Sharpening Cutco Serrated Knives
- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 02/17/2020 at 7:42 pm by
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Last week I sharpened a set of Cutco knives for the widow of a best friend. First off, let me apologize for not taking photos – micro or otherwise. It was a quickie job and I didn’t have a camera close by.
The set consisted of three serrated knives and two larger, bevel-edged knives. She had recently sent her knives in for sharpening and the three serrated knives were returned as new replacements. This was kinda cool, as I was able to see their work in brand-new, unsharpened condition. Except for a few knicks in the scallops here and there, the serrated ones were in pretty good nick, so I didn’t need to remove much steel.
All three knives had the same grind patterns – about 8 serrations per inch. In the best of the three, the grinds were pristine condition, and you could see that the serrations were trapezoidal in profile, as opposed to radiused. Interestingly, they seemed to have slightly different grind angles from knife to knife. It seemed to me that the serrations would have been ground on a fixture, which would suggest a highly repeatable grind angle. Now I’m not sure.
I mounted the knives in my new LAA, which in turn was mounted in my original Gen 1 vise. I worked about 1.5 inches at a time, shifting the knife in the vise for each section. I roughed the serrations with the smallest diameter on my CRKT diamond file, mounted in a short segment of UHMW plastic. I found it was easiest to hold both ends of the file, and use it exactly like you would a file, except that the angle was controlled by the rod. I worked the entire length of each blade with a grit, using the 1.5″ steps. At the end, I would switch to a handle with a Spyderco Sharpmaker triangle, first the 600 grit gray, then the 1200 grit white. I also have a set of their superfines, but didn’t go that far. I also have a pair of their diamond-coated triangles, but the knives just didn’t need such drastic measures. Since the blades were in such good condition (never sharpened) I didn’t attempt to remove the deeper nicks and dents.
Having finished each knife, I took it to my white compound buffing wheels for a light final polish on each side.
If you’ve watched my video on the serrated knives, you’ve seen the handles I use. If you have any questions, I’ll be glad to answer them.
BTW, the non-serrated knives got my convex profiling on my Gen 3 Pro. I was surprised at the very low angles the factory had sharpened them to – down in the 13 dps range. I sharpened them to 17 dps, with convex steps down to about 13.5 dps. It was obvious that the owner was taking very good care of the knives, but there were some very deep dents in the edges, which I attributed to the very low dps. I’m hoping that the 17 dps will stand up better to normal use. Yes, I filed the edges flat to remove the damaged sections, before reprofiling to 17 dps, starting at 200-grit.
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Looking to buy some files and start on serrated sharpening, which ones do you prefer? I don’t see the link to your video.
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I use the now-discontinued CRKT Veff diamond sharpener. I Googled it and came up with a number of sellers, but every one listed it as out-of-stock and/or unavailable. I see that there are quite a few people selling diamond files, including McMaster.com and Brownells.com.
In case you’re interested, the smallest diameter section on the Veff tool is listed as 3/32″ in diameter. The files are supposedly 600 grit, but it actually feels coarser than that (I’ll guess about 300-grit). Maybe because it’s not fully broken-in?
I use the DMT diafold files. I have the course, fine, and super fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Machine-Technology-DMT-DMTFSKF-BRK/dp/B00004WFTZ
https://www.dmtsharp.com/about-dmt/dmt-product-lines/
Ed K.
I use the now-discontinued CRKT Veff diamond sharpener. I Googled it and came up with a number of sellers, but every one listed it as out-of-stock and/or unavailable. I see that there are quite a few people selling diamond files, including McMaster.com and Brownells.com. In case you’re interested, the smallest diameter section on the Veff tool is listed as 3/32″ in diameter. The files are supposedly 600 grit, but it actually feels coarser than that (I’ll guess about 300-grit). Maybe because it’s not fully broken-in?
I got in touch with Mr. Tom Veff via his website ( http://veffsharpening.com/) and bought a CRKT sharpener from him. At that time, about a year or so ago, he still had a few sets left, I believe they were about $50.
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