I know there seems to be quite a knife interest on here, so thought I’d share these photo’s below.

I bought a whetstone shortly after Christmas to sharpen my chisels & a plane blade, but thought it best to start on an old knife first, for practice. Only just got round to trying it out…!

I have an old “Chef’s” knife that I bought from Tesco while at uni. It’s getting on for 18 years old & only cost about £6. The edge on it was completely wrecked & while it still cut OK, it was far from sharp.

I used a 400/1000 whetstone to try & sharpen it. It took bloody ages on the 400 side to grind back the rough bits, but I got there in the end.
It’s not perfect, but quite happy for a first attempt.
It’s bloody sharp now!

Before & after photo’s taken with a Tamron 90mm macro on my D80.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WxC8jd]HDR Unsharpened Knife crop[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WzU8Mc]HDR Sharpened Knife 2 crop[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

I’d say that was a damn fine job, but i’m left felling cheated/disappointed, I opened the thread with the anticipation of viewing a gory image of a solitary finger tip lying on a chopping board with the word “Bugger” written in blood below it.

I’d say that was a damn fine job, but i’m left felling cheated/disappointed, I opened the thread with the anticipation of viewing a gory image of a solitary finger tip lying on a chopping board with the word “Bugger” written in blood below it.

You could see that the thread wasn’t started by Stoner. Although, he is also known as Stumpy these days, so I suppose it could be seen as an easy mistake.

I was going to refer to the fine personal injury threads such as the like of “Stoner” or “WorldClassAccident” but thought that may be in bad taste, for a forum poster with a name such as “stumpy01” this thread needs constant updates as he transforms the rest of his chisels into digit removing devices.

Sorry to disappoint, somafunk!! 😀

My Wife was amazed that I hadn’t even sustained any nicks….! I’m sure there’ll be a complacent slip of the blade somewhere down the line that i can share for everyone’s amusement!

My Wife rolled her eyes as I searched the fridge for things to cut-up to test out my freshly sharpened knife!

The Leatherman will get the same treatment at the weekend, I think!!

Nuts to your knife, that’s some damn fine imaging.

Cheers Cougar…

It’s a good lens…for sure.

I used a tea light to illuminate the front of the blade and put my phone screen behind as a black surface.
My initial attempts using the room lights were crap.
I probably should have used one of my bike lights to act as a colder light source to give a blue ‘cold’ tinge, but just wanted get on sharpening it so didn’t spend too much time fiddling around.

My daughter’s playdoh made an ideal stable, easily adjustable mount for the knife!

If you want to really go for it, strop it on a leather belt with some metal polish on, it’ll achieve a mirror like finish on the edge and will be ridiculously sharp

Cool. Wanna do all my knives now. Where do you get this whetstone thing?

The only sharp knife I’ve got is some white ceramic thing.

benp1 – Member
If you want to really go for it, strop it on a leather belt with some metal polish on, it’ll achieve a mirror like finish on the edge and will be ridiculously sharp

Yeah, I did have a look around for something to do that with but didn’t have anything suitable.
I was looking at 3000/8000 grit stones tonight to take it a stage further, but not sure it’s really necessary for what I need!

jambourgie – Member
Cool. Wanna do all my knives now. Where do you get this whetstone thing?

I got one from Amazon – search bearmoo whetstone.
There was a thread on this a while back and I think it was considered that while diamond stones are more pricey, they are a better option.
I’m a tight arse though.
I also bought a knife sharpening guide, but took it off after about 2 mins because it seemed a bit crap.

Plenty of YouTube videos if you do a search…

stumpy01 – Member
… 400/1000 whetstone …

That’s a good job you have done with your old knives.

I saw some double sided 400/1000 whetstone being sold at TK Maxx for £14 each yesterday. They look quality but they are made in China. Note that there are good ones made in Japan, China, USA and I think some other countries … I was tempted to buy them but I already got few. 😛

Nuts to your knife

😯

I got the bearmoo 3000/8000 – it really makes a difference. Quite a relaxing way to spend 10 or 20 minutes too and my cheap knives are now sharp as can be.

I took mine to a local butcher and said “can you sharpen these please?” Did a great job and wouldn’t allow me to give him any money.

I treated myself to a Lansky guided sharpening system. With practice you can reset an edge (some of my old knives were shouldered from stoning them) and then get it to fairly sharp, using progressively finer stones. However, they still looked a bit naff so I made a bench strop, using a strip of leather and a piece of 4×2, treated myself to some honing compound (Smurf Poo) then set about stropping and honing all my knives. Best results were from an Enzo Necker – my gralloching knife, and my little Buck Bantam folder, which over the years had suffered and needed more or less a total regrind.

Looks a lot better, but I can see a slightly rolled edge and slight nick on the LHS. 😉 It does look good though.

you obviously need lots more practice
will happily give you our knives to practice on…

Milkie – Member

Looks a lot better, but I can see a slightly rolled edge and slight nick on the LHS. It does look good though.

By rolled edge, do you mean the very tip of the cutting surface? Not really familiar with all the terminology….
Is this what a strop would remove? It certainly doesn’t feel like a perfect edge – just tons better than it was.

There are still minor nicks along the whole edge – the point of the blade is the worst area, but I found this the hardest area to sharpen because you can only support it on one side.

Next up is to get a finer stone for getting really OCD with it & a flattening stone (or a thick piece of glass & some wet & dry) to take the bow out of the whetstone!!

spot – Member

you obviously need lots more practice
will happily give you our knives to practice on…

I found the process quite therapeutic, but I’ve got plenty more of my own to do before I start doing anyone else’s…. 😀

That’s a great result! I have a 400/1000 sharpening stone, but I’m struggling with maintaining a constant angle, especially with my Opinel – the results have been very underwhelming. It seems a bit easier to hold the knife at the correct angle with a thick blade like my Mora, but the thin one… I suppose I should learn to sharpen something simple like my Chinese chef’s knife first, but that one is far from needing the whetstone yet.

STW will eat itself.

Firstly, it will chop itself into very fine slices.

Good job!

But I was also expecting some wonky one handed pics taken in A+E. #musttryharder

Been meaning to get a proper sharpening stone myself.

Here’s what a rolled edge is.

You can see on the LHS there is a light reflection on the cutting edge, which usually means there is a bend.

I have no idea what is a strop is, I’m in the knife industry but not hand held knives and I do not profess to know everything about knives. 😉 Polishing it will greatly improve the cut.

Milkie

I have no idea what is a strop is

A leather belt or block that you use to polish the burrs off your edge.

Milkie

I’m in the knife industry but not hand held knives.

Car mounted knives?

Gotta be chariot mounted. Full boadicea stylee

Helmet mounted is a possibility I guess..

Milkie – Member

Here’s what a rolled edge is.

You can see on the LHS there is a light reflection on the cutting edge, which usually means there is a bend.

Ah, yeah that’s what I guessed it was.
I have got a steel, which I ran along it when I’d finished. I’m not really familiar with using one though, & was probably a bit dainty with it – I didn’t want to undo all my good work.

I might have another go at it this evening to try & sort that out.

Just googled ‘make a leather strop’ and it looks like you just need a bit of leather (old belt or something) glued to a board, rub some oil into it & then put a polishing compound on it.
Something else to give a go, I guess….

Started to use a stone recently, the steel at the end just finishes the job off then re-sharpen before or after use. It’s worked nicely, but it does need to be done well – I scraped across the blade a couple of times before I got the grip right.

Ah, yeah that’s what I guessed it was.
I have got a steel, which I ran along it when I’d finished. I’m not really familiar with using one though, & was probably a bit dainty with it – I didn’t want to undo all my good work.

I might have another go at it this evening to try & sort that out.

Just googled ‘make a leather strop’ and it looks like you just need a bit of leather (old belt or something) glued to a board, rub some oil into it & then put a polishing compound on it.
Something else to give a go, I guess….

Butchers’ knives are kinda different to bushcraft/survival/game prep knives. They are ridiculously sharp, and a regularly stoned to achieve an edge. The edge benefits from a bit of “tooth” if you’re cutting into meat etc, and here’s where a steel comes in handy: A butcher will steel the knife every few cuts, as the sharp edge can take on rolls, burrs and notches when it’s being used. Steeling a knife takes skill and practice, but generally just a few strokes in the cutting direction, but held at the correct angle to the bevel of the edge is enough to sort out those imperfections.

Strops are intended to polish and maintain a razor edge. My gralloching and paunching knives are scandi ground to 22 degrees, then stropped to create a toothless, razor’s edge. This will shave the hairs off your arm, and slice paper into tiny strips, but they aren’t all that robust. They are both used to cut into fresh, warm game, without drag or slip, cutting through skin and some muscle to perform their task. Very little of the blade is used apart from the tips and the belly of the blade. They occasionally roll, but rarely notch, so stropping is usually all that is required to maintain them.

Cheers scapegoat! Interesting info.

…..ponders a strop or steel finish for efficient carrot slicing…..

😉

edit – just googled paunching knife…..eek!! 😯

What technique did you use OP?

It took bloody ages on the 400 side to grind back the rough bits, but I got there in the end.

how long is bloody ages? I recently got a similar stone and have had a couple of sessions (of a few mins each) to try and get our cheap kitchen knives sharp again.

I’ve been disappointed with the results so I’m wondering if I’m maybe not doing t for long enough or if my technique is off?!

They are both used to cut into fresh, warm game, without drag or slip, cutting through skin and some muscle to perform their task.

Looks cautiously at skapegoat, and remembers to be wary if they invite moi on a ride….. 😕

DrP

molgrips – Member
What technique did you use OP?

djambo – Member

how long is bloody ages? I recently got a similar stone and have had a couple of sessions (of a few mins each) to try and get our cheap kitchen knives sharp again.

How long….probably about 90 mins, but that was taking it easy, rinsing the blade frequently to see how it was coming in and paying careful attention to the angle I was supporting the blade at.

And the edge of the blade was knackered. I almost gave up at one point, but all of a sudden a load of bits came off where I guess I broke through to fresh material.

One thing to note was the pressure on the blade. I think I started too gently, but was slowly able to increase the pressure as I got confident with the technique….

Regarding technique, I just held the blade at the angle which seemed correct and dragged the blade towards me repeatedly while putting a bit of pressure on the blade. I went over the same part of the blade a few time before moving onto the next bit. When I got to the end I flipped the knife and did the other side.

Repeat repeat repeat….check check check…

I had to regularly wet the stone surface.
Every few mins I flipped the stone (e.g. far end to near end) to even the wear a bit.

I suspect now the edge is free of most damage, sharpening it up again shouldn’t take much more than 10 mins max.

Looks cautiously at skapegoat, and remembers to be wary if they invite moi on a ride…..

DrP

You’d enjoy the barbecues though…….. 😀

Picked this from Amazon the other day, quite surprised with the quality for that price- 400/1000 for use on the kitchen knife collection…

We had a few inexpensive kitchen knives that we wrecked and I used a metal file to do the first stage,before going onto a whetstone. Seemed to work well for me. I took slow strokes with the file, so as not to overheat the blade, but it took nowhere near 90 min. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for a knife you’re precious about, but our cheap knives were vastly improved.

mulacs – Member
Picked this from Amazon the other day, quite surprised with the quality for that price- 400/1000 for use on the kitchen knife collection…

That looks very similar to the Bearmoo one thA I bought, but mine didn’t come with a bamboo base. It’s currently £18 on Amazon.

gauss1777 – Member
We had a few inexpensive kitchen knives that we wrecked and I used a metal file to do the first stage,before going onto a whetstone. Seemed to work well for me. I took slow strokes with the file, so as not to overheat the blade, but it took nowhere near 90 min.

Yeah, I think the knife was too far gone really to use the 400 to start with. But, I didn’t have anything else to use which is why it took so long. I have seen Youtube vids of people use grinding wheels to get the blades that need a lot of work, to a better ‘starting point’.

I think this is the only knife of ours that was in such a state, so most other sharpening jobs is just bring the edge back.

I have a couple of stones of unknown origin but I generally just use a really fine grit wet and dry sandpaper with some wd40/oil/water or whatever’s handy. Takes about a minute to get my pocket knives pretty sharp. If I’m bored I’ll strop it on the back of an old belt which I glued to the work bench. With a file, wet and dry and a strop I can get an axe shaving sharp, but the ergonomics make it a bit of challenge 🙂