The 1,000 grit edge - Improved Edge Retention puzzle - Solved.

Hi folks,

      I should state right up front that with reference to the title of this post, it was a puzzle for me, I am not  suggesting that everyone out there was confused by the repeated statements that led me and others to believe that a knife finished at 1,000 grit will stay sharp longer than the same knife sharpened at 8,000 grit.

     It's not that easy, to be clear, this statement which I now believe to be accurate (with caveats) implies the sharpening of knives such as your basic and very common Henckels, Wusthof, Grohmann, Global and not the dream hand made Japanese knives.  It is the steel itself, the hardness of the steel that is important to get a grip on for this statement to make sense.  We know that the hardness of steel used to make knives can be measured and measured very accurately. Sharpeners and  folks who are knowledgeable understand this scale and what the numbers mean. It is the Rockwell Hardness Scale or HRC more accurately and I believe that stands for Hardness Rockwell Conversion.
Rockwell Hardness

Funny enough though, the majority of people who purchase knives are not too concerned about the hardness of the knife that they are purchasing. They are concerned about the cost of the knife, the way it feels, the way it looks but in my experience, (people bring me knives to sharpen daily), the hardness of the steel is not an issue.  It should be.

 
     The majority of knives I sharpen and the ones that are in millions of homes range in hardness from 54-58 and that is common, the higher the number of course,  the harder the steel.   Now it is good to know that the makers of knives don't simply turn up the Hardness Dial to make the knives harder. There is a very significant difference in a knife that has a hardness of 58 and one with a hardness of 60.  In most cases this also represents a substantial difference in price, the harder the steel,  the better the steel so the more expensive the knife.

    Why is harder steel better? 

     This is where the edge retention factor comes into play, a softer steel such as my Henckels will succumb to the pressures of everyday food preparation faster than my Fujiwara pictured above (on left) which has a hardness of 63.  I know that this is obvious but it is important that I lay the groundwork in order for this article to make sense.


    Before I continue I mentioned caveats and there are some that make definite statements questionable. For example, we should not read " A European knife sharpened at 1,000 grit will always stay sharper longer than one sharpened at 5,000 grit". This is not to say that the author of such a statement is trying to fool us because it is likely true without some obvious caveats.

    "Under most circumstances" is applicable to the statement because people treat their knives differently, they cut different things and the edges impact different cutting boards with different amounts of force. Those same European knives for example, one finished at 1,000 grit and one finished at 8,000 grit live different lives so this means the ability of those equal knives to hold their edges and equal amount of time is questionable.  However........this is all common sense, the important thing is that this is important to me, a sharpener, i.e. how to sharpen a particular knife. I can't control the knife after it leaves my hands so I cannot tell an owner how long that knife will stay sharp. I can tell him however that I sharpened his Wusthof at 1,000 or 1, 500 or even 2,000 grit to enhance it's edge retention.

    People will buy a knife without regard to these things, that doesn't let me off the hook, as a knife sharpener it is my duty to apply the appropriate edge to any given knife. Making a knife sharp is easy, making it SMART SHARP is something one needs to learn. I can easily sharpen a knife at a very acute angle and dazzle someone with the edge. That edge may fail on day one so I need to not only make it sharp of course but to try my best to keep it sharp and with this goes a little education to the owner.   I have always said that edge retention is a team effort, if the owner is going to throw that knife into a sink with 8 other knives, all my work will be for nothing.


     NOW with the help of some reading and a fantastic explanation from my friend and mentor Tom Blodgett of Jende Industries, I can explain why I did that. Before today, I lacked the scientific background and therefore the best answer to the question.  Tom's knowledge in these matters dwarfs my own, he knew the answer t to my puzzle before I knew that is was a puzzle :)

Why is a 1,000 - 2,000 grit edge better for certain knives?

     Again, the answer to this question has come to me recently and it follows a lot of digging, I mean a lot of it and also the fact that I have absolutely no problem asking questions and sooner or later and answer will come.


     This is my explanation, others that are more knowledgeable about this topic could word it better, folks like Tom and Cliff Stamp who I have never met but have a lot of respect for.  I can make your knives exceptionally sharp folks but there is more to sharpening than that, it involves a deep understanding, if you want it to involve that of course. I find the topic fascinating so it only makes sense to turn over every stone I can find.

     (First of all, we start with knives in the "softer steel range" this is not imply that they are inferior knives, these are common knives that fall into the budgets of many people. It took me thirty years to have a knife that is "hard".  Remember that hard knives, I mean really hard knives have issues to, yes they are absolutely incredible to cut with but they can be brittle and that astonishing edge can chip if you are not careful.)

Typical knives and a 1,000 grit Naniwa Chosera.

     As you know, the sharpening process involves grinding the two sides of the knife until they meet at the Apex and form the Primary Edge, we make that cutting edge as microscopically thin as possible and we make it as uniform as humanly possible. If I sharpen a Global knife at 15 degrees on one side, I sharpen it at 15 degrees on the other side, the closer I can get to 15 deg on each side the sharper that knife will be, since I do that by hand, it is obviously possible that I will be off a tiny bit, sometimes I will nail it, sometimes perhaps not. This is human sharpening not precision sharpening but I can tell you this, I will take the "human edge" any day of the week. :)

   Knowing that the average Global knife, a very popular knife falls into the 56-68 hardness category, I will sharpen it up to 1,000 or 1,500 grit. (Now don't think that because it isn't sharpened up to 8,000 grit it won't be that sharp, believe me, the knife will be sharp at 400 grit.)


   I have seen pictures of edges of knives taken with special instruments. (SEM, Scanning Electron Microscope) that provide incredible images of edges magnified 5,000 times. Now the edge of knife shot at that level doesn't look like the edge of knife but it does reveal important things, very important and it is these images and the explanation from that gifted one,  Tom Blodgett that enlightened me.

   The primary edge is thin, a somewhat fragile strip of metal and by thin I mean at the microscopic level.
The area directly behind that edge supports the edge, it helps hold it in place so to speak. Think of it as the Edges Armour.  Now the picture revealed that the same knife sharpened at 1,000 grit has a very slightly thicker Apex than the one sharpened at 4,000 grit. Now we are taking decimal three or decimal 4 microns (.3, .4) but this is enough to have an impact on the edge. The life of the edge is found in this molecular space and even a very tiny micro level of difference is a difference.

    It has an impact on this particular steel so if I sharpened that same knife up to 5, 000 grit, the area directly behind the cutting edge is a little thinner, I have created a weakness in the armour, and while this is a micro level difference, when you consider the life of the edge of a knife, that little difference is enough to make that particular knife's edge fail a little faster. So the 1,000 grit finish with it's minimal collateral impact to the secondary bevel is better for this particular hardness of a knife.

   So what if you want to sharpen it to 5,000 or 8,000 grit because you love the way it looks and cuts?
No big deal, remember all the caveats that influence the life of the edge of knife. It may or may not make a difference.  This article is simply an attempt to add some weight to the statement that a 1,000 grit edge is going to last longer on certain knives than a more refined edge. Now I know why and I hope I have conveyed that to you.


  Now, with a harder knife, 60 and up to 64 for example, that steel behind the edge of the edge, that armour is much much harder so I can refine it up to 8,000 grit, it will still support the Primary Edge.

Cool eh..

    Buy a knife you can afford and you can ask how hard the steel is and you could be surprised if you got an answer. Don't worry too much about that, there is a significant difference in price and in the forging process as well. Not everyone has the skill to make a knife with an edge hardness of 64, in fact the number of people who CAN do this is quite small in the big scheme of things.

   60 is a good number to shoot for but just get a knife that you can afford and find a good sharpener and let him worry about these things.  ( I mean a good sharpener by the way and that could be the challenge) At least you now now....hopefully....why certain edges perform better than others.

I received this comment from a fellow sharpener that I have much respect for, it is important to share here as it is pertinent to what I was trying to say, some excellent points.

Well written Peter. 
A few more points to consider... 
Hardness is not a sole determinant of wear resistance. It is also the constituent elements added to steel like chromium, vanadium, tungsten and etc. that contribute as well. 
In addition it is not just the grit at which one finishes but how well the burr is removed at every step aiding in the strength of the edge and behind it: yet another "weakness in the armor". That is why jointing the edge works in keeping an edge long lasting.

Again......this is not information I was born with, I gained this information from people smarter than I am, I like sharing it that's all.


Thank you very much for reading this.

Peter Nowlan

Thinning - What's the deal.

Hi there folks, thank you for being here at my Blog.


     Sharpening knives as a profession leads me down many different but related paths, a lot of things pop up over the years, sharpening terms that I either ignore or feel  compelled to understand. Generally, I don't like general statements such as " A 1,000 grit edge will last longer than a polished edge"

     Seriously?  How can one make that statement and it is one I read often,  and I admit the my issue with this particular well known "law" is that I cannot get a grasp on the physics behind that, I don't see the reason.  Also, folks tend to repeat what they have heard or read somewhere, I do this, I have repeated things when in fact, I didn't know what I was talking about. Maybe I just wanted to sound intelligent but I think this is a common thing for folks to do.  Now I am just talking about sharpening knives, this must be true in everything in life, "you need to learn to play guitar on an electric guitar because it is easier to learn, then you can go to an acoustic guitar". Things like this,  peoples opinions become laws that we spread and people think they must be true.

     Gees, you must be wondering what the heck this has to do with thinning, "where is he going with this"?       ...............It's my Blog, I can ramble:)

     Thinning:

 What is it, Why is it and How is it?

    Most of you know that over time, as the edge of knife is sharpened and tiny amounts of metal is removed, and I mean tiny, the knife becomes thick. It can be as sharp as a new razor blade but still not perform as it should because the area directly behind the edge is too wide.  Now we can see this with some brand new knives as well. I remember buying a set of kitchen knives as a gift in Dubai, which I didn't take a good look at until I got home. I ended up throwing them away because of the very poor design, way to thick.

     The thickening process starts early and progresses over time, (or it comes with the knife as I said) so when you are considering purchasing a new knife, look carefully at the geometry of the blade, a nice thin blade is going to cut very nicely. As you can imagine, thin blades mean you are not forcing as much metal through the product you are cutting. Of course thin is good for kitchen knives, hunting knives and such need that support behind the edge and you generally don't cut up carrots with your hunting knife.

     Thinning is a process that is meant to retain positive slicing geometry, it is something that will change the appearance of your knife and there are some very important things to consider when thinning, you need to be aware of the negative aspects of thinning before proceeding. You'll be able to weigh the Pros and Cons and decide for yourself if it is good for you and for your knife.

     Generally thinning is good, it can have a major impact on how you feel about your knife. Remember, it can be extremely sharp but useless for certain tasks. Unless you have purchased an already thin knife than it is something you can consider.

Thinning

     In the photo above you can clearly see that the process of thinning involves the removal of the metal directly behind the edge, the metal that is making it thick in the first place. You can also see that the primary edge can be sharp but ineffective. Also, you can thin the entire knife a little or just the area behind the edge.  (This is more of Relief Angle and I will explain.)

How is it done?

20 deg Sharpening Angle

     Let's assume that I am sharpening the Grohmann Chef knife in the picture at 20 deg per side. (I am freehand sharpening so this angle may not be 20 exactly, it doesn't matter, it is the appropriate angle for this knife and I can hold this angle from heel to tip on both sides).

     Now if I continue to sharpen this knife at this angle over and over the Primary Edge will move up into the thicker part of the blade, the area behind the edge that is there to support the edge. This is not a good thing to do, just sharpen it over and over exactly at the same angle without taking this thickening process into account.

    I can do one of a couple of things: I can and should thin a little as I sharpen the knife, I should work at maintaining good cutting geometry by adjusting the angle a little to keep that knife from becoming thick but this has to happen early on in the knifes life. In most cases, I get knives that are already thick and I need to either just sharpen it as is or thin it.

    To thin a thick knife I have to adjust the sharpening angle in order to be able to grind the unwanted metal away and this isn't easy, the idea behind it is easy but the process itself is not that easy, it is a lot of elbow grease and takes patience and courage.  ( I will explain the courage piece)

Adjusted thinning angle

    The POSITIVE effects of thinning are immediate to the user, the knife will perform better (assuming it is sharp) because the blade is thinner. So to thin a thick knife I would need to decrease the sharpening angle significantly and I would sharpen/grind at this angle until I reached the edge of the edge. The knife would be thinner and very likely exceptionally sharp.

That's the good news, here is the bad news:

     When you reach the stage that the thinning process is not a continual gentle process, when it comes to the stage where it is all done in one step the knife undergoes changes. It will look different, it is quite possible to scratch up the blade, and you will will scratch it, it can't be sharpened at a greatly reduced angle and not be scratched. However, that can be fixed by polishing out the scratches.

    The biggest problem and it is a big one, is that the thinning process and significantly reduced the strength of the edge, it will be sharp yes but the edge retention is going to take a big hit. So you will find yourself having to hone your knife a lot to keep it sharp. Some people thin their new knives, especially the older European knives that are often thick to begin with. Just be aware that you are adjusting the ability of the edge to hold, that already thin strip of metal, the Primary Edge, has just lost a lot of support behind it.  So sharpening this knife is going to be a chore.


(When I say it takes courage, I mean the knife that you are used to seeing is going to look different)

Is there a better way?

        Well you could start with a thin knife and keep it thin by maintaining the geometry of the knife throughout it's sharpening life. Shun knives for example are thin but even they can get a little thick if not sharpened properly.

    Of course dream knives like these come nice and thin to begin with, their cutting power is astonishing to be honest.  However, I have seen a Fujiwara that was left to get dull over a period of a few years that had lost all of it's grace, a shame really.


     A Relief Angle is perhaps the way to go and this is what a Relief Angle is, sometimes just called a Relief.

     If I sharpen my knife an 20 deg per side, I could create a Relief by first sharpening at 15 deg per side. Now the key is that I would not grind the metal away until I hit the edge, so I am not sharpening at 15 degrees, I am creating a Relief which is also thinning the blade. Now I can go to town on this Relief and polish it to my hearts content.  The knife is still dull, that's fine, I am not sharpening I and building a Relief by grinding at a 15 deg angle, one that is at least five degrees less than the Primary Edge Sharpening Angle. I need to stop grinding before I hit the edge, basically, I need to leave some room to sharpen the knife. Once this is achieved I can SHARPEN my knife.

    Now I raise my angle to 20 deg and start my sharpening process on a 1,000 grit stone, I don't want to go to coarse here, I need to be careful not to cut into that beautiful relief angle I  spent so much time creating and it is like a mirror.  The primary edge is now going to be simple to sharpen and I can sharpen this to 5,000 or 2,000 grit. The knife now has two angles on it and if I wanted to create a Micro Bevel it would have three but we won't worry about that at the moment.

     The beauty of a Relief Angle is that from this point on, I don't need to work at that 15 deg angle, I just have to sharpen the Primary Edge now at my 20 deg angle. ( If my Sharpening Angle was 15 deg my Relief Angle would be 10 deg).  ALSO, that Relief Angle is still going to provide support to the edge itself.

     This all sounds real easy eh?  It isn't, doing this by freehand takes some skill, I need to hold the knife at a consistent 15 deg angle on both sides then repeat that process at 20 deg and be careful not to lower that angle so that I am disrupting the Relief.  This is where the Edge Pro comes in nice and handy. I can lock in that 15 deg angle and from from that point I can put away the EP and finish the knife by hand (at the sharpening angle) or just finish it on the EP. Not everyone has an EP of course and not everyone cares about this entire process. I am simply describing an alternative method to improve the performance of your knife without compromising the strength of the edge.

    Now Ben Dale, the brilliant sharpener and creator of the Edge Pro starts his Relief at the Primary sharpening angle, the 20 deg angle first and then goes down to the 15 deg. If he does it this way, it is pretty safe to say it is the way it should be done.

Again, not all knives should be thinned.


I really hope that I cleared up some things, I did for myself, that happens a lot when I write things down, everything comes together.

Respectfully and with gratitude,
Peter Nowlan

New Article for Knifeplanet - Is Sharpening harmful and steps to stay sharp

Hi,

I had a similar post up earlier but Knifeplanet wanted to run with it so I had to take it down but now I can share the link.

What prompted me to write the article was something I read where the author used terms that make it sound like sharpening a knife as opposed to continuously honing a knife is harmful to the knife.

I was all over that incorrect statement so here it is.

http://www.knifeplanet.net/3-step-routine-keep-knives-sharp/

The only harm I have seen to a knife is from sharpening on a grinder or similar machine and also, over steeling.  Some folks have a nasty habit of steeling a knife for a period of time and when the positive effect of steeling is gone, as happens, the person just applied more pressure.


Thanks for reading
Peter

Things I wish I knew when I started sharpening - UPDATED

Greetings friends:

    I am going to list some things that I wish I had of known when I first got REALLY serious about knife sharpening, when I decided to open my business.  Having said this, I am not sure I would change anything if I could because of the learning experiences I have enjoyed.

    However, as with all things in life, if we knew now what we didn't know then, well who knows what impact that would have on our present day situation.

     The purpose of this post is just an attempt to help you out and to share my experiences, you can perhaps learn from my mistakes, you could learn a lot :)



I forget to add one of the most important things I have learned, it is at the bottom.

No. 1  Japanese Water Stones.

     Without any hesitation I can recommend water stones over any other method including oil stones, this is my preference. The mistake I made was not that I chose other methods, it was my choice of water stones.  Thinking at that time many years ago that Higher Grits meant Sharper Knives I built my collection of stones from the top down, from the 16K stones down. This is a mistake and I will explain:

     Of course all these water stones are beautiful and I would not trade them now that I have them but when starting out you should concentrate on three water stones in the COARSE, MEDIUM and FINE range and by fine I mean up to 5,000 grit.  The priority is the coarse and medium stones, 400-600 and the 1,000 grit stone is just about in that category too.  Then the 2,000 and 5,000 grits. 

     All of the sharpening I do now centres around these three stones, especially the coarse stones because I have a business and sharpen a lot. So for those who just sharpen their own knives the critical grit is a 1, 000.  I can't imagine my life without a 400, or 500 grit stone but I could manage with a 1,000 grit.  

    I rarely use my 16k, 10k and 8k Stones, I use but those are the ones that I could have got later on.  

Lesson Learned: Concentrate on the Coarse, Medium, Fine grit stones and don't worry about anything higher than 5k. In fact you really don't need to worry about anything higher than 3k but the  5k is a nice stone to own.  Sharpness begins with lower grits, trust me. 

No 2. The BURR

     The Burr is such an important element of knife sharpening yet I only knew a little bit about it when I got started. Heck when I first started sharpening 35 years ago or so, I don't even think the burr had been created yet :)

    What about the burr then:

My mistake was thinking that I needed to create a burr on both sides of my knife with every water stone I used in the progression and that the larger the burr the better.  If you think about what a burr is, you will understand what I didn't understand right away. 

     The burr is the metal that the abrasive powers of the water stone has worn away,  it should be just the fatigued metal that you want to remove and no more. Of course, it is very easy to take off a little more metal than necessary, especially with a coarse stone. So feel for the burr often and learn to feel it when it is quite subtle and stop when you have achieved this on both sides of the knife. So if you do this on Stone #1 there is no need to do it again on Stone #2. Your goal changes to feeling for a burr so that you can concentrate on burr removal. You want a nice even burr to start and you want a perfectly CLEAN edge to finish, so not a hint of a burr.

Lesson Learned: 

    Burr formation is indeed critical but just as important is burr removal. There is no need to keep grinding on  the water stone if the burr is there from heel to tip. You will find that the burr forms in certain areas of blade first, it works that way for me. So as I continue to form the burr, I ease up on the pressure when I reach the area of the knife that does have a burr.

NOW it is possible to sharpen a knife without creating an actual burr, however, this means grinding on one side of the knife and stopping just at the instant when the burr is about to form. You need to keep checking with magnification for this to work. This process, when successfully completed means you have not taken any more metal away then necessary. However, don't sweat it, create a burr and concentrate on creating a small burr and learning when to stop and adjust focus from burr formation to burr removal.

    I can remember a time when I would grind away until I had formed a burr five times, that is a waste. Yes, one could say that without forming a burr you don't know if  you have hit the edge of the edge. That is not true, you can check with a loupe to see if you have done that. You will get the hang of it. 

I think this picture is from the very awesome book An Edge In the Kitchen by Chad Ward.

No. 3. Managing Expectations

     I would watch a video of sharpening and see the miracles formed by the sharpener with the newly sharpened blade, slicing a tomato without holding it for example. I would then become frustrated when I couldn't achieve that.  

    When you are a novice, just worry about improving the edge, worry about forming a burr and removing it, get the technique down and concentrate on practicing this technique and building muscle memory. Forget about mirror finishes and and other smoke and mirror tricks. 

 Maybe that guy cutting the tomato took 10 tries before he could do that. You are not competing with anyone, nobody should judge you for your edges.  If you are learning to sharpen a knife, that in itself is a very nice goal to set for yourself.

Lesson Learned:

     Stop watching so many videos, find one or two sharpeners that motivate you and don't spend the time trying to sell you something or impress  you with what they can cut.  I know now that the learning curve is different for everyone. I also know that in a very short time I was able to make the knife a little sharper, that was all I needed to keep me going.  If you decide you need to lose 30 pounds for example, your goal should be to lose 1 pound a week not 30 pounds on day One. 

No 4 Take a Lesson

    I never had the opportunity to take a lesson from a pro until I was well into the game. Now that I teach sharpening I can see that I would have picked up so many helpful hints. I would gladly have paid $85.00 to have a lesson. It would have been so cool to meet someone who was obsessed with sharpening and could answer my questions and show me a technique that works. 

   There is a place in Toronto called Tosho Knife Arts that just exudes class and motivation. That spot is on my bucket list of places to go and I know that the extremely talented sharpener provides lessons at a very good price.  Listen, if I was in Toronto I would go see him, even today after thousands of knives, who knows what I could learn. Imagine what you could learn.

    Now,  I did get lucky and meet a master sharpener from Japan in New York and I did learn some things that changed by sharpening life but it wasn't a real lesson. 

Lesson Learned.  Find a professional sharpener and take a lesson.

Tosho Knife Arts

No. 5 GET STARTED

     Even though sharpening knives was in my blood for some reason, a reason I will be eternally grateful for, it took sometime, years before I got truly invested into it. It was not until that time that I really started to learn what sharpening is and the more I did it, the more I wanted to do it. 

     I promise you, once you achieve your first sharp knife, you will be hooked. That first sharp knife may pale in comparison to what you will be able to do years down the road but it is enough. That's the beauty of knife sharpening, you don't have to go out on day one and get a hole in one to enjoy golf, you don't need to have the knife sharper than a razor blade to enjoy sharpening. 

Start with the basics including a good stone holder and go from there. Find a good sharpener if you can on Youtube, I have some videos that are linked from my site and have been posted on Knifeplanet and Lifehacker. If you don't like those you can watch Jon Broida sharpen on YouTube.  I really enjoy his videos, I think they are top notch. 

Or....don't watch any videos, just give it a shot and see how you do. 

ONE MORE LESSON:

     You will hear folks talk about a toothy edge and a polished edge and people will say that if the edge is too polished it won't slice a tomato for example.  Also,  people will say that a toothy edge, a 1k edge will last longer.

    I am not convinced of any of these things, I don't get the physics behind it to be honest. To me, a polished edge is going to be sharper, the two sides of the knife can come together perfectly at the Apex of the knife if there are no teeth, micro teeth present. However, that is me and I don't like to say things just because I heard other people say them.  

Now if someone was able to tell my why a toothy edge will last longer on certain knives than a  slightly more polished edge that would be cool.  On the contrary, Chad Ward has explained the physics behind a polished edge, so there is support to back that up and I like that.

This is getting into the weeds though, it is more important to just get at it and sharpen some knives and concentrate on your technique. The other things like mirror finishes and toothy edges can come later on. Once you get addicted to sharpening you will find  yourself looking those things up anyway.

 Just do your best and enjoy the learning process, don't think you need a 16,000 grit stone to be a good sharpener.  A good sharpener can have one water stone, or something else that he/she uses.  

One more Last Item

     One of the most important things that I have picked up in the last few years, and for me this is right after the Burr,  it's Pressure.

     Most videos or anything related to sharpening does not mention anything about pressure but  for me it is a key component, something that turns sharp knives into SHARP knives. 

Lesson Learned:

    Anyone who has watched my videos or read my How to Sharpen knives article that I had published on Knifeplanet will know that I used four levels of pressure when I sharpen.  The first stone is where I use the most pressure, and I call it P4 pressure. ( On a sharpening pressure scale from 1-5 with 5 being the most pressure you could ever use and 1 being the weight of the blade pressure, so P5-P1 - Pressure 5, Pressure 4 etc.)

    We never use P5 so P4 is just decreased one full turn so lots of pressure but not so that it is hard to maintain, it's just enough to get the job done with very dull knives.  P4 is you and the stone working together to raise a burr.

   P3 pressure the next level and I use this on the same stone so it is a matter of manipulating pressure on each stone to get the most from that stone. It is amazing the difference it made in my edges. 

   To be clear, I only use P4 pressure on the first stone, on a dull knife to raise a burr, after that I start with P3 pressure which is just medium pressure and something you need to get a feel for. I never bear down on the stone as I sharpen as hard as I can, never, but to get the job done you do need to add pressure and just go through the range of pressure so that by the end of the process, one each stone, I am basically using trailing strokes only (like stropping) on the stone.

When I switch from a 400 grit stone to a 1,000 grit stone I start with P3 pressure.

Here is the Guide I wrote. If you ever need a further explanation of the pressure system that I use just let me know in the comments.

http://www.knifeplanet.net/how-to-sharpen-knife-on-japanese-water-stone/

I hope this was useful.

Peter

Wrapping up knives

It is important to present the knives back to the customer in not just a safe manner but I think one that stands out a little.

What I do is :

1. Buy a big roll of the brown wrapping paper at Staples, it is like butcher paper. It is about $15.00 but it lasts me a couple of months so it would last you longer perhaps.
2. I wrap the knives up in the paper so that inside the paper each knife is individually wrapped, just a matter of folding the paper over each knife. Keep in mind that the owner will be carrying the whole bundle so you don't want anything to fall out.
3. I purchase some nice paper at a Japanese shop and either on that paper or on another piece of paper I write a thank you note with a brief explanation of how I sharpen their knives. People will either read this with delight or throw it away but in my case, it is just a personal touch that means something to many people.
4. I wrap a piece of the nice Japanese paper over the ugly brown paper. Now in the picture above, I just bought a stencil at a stationary store and some blue ink and I used that as the outer layer. I don't always do that but it went over well.

Keep in mind that people may want to look at their knives before bringing them home so you may have to unwrap the knives and all this work will be for nothing but not really, people still like it.

I used to use foam to wrap the knives but it is not environmentally friendly.   This is just the way I do it, use your imagination and make it pretty.

So you think you can sharpen knives?

I agree, you can.

     Folks who are interested in sharpening, like you, find places online to watch videos, read articles on Blogs and visit and perhaps contribute to sharpening forums. I suppose it is like anything that really grabs us, like learning guitar for example. You leave no stone unturned because it's something that really makes you feel good, I know exactly how it feels of course.

    Regardless of the pictures you see of knives that seem to be ridiculously sharp or the person who sharpened it just seems out of your league, that is usually not the case.  There is always a starting point and you can get access to all the cool benefits of sharpening from the starting gate and a pretty reasonable cost.  Don't be overwhelmed by the things you see or read.  In my Blog, I just take a lot of pride in my photos and my sharpening but it doesn't mean I am better than anyone else at what I do. If you want to learn to sharpen a knife, just go for it and forget what you see in end result videos. I can't even tell you how many mistakes I made learning to sharpen, remember there was no internet back then, no YouTube, it was pretty much learn as you go and try not to repeat the same mistakes.


    I think you should keep it simple, start with a coarse stone and finish with a medium to fine grit stone and just practice until you can consistently improve the edge. Use a sharpie to paint the target area and build your muscle memory by repeatedly removing the sharpie. You can use the same knife over and over, just minimize pressure. Just use enough pressure to keep the knife stable and really focus on maintaining your angle.  Do this ten times per side, take a break and then do it again and for this exercise use the highest grit stone you have. Your goal is not to form a burr over and over but to build muscle memory.

     The first thing you need to do is find a technique that works for you.  A lot of people use a sweeping motion, that is fine, as long as it works for you. Now......the only issue I have with that particular technique is manipulating pressure, I like to keep my fingers right at the edge of the knife and vary pressure, several times in fact. So that is why I stick to the method I use.



     I think I switched my technique a total of three times until I found the one that I love and get the best results from so you need to fine your method and then fine tune that one.

Fujiwara and Chosera 400

    Remember, your goal is not to make the knives ready for surgery, don't think that will happen on day one, manage your expectations and be realistic.  Just think to yourself, "All I need to do is remove that Sharpie and I am golden and then someday I will be as good as Peter Nowlan"

lol....there are stepping stones, there is a learning curve but the initial reward of feeling the edge get sharper is within reach very soon. That is what you need to keep yourself motivated and that may not even happen the first few times, big deal, at least you are trying.

Fujiwara, Kotetsu in middle and Fujiwara

Kityama 8K and cool cleaver

   Remember, do not start to learn on a cheap old knife, one that you found out in the garage and want to use it because you can't make it any worse. You will set yourself up for failure and open the door to frustration. Start with a decent knife and if you are worried, just put some painters tape on the blade, on both sides, you won't scratch it that way.  That cheap stainless steel is tough to work on, even for old people like me, so start with a medium quality Henckels for example, one of those ones with the yellow handle or any $40-$50 dollar knife.


    I highly recommend a good stone holder but you don't even need that. With regard to your whetstone, just don't use the one that you got at a hardware store for $7, there is a reason it is $7.



   Don't take it too seriously, you need to enjoy the process and be able to laugh at yourself, your mistakes are what will make you the king of knife sharpening, make mistakes and then correct them.



Peter Nowlan.

Knifeplanet article on choosing a method for sharpening

Hi,
I wrote this for Knifeplanet, they do all the editing, adding titles etc, I write the "story"


http://www.knifeplanet.net/best-knife-sharpener-professional-guide/


Thank you reading this.

Peter