had an amazing day in the shop today. was talking with a friend at a "friendsgiving" the other day {thanksgiving for friends, most of us are friends from the local air cooled volkswagon club, as my boy drives a 69 beetle that we are slowly restoring}, and she said that she didn't know how to sharpen a knife. so I invited her over to the shop and we shot 2 videos for youtube. I have been looking for someone who isn't camera shy, has a good personality, and has never sharpened a knife for awhile now to do this video with, and seeing as how this thread has been so "burr vs no burr" we shot 2 vids, both with a paring knife, one burr based, and one plateau based.

so we took her from never having put a knife to a stone at all, to slicing paper and shaving hair off my arm with the same knife and 2 methods, both freehand. she showed up not being able to sharpen at all, and left with the words "im gonna go home and sharpen all of my kitchen knives and pocket knives" with a huge smile on her face :} and its all on video! I think it will be a good one, and help as many folks as I can to learn to sharpen and give them the confidence to go ahead and get it done :}

now if that wasn't exciting enough, I asked her if she might be interested in doing the same thing with a straight razor, and she said she was "totally up for it". so I need to get the basics for how we will shoot that video, and get to growing some whiskers, so that I can have her hone a razor, and then I will shave with it here in the shop. and I need to get it figured out before she practices sharpening knives too much as I really want that totally newbie side of it :}

for the rest of the thread, glenn is totally right. I do mostly setting the first edge a razor has ever seen. and then practicing and exploring new stones and styles of honing, and since I make most of the ones im testing, I don't really care if I wear a razor out, as that just gives me an excuse to make another one. and with all that testing, I have rarely had to refresh a razor, as they don't need that all that often. and as for me personally, a gold washed fancy file worked spine razor would be a waste as im not really the fancy sort of fella. so if I were to get one, id probably treat it just like the others, or give or sell it to someone who would appreciate it for its beauty.


the one stone and minimum set up, I am really liking that little suehiro 1/6 and a crox strop a lot. but haven't been able to find them online that are the same color to recommend to folks. I also like the nortons, and for me the naniwas are just kind of ok for me.


the optics thing. that scope that I bought to help me teach sharpening has taught me a ton. lots of things that I wondered about, I can now see in that scope and its a ton of fun! heck ive sharpened thousands and thousands of knives, and im still learning a ton. and experimenting with new stones. just today I got a soft and hard ark in the mail from natural whetstone company, to go along with the translucent black from them, and to compare and work with my dans trans and black. I would suggest that if you don't have optics, to get some, and get the best you can afford, at the very least, they help with other stuff like pulling splinters and such :}