Thread: Almost gave up honing, went to a cutlery store

Hi All,

I bought two older ebay straights. One was made in Soligen and says H. Greenberg. The other says Quigley's Best.

I have Japenese stones of 800, 1000, 4000 and 6000 grits. Also got Tony's four sided strop with 3, 1, .5 and .25 and also his hanging strop.

After, must of been 8-10 hours of honing and are re-honing, I got the Soligen one to do a hanging hair test to pass, but the shave was aweful, it would pull hairs when going with the grain.

The Quigley's Best was strange because it would not pass the HHT but would shave OK with the grain but not against.

Soooo, I gave up and went to a old time cutlery store in SF in the North Beach area. The dude that sharpened them was an old timer. I actually like knives too and brought in my favorite Benchmade knife (that was pretty sharp) but wanted to see what super sharp by a pro would be like.

Well, long story short, it cost five bucks a piece for the straights and three for the Benchmade and they came back almost in the same shape but looks bad. I mean it looks like they put it on a machine and theres weird pitting spots almost 3/8s of an inch up from the edge of the blades for the straights and the Benchmade. On top of that on one of the straights, the edge was curled to one side, very visble with light. Course both straights did not pass HHT.

I stropped the two straights, and one thing I noticed is that it sounds much different. I didn't have a chance to do a real shave with it yet, but did a quick lather and tried it on my cheeks (the Soligen one). Felt the same as when I honed it!!

Would you say that these two straights are a hunk of junk or I was fooled into believing that they were competent at what they were doing?

Now, I'm out of 13 bucks and will have to fix those wierd pitting marks on my Benchmade...


Sorry for the long post but all comments would be appreciated.


Have a great day and God bless.


-kelly

1) You don't hone knives like you hone straights. So a knife honer isn't gonna be any better at honing a straight than you are, and maybe worse because he knows all the *wrong* techniques and none of the right ones. A hundred years ago this wasn't the case, your local tinker was quite capable of sharpening knives, scissors, and razors perfectly competently.

2) If they butchered your benchmade then they clearly don't know how to sharpen knives either.

3) There's a reason people pay good money to Lynn, Randy, and Joe to hone their razors.

Kelly,

Where are you from? I live in Pennsylvania. If you're really interested in learning to shave with a straight, I'd be glad to get your razors shaving for you if you'll cover the cost of shipping both ways. (It's usually just a couple of bucks.)

PM me and we'll work out the details if you're interested.

Josh

yep you may have paid a little bit to get them done at a store but for the extra $15 or what ever tonight you could have a trouble free shave, maybe post some pics of the edges to see how bad they are, not that i know what i would be looking for but thats what i have seen in other threads

Good news, your benchmade is guaranteed for life. If you go to there web site there is a form. You mail it in with a check for $5 for return shipping and they will make it back in new condition. They even torque the belt clips to original tightness. They would probably replace a pitted blade anyhow but you can just beat the crap out of it if you want to be sure. This guarantee (its called Life Sharp) is why the military and cops carry benchmades. I am on my 3 or 4th blade, second belt clip, and it only costs $5 a time.

Are you certain about that?

The LifeSharp page doesn't indicate they will replace the blade; they just say they will sharpen it.
The seperate warranty page indicates normal wear and sharpening related wear are not covered by the warranty.

Do you need to send in the receipt at the same time or just the knife?

I have a benchmade my wife purchased me that is a bit rough and received a bad sharpening job that damaged it somewhat so I would certiainly be interested if they replace blades.

-Geoff

Originally Posted by blhoward2

Good news, your benchmade is guaranteed for life. If you go to there web site there is a form. You mail it in with a check for $5 for return shipping and they will make it back in new condition. They even torque the belt clips to original tightness. They would probably replace a pitted blade anyhow but you can just beat the crap out of it if you want to be sure. This guarantee (its called Life Sharp) is why the military and cops carry benchmades. I am on my 3 or 4th blade, second belt clip, and it only costs $5 a time.

Just the knife. I had to send in a letter on letterhead because mine is auto-opening. These are restricted to military and LE only in the US. I had to dig for the blade replacement thing before but basically if they cannot sharpen it (non-serated portion only) they will replace the blade. I don't know if it is covered under the warranty or the life sharp but either way I can confirm that they do do it. I know probably 50 people that have had it done. Benchmade's are great knives.

From the site:
There's never a dull moment with a Benchmade... That's right! We will gladly re-sharpen your Benchmade knife to a factory razor sharp edge (service does not apply to any serrated portion of the blade). If you prefer us to sharpen your blade, or if you may have neglected to maintain your edge for a while, simply ship your knife to us. We'll not only sharpen it, but we will also inspect the knife for any warranted repairs and "tune" the knife for optimum performance. Simply ship the knife to the Benchmade address, postage paid and insured. Please enclose your return shipping address with $5.00 for first knife and $2.50 for each additional knife, to cover handling and return shipping charges. Send the knife to:

It looks like from the warranty page, if you send it in specifically for warranty work it must have a receipt, if the damage is found during the lifesharp they fix it without. I have never actually broken a blade but I have had several replaced because of some deep scratches/pitting on the blade. (You'd be amazed at what cutting through cardboard boxes with strapping tape does to a knife) They do claim that misuse/abuse is not covered but I don't know of anyone that they have ever turned down. Including a few guys who snapped blades doing odd stuff. (Prying up a claymore mine stake, hammering a flare nail into a tree, prying a seized bolt out of a .50 cal machine gun, etc.)

Originally Posted by kellykungfu

Well, long story short, it cost five bucks a piece for the straights and three for the Benchmade and they came back almost in the same shape but looks bad. I mean it looks like they put it on a machine and theres weird pitting spots almost 3/8s of an inch up from the edge of the blades for the straights and the Benchmade. On top of that on one of the straights, the edge was curled to one side, very visble with light. Course both straights did not pass HHT.

A stellar example of why I dread leaving sharpening tasks to anyone whos work I havent seen in advance. Same thing with mechanics..but thats a whole other story. One of the prime reasons (besides enjoyment of learning the skill) that I am hashing through the setbacks and successes of learning to hone. It is cool to know that when I hit that 'just wont take a hone' job, I can send it to one of the guys here.


Dave

I would say take a picture so we could see what the edge looks like so we could better advise.

Just about any razor can be brought back to shaving condition (as long as it isn't missing pieces and totally corroded and rusted) it's just a question of how much honing skill is required to accomplish the task. There are those razors for beginners and more advanced ones and then of course there are the project razors that will challenge even the best honemeisters. Sometimes all the best tried and true practices and pyramids just don't seem to work and then you have to improvise your own honing routine to fit that particular razor and thats where the experience and honing skill comes into play.

Hi All,

Thanks for the quick responses, you guys are the best!!! I'll try to take some pics and to post the pics as part of the reply tonight.

I normally get my Benchmade and kitchen knives sharpened by myself using either the Japanese stones to get the right bevels and then touch them up on the white Spyderco ceramic sticks. They all come out sharp enough to do the do shave arm hair while touching the skin (but nowhere close to straight razor sharp) or to slice the Sunday ads with ease.

However, since I need the two straights sharpened, and I had my Benchmade, I was curious how much sharper a pro could do it.

I've been sharpening knives by hand for a long time and always wondered about the paper wheel system. Heres a quick link:

http://users.ameritech.net/knives/paper.htm

Has anyone tried this? Its suppose to be able to bring any knife to HHT sharpness. I'm just wondering, thats great for a straight but for a regular everyday pocket knife, wouldn't the super fine edge be destroyed as soon as its used to cut cardboard/packaging materials/who-knows-what-else on the first use?

Even crazier, could this paper wheel system be used on a straight? I'm sure its dangerous but if one could slow down the motor to a crawl, then it might save hours and hours of honing...


Hey Josh, I might take you up on your offer. I might try some rounds of the straights on the Tony Miller four sided strop to see if that makes a difference. I figure if its not shaving well now, then if I mess it up on the four sided strop than I'm still in the same spot, not shaving well.

Anyone know with the pasted strops, in the month or so since I had it, the 3 micron side looks blackish and the others not so much (1, .5 and .25). Do I need to clean off this film or need to reload with more 3 micron? I also tried some various techniques such as pushing really hard versus weight of the blade on all the sides. Did I mess up the four sided paddle by using a lot of weight/pressure?


Sorry for the long winded message.


Thanks.

-kelly