Removing small chips?

[Nicko]

so a guy at work bought in a heap of knives, quite a few of them have about 1mm chips along the blades, just wondering how long a 100 grit diamond stone will take to remove those, or should i very gently use a grinder then the WEPS?

 

Thanks!

1 user thanked author for this post.

sksharp

[tcmeyer]

These are the ugly ones; where a friend brings you a knife that’s going to take all week.

I wouldn’t use a grinder, as they can produce hot spots very quickly and ruin the hardness of the blade.  I had one of these jobs recently and I went to my WorkSharp belt sander and it took only a few minutes to remove the ugly parts and bring the bevels back to normal, after which I switched to the WEPS to finish it.

If you need to use your WEPS to remove a lot of stock, here’s a trick to save you some time and effort:  With the blade mounted in your vise, use your stone (maybe your 400-grit) to file the edge flat until the nick has been banished.  This is all steel you’d have to remove anyway.  Now you can use your coarser grits to bring the bevel back toward the center line of that flat you’ve produced.  If the nick is in the belly of the blade, you can reduce the effort by flattening only that section and blending it into the rest of the profile.

5 users thanked author for this post.

M1rrorEdge, Nicko, wickededge, sksharp, Marc H

[Nicko]

Awesome thanks TC

[Nicko]

here’s an example of one of the knives, not the best pic but you get the idea!

Attachments:

You must be logged in to access attached files.

[Organic]

I agree with TC; file the edge flat by running a stone perpendicular to the edge until all the chips are abraded and then start sharpening from there. There’s not really any way around spending a good amount of time on an edge like that.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nicko

[Snecx]

If it takes a little too long on the 100, get the 50/80 grit paddles. They helped a tonne. But be careful with those, they remove metal (relatively) quick!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nicko

[Nicko]

Snecx wrote:

If it takes a little too long on the 100, get the 50/80 grit paddles. They helped a tonne. But be careful with those, they remove metal (relatively) quick!

Yeah sounds like a plan, although hopefully chipped knives are a rare occurrence! I will try with the 100 on the least chipped knife and see how I go. If it’s taking too long with the 100 I’ll sharpen the best ones and leave the worst for another time!

[cbwx34]

Nicko wrote:

…although hopefully chipped knives are a rare occurrence!  

Good luck with that haha.  I think most people see chips as a sign that the knife “might” need sharpening… so if you plan on sharpening knives for others, plan on chips, broken tips, deformed edges, and a story that usually starts with, “they were sharp when I got them 25 years ago…”.

p.s.  I also agree with… file the edge perpendicular to a stone.  Looks like it needs it.

[Organic]

cbwx34 wrote:

Nicko wrote:

…although hopefully chipped knives are a rare occurrence!

Good luck with that haha. I think most people see chips as a sign that the knife “might” need sharpening… so if you plan on sharpening knives for others, plan on chips, broken tips, deformed edges, and a story that usually starts with, “they were sharp when I got them 25 years ago…”. p.s. I also agree with… file the edge perpendicular to a stone. Looks like it needs it.

Chipping might be a sign that the blade needs to be sharpened? 

[Nicko]

Thanks guys, 100 grit worked well but was slow. But it was interesting seeing how much steel the stone removed. File would be worthwhile!!

[Mark76]

I wonder if TC is right. I think this can be well done with the WEPS. You have two options: just sharp the knife again normally or make it kind of kind of blut (grind it perpendicular to the knife up to some extend) and then punt a new bevel on it. But hearing you the first strategy worked.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nicko

[Nicko]

Mark76 wrote:

I wonder if TC is right. I think this can be well done with the WEPS. You have two options: just sharp the knife again normally or make it kind of kind of blut (grind it perpendicular to the knife up to some extend) and then punt a new bevel on it. But hearing you the first strategy worked.

Interesting Mark as I used the filing top of blade with 100 grit for the worst chips, for the smaller chips I just ignored them basically and really hooked in with the 100 and 200 stones, got rid of most of them. The knives are just bait knives for fishing, the steel feels quite soft and they are very cheap so i went to town on them, gave them all a good edge and practiced my technique. So if anyone ends up in the same situation, those small couple millimeter chips, just sharpen as normal with a lot of 100 grit or preferably 50-80 grit (which i don’t have yet). For the larger chips, the stone used across the top of the blade or a grinder or file is the answer, probably depending on the size of the chip.

cheers for your help guys.

[Author]

Posts