Global

Now here is a beautiful knife. The Global which I  had just finished and I think the owner will be pleased. Global knives are Japanese and truly enjoyable and rewarding to sharpen. These knives are very sharp right out of the box. You cannot go wrong with these. I will have shots of other beautiful knives as well like Grohmann, Wusthof, Henckels and more.

Why so sharp

There are several factors that have enabled me to create edges on kitchen knives that are screaming sharp.
 The first and most important is a sheer passion for the art. I constantly challenge myself to improve and quite simply, I  thoroughly enjoy the process. Without this, you wouldn't be reading this because there would be no Blog.
Practice of course, reading, watching and learning from mentors, nothing unusual here, it's the basic recipe for reaching a state where you are able to gain satisfaction with something you do. One of the key elements in my inventory, an item that allows me to do what I do is this particular stone.

This is is a 5K Shapton Pro stone that again is cut specifically to fit into my stone arm of the Edge Pro Professional. When I first heard of this brand of Japanese Water Stone I read claims of their quality and knew that at some point in time I would own one of these coveted items. The 5K Shapton seen here is said to deliver an edge that few people have experienced. I have had the pleasure of experiencing it and it is absolutely true, well certainly in my case. The knives I have sharpened with this stone in  the lineup have been truly something you have to see for yourself to believe. I made a mistake on the first knife I did with this stone, the edge just very lightly touched my wrist and a crimson line developed and then the blood flowed. It was like a scalpel on my skin, there was no pain at all.

I have the 15K Shapton as well, imagine what that will do :) .

A nice haul

This is a nice batch of very nice knives that I am currently working on. I don't always have this many at once and I like to do about five per night at most. I'll spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours per knife depending on each knife and what the customer would like. I offer a custom package where the owner can choose how sharp he/she would like the knife to be. The ultimate edge involves creating the relief angle and using a large selection of stones and ultimately ending up with a mirror finish on the bevel. Then I'll raise the angle and sharpen the edge itself with the same stones but usually finishing up with the 5K Shapton. This is not the end of the process though.
The ultimate edge (That is just a term selected to sound nice, it's just an extremely sharp edge, and by extremely sharp, it is an edge that most people have not experienced - I will explain that soon)
I will finish the job with a stropping. I use balsa strops fitted to metal plates that fit my Edge Pro and are laden with diamond compounds. (picture soon). I use leather strops as well but prefer the balsa.

Customers - How do I find them and how do they find me?

Without my friendly customers, I would have no knives to sharpen and nothing to feed my obsession except for my own personal knives and those of  the family. Where do my customers come from and how do they know about what I have to offer? This is for me the biggest challenge and the only barrier to my dream of sharpening knives on a full time basis.  The actual art of sharpening is something I am comfortable with and I would not offer to sharpen a knife and expect payment unless I was perfectly comfortable that the owner who was good enough to trust me with the knife in the first place was satisfied and pleasantly surprised at the result. Paderno in Bayer's Lake is the primary source, the good Manager there readily agreed to allow customers to drop off their knives there, I pick them up, do my thing at home and then drop them off at Paderno. It is convenient for folks this way and they have also have some signs up in the store that advertises knife sharpening.
Another way is that folks pick up my Business Card at Cucina Moderna at one of their 3 locations, again, the fine Manager has agreed to allow me to leave my cards in the stores and occasionally people who are interested in getting someone else to sharpen their knives pick up my card and we go from there once contact is made. I am extremely grateful for this, without Paderno or Cucina Moderna I would not have the volume of  customers that I do.
Of course, word of mouth is doing what it does best and I get calls frequently from people who just want sharp knives. This has worked well and occasionally I even get knives shipped to me from other Provinces.
Basically, I get knives from all sorts of folks and they all range in quality and age. I have had a knife given to me that was 55 years old and have also received knives still in the box, brand spanking new that the owner want's a razor edge applied. Although this is a business for me now, I have not reached the stage that I look at it that way. I get excited at every knife that I get at home to sharpen, it is a thrill for me to restore the edge to the at the very least the factory edge and then the real fun begins, the stage beyond the factory edge :)
To date, the most rewarding sharpening service, and they are all rewarding, was one for an older gentleman. He gave me a very large and beautiful hunting knife to sharpen. Three days after I returned it, he delivered it to me, gift wrapped and told me that I did such a good job that I deserved to keep it.
You gotta love happy customers :)
Pete

Testimonial

Hi there, a very kind professional chef was good enough to let me sharpen her knives recently, I asked her if she was pleased and this was her response:
Hi Pete,
"Pleased" is a gross understatement; in fact, I don't really know how to
adequately express my appreciation of the phenomenal job you've done.
I never expected you to be able the repair the tip of my favourite French
knife.There is much filleting of fish and boning of meat going on at home, as I
look for anything and everything to slice and dice.  I'm serving beef
carpaccio at an upcoming dinner party and can't wait to use the slicer.
I have already been raving about the job you did to everyone I know, and
have passed out your business cards--for sharpening knives, there is no
comparison to the job you do, none!  Feel free to use this email if you need
a reference or wish to post it online as a testimonial.


WESTIN NOVA SCOTIAN, HALIFAX, NOVA Scotia

I have some references if needed, just give me a holler or email at
i_zar_2@hotmail.com

Japanese Water Stones

Hi folks, so just what the heck are these Japanese Water Stones I talk about?
When I first started sharpening as a young sailor at sea, I used an oil stone which many folks find perfectly fine for taking care of their edges. As my obsession for learning about sharpening and how to improve commenced I found an article on JWS (Japanese Water Stones) and my obsession/passion took on a new path. I was kind of hooked before, now I was addicted. As in everything else on the market, stones come in various varieties and differ in quality. The ones I use are synthetic as most are and are absolutely remarkable. There are natural JWS of course that can be used, generally more expensive, harder to get and not something I plan on looking at just now. Many of the sharpeners I liaise with who have both prefer the synthetic type and all agree that they perform what they designed for wonderfully.  There are three broad categories of JWS, the Ara-to (rough stone), the Naka-to (medium stone) and the Shiage-to (finishing stone).

Here is a JWS,  King brand at 800 grit. This is a great stone for starting on a dull knife, it is aggressive, easy to use and cheap to purchase. (Less then $30.00). This is one of the stones I started with after switching from oil stones to Japanese Water Stones.

Now however I use a higher quality JWS that is cut to a specific size for me by a gentleman in California who purchases these very high quality stones from Japan.  I use stones specifically designed for my system by a brilliant sharpener who has sharpened over 100,000 knives on the device he created.
I use a combinaton of JWS including  Naniwa Chosera  and Shapton  in a wide variety of grits. Here is what they look like:

The picture here is a beautiful 10,000 grit Chosera stone that has been specifically cut to fit into the "stone-arm" of my Edge Pro Professional.

These are the stones that I use to take the edge of a very dull knife to a screaming sharp and enjoyable to use knife. Whether it is a nice Global, Shun or just a no-name brand that needs some TLC.

The Edge

There are many methods available out there to sharpen your knife. I just happen to prefer the use of the stones, it is very rewarding and therapeutic form of sharpening and in the vast majority of cases it is very successful. It is not difficult to take the edge of a knife to a degree of sharpness that is beyond the factory edge or "out of the box" sharpness. Do we really need the knife to be that sharp, no we don't. However, I don't think anyone could argue that the sharper it is, the better it is. The key, for me though is to not just producing  an edge that is sharp enough to shave with but also one that will stay sharp for a long period of time. Maintaining the edge with a steel of course is paramount and good practice to follow very regularly.
A Relief Angle is something I often put on good kitchen knives, it is merely a secondary angle behind the micro bevel. Basically, you have the edge, the very thin cutting portion of the knife and then you have the bevel. On most knives, certainly German knives for example there is a bevel on each side and then. The relief angle is applied to the section between the bevel and heel of the knife.
In this picture you can clearly see the line created by sharpening at two different angles.

Relief Angle

This knife was sharpened first at a 13 degree angle to form the Relief Angle, while not clearly visible here it has a mirror like edge to it. Then the micro bevel, was sharpened at 18 degrees to create an extremely sharp knife and one that will retain the edge for some time. When cutting food, the food will slide up the relief angle which has formed a tiny ramp, it makes cutting easier. The beauty of this technique is that the edge is very easy to resharpen, I only need to work on the micro bevel. It is also a very attractive look to those who care about such things....I care about such things :). Most folks are not really concerned about this type of thing, however, most do appreciate a sharp knife. Whether you get it that way from Japanese Water Stones, oil stones, belt sanders or electric grinders, there is no doubt in my mind that everyone appreciates the final product. I  just happen to be the one of the people that enjoys the entire process.

So it begins

The first tool I use on a dull knife, and any knife I get is dull is a DMT Extra Course diamond plate.

The use of this plate is a  crucial component of my sharpening. It is perfectly flat and will re-establish the bevel at whatever angle I choose, which in most cases is the factory angle. Once I  have completed a few passes on each side of knife with this, I move to the Japanese Water Stones. This is also perfect for removing nicks in the blade, and remember, if you can't see the nicks they are there, this plate will find them and remove them.

Sharpening a knife

The first thing I do when someone gives me a knife to sharpen is to examine the edge for nicks. Not all damage is visible to the naked eye so I use an LED powered 15X Loupe which allows me to get a really close up look at the edge, the cutting part of the knife. There are times when the blade is so damaged that before I start using the stones I bring out the belt sander equipped with the sharpening belts. This tool allows me to remove metal and reshape the edge and basically return it to it's original shape. Now I can actually sharpen the knife and this is where for me, the fun starts.This is where the cost of all of those Japanese Water Stones and my guided device,  The Edge Pro Professional starts to pay off. 
Perhaps you can understand better if you are familiar with some of the most basic parts of the a knife. Did you know that many knives are stamped from a single piece of metal and sharpened on a machine, a grinder. A robotic arm is just part of an automated process that ultimately forms our beloved kitchen knives. Regardless of the process that is used to take the metal from it's original state, ore, high carbon steel, stainless steel or a blend of carbons into what we purchase, each knife eventually becomes dull from use.
My passion is to restore the edge of the knife to not only the same degree of sharpness as the day it was purchased but to take it beyond that and transform the dull knife into a beautifully sharpened instrument that enhances your food preparation experience and makes you feel good about buying that knife again.
Here you go, perhaps having this to look at will help you understand just what it is I do next, i.e. the sharpening or re-sharpening, the fun part.  What this picture does not show is the bevel, that portion of the knife that is the angled piece on each side directly behind the edge and this is the part that I work on.