Vintage Steak Knife Project

I recently had the opportunity to sharpen 8 steak knives that are at least 60 years old and have never been sharpened beyond the factory.

Eight identical knives and for this project I chose the amazing Edge Pro Professional. I wanted precise angles and I needed to maintain the factory angle as much as possible on this small bladed knives, they are long but not very wide.

Here you can see the angle used, which for these knives makes perfect sense, the stones were right on target with this angle.

After 3 hours, the work was all done but the clean up. There is a copper bolster that needed some TLC.

Here are the knives all done and a happy customer got them back.

Cool eh.

You can Sharpen Knives

Hello Friends:

Random Picture of some knives I sharpened.

In my experience in talking to knife shop owners, my customers and just from life experiences I think there are many people who are interested in sharpening knives and have undoubtedly tried it.

FIRST OF ALL..why not just buy one of these, professional sharpening machines??

The Ultimate Knife Sharpener.........ok

So why not just get one of these  nifty Chef's choice electric sharpeners, surely a machine with this much advanced technology is going to do a better job that old Peter Nowlan who uses stones and water, come on...take a step into reality Peter.

Try to imagine a little old Japanese man hunched over a water stone and lovingly brining the edge of a knife over an exquisite water stone ever so delicately and precisely where he should be hitting the edge of the knife to the stone. He can do this because he has been doing it for 50 years.....I know such a man by the way.

Now why doesn't that nice old man just throw those stupid water stones away and instead use one of these machines?

Friends, I am going to tell you why and remember this particular machine is the pinnacle of machines, there are hundreds of them and this is the best. So what I am going to tell you pertains to every gadget that has been produced.  (NOTE the Edge Pro or Wicked Edge Precision Sharpener are not gadgets and do not fall into this category at all, they are precision instruments and work beautifully)

The machine pictured above will sharpen the primary edge of your knife, i.e. the cutting edge and it will be sharper,  it will remove metal, a little more than necessary I might add but it will sharpen a knife.

NOW.....what about the secondary bevel, i.e. the edge behind the edge. Picture the edge of a a knife, if you just kept removing metal from that edge to make it sharp, eventually that edge angle is going to increase and increase and the knife will become quite useless over time, and not a lot of time either.

Here is a picture of a knife edge, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to imagine what would happen if you just keep sharpening that edge, that Included Angle is going to get wider and wider and  you won't be cutting anything. This is pertinent to any method of sharpening by the way, even with water stones.

YOU Need to sharpen both edges, the Cutting Edge or Primary Bevel and the area behind that or the Secondary Bevel, you need to keep that thinned as you sharpen, or at least know that what you are doing to the primary edge and it is going to have an impact on the secondary edge.  

The machine pictured above does not do this, so for first few months or year, that knife will be sharper but eventually, you are just grinding away metal and you've wasted the money spent on your machine and knife or knives.  This is why any sharpener worth his weight in water stones will never use anything but water stones (or an Edge Pro or WEPS) but really, Japanese Water Stones will produce edges on knives that will just blow you away.

Don' t waste your money and take the easy way out, it is not the easy way it is the path to frustration and it is an illustration of a lack of knowledge of knife geometry and knife sharpening.

So what about you, can anyone sharpen a knife?

I say "yes" to that folks, oh yeah, heck yeah you can get a knife sharper than new with practice and you can do it in 15 minutes. 

Coarse Stone

Now over the years I have collected some pretty nifty water stones but remember, I am obsessed with sharpening and collecting them. You don't need expensive, top of the line stones to sharpen a knife. Heck, you can go to Lee Valley or Paderno and pick up a combination stone, a coarse and medium stone for 60 bucks or so. With that one stone you can remove the dull metal and reveal the crisp clean edge underneath and there you have a sharp knife again. You can do this for about a hundred years and that knife will still be fine.

Too many times I hear people say that they are afraid to try because they will ruin the knife. Unless you are holding the knife straight up and down and driving it into the stone, you won't ruin it.  There are so many videos now on You Tube  as well to help.

If you are in my area, I would be more than willing to give one on one instruction and I won't charge the $400.00 that I've seen in other spots, not even close.

You don't have any excuses to not  learn, if you are interested just give it a shot, go buy a 30 dollar water stone, watch some videos, ask ME questions and then enjoy one of the most rewarding experiences you have ever had.

You don't need expensive water stones, you just need some patience and a desire to learn...oh and a knife.

You'll be KING.......go for it.

Yanagi-ba

Folks,
This beauty is for sale, truly a wonderful knife.

This is a MAC Yanagi-ba, and it is the sharpest knife I have seen. It is a single beveled knife so only sharpened on one side. The back is not perfectly flat by design, it is slightly concave to reduce sticking. These traditional knives are prized by sushi chefs. I personally sharpened this knife, it is brand new.

The cost of this one is $275.00 which includes the taxes. This is available at Paderno in Bayer's lake and you will get this price if you mention my name. The Manager Malcolm is extremely knowledgeable about knives, his whole staff is in fact.
I will have this knife on display on Saturday 1st June when I am sharpening.

I don't this knife will last long, I am going to pick one up myself. It is incredibly effective when cutting fish.

This is a BLK.....Bucket List Knife.

First Handle Replacement

Hi folks,
Well the first handle work has been done, two knives picked up and returned in 4 days with a completely new handle on a 10 inch chef knife and a hand refurbishment on a Grohmann.
This is the ladies testimonial:

Hi Peter, picked up my knives last night.  They are so beautiful I regretted already having leftovers for dinner....wanted to toss them out and cook from scratch!!!   Thanks


Kudos to the "handle guy"

Sharpening at PADERNO 1st June

Hi folks,

I will be in the Paderno store in Bayer's Lake on Saturday the 1st June from 10:00-2:00.
You can bring your dull knives to me for sharpening there.

Anyone who mentions reading about this on my Blog will get a discount.

Peter

Handles Continued

Here are some shots of new handles, in the excitement I didn't take before shots.
The first one was the 30 year old Henckels bread knife and the wooden handle was ready to come off, it was in very bad shape. So bad in fact that we hadn't used the knife in years.

More from the same knife:

This is a relative new knife that had a black, plastic handle that I wanted to replace with a more attractive one.

This was his first project and I was very pleased, the knife is extremely comfortable in the hand.

His work will only get better and he will do custom work in the future.

KNIFE HANDLES

One of my goals is to offer knife handle replacement and I have some good news.

I very frequently get knives that obviously need  new handles, (scales) and the problems will vary from cracked, splitting, separation from the tang or just broken. Otherwise the knife is great, the steel will last a lifetime but what about the handles?

Also, some folks just want a different looking handle and often replace them on brand new knives.

While learning to do this myself is on my bucket list, I am happy to tell you that I have found a talented individual who is enjoying this process now, he already has the skills. He is a retired Engineer with a passion for word working and I approached him about making knife handles. I gave him two of my personal knives to do, one is 30 years old and the other is new.
I was extremely pleased with the results and I have already received emails from folks who would like this done. He is very meticulous and will not rush to get the job done, remember that please.

I will have pictures of his work soon, I promise with Before and After shots.

The prices will start at $30.00 and that will include a sharpening by me.

More to follow soon>