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Knife sharpening

Knife sharpening. Always wanting to learn something new, so I have perused the, ‘sharpening’ group. I believe EVERY knife, should be sharp, but they need to be, separated by two things.

One, the ‘show’ knife. Where the kind of stone, media, oil/water, grit, etc. all play a part. (And are very important, for the ‘show’ knife), where people will be looking at the blade under a 20x loop.
Two, the ‘working’ knife. Where it has to be, sharp, for taking the green top of a tomato off, or coring a apple. or cutting the skin & meat on a peasant, grouse, or deer. Cutting the tape on cardboard boxes, cutting twine string, rope. Ect, Ect, Ect.

I liken it to, guns. My latest project was a purchase, (this Spring), of a older Rem 700 in .243. I Played with different combinations, of bullet, case, primer, powder, amounts, OAL, chamfered the flash hole, (inside and out), trimmed the cases, weighed the cases, etc, etc,, and it now shoots, (with the results of my ‘tinkering’), 10 shot dime size groups at 100 yards. Now the next guy/gal, goes to a ‘mart-mart’ store, buys a gun off the shelf, buys ammo off the shelf, has the 12 year olds at the ‘mart-mart’, “Bore Sight” it. And shoots a deer. Ask, they will tell you: “His/her gun is just as accurate as mine”. Well, if it was put on paper, bet you a years worth of Steak Dinners, that is NOT the case. BUT, it doesn't matter, because, of the result!

So to a sharp knife. I have carried a pocket knife, of some sort, for probably 50 years +. (When I go to the airport, now, I actually feel naked.) I do have a ‘Smith’ try stone, which is probably 35 years old, and have used ceramic rods, ‘steels’, Lanskey Systems, Even, Rocks, and edges of crocks.
The point is, the knives I use, are sharp! Will they stand up to a 20x loop, looking at how perfect the edge is. NO, but they are sharp.

If fact, ‘bout 20 years ago, pheasant hunting in N.D., I watched one of the fellows struggling to gut birds after a drive. Next drive, I found a very nice granite rock, (smoothed by the glaciers of old), stuck it in my vest, when we finished that drive, (we now had our limit for the day), I asked to see his knife. Poured a little beer over the rock, and in 20 strokes, handed him back the knife. His eyes went wide, and he said: “I have never had a knife so sharp”. In fact, the next year, he called me and asked me to sharpen his knife again. (I didn’t, that is not my business). Would that knife pass the test of, ‘Perfect Edge’, ‘Perfect Angle’, No “grit marks”, NO WAY, but it was SHARP.

Point is, you can shoot a Deer, with a gun which shoots ¼” groups at 100 yards, or one which shoots 5” groups at 100 yards. But that Deer, shot at 100 yards, is just as dead.

So, perhaps on this discussion, should delineate between, “Show Knife” & ‘Working Knife’.

My 3 cents, (B.O.’s Inflation)

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hanner on September 21, 2012 at 8:47

I agree with what you say Tom. Sometimes I think the art of sharpening on stone is long forgotten. Many in my environment use a knife everyday in a 100 different ways. To not have one would be unworkable!

My collector knives or vintage knives are not as sharp and to be honest those just sit anyway. But a working knife is just that and it better be sharp or it gets sharpened or put back in the box in favor of another one!

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 21, 2012 at 16:57

I agree. The colletors never get sharper than they came. The users (including the kitchen cutlery) better be sharp! I dont think Donnie goes anywhere without a stone. There is one in every room of the house, each of the trucks and each of his tool boxes

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Craig Henry on September 23, 2012 at 0:24

I have them all. Arkansas stones, Spyderco ceramic bench stones, DMT sharpeners, ceramic rods, and a Lansky. I use whatever I'm in the mood to use. If I want it fast and easy I go with the Lansky.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on September 25, 2012 at 12:58

Alright, all you sharpening guru's ...

As Donnie put it .. .. .. .. HOW ???

Personally, I have a fine grit hard arkansas for finishing .. diamond files for the prep wk .. and a belt sander for the REALLY obtuse.

But, on this one ... I'll paraphrase Donnie ..... HOW ???

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Craig Henry on September 25, 2012 at 16:24

VERY carefully.

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Permalink Reply by Howard P Reynolds on September 26, 2012 at 11:19

Thanks for this discussion, Tom. I would only add this to your introduction about "sharp" being relative: sharpen to the task at hand. You hinted at this with the discussion of a couple kinds of sharp, but since I recently learned to sharpen for the task - the hard way - I thought I would re-state your hints in sharper focus. Not every knife needs that hair popping sharpness that a kitchen slicer needs. In a recent test I noticed that a coarser edge (finished on a coarse stone) lasts longer than an edge finished on an extra-fine stone - for some what you might call "coarse" work. The mini (microscopic) serrations left from the coarse stone seem to cut better on tough, flexible materials. I am no expert here, so I could be all wet in my analysis of my results.

Also, I added a Frost Cutlery (Chinese) fixed blade (I stopped using all folders for "work") to my rotation of working knives - EDC cut whatever comes to hand knives - and so far, to my dismay, it seems to stay as sharp as my "better" knives for string, tape, boxes, cardboard, etc. I was hoping to find a clear difference early on to confirm my suspicions that Chinese knives don't hold up well, but the edge of this Frost Cutlery (perhaps made to better specs than a department store knife) even survived some batoning. Maybe it shows that almost any knife can be sharpened to usefulness or that Frost has good quality control and uses better steel than those horrible, cheaply made Chinese knives companies use as giveaways with their name on them.