This weekend I'm supposed to sharpen a kitchen knife for a lady I've known my whole life. She's turning 90 this weekend and has come to me and asked if I would sharpen a paring knife that belonged to her late husband great- great grandmother(the man was a hero to me when I was a small child, like a grandfather). I have no idea what type of shape this knife is in but if I had to guess it's probably pretty well taken care of considering it's age. I'm assuming it's just carbon steel so it shouldn't be too much of a job IF my earlier assumptions are correct. I have a pretty large collection of different types of stone from the time period the knife was made and would prefer to sharpen it one of them. I was planning on using a washita(initially) and then finishing on a coticule because I'd wager she's going to use this knife regularly and thought a coticule or bbw would be good, even if for just 10 finishing laps to shear off the teeth so it doesn't grab her fragile skin. I'm open to all ideas and also considered starting with a coarse charnley and finishing on a 5x1 Tam O'shanter. What do the sashes of this unique corner of the internet reckon?
Sages of B&B, help me pick my progression.
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rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
This would be better asked in the Knife forum on B&B.
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- #3
If a mod would like it gone they can delete it. I don't post on any other part of this site but I asked it here specifically because it's extremely old, and a very thin blade. I figured there be a wealth of knowledge of common steels at the time here. May the mods do what they please. If they don't want it here they can delete it, I won't check the other parts of the site.
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- #4
Also knife is most likely German.
We are probably going to have to see the knife.
Can't go too wrong with a washita. But if it is very thin you might not to want to put too much pressure on it, so start with a faster soft Ark, then finish it on your LI?
Can't go too wrong with a washita. But if it is very thin you might not to want to put too much pressure on it, so start with a faster soft Ark, then finish it on your LI?
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- #6
The thinness is a concern for me for sure. The llyn idwal is a good idea. I considered doing the whole thing on a coticule and finishing on a bbw also. I've got a couple I love to finish kitchen knives on.
Mah man. Honing is life. Life is honing.
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- #8
Agreed but everything I could ever need for knife sharpening I learned by coming here and learning to maintain a scalpel... I've learned so much from this exact forum I ask of topic(sort of, rarely) because I recognize the guys her and I trust their advice. I trust their advice just the same on other sites when I speak to them their. I feel like a delicate blade is relevant here because I didn't ask for advice on how to hone it but what a good progression would be for a delicate blade(like a razor) from a certain time period because of anyone know it's the guys here!
I've scoured the internet and the most knowledgeable people I see are here a maybe 2 other places. That wealth of knowledge is what I need to tap into because their period and location of manufacture is important and people come across these same blade makers in their research. Id hate it awfully to ruin an amazing 90 year old lady's birthday. That'd be horrible.- Thread starter
- #9
This place has changed my life and the way I work and has saved my health tremendously. I was looking at losing is of my right arm before 60. I might be able to stretch it to 75 now if I'm lucky enough to live to live that long.
Vintage german steel knives love both tam o Shanter and washita finishes in my experience. And nothing beats India if you need to do some heavy lifting before either of those.
I felt profound kindred with you because…… I don’t follow the other subs here either.Agreed but everything I could ever need for knife sharpening I learned by coming here and learning to maintain a scalpel... I've learned so much from this exact forum I ask of topic(sort of, rarely) because I recognize the guys her and I trust their advice. I trust their advice just the same on other sites when I speak to them their. I feel like a delicate blade is relevant here because I didn't ask for advice on how to hone it but what a good progression would be for a delicate blade(like a razor) from a certain time period because of anyone know it's the guys here!
Im new to sharpening razors but I have some years of experience with knives. Two things to consider: functional value and sentimental value. You have a knife with both and more so leaning towards the sentimental side.
For a functional knife you want it thin behind the edge so thinning the knife is appropriate. Thinning comes with the caveat of beating up the sides and removing a lot of metal. In order to retain as much metal as possible and keep the sides unscathed, I would recommend:
- Use a fairly high angle. 15deg per side, 30 deg inclusive (give or take).
- Rough diamond plate. This will give a mini-serrated cutting edge. Diamonds are particularly good for this effect.
- Optional, finish with a coarse natural stone from that era.
Being that the blade is not thinned, once the cutting edge is dulled, it will need to be resharpened. Try the coarse natural stone at the same angle. Use the diamonds if needed.
This will remove the minimal amount of material and the toothy edge will extend the period of slicing capability between resharpenings.
I would use a Washita. And then either BBW or a Tam if you want to smooth the edge.
Note - older western steels do not take fine edges well. Using a Tam, BBW or other relatively fine, slowish stone to finish isn’t making the knife sharper. It’s doing exactly what you said you said you wanted - knocking teeth out of an edge. But if you work it for longer the result will be blunter in pretty much any cutting test you throw at it.
(Blah blah carbide structure blah blah blah.)
Note - older western steels do not take fine edges well. Using a Tam, BBW or other relatively fine, slowish stone to finish isn’t making the knife sharper. It’s doing exactly what you said you said you wanted - knocking teeth out of an edge. But if you work it for longer the result will be blunter in pretty much any cutting test you throw at it.
(Blah blah carbide structure blah blah blah.)
The one consideration regarding tooth though... I basically use paring knives with zero perpendicular force/draw... so teeth are much less beneficial. With a paring knife I mostly peel, cut tops of berries, etc. Strictly pure pull directly into what I'm cutting... so losing the sawing action of a toothy edge doesn't hurt. I have seen people use them on a board... but generally those are people who don't cook often/are inexperienced with knives.
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- #14
I know she will be mostly peeling grit with it because it's basically what she lives on. I have a couple bbws that leave a little(see extremely fine) tooth but still doesn't grab skin.
Good point - to me paring knives are different in 2 ways
1) As pointed out, with a short blade you tend more to push cut rather than slicing
2) Paring knives normally are used to cut in hand rather than being used on a cutting board. So a paring knife likely can hold a more acute bevel without damage than the same material could hold on a knife that is used to chop on a cutting board. That said, if it is German steel, likely relatively soft, so perhaps don’t go below 30 degrees.
I think you will want to look at the knife to see what it needs before picking your stones, but I like Washita for the bevel set, India if you need to do more work. If its a Washita capable of fine work, that might be enough.
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- #16
Ideally I would check out our first but it's hours away and she sure isn't texting pictures. I think I'm going to load a trunk with a bunch different stuff to take with me. I figured razor stones would be a good place to start on a thin, antique catnip steel blade from Germany. German and Japanese steels are my favorite. I sharpened a very hard mutant steel friskars axe with almost only coticules and was very impressed with the result I got. I used it for the first time last weekend to go firewood and all I really had to do was drop it. It's only got a medium length handle on it but our went through wood like a hot knife through butter. Because coticules will cut anything I'm going to take 4 or 5 vintage ones. I've really grown to love them on knives and tools. Old soft washita/ coarse charnley> the right coticule is a combination that's hard to beat on most anything. I sharpen my barbers scissors on a bbw too. They're tricky to learn on but I think a new honer would be well served to learn how to sharpen on a coticule first because once you get that down most everything else gets much easier.
Haha, currently thinking about getting my first coticule. Haven’t made the leap yet.
“Haha, currently thinking about getting my first coticule. Haven’t made the leap yet.”
Don’t do it, there is no net. That’s how it starts
“my first coticule”
That’s how it starts, the next thing you know, they find you passed out in the bathroom covered in yellow and purple dust…
Don’t do it, there is no net. That’s how it starts
“my first coticule”
That’s how it starts, the next thing you know, they find you passed out in the bathroom covered in yellow and purple dust…
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- #20
Where do you live?
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