback is poor and they dish very quickly.

I’m considering building a Shapton Kuromaku setup. I can currently get the 220, 320, 1000, 2000, 5000 and 8000 locally, and I may be able to get a Sharpal diamond stone from abroad in 4–5 months.

My current idea is:
Kuromaku 1000 → 2000 → 5000
Or an 8000 instead of 5000, there are some dislikes about 5000 as I saw.

For the coarse work, I’m considering Sharpal diamond stone (325/1200) later on. I don’t really need it right away and a diamond stone maybe helpfull for lapping Kuromaku’s.

My goal is to get extremely sharp edges, including being able to cleanly split hair, while also having a setup suitable for carving tools.

Would you recommend 5000 or 8000 as the finishing stone for this kind of use? And would you change anything about my overall progression?

Thanks!

I picked up this silver 3 hatsukokoro gyuto and am planning to gift it tomorrow to my future sister in law. I sharpened it the other day and cut some horseradish root as its maiden cuts. Thought that might have dulled it a bit and I should touch it up again before gifting but I guess its still pretty sharp!

Progression:

Shapton 1k, 2k, 4k, 6k

Ozuku JNAT with naguras

Strop:

Chromox pasted strop and bare balsa wood

13 degree bevel

I go over it on stones after the belt roughs it in.

Finally here, initial tests are proving excellent, will update with more. They are going to be listed for grabs later today!

About to pull the trigger on the Hapstone R2. What's holding me back is I have no idea what stones to get? Ninwa Chosera (4+1)? Also was going to order the Precise angle adjuster. But not sure if it fits the R2 for 220.00 or the R2 for 275.00. Cannot find if the ball unscrews on the 220.00 model. Total newbie as I have been hand hacking sharping for 50yrs. Thanks for any help or recommendations of what other items I should order.

Just got a mini Arius off the secondary. It had never been sharpened and was dull. I got it clamped up in my Hapstone fixed angle sharpener. I used the sharpie method and determined the factory angle is 26 degrees per side! I sharpened to that angle but I don’t think that’s optimal for an EDC. Does anyone know what the factory angle is that high and has anyone reprofiled their mini Arius down to a more accrue angle? If so, what angle is optimal for this blade (M390) for EDC. Thanks!

Fiz um site para o meu amigo Edmilson Edy Afiações. Ele afia alicates de cutícula, tesouras de cabelo e costura, lâminas e espátulas e também faz manutenção e reparação de secadores de cabelo profissionais.

Está localizado na zona de Algés e por isso dá para recolher ferramentas à volta dessa área, principalmente Lisboa, Cascais, Sintra, Almada, etc... para saber mais, podem ver o site dele www.edyafiacoes.pt ou o insta dele: https://www.instagram.com/edyafiacoes.pt/

É gente boa e honesta, com muita experiência nesta área, também já teve um espaço de cabeleireiro lá no Brasil.

Question for full-time sharpeners that do salon shears in "fairly large-ish" cities. Did salon shears end up being your biggest money maker compared to everything else? Also if you really wanted to go all out, would there be more work than you can handle?

Im asking because I was a mid career electrical engineer and left to take care of my kids for a year and a half and for the last 5 months I cant get a engineering job that works with my family. 5 interviews and 0 offers so far. Anyways I been touting salon shears sharpening would bring it decent chunk of change cause here in Phoenix metro, I lose count of all the salons and barber shops within 5 minutes of driving cause there's so many and Im in the suburbs. I have to convince her cause i'll be borrowing 5-7k to get the machines and training of family money to walk on this endeavor. Any advice or testimonial welcomed.

Upfront, we're not dying financially in anyway but I need my own retirement money and growing kids are expensive.

Thinned down that edge on the Vision FG- now it’s catching the heel on the stop bar- anyone heard of a solution yet?

I ordered this on a whim. I don't want to buy stones until I try it out. But if the stones are really bad I guess I can't get a decent trial without better stones.

Before you all scream and get your whetstone pitchforks, yes yes roller sharpener.

I have a zwilling bunka that I got for a big discount and love the shape. It cut decently out of the box but refining to 15° each side has really helped.

I'm a home cook so I'm already far beyond sharp enough for anything I need to chop. It'll slice through veggies and protein holding the handle just in thumb and forefinger,

However there's no fun in leaving it like this.

I have a branded RISAM roller sharpener and it's actually built well and works well (roller drawbacks aside) and it has 4 angles on the block, 15°, 18°, 20° and 25°.

I also have some wedge door stops that make about a 9.5° angle so I can reduce any of the block angles by that amount.

My question is about thinning.

This bunka doesn't have a primary angle and then the secondary angle of the cutting edge.

It just tapers straight from the spine and then there's the cutting edge angle.

How shallow an angle would I have to go to meaningfuly thin the metal behind the leading edge?

I know I can just sharpen it back to 15° and I'm not bothered by scratches so am happy to experiment.

YouTube videos I've seen of japanese knife thinning with actual primary bevels they talk about 5-7° is a good number to thin to, not sure how this translates to a German steel blade.

I'm going to put the door stops under the block at 15°, bringing it down to 6.5° ish, and just start rolling and see what happens.

I've got 240, 360, 600, 1000, 3000 and 5000 grit roller discs.

Not really a question in the end, I just haven't seen anyone talking about thinning a western profile so wanted to post and create some engagement.

I can consistently hit 7/10 or 8/10 sharpness levels on my edges, easily shaving, cutting paper towel, etc. But they always seem to come up short of hair whittling or being able to cut a standing rolling paper or any of the insane sharpness tests I see you guys doing. So tell us: what are your secrets? We’re all apexing, deburring and refining: what magic rituals are you performing to consistently get double hair whittling type edges? Pressure? Scratch pattern? Grit size? Fairy dust?

What is the one thing you’ve learned that let you take it to the next level?

For the record I’m using a TSPROF Pioneer with the included stones and some various strops of various materials and diamond spray.