This is not so much just a list of mistakes I've made, some if it is just a lack of knowledge at the time. Which can be classified as a mistake in my case because I could have tried harder to learn the things that I didn't know.
It is very important to fail at things, this is the way we learn. I know some sharpeners who have contracted the EGO VIRUS and there journeys have come to an end, the poor bastiges. I have no ego and I'm excited to learn more as the journey continues to unfold. I don't care if a fella who started sharpened 2 months ago shares something, I won't just discard it.
(Notice I said "fella" above, I do this for a reason, I even wrote an article about it. How many times have we been sharpening in a Farmers Market scenario or somewhere else in public and men have mentioned their sharpening experience? This is a continuous event for me, mostly older folks who like all men got The Calling, the Primal Urge to sharpen something. It's in our DNA and the reason we are different from females is because they didn't experience this Calling. My sister for example never ventured into the basement to watch my father sharpen his chisels on an old oilstone but I did every single time I could)
Okay first screw up:
I failed to get a good grasp on the fundamentals, I went purely into the physical aspects of the process without fully understanding what I was even trying to do. Now when I started, there was no Youtube, no computers so I was sort of on my own but definitely didn't take any extra steps to get a better handle on freehand sharpening.
I fixed this after decades by throwing myself into every book, video that I could and by talking to sharpeners that were more knowledgeable than I was and there were plenty of those. Jon Broida from Japanese Knife Imports and Ivan from Tosho Knife Arts were always eager to share their vast amount of knowledge and I was a great student, full of attention.
My edges improved significantly when I was able to fully comprehend what it was I was trying to accomplish. To this day, as I sharpen, I visualize Side A and Side B of the knife coming together at the Apex as precisely as my skills allow. So gaining just a little bit of knowledge of the fundamentals, information that eluded me for many years many years not just made my knives sharper but it made the process much more enjoyable. My confidence soared, I'd recognized a barrier (knowledge) and I overcame it to my advantage. (This is something most folks who sharpen now already know, I am just sharing my personal experience.)
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| My first attempt at Sourdough bread. |
Screw Up #2
Along with my lack of knowledge and then gaining it came an appreciation of THE BURR. Gees I don't think they even invented the burr when I first started back in the 70s. (kidding).
Burr Formation is an obvious ingredient to sharp knives but the importance of Burr Removal was something I didn't fully appreciate. We can all form a burr, that's the easy part but removing it is something I drove myself to get really good at for years. Not saying I have mastered it of course but again, the knowledge that it is the most important element of sharpening put me many steps closer to being a happier sharpener, happy that is with my own results.
I do this now by manipulating pressure, just using ever diminishing levels of pressure to remove the burr, it's never fully gone I suppose when looked at under a scanning electron microscope but since I don't have one of those, I can tell myself it's gone.
Now another mistake I made was believing it was wrong to form subsequent burrs after the Initial Burr. In other words, I would form the Burr on a coarse stone and that was it. I thought forming additional burrs would result in wasting metal. However the brilliant sharpening mind of Jon cleared this up for me perfectly. Now, I do form micro burrs on every stone, It is proof that I have reached the Edge of the Edge and in doing so I have not really wasted metal. Like he said, it's like taking one noodle out of a big pot of spaghetti to test for doneness.
Besides, I was actually forming additional burrs anyway, it's somewhat inevitable so this change was more a mindset adjustment. I don't worry about it that much now but on Japanese Knives I do really form a burr on every stone and striving to create the smallest burr possible has helped me control pressure and has resulted in extremely sharp knives.
Screw UP #3
This is not really a screw up, just a lack of knowledge of something. THE LIGHT TEST. This simple check has made an incredible impact on my sharpening. It is something that more knowledge sharpeners than me have always been doing but I just figured it out a few years ago.
When I sharpen I always start on a coarse stone so when I form the burr and then I remove it, before I move on to the 1,000 grit stone for example I always look at the edge of the knife under a good light source. I am looking for any glints of light, reflections from tiny fragments of metal still clinging to the mother ship, metal I have failed to remove on the coarse stone. This means that where ever this light appears, I have not brought Side A and Side B together completely, it is like a break in the line if that makes sense. the Primary Edge has yet to be fully re-established. So I just go back to that same coarse stone and rework the edge using moderate to very light pressure until the light vanishes. When it does and only when it does, I move to the next stone. Now this light can be tricky to spot, if you think you see it, it is there so just go back at it for a bit.
The difference in the level of sharpness of my edges rose very significantly after I got this little trick under my belt.
Screw Up # 4
Japanese Water Stones: As my obsession with freehand sharpening developed over the last 15 years so did my desire to own the best water stones I could have. Nothing wrong with this, it is only right and I am sure we all feel the same way.
The mistake was my choice of grit. My ignorance at the time allowed me to believe that in order to achieve the sharpest knives I could ever make, I needed the finest grit stones in the world. So my collection of whetstones (Whet means sharpen by the way), started at 15, 000 and 16, 000 grit followed shortly after by the glorious Naniwa Chosera 10,000 grit. Having these meant that I would be the King of the sharpening world. This is one of the biggest mistakes I made, it didn't hurt anything but it was another indication that I only figured out several years later that I lacked understanding of the process, how sharpness was achieved.
Basically, I ignored the coarse stone range of stones, I didn't need those. WRONG. Now, I covet the coarse stone, I rarely use anything about 8,000 grit these days. I started to rely on my Naniwa Chosera 400 heavily and in doing so, I got my first taste of a truly sharp knife.
Now when I sharpen, I make sure the knife is as sharp as I can possibly make it on a coarse stone, anything from 120 up to and including 800 grit. I do the light test and and spend most of the sharpening time on one of these. I go through various levels of pressure to ensure I have removed the burr. I know that some sharpeners don't sweat this on the coarse stone, they rely on a finishing stone or even a strop to remove the burr. Not me, that is not the purpose of those items, I use the stone I started with to remove the Initial burr.
So my advice, DO NOT neglect a coarse stone, and don't think you only need to use one if the edge is damaged. All you need to do is monitor the pressure and use it accordingly. If I pick up a knife and examine the edge and find that it is dull but not that bad, I'll just dial the pressure level down and choose the coarse stone that I think will be most effective. My course of action always unfolds the same way, check the edge, choose the right coarse stone, (often 500 grit) and match my pressure level accordingly. I form the burr, remove the burr, conduct a light check and then smile because I know that even now, just with a coarse stone that that knife is probably sharper than it has ever been. Then I just to refine the edge by going to 1k and up if I feel like it or the steel in the knife dictates a higher level of refinement.
Don't get hung up on the brands of stones but pick something that is well known and proven to be good like Naniwa, Shapton, the wondrous Gesshin line and many more. Don't pick up the $8.00 stone at the hardware store to get started.
Screw Up # 5
Lack of appreciation of the importance of keeping my water stones flat. I fell victim to watching a certain popular sharpener tell us that flatting is not important, it wears the stone down prematurely. Now I never let my stones get too dished but I just didn't care about having a good flattener. This was about 12 years ago and now I have FLATTENING COD. It's really simple, just keep them flat, it's important as it grooms the surface of the stones and also helps maintain consistency by holding your sharpening angle. We can't do that if the stone is dished, we fret about building muscle memory in order to improve our edges. Why jeopardize this achievement by using a dished stone.
I don't care who you are or what level of sharpener you are, you're wrong if you ignore this. Flat is in.
LAST FU#K UP
ANGLES: I used to lose sleep thinking about all the different sharpening angles I would need to master in order to sharpen all the different knives.
I again fell prey to YouTube videos, and probably just got myself all screwed up thinking this way, in other words, I am not blaming anyone else, my mistake,
A huge part of this was thinking that Executive Chefs could tell what angle I used the same way that they could touch a steak and tell whether it was medium or medium rare. Thinking that they all possessed this skill threw me for a loop, I was doomed.
NEVER in the 10 years since I opened my business has any chef commented on angles. This is something that only sharpeners worry about and we don't have to.
I now use three Sharpening Angles, one for dream knives, 10-15 deg per side and one for average knives, 15=20 deg per side and a micro bevel angle of about 30 deg.
The PINKY ANGLE works just fine, stick the tip of your pinky between the surface of the stone and the spine of the knife to achieve an angle of about 16 deg. If you master holding this angle you will be in sharpening heaven. Your goal is to own the space between the spine of the knife and the surface of the stone whether it is 15 or 17 deg angle.
No need to fret about different sharpening angles, just fret about one when learning and how to hold it, practice is the only way.
This is all that I have for now, I doubt many have read my Blog to this point, that's fine, I just like writing about sharpening. If you have read it, thanks, I hope you picked something up or that you think to yourself " yup, I knew this already"
Respectfully
Peter Nowlan
