Why a knife sharpener sends his knives over the ocean for… knife sharpening
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When I seriously started using knives I had my knives sharpened by so-called “professional” knife sharpeners. Often I was not happy with the results. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back:
Before the sharpening this was a brand new knife. As you can see far too much material was removed from the edge during the sharpening. And parts of the edge are burned. It might well be that this destroyed the heat treatment of a part of the knife.
That was the point I decided to sharpen my own knives. I started off with whet stones, but soon found out that I had major troubles in keeping a steady angle. That’s why I got a Wicked Edge Precision Sharpener. And that works great!
So now I sharpen all of my own knives and, as you can see on this blog, I’ve become rather obsessed with it: I managed to create mirror edges, found out the best progressions for various for various purposes by examinging the edges with a microscope, created various grinds by applying different techniques and examinded a number of stropping compounds.
But when it comes to the more advanced techniques, like thinning entire blades, I still need help. I also don’t have motored equipment (like a belt sander). But going back to an ordinary “professional” knife sharpener: never!
Fortunately I knew Josh of Razor Edge Knives from the Wicked Edge Forum, where he is a regular contributor. I admired his works, from mirror edges to thinned bevels. And we had communicated a lot already, so I trusted him.
That’s why I asked him to help me with a couple of more difficult jobs, even though he lives in the US and I live in Europe. The first thing Josh did for me was to reprofile and regrind a Kershaw Blur. This knife is my EDC, but I didn’t like the recurve in it. Also it could use some thinning behind the edge. This is the original Blur:
And this is the Blur after Josh reprofiled and reground the knife:
Not only has the recurve been removed, but the regrinding also makes the knife cut much better.
Another job Josh did for me was on my Terayasu Fujuwara. I my review of this knife (on my other blog) I already wrote that this was a great rustic looking knife, but it also came with a number of serious flaws. The spine and the choil were not just not rounded, but actually so sharp that you could cut yourself on them. But even more important: the transition from the curved portion of the edge to the flat spot was not gracious, but almost instant. The consequence was that it was very hard to cut with this knife in a proper way. I thought I could fix this in a few sharpening sessions, but that was an underestimation of the problem. Josh solved this problem very well and now the knife cuts like a dream. Out of courtesy Josh also thinned the blade and etched it, which increases cutting performance and makes it look very good to me. This is the new knife:
And Josh is not just a very good with knives, he ís a handy guy in many other things, too. He managed to create two very nice holes in the box of my Spyderco Sharpmaker so that it can be used with the lid closed.
There must be good knife sharpeners in Europe, too, but the problem is how to find them between the 99% bunglers. And since Josh is one of the best sharpeners in the world, I know who to approach when I have a difficult job again.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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