Thread: work sharp knife sharpener

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

@Mohawk660 also something I don’t often see mentioned when it comes to sharpening knifes is a steel , steeling your knife correctly will keep a razor like edge on it , get a fine or super fine steel & give it a go , when you’re working your knife correctly it should feel bumpy or gritty if you can feel that your on the correct angle , if you can’t either your knife is perfectly sharp or the angle your on is incorrect .

Suitability for steeling depends on the knife steel. Softer steels are fine, harder modern steels you will just ruin the edge by steeling.

For the modern steels use either a strop or ceramic/diamond hone to upkeep.

The electric jobs as a whole make sharp edges but are usually very aggressive and remove far more material than needed resulting over time in wedgy knives that need thinning.

If you want to go electric somthing like a tormec wheel is the way to go

Originally Posted by Nick-D

Suitability for steeling depends on the knife steel. Softer steels are fine, harder modern steels you will just ruin the edge by steeling.

For the modern steels use either a strop or ceramic/diamond hone to upkeep.

The electric jobs as a whole make sharp edges but are usually very aggressive and remove far more material than needed resulting over time in wedgy knives that need thinning.

If you want to go electric somthing like a tormec wheel is the way to go

By far the greatest number of total knife hours would be spent at Meatworks and Butcheries. Knives used in those businesses are tough modern steels that can take a good edge and can be maintained with a few quick strokes on a steel. Most 'Works' have a knife man who hollow grinds all the knives and sets them up. As an example of how good those knives are, with an ex Freezing works boner I recently gutted, skinned, broke down and cut up an entire deer without touching a steel. The knife is still sharp. What more do we want. Perhaps going to over-hard blades that then require specialist sharpening gear is just a fools folly ?

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

By far the greatest number of total knife hours would be spent at Meatworks and Butcheries. Knives used in those businesses are tough modern steels that can take a good edge and can be maintained with a few quick strokes on a steel. Most 'Works' have a knife man who hollow grinds all the knives and sets them up. As an example of how good those knives are, with an ex Freezing works boner I recently gutted, skinned, broke down and cut up an entire deer without touching a steel. The knife is still sharp. What more do we want. Perhaps going to over-hard blades that then require specialist sharpening gear is just a fools folly ?

Yeah, interestingly most of the professional steels are comparitively pretty soft.
The flip side of a tough steel keeping an edge for a long time is it will also take a long time to rrsharpen that edge.

The meat worker edges are kept pretty toothy and course, hollow gind helps too.

I think much of being able to work an entire animal without touching up a knife comes down to technique, not scraping the egde along bone or cutting hairs etc will keep a knife sharp for ages.

Smae as having a decent cutting board at home and hand cleaning your knives. It's often not the actual cutting that dulls the knife but the hitting of hard things on the other side of what you are cutting.

Originally Posted by Nick-D

Yeah, interestingly most of the professional steels are comparitively pretty soft.
The flip side of a tough steel keeping an edge for a long time is it will also take a long time to rrsharpen that edge.

The meat worker edges are kept pretty toothy and course, hollow gind helps too.

I think much of being able to work an entire animal without touching up a knife comes down to technique, not scraping the egde along bone or cutting hairs etc will keep a knife sharp for ages.

Smae as having a decent cutting board at home and hand cleaning your knives. It's often not the actual cutting that dulls the knife but the hitting of hard things on the other side of what you are cutting.

I find that the hard steels used in some of the knives sold to hunters will not cut as well as professional butchery knives because the blades are too wide to get a correctly shaped edge. Because of the hardness those blades will chip if they are not wide. They might be sharp but they have an contour like a firewood splitting wedge and that makes them slow and tiring to use because they 'drag' in the work.

Totally agree re technique and boards. I would add that the shape of the blade makes a big difference to how well the knife works, meaning fewer cuts for the same job, which opens the debate as to what is the best knife blade shape ??

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I find that the hard steels used in some of the knives sold to hunters will not cut as well as professional butchery knives because the blades are too wide to get a correctly shaped edge. Because of the hardness those blades will chip if they are not wide. They might be sharp but they have an contour like a firewood splitting wedge and that makes them slow and tiring to use because they 'drag' in the work.

Totally agree re technique and boards. I would add that the shape of the blade makes a big difference to how well the knife works, meaning fewer cuts for the same job, which opens the debate as to what is the best knife blade shape ??

Yeah geometry plays a big part. Nothing worse than a thick wedgy blade. Heaps of the so called "hunting" knives are built from far to thick stock.

For general work a plain old boning knife works awesome. I have a weakness for traditional knife shapes however so currently using a Canadian belt knife style blade and a mini nessamuk style blade. Both work great. That recently posted kephart tickles my fancy as well, I may turn some of the 1095 I have lying around into one for my next knife project

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

By far the greatest number of total knife hours would be spent at Meatworks and Butcheries. Knives used in those businesses are tough modern steels that can take a good edge and can be maintained with a few quick strokes on a steel. Most 'Works' have a knife man who hollow grinds all the knives and sets them up. As an example of how good those knives are, with an ex Freezing works boner I recently gutted, skinned, broke down and cut up an entire deer without touching a steel. The knife is still sharp. What more do we want. Perhaps going to over-hard blades that then require specialist sharpening gear is just a fools folly ?

I work on the slaughter board killing cows , most of the guys & gals that have been there a while don't bother getting them hollow ground , I reckon its probably 50/50 to those using the stones or the setters , the setters take the thinking out of it & they are super easy to use , when I started with my hunter , home kill background I thought yea I can sharpen a knife Duh ...2nd day I was straight on the setters lol its quite stressful being on a chain that doesn't stop with blunt knifes !!! , anyway been there a while now & yep mostly I get a really good edge but what I have found is the steeling is super important its got to the stage i can easily get 2 hours out of a knife without stoning it so that's 120 cattle but of course just certain parts of it , though in almost all cases its either skin ,bone or teeth im cutting around , i used to think a course steel was the go as it pretty much acts as a file but since learned nar not the one , fine or super fine you can feel all the bumps work them out & boom good as new , another helpful tool is a hunk of nylon when your done stoning drag your knife across it , if it bites all along the edge quick steel and done , if it slides keep going , practice makes perfect.