Smoke and Mirrors

     Hi everyone, thanks for being here and I don't say that lightly. When I started my Blog about five or six years ago I always thought that I was basically just writing to myself, I could hear crickets in the background. I know now that some of you visit more than once and knowing that motivates me to write more.


    Let's talk about mirror finishes again, as something dawned on me just recently. I do not put little videos up of myself performing slicing miracles as you know, I think that they represent the talent of the sharpener yes but they may give the wrong impression to novice sharpeners.  What if you just can't seem to get to that point, does it mean you are not a good knife sharpener?

    Before I answer that I will continue.

     That thought made me think of my pictures of mirror edges and perhaps I am being hypocritical by posting them. I post them because I know that some people like to see them and it may encourage them.

    Do not think that these slicing through a tomato videos or mirror finishes are that important. Think of them as a side branch to sharpening, not a critical path but an optional one.  Just because I can make a bevel look nice it doesn't mean than I am a better sharpener, I just found the process fun and challenging to do.

     A novice sharpener shouldn't be concerned about those things, in other words, if you have tried to make the bevels on your knives look like mercury, and it didn't turn out, forget about it. I was sharpening for 30 years before I could do that and even now it doesn't always turn out

    Remember, you first all need a nice collection of water stones with pretty fine grits. Also for any of the ones I did I used the Edge Pro Professional. I have full size stones up to 16,000 grit and I can get an edge and bevels pretty nifty looking. However, to really make them pop, I need to incorporate the precision that the EP delivers.

 

     If you have worked hard and done this, good on you, nice work. My point is that these are not things that you need to worry about. How do you know I just didn't move the lighting around or something to achieve this absolutely incredible and beautiful finish :)  I'm just kidding but I am very serious when I say that you don't need to worry about this. This isn't going to make this knife any sharper.

     In the case of the knife above, it is a very old hunting knife that had gone to grinder hell and back. The owner just wanted it to look nice again, and of course be sharp again. It is not going to be used in the field anymore so I just made it pretty. In fact I used a different technique for this knife. I sharpened it and polished it by hand until I was satisfied with the results. My standards are always significantly higher than the owners so I knew that my work was done. However, before I packed it in for the night, so to speak. I took this knife to the Edge Pro and very very gently with a 5k and 10k stone just went over the bevels to as I said, make it POP.

   Your goal should be to make it sharp, don't worry about pretty yet or ever, things will come naturally over time anyway.


     Listen, for every knife like this there are 10 that didn't turn out so well when I first started this process, so don't let the pictures or videos you see discourage you in anyway, The journey can be longer for some than others, you may need to linger on some of the stepping stones before continuing on.

      Don't look at these pictures as goals you need to reach but things you may see off to the side as you move along the your path, the important path :)

     Oh and believe me, if you tried these things and just couldn't do it, it does not mean you are not a good sharpener, it is insignificant. If you even reading this, you are probably a good sharpener now.

Peter Nowlan