Thread: work sharp knife sharpener

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.