Pitted edge on kitchen knife

Michael, a file made to use on metals, like many of us already have in our tool boxes is a simple, easy,  fast and inexpensive way to remove damaged steel from an old knife edge.  I use the file length wise or longitudinally down along the clamped knife’s edge.  Exercise care, use safe practice with the file.  The file allows you to save the wear and tear on your Wicked Edge diamond stones, for sharpening, while removing the damaged steel well, fairly easily and fairly quickly.  Once the pitted, worn and damage steel is removed, simply profile the bevel and sharpen as usual with your Wicked Edge.

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Tinyfish, Brewbear

I contemplated buying a Tormek T8 for a good long time but honestly, I couldn’t see myself spending that kind of money when my WE 130 serves my needs above and beyond my expectations. Not being as technically gifted as airscapes, I resorted to the metal file that MarcH  mentioned and it worked very well but then I decided to buy the 50/80 grit stones and they make quick job of re-profiling a blade. I also remembered that several years ago I bought a Ken Onion Work Sharp that I never took out of its box and was “lost” during the move to the new house. It took a lengthy search but found the thing and I bought the tool sharpening attachment for it (1 x 18 inch belt) but have yet to try it. What I’m getting at is that if you have only one badly damaged knife, the file will work and the 50/80 grit stones will complement it. If you anticipate several damaged knifes, then the better alternative could be the Ken Onion contraption but it will set you back a couple of hundreds. If you take knife sharpening as a side income producing endeavor then you could consider a Tormek setup finances permitting.

Don’t rule out buying the 50/80 WE stones either, they do a great job.  I used mine a lot since purchasing my sharpener.

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Dwight Glass

I tried to post a comment on this earlier, but apparently had a brain fart and it somehow didn’t show up.  I bought a collection of antique wooden hand planes last year, hoping to restore ’em and give ’em away as gifts.  They all were rusted to some degree, but two of them had fairly deep specks along the edge.  After tons of stoning, I finally discovered that a few pits, although very small, penetrated clean through to the opposite side.  I didn’t find out until I accidentally noticed light shining through one of the holes when I swung the scope to the back side.  The amount of steel that I would need to remove to grind back the pits was simply unreasonable, even with my bench grinder and its attachment.  I found a couple of similar blades on eBay and one of those was equally pitted.

That’s probably not as serious a problem with Michael’s knife, but it might suggest that if the pits aren’t easily erased, grind back the edge and re-profile it.  Don’t waste too much time on them.

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Dwight Glass