Benchmade Folder

Hi,
Merry Christmas folks and thanks once again for visiting my little world.

       I used to sharpen knives like the Benchmade in the photo above using the Edge Pro exclusively.  I still use the Edge Pro on certain shaped knives, it is very nice for getting at those little curves in and making everything nice and even and of course sharp.

       However, if the knife is in good shape, if I am the only one to have sharpened it after it was purchased, I like to sharpen them freehand.  Some folks ask for a mirror finish and there was a time when I really fussed about that and also a time when I could only achieve a mirror finish using the EP.

       I really do love my EP however I love sharpening freehand much more, so I decided to tackle folders that came to me freehand, it only made sense since I have all the water stones and more to put any type of edge on the knife I want, or the customer wants.

       This is not to imply that having an abundance of water stones makes one a better sharpener,  I had to work very very hard on just a few water stones before I felt comfortable opening a business. What I mean to say is that you don't need to go out and buy a lot of stones to be a good sharpener. 

   
        Speaking of mirror finishes, I can remember a time when every folder I got had to be completed with a mirror finish, it was a goal of mine to first of all be able to create one and then basically I thought I would just impress the hell out of people by doing it on every knife :)

        I sharpen smarter now, a 2k to 3k edge on these knives is all that is needed and it will still have a very nice looking bevel, in fact that knife here was sharpened up to 2k on the Naniwa Aotoshi, (Green Brick of pure Joy) and then I just applied some very very light trailing strokes to clean the edge on the 8K Kityama, the one in the picture.  It is funny how we often think we need to go all the way up to 10k on these knives when they come from the factory at about 800 or 1,000 grit. I could be wrong but I just don't think there is a little old bald guy sitting there fretting over the edges of these knives like I do.

       People that sharpen professionally or just sharpen a lot often believe that edge retention is improved with a 1-3k edge over a 8-10K edge for example.  I am not one of those people, I have a different view on edge retention.

      I was asked to write articles for Knifeplanet and I have placed a couple of links in my previous posts to those articles I have already written. The article on sharpening with water stones was very well received and has about 90,000 views. (I'm over myself now :) )

      Speaking of Edge Retention, I mentioned it because that is going to be the topic of my next article and some of the things I put there may be surprising to you but it is something I think about a lot, I mean A LOT.

      Please remember that my posts are just my opinions, I didn't go to Sharpening University and write a Thesis on sharpening. However,  I do sharpen knives every single day so it is my experience that I am basing the things I write about on.  I am sure that many folks disagree with some things, which is cool.

    There is one thing we can all agree on, one thing we all have in common: the topic/process of sharpening knives and knives themselves fascinates us. The method we use is our method, it works for us, we can make knives sharper, whether it is on stones, belts, Tormeks, Edge Pro, Wicked Edge, KME and other devices created by intelligent folks, it is all the same basically, we are driven to make things sharp. 
 I just happen to drive Japanese Water Stones :)

   I'm no better than you,  I am probably just a little more obsessed with the art of sharpening, it doesn't mean I am better at it.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my Blog.

Peter Nowlan

Grinder vs Water Stone

Hi again,
It is common for me to be approached by someone who tells me "my husband just sharpens the knives in our basement"  or "I sharpen my own knives" and when I ask how (and I ask how not to be ignorant, but because I think it is cool, we may have something in common). However, in the majority of cases, Japanese Water Stones don't come up.

I do realize that you can sharpen knives on oil stones and belt sanders, of course, I don't criticize anyones method unless it is a grinder, a wheel that may be good for doing quick work on an axe of lawn mower blade but not a knife.

So if you use an oil stone to sharpen your knives, cool, in fact, I started on oil stones about 35 years ago.  I just happen to use water stones, I don't enjoy using anything else but that doesn't mean you don't.


Back to my grinder issue.

Here is a picture of knife that I did today on a grinder, a real expensive one, I get these about once a week.
The shot on the left is the "grinder edge"






It takes me about 3 times as long to do these knives, yes I suppose I could sharpen the edge and not worry about the hideous industrial looking bevel but I just let something like that go from my home.

Enough about grinders.
(having said this, there may be folks out there with grinders and special sharpening wheels that can perform magic, I am sure that there is. I am just talking about what I see on a weekly basis)


Peter

Comments

Hi,
OKAY now I feel stupid.

I have never seen a Comment left by anyone and I just found the Comment section and located some questions from folks, some a year old.

I apologize, I'll check out my settings and see why they are not showing up.

For those who have left comments only to find them ignored, my apologies.  Here I thought no-one ever left a single comment.

Peter

Daily Routine

Hi folks,

If this is your visit, thanks for finding my Blog, and if this is not your visit, you already know how grateful I am that you are here.

In case anyone wonders how many knives I sharpen a day, I will tell you.

Todays Haul

This is a little more than a daily average of knives and I won't get through all of them in one day. I don't know what is in store for me when I open the packages, each package has anywhere from one to eight knives. I will spread this bunch over 3 days, in the meantime more knives will arrive.

I think it is pretty cool that folks get their knives sharpened and I never take it for granted that they trust me with them.

I've only every had once unfortunate incident where an individual accused me of doing something to his knife. Fortunately I had plenty of photos to back me up and the sad thing is, that individual has lost access to a pretty good knife sharpener.  I always take a photo the knives when I get them and before I start work just to be safe, but I never need them.

Each knife takes me about 15 minutes to do, of course there will be some that take much longer but on the average it is 15 minutes.


I go through a coarse stone, 400-500 grit in about 3 months.

500 Shapton Glass that I can see through.

Just sharing some info here, now I have to get to work on these knives.





You're wondering what this picture has to do with knife sharpening......wait for it.


I just think it is cool, these toys are 23 years old and belong to my son, his son now plays with them. The X-Wing fighter in the background still make sounds after all these years.


So why am I putting this picture here.......my grandson (grasshopper) is the one that will take over my business someday when I am too old to sharpen. When they pry those water stones out of cold dead hands.....20 years from now if I am lucky..

Video of me sharpening on a Japanese Natural Stone.

Nothing serious here, just having fun.

Until yesterday I did not know that posting videos on YouTube in the vertical mode was a faux pas but some nice folks told me about that. Hopefully that issue is corrected here.

Feel free to fast forward any pieces you like. Thanks for looking.

You should have me told earlier :)

The Essence of Knife Sharpening

The Essence of Knife Sharpening


This is an article I wrote for Knifeplanet.

If you read it, thanks.

Peter

Learn to Sharpen

how-to-sharpen-knife-on-japanese-water-stone/



Folks, as some may know I was asked to write an article or two for Knifeplanet and I did write an article on how to sharpen knives using Japanese Water Stones.
The link is above and also it is on my website.

I was informed that the article was picked up by a very popular site in Europe, they are very pleased with the article and got permission to post it and it was read by over 20,000 people in a few hours.


So, with that, I am just mentioning this because I think a lot of folks want to learn to sharpen and perhaps the article will assist you. Of course there is nothing like a hands on demonstration but we all don't have access to that. If you do, if you can get a lesson from a pro who uses Japanese Water Stones I do highly recommend it.


Peter

Remember, it is not about the brand of water stones you use. I have an obsession with sharpening and water stones but in all honesty I could make it work with 2 or 3 stones and if absolutely necessary with 1 stone. 

Just don't go to a hardware store and buy that grey oil stone for 8 bucks, please don't do that. Also, don't go buy a knife at the Dollar Store and try to sharpen it, it will be poor steel and hard to sharpen and will shake your confidence. 

Yesterday I taught sharpening to culinary students for a couple of hours.

Like I told them, to be a successful sharpener, i.e. to make your dull knives sharp enough to use on a vegetable without crushing it, you do need to have some passion. Now that passion can begin with an interest,  a desire to make the knife sharp. 

If you are just doing it to get it over with and don't take the time to enjoy the moment, realize how cool what your doing it, then I think you're better off having someone else sharpen for you.  That is if you have zero interest but of course this does not apply to anyone reading this, what the hell would you be doing here if you didn't have the desire.

I'm working on another video by the way,

Stay cool :)

Peter

my email