Foo shops for a Japanese knife

[SkinnyGoomba]



That's a beautiful edge. But isn't it kind of wasted on a pocket knife? Kitchen knives are one thing, but I have always thought that "work knives" which might get used on a wide variety of materials should be "under-sharpened" if that's the word. Is that not correct?

A honed edge will hold up better than a rougher edge, so if the intend it for utility than the honed edge is the one to have. If you look at a rough edge under a microscope you'll see a lot of jagged peaks, those peaks wear off very rapidly leaving a ragged and dull edge within a few cuts.

 

[Manton]

edge pro stones dish like crazy so you will need to flatten them often

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Do they dish worse than chosera? Chosera aren't bad, but I wish they were a lot harder.

Do you guys keep a finish stone in hand to touch up your blades as you use them? Most of my blades don't see anything other than finish stones after setup.

 

[Manton]

I haven't used anything but an 8000 in a long time. But I have a chip now that I have to deal with somehow.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

How bad is the chip?

After you fix it you may want to put a small microbevel on it to strengthen the edge. Small meaning a few swipes on the 8k stone.

I do this on knives and chisels. If it's a single bevel, just do it on the bevel side.

 

[Manton]

It's very small.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Thanks for the offer and advice @gomestar. So far all I've done is taken it out of the box and half assembled it. I haven't even watched any videos or anything really, been too busy getting my new-to-me commuter bike set up.

Your office is in Tribeca I gather, I'm in Meatpacking so we could easily meet up.

 

[gomestar]



Your office is in Tribeca I gather, I'm in Meatpacking so we could easily meet up.

FiDi now (work in Tech now), but that's just as easy.

 

[NorCal]

So anyone have a good reason not to buy something like this and call it good? I have some really fine water stones but my knives are beat to **** and need something more aggressive. I could buy the edge pro (fake) but I'm not crazy about buying three or four new stones as well. Plus I can use these on other tools should the spirit take me.

http://www.amazon.com/DMT-WM8FC-8-I...rue&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_5&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

You could use those to restore an edge, but followed up with a progression of stones to bring your knife to at least 1000-2000 grit.

If I have something chipped, I usually start at about 400 grit~, I prefer Atoma plates but tools require a flatter surface than those DMT hones. Then jump to 1k, then 3k, then finish stone.

 

[Fred G. Unn]

A 220 grit Shapton glass stone is as coarse as I own, although I know they make a 120 too. Either of those would be fairly aggressive. I've never tried the DMT DuoSharp line for knives or tools, but I use a DMT DiaSharp as a stone flattener, and it works great for that purpose.

 

[Bounder]

That's a beautiful edge. But isn't it kind of wasted on a pocket knife? Kitchen knives are one thing, but I have always thought that "work knives" which might get used on a wide variety of materials should be "under-sharpened" if that's the word. Is that not correct?

A honed edge will hold up better than a rougher edge, so if the intend it for utility than the honed edge is the one to have. If you look at a rough edge under a microscope you'll see a lot of jagged peaks, those peaks wear off very rapidly leaving a ragged and dull edge within a few cuts.

On all of my non-kitchen knives, the bevel has noticeable "top to bottom" striations. They aren't microscopic. If you look carefully, you can see them with the naked eye. Some are quite noticeable. This isn't something I did. They came that way.

I had assumed that this was a method of "strengthening" the edge. In other words, the striations provide support to the edge and keep it from turning so that you don't have to use a steel on it as often.

Is this completely over-thought BS? Is this just an artifact of some sucky, cheap industrial sharpening process? Will these blades actually be more durable if all of these striations are polished out thereby making the bevel even thinner?

Inquiring minds on a boring conference call want to know!

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

LOL. My guess is that's just a quick way to make a knife that cuts well for most people's intentions (micro serrations) for a fairly long time. I've seen scissors made like that.

 

[braised]



On all of my non-kitchen knives, the bevel has noticeable "top to bottom" striations. !

That's likely the result of the edge being sharpened with a belt grinder with a coarser grit. The edge can be quite durable and tootlhy. A chen knife sharpened past 1,000 on a water stone looses those marks and becomes mirror polished after around 6,000 or 8,000.

 

[otc]

In case anyone is looking for a new sharpening system...Massdrop has the Hapstone system that I always thought looked like a better option than the EdgePro (but seemed hard to find outside of eastern Europe). Metal construction and cool looking.

Way more expensive than the amazon edgepro knockoffs, but seems like an ok price for the unit plus set of silicon carbide stones in addition to the basic stones.

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/hapstone-v6-knife-sharpener