Thread: Knife sharpening angles

@No.3 the guys at the works hold the knife up and very gently give it a light pass down the steel maybe once a side, 2 tops and back into it.
Plus they have the knife sharpening stations about just in case you have a big woops.
At the end of the day you hand them back in. Get new ones start of shift

Out of interest my chinese made bahco knife has skinned out 15+ heads with only a few strops on a steel every now and then. Not quite as good as the Sweedish made versions but way better than I thought and I've been giving it hell!

Originally Posted by Billbob

Out of interest my chinese made bahco knife has skinned out 15+ heads with only a few strops on a steel every now and then. Not quite as good as the Sweedish made versions but way better than I thought and I've been giving it hell!

The Swedish ones were gold standard knives, but they definitely do not like being shoved through the dishwasher. I have one in the kitchen as a rough duty knife, the wife claims to hate it as it's a 'fat' blade compared to the same sized kitchen knife and the handle is a lot chunkier. Which always surprises me when I go to use it and the edge is stuffed! Must be the knife fairies again hey? But in general use the thing is really good, the longest lasting edge of the lot.

I have four of them Swedish Bacho's new in a box downstairs hoarded, but I do have a newer Chinese one as a comparison that I have been using. It's noticeably different but still as good as the average hunting knife you get which for the price makes them a really good deal. Just not a superlative example of a knife like the Swedish ones.

Originally Posted by csmiffy

@No.3 the guys at the works hold the knife up and very gently give it a light pass down the steel maybe once a side, 2 tops and back into it.
Plus they have the knife sharpening stations about just in case you have a big woops.
At the end of the day you hand them back in. Get new ones start of shift

Yep, I've seen them working and they are doing it totally different to your average punter I reckon. They are more like chainsaw guys - a quick lick and a tickle up every tank or any time they hit something odd just to keep the chain on song which in the lines is the equivalent of a light pass between every animal that comes through, and they are doing the same number of cuts in the same number of places repeatedly. Your average knife wielding hunter tries to get through an animal or two including hair and slicing along bone etc with one knife and no touch ups, so by the time you go to touch the knife up it's coosed in comparison to the meatworks guy's tool.

My kitchen knives are more like the hunters blade too, I get handed one when it gets to the point where the wife starts hating it (after being used on dinner plates, slicing everything, a few trips to the garden and several runs through the dishwasher geez no respect for the kit). By that time it needs a bloody replacement rather than a sharpen but a fistful of steel and 30 seconds of 'abuse' and it's passable again and cutting like it should. A few 'light licks' are the gold standard and what someone who is looking after their gear is aiming for, the rest of us need a little more violence in our sharpening haha.