What did you hone today? -Knife and tool edition

[cotedupy]

Do you prefer the yellow coticule or BBW for kiridashi?

I've actually been using that kiridashi quite a lot recently so have been sharpening it every day, and not just using for testing polishing.

They seem to like high grit finishes so both Coticule and BBW are good I think, perhaps with a very marginal preference for BBW because zero grinds can be hard to deburr on very fast stones. The best edges I've been getting though are from Idwals, the little one I sent you should work a charm I think.

 

[2bit_collie]

excellent, so lots of stuff to try out!

 

[cotedupy]

Very nice edge, and a surprisingly spiffy aesthetic polish too off the Dronfield today.

 

[rideon66]

Axe on the Axe Tam O Shanter

 

[2bit_collie]

Well I’m back at my father-in-law’s house for a vacation. A few years ago I gave him a Dan’s EZ hone, one of the devices that has multiple whetstones attached to it so that you have an entire progression that you can hold in your hand. He never used it for the beautiful Watanabe gyuto that I got for him, but earlier this year I found a great use for it - sharpening lathe tools, particularly skew chisels and parting tools (he has a Tormak which is awesome for gouges). In particular one of my goals this season it to become somewhat competent with a skew chisel, so keeping it razor sharp is definitely a priority.

First photo is the EZ hone with some of the tools I sharpened on it, 2nd is first 2 wooden scoops that I have attempted. I’m not sure how often the tools need to be sharpened, but right now I’m sharpening every 30-60 minutes of actual tool use. So all these tools met the EZ hone multiple times today.

 

[cotedupy]

One of my knives here, but otherwise these are my family's knives ahead of Christmas; mostly Sabs, some older carbon which is fine, and some modern K-Sab stainless, which is pretty annoying especially with the finger guards, might hit those with a SiC stone to begin with.

Will be the first time I've ever sharpened one of the long, flexible carving/slicing knives at the end, in America I imagine it's probably a 'brisket knife', though here it's for ham. I'm not anticipating it to be particularly easy to freehand on stones.

Plus my dad's Leatherman. Bleh.

Stones are a new Washita and Charnley I'll be trying and SG500 in the middle.

 

[cotedupy]

I ended up just doing most of those on the SG500. Here's why it's awesome, even on horrid modern stainless:

NB - not all of them would do that at the end, because most would have required considerably more effort and time put into the geometry than I was prepared to give. And knives don't really need to do that to paper towel anyway, just need to be able to do it to regular paper and they'll be grand.

 

[Multum in parvo]

Stuff from my Brother in law that he gave me to clean up.

 

[2bit_collie]

One of my knives here, but otherwise these are my family's knives ahead of Christmas; mostly Sabs, some older carbon which is fine, and some modern K-Sab stainless, which is pretty annoying especially with the finger guards, might hit those with a SiC stone to begin with.

Will be the first time I've ever sharpened one of the long, flexible carving/slicing knives at the end, in America I imagine it's probably a 'brisket knife', though here it's for ham. I'm not anticipating it to be particularly easy to freehand on stones.

Plus my dad's Leatherman. Bleh.

Stones are a new Washita and Charnley I'll be trying and SG500 in the middle.

View attachment 1576894

I have one of the long flexible knives - in the US one of the uses is smoked/cured salmon. To be honest I still hone it on an Edge Pro Apex system - I struggle to hold a steady angle on really long edges.

 

[cotedupy]

I have one of the long flexible knives - in the US one of the uses is smoked/cured salmon. To be honest I still hone it on an Edge Pro Apex system - I struggle to hold a steady angle on really long edges.

Ah yeah you’re right, it’s mostly sold as a Smoked Salmon knife here too now that you mention.

And yes, that one was basically impossible to do well on stones. The length on its own I’d be fine with, but coupled with the flexibility made it a complete nightmare. Some kind of guided gizmo, or even one of those push and pull wheel sharpening things would be the way forward I think.

 

[ables]

Annual sharpening of my parent's dull cheap knives, there were about 10 more not pictured. They had me return nicer knives ive bought them. I'm not allowed to make them "too sharp" either, i get them cutting paper atleast. I just use Crystolon and India combos for these guys with soap and water. Every now and then I rub the stones against each other and they are back to functioning well. Knives weren't too bad this year, I think my parents listened to some of my complaints finally. In particular my biggest one was the constant use of a glass cutting board (sanitary!) over a butchers block board I bought them.

 

[cotedupy]

Fiddich and Rosy.

Rather remarkably I’ve had this Opinel no.8 well over half my life and somehow managed not to lose it. The broken tip came about 15 years ago in the hands of a friend who was trying to kill (by stabbing with a penknife ) the largest Conger eel I’ve ever seen.

 

[Legion]

Fiddich and Rosy.

Rather remarkably I’ve had this Opinel no.8 well over half my life and somehow managed not to lose it. The broken tip came about 15 years ago in the hands of a friend who was trying to kill (by stabbing with a penknife ) the largest Conger eel I’ve ever seen.

View attachment 1580189

View attachment 1580188

Looks like a good candidate for a drop point.

 

[cotedupy]

Looks like a good candidate for a drop point.

A what now...?

 

[Legion]

A what now...?

Basically reshape it from the second down on the left to the third down.

 

[cotedupy]

View attachment 1580276

Basically reshape it from the second down on the left to the third down.

Oh that's a neat graphic. With the exception of tanto I don't think I knew any of those terms.

I am sold! A 'drop point' would be an excellent fix, watch this space...

(To be needlessly pedantic about one of them though - doesn't 'dao' just mean 'knife'?)

 

[Legion]

Oh that's a neat graphic. With the exception of tanto I don't think I knew any of those terms.

I am sold! A 'drop point' would be an excellent fix, watch this space...

(To be needlessly pedantic about one of them though - doesn't 'dao' just mean 'knife'?)

Yeah, or at least "cutting implement" I guess. There are Chinese sword types with dao in the name.

 

[2bit_collie]

Ah yeah you’re right, it’s mostly sold as a Smoked Salmon knife here too now that you mention.

And yes, that one was basically impossible to do well on stones. The length on its own I’d be fine with, but coupled with the flexibility made it a complete nightmare. Some kind of guided gizmo, or even one of those push and pull wheel sharpening things would be the way forward I think.

That makes me feel less incompetent!

 

[cotedupy]

That makes me feel less incompetent!

I actually gave up on it after a couple of mins.

To hold an angle while freehanding it would've required using extremely light pressure, otherwise the flex would screw you up (bit like razor honing I suppose). But my family's one there is a cheap stainless version and stuff like that is pretty wear resistant, plus it was quite blunt. So the whole thing would've taken an incredibly delicate touch and a very long time, if I could've done it at all.

 

[Mr Bedlington]

Just put a very nice edge on my Miyabi Japanese Chef knife with a Rockwell hardness of 66.