Thread: sharpen knives?

I have a Norton 220/1000, a 4000/8000 and a belgium coticle. wondering if addition to honing razors I can sharpen my kitchen knifes with any/all/none of them? Any reason not to?

-Matt

You definitely can get excellent edges on your knives with those hones. The only downside is that a knife will wear the stone unevenly, requiring you to lap it before you use it for razors again.

However, unless you have some really high-end cutlery, the Norton 220/1K combo ought to be more than enough to keep your knives very sharp. Some guys use the 4/8K for knives, too, but to get much benefit from it you need good quality steel and a lot of practice.

I take most of my knives to a 1K edge and they cut really well.

Since you won't use the 220/1K very often for razors, the lapping thing shouldn't be such a pain.

Josh

+1.

I usually stop at 1200 grit with my knives. Stropping on leather after 1200 will also show a noticeable difference (if you're in a mood to experiment).

If I used any of the top-end knives I might use a finer grit hone on them.

Interesting. Since I bought my 8x3 coticule from Howard, I wasn't using my 6x1.5anymore.

I started using it on my potato peelers (solingen stainless) and these are now scalpel sharp. I haven't tried shaving with them (actually... I might do just that tonight ) but they shave armhair.

The trick to using a coticule is
a) use quality knives, perferably without a double bevel
b) hone often.

I refresh them every couple of times I use them, and whenever I am waiting for something in the kitchen, I pick up a peeler and give it 50 laps without pressure.
Coticules are (IMO) ideal for keeping a knife sharp.

For making it sharp, a 1000 - 4000 norton or a coarse Japanese natural (I have a Japanese stone which is supposedly good for this) would be better I think.

For a long time I was afraid to sharpen my knives on the stones I used for razors, since they might gouge the surface or require excess lapping. But since I've picked up a DMT D8EE, I've started using my Norton 4k/8k for the knives and if you are careful about what you are doing, using light pressure, there really is no concern.

What I do is this: soak the stones as per usual method and set them on a sturdy table with a small block of wood under the end that is away from you. The height that the wood block raises the stone will determine the angle of the bevel because all you have to do is make sure that the blade is horizontal as you stroke the blade over the stone, going away from your self with the edge leading. For a different angle find a different size block, or stack smaller ones until you reach the right height (but be careful if you stack because they might topple mid stroke, no one likes sudden movements with sharp objects in hand).

This is the easiest way I found, so far, since it is easier to maintain the horizontal blade position on a sloped sharpening surface then it is to keep the stone flat and have to look at the blade and say "yeah, that's about 7.5 degrees".

And I do a few passes on the 8k first to see if the angle is correct for the bevel on the knife, if it is move down to the stone that you want to start cutting with. (yes I go all the way back up to 8k, if you have cheap-o plastic handled knives, 1k or 4k is about all that will do them justice, but otherwise run them all the way up, you wont be disappointed)

The Norton 220/1K should work GREAT for you kitchen knives, I think that is what it was designed to sharpen.

I use a translucent arkansas stone (about 6K) on my nicer knives, and you can shave with them...
I've been tempted for a while now to use 7 micron paste, and make myself a slack belt to sharpen my knives with...

Depending on the quality and style of your knives the above stones are more than good enough. As stated above you will need to lap your stones after you work the kitchen knives. After 2 years of hard steel on my 4/8k Norton I've easaly worn half of it away (but I use it hard every week or so ) I'm now moving on to Shapton glass stones, and saving the norton for straights, less lapping

Does anyone know of a similar forum to this to talk knife sharpening? I like your idea of the wood block and i'll have to try that when i'm back home. I've wondered if there's a similar system to the DMT guide which holds the knife at a set angle. I know of the jig systems that exist (is it spydeco?) but since i have my stones i'd like to be able to find a system which somehow bolts onto them (so to speak). At the moment i've trying to sharpen them sushi style where you hold the knife almost perpendicular to the direction of sharpening but this is hard to master.

orfeo

Try www.bladeforums.com and www.knifeforums.com. In my opinion, they're not quite as friendly and cool as SRP, but there's tons of good info.

Josh