Another limey newbie

[Gerald Welsby]

Hi all,
my name is Gerald and I acquired my Pro 2 about two weeks ago. I’ve had very acceptable results but I’ll be posting a load of beginner questions which will probably sound very lame to you, so please bear with me! I sharpen for fun. I sharpen knives for friends and family. It’s amazing the state of some of the knives they bring – they just bounce off the edge of printer paper. I love returning them sharp enough to shave it! I got the WE to see exactly how sharp I could make my Japanese kitchen knives but I’ve already seen on the forum that that may be a mistake….

[tuffy braithwaite]

for most kitchen blades i stop at 800 the both ceramics……..if shuns/globals – other japanese i stop on 1000, both ceramics and then strop, but strop on wooden paddle with compound.

big commercial blades from restaurants – i take home and sharpen on Kally thru. 900 grit trizat belts and then leather belt with compound. sometimes i stop on 600 grit belts. it all depends on the knife.

works for me.

good luck and be careful.

[Gerald Welsby]

Tuffy,
thanks for that. My daily use knives are all Tojiro Senkou Damascus steel with a 62 Rockwell core. I have already stopped using the 100 grit stones as they chip the edge. Someone on another thread (Leo?) said that the better the Japanese knife the less appropriate it is for sharpening with WE.

[Leo Barr]

I think it depends what Japanese knives you have Shuns and Globals are okay but I would not do a Takeda they are a Skandi grind and many of the higher quality knives are very low angles nor would I do single sided knives like Yanagis . But if you have Shuns or something similar then they will be fine on the WE

[Leo Barr]

I find that Tojillos can be rather thick in profile and they perform a lot better thinned I would do it incrementally the off putting thing on the Tojillos is the damascus clad which on the lower part near the edge will need to be lost although you can re-etch the damascus to bring back the patter there are plenty of vids on YT showing how to do this .
The last Tojillo I sharpened was a paring knife and it needed quite a bit of thinning otherwise all it is good for is cutting sliced cheese or ham .
I would try to find some thick sort of knife like an Ikea knife and then experiment thinning on that before you touch the Tojillo I would also recommend that you thin it incrementally since it will take hours to do .
When it is about right it will cut deep with ease . There should be no discernible curves or angles to the edge bevel your finger will feel it by running your fingers and thumb down from the spine to the edge in unison the smoother the transition the better the geometry is and the better the knife will perform.

Leo Nav

[Gerald Welsby]

Thanks again Leo. This is all “Oh, my prophetic soul” stuff! Yes, I’ve sharpened the TS knives which did not need the low angle adapter and yes, they are sharp but have lost the lovely Damascus effect near the bevel. The two knives I have sharpened with the adapter are both 9 cm TS paring knives. They are the first I have actually stropped with the 1 and 0.5 micron diamond pastes and I am very happy with both.
12 degrees is about the minimum bevel angle I can use because otherwise the head of a screw is fouling the stones or I am abrading the vice or low angle adapter.
My non-utility knives are a Konosuke Swedish Stainless Petty 150mm and a Sakai Takayuki 33 Layer Damascus Ginsanko Wa-Gyuto 240mm. I am far too timid to go near either yet with the WE!
Regards,
Gerald.

[Leo Barr]

I googled your other knives they both look very slim so unless they have been sharpened a lot I think they will be fine on the WE the only thing I would do is check to see is if they are slightly asymmetric that is asymmetric combining convex & flat or flat say at 70/30 ratio some knives do have these

edges like Misonos (Japanese made with Swedish Steel & European handle) apart from that I would say both of your other knives would sharpen well on the WE and the results will probable be better than the Tojillos.
I am sure people would like to see some photos of your endeavours

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