Mistakes and what I learned from them.

 

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.)

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 

What is new in my sharpening world.

Hi there.
  I find it difficult to come up with new material but I still try. Perhaps someone will find this one a little interesting.

    Generally speaking, my sharpening technique has changed very little over the years but there has been a few changes that I feel have enabled me to produce better edges. There is also one change I made that has helped from an aesthetics perspective.

    In the past on occasions I noticed that the bevel on one side, the right side was sometimes a little wider than on the left side. I soon found out that this is a common issue and I even noticed it on some new Fujiwara knives. So using the dominant hand, which we have to do, can can sometimes result in very subtle differences in angles and pressure as we flip the knife and do the other side.  The way I first tackled this was to just slow down and ensure that my angles matched as closely as my skill allows it and also I paid closer attention to pressure and time spent on one side as opposed to the other. Something was off to create a differences in bevel width so it was just a matter of paying attention and duplicating what I did on both sides in terms of angle, time and pressure.

     However,  I since found another solution. I taught myself to sharpen with my left hand. I did this to solve aesthetic issues on knives with wide bevels. I also noticed it completely removed the unequal bevel width issue. 

Awesome Naniwa Strop that I got from Paul's Finest here in Canada (My favourite place to buy stones and strops)

   What I do now is to start each knife using my right and left hand, I start on the right side to raise the burr then put the knife in my left hand and raise the burr on the opposite side. Once I do this, I use my dominant hand for the remainder of the process. This simple little adjustment has completely eliminated any bevel issues. Now I don't mean that it is easy to learn to sharpen with the opposite hand, that took me about 4-5 months but not it feels pretty good and now awkward like it did in the beginning. 

  In terms of aesthetics, on wide bevel knives like a Takeda or folder the switch to both hands influences the direction of scratch patterns and results in a more uniform finish on both sides.


    

Over Steeling results

    The only other change I made, as mentioned before was forming burrs on each stone. However I have since adjusted that. This is what I do now.

1.     Form the Initial Burr on both sides with a coarse stone ranging from 220 to 800 grit. The condition of the edge and the steel determines my choice but it is always a coarse stone to get things started. I use 4 level of reduced pressure to remove the burr.

2.     I check the edge to make sure that there is no light, that I have removed the burr completely.

3.     Now I go to a 1, 000 grit stone in most cases, sometimes a 1,500 grit. I now just use the same 4 levels of pressure with the goal of creating a micro burr for the purpose of ensuring that I have reached the edge of the edge. I don't always feel for it, it is inevitable that it will form, the burr that is, so I just continue to sharpen on the same stone, using different, reduced levels of pressure. The knife will be quite sharp now.  Now instead of switching to a finishing stone I go back to the 1k for some additional refinement. It is just a matter of repeating the tip to heel and heel to tip process using light pressure. This really improves the edge, it's freaking sharp:)

4.   Now I strop the edge 

5. Now I finish the process on a finer stone, anything from 2k to 9k depending on the knife and then do a final stropping. 


All else remains the same. 

Thank you for sticking around.

Nano Hone - My Impressions

Hi there folks,
     I get a ton of questions on Nano Hone stones so I will give my honest impression. First though, note that I have only used the 70 Micron/200 grit stone.  As far as coarse stones go, it's excellent, it did just what I expected it to do except one thing. I wore out just as quickly as any other stone but I did use it a lot, on hundreds of very very dull knives so keep that in mind. It is well packaged, it looks great, the water management is easy as is flattening and it fit my Shapton Holder perfectly. The only downside besides it wearing out is that price. There is no disputing that Nano Hone products are expensive, especially the flattening plates. For me to buy the best one that they sell, and the largest, the NL10 would be about $700 Canadian. Now they do claim that they won't wear out. We will have to see how that claim unfolds over the next decade.

      I have talked to folks who have tried their other stones and have not heard anything negative except the pricing. The plates themselves are supposedly quite exceptional. Mr Stanley the creator, who was the Shapton USA President is obviously very knowledgeable and knows how to produce quality products. There is no doubt in my military mind that all of the stones sold by Nano Hone are very good. 

This is what over steeling can do to a knife

    Now as you may know Mr. Murray Carter became involved with Nano Hone and has since ditched the products he used to use. Mr. Carter and Mr. Stanley started producing Videos demonstrating the Carter/Stanley method of sharpening. They are clearly highly skilled sharpeners and have a get production facility so the videos are professionally done. 

   I personally did not learn anything from them and in fact I don't necessarily agree with their approach. They, and this is just my humble opinion, place to much emphasis on thinning instead of focusing on Burr Formation, Burr Detection and Burr Removal. 

   Having said that, they are also trying to sell their new products so I get it. Who the hell am I anyway to place any negative thoughts on a sharpening video by the famed Murray Carter? 

   Well since this is my Blog I can, I didn't like the videos but I do like the products.   I recommend searching for the Nano Hone videos on YouTube and checking them out.  (By the way, if you thin a knife you can't get all the scratches out with higher grit stones, you'll need some other products like sandpaper.)

   

    The bottom line is that the products are good and will make your dull knives sharp. Remember, it's not the stones, it's the technique so keep that in mind.  If you're obsessed with water stones like I am you'll probably want to try them out, you won't  be disappointed. 

So for me, I liked my NH 70 Micron but not necessarily more than my Shapton Glass 220 but they are both really good stones. I didn't really like the first few videos but that is no big deal. They are well produced, much higher quality production than my videos but my focus is different, I don't have anything to sell so I can concentrate on the fundamentals. 

Respectfully

Peter Nowlan

Deburring a knife

Hi folks

This video demonstrates how I personally deburr. I also talk about the differences  between a BURR and a WIRE EDGE.

Peter Nowlan

Sharpening Video - The basics by hand

I've made some minor adjustments to my technique that pertain to pressure. Nothing major and anything published earlier by me and Knifeplant is still valid.
Peter Nowlan

Asymmetrical Edges and how I deal with them.

Hi,
     I can't believe that it has been a decade since I opened up my business. If there is anything that I have learned it's that I don't know everything.  After 10 years and thousands of knives, each bringing with it a new experience, I'm continuously surprised how much there is to learn about knife sharpening. 

    The thing is, you can still sharpen knives and do that very well without trying to learn new things but often, and I have seen this occur, it's simply Ego that prevents people from picking up new ideas because they are now willing to listen, they are unable to accept the fact that someone else may know more, or just know something different than they do. These folks just carry on using the same process from day one, which again, can work just fine. However, if I was like that, I would not be half the sharpener than I am today and I also know that over the next ten years, I will continue to learn. I have no ego so it allows me to be a sponge and absorb new material and filter some of the stuff out.

I just came back from two weeks in France, I didn't learn anything new about sharpening but I did learn a heck of a lot about wine.

Asymmetrical  Edges

     
     Several years ago, the mere thought of having to sharpen a knife that did not have a 50/50 grind terrified me, well not really but I had no real idea how to deal with it. Since that time I can tall that many sharpeners don't because the knives that started off with asymmetrical grinds just became somewhat symmetrical because the person sharpening did the same thing on both sides, made no adjustments to maintain the edge geometry either because he/she preferred a 50/50 grind or they didn't know what to do. That was me back then about six years ago and it has only been in the last few years that I have reached a spot that I'm completely comfortable with the process.

    This is how I managed to overcome the learning barrier:


     First off, I really had no idea what a 70/30 grind meant, what the numbers mean for example and how do I relate those numbers to my sharpening. Was it 70% on one side and 30% on the other in terms of angle, time spent, number of strokes, pressure?

    After doing research on the forums, I ended up doing this 7 strokes on one side and 3 on the other which kind of worked but just didn't seem right.  Finally I called my friend Jon Broida because I knew that he spent time in Japan and besides, he is a brilliant sharpener and always eager to share information.

13th century forge at the Abby of Fontenay in Burgundy 

    Anyway, Jon revealed to me that the creators of the knives, like the Misono with its 70/30 edge do not really get concerned about the numbers, they don't measure things, there is no ratio, they just make sure that one bevel has a larger surface area than the other. I think these ratios like 70/30, 80/20 are numbers that we have applied to knives, the Japanese don't.

    So with that in mind, I stopped stressing about the meaning of the "ratios" and just started making sure that the surface area on the right side of the knife is larger than the left side. Since that moment, the sharpening process became very easy for me and it still is today.  

(This is a huge hammer used in the forge that was built by monks, it is powered by a massive water wheel that is not show but it's behind the hammer. 1220)

   This is how I sharpen a Misono for example.

     First of all I know that I have to adjust something to retain the wide bevel on the right side, the 70 side so do that, to make that bevel wider than the other side I just have to do three simple things.   have to reduce the angle so that it matches the right side. The sharpie will help here but it only makes sense that If I sharpened both sides at 15 deg for example, then eventually both sides would be the same, it would be a 50/50 grind. 

I start on right side on my coarse stone and raise a burr using whatever pressure is required to accomplish that, just like any other knife.  

I flip the knife over and now is the time to make an adjustment. I raise the angle slightly, I use a little less pressure and I spend less time on the left side,  (the 30 side) because the surface area of this bevel is not the same size as the right side bevel,  in order to maintain that difference I need to adjust the angle, pressure and time, I reduce them all but I do raise a burr on the other side.

     If this sounds complicated, it just "sounds" complicated, it's easy. Just start by adjusting the angles on either side, that will do the most important job. Forget about counting strokes, i.e. 7 on one side and 3 on the other. Use the amount of strokes necessary to form burrs on either side of the knife but keep in mind the overall goal, to ensure that the surface area of the bevel on the right side is wider than that on the left and if it turns out to be a 70/30 difference in size that's great but it doesn't have to be difficult. You will be surprised just how easy it is by simply adjusting the angles on either side and it's just by 2 or 3 deg. 

That's how I do it, I have restored many knives that were asymmetrical when made but became 50/50 over the years of sharpening.  I do it by following the steps I described above, there are no tricks.

Grinding/sharpening wheel from the year 1220. The surface of this wheel is extremely flat and smooth.  I told you, sharpening is in our blood..

Thanks for reading this, if you have any questions just fire them away a sharpenerpeter@gmail.com.

Respectfully
Peter Nowlan
Halifax, NS, Canada.

Little problems, little fixes.

15,000 grit Shapton Pro on a Zero Tolerance folder.

    Hi there, the purpose of this post is to tell you that we experience sharpening issues, I do anyway, and this is usually how I get around it. So what is a sharpening issue?
    I just mean that sometimes the edge isn't up to par, something is going on that is preventing the knife from being as sharp as I can normally get it.

     When this happens it is almost always a result of the steel, the knife being resistant to abrasives and this is a common problem on lesser quality knives yet these make up a very good portion of the knives that we own and the ones that I personally sharpen. 

    There is a simple lesson to learn that solves these issues and I carry it with me on every knife that I do.

        When I sharpen a knife, and every knife that I sharpen is pretty dull, I always inspect the edge first just to see where I should start. I choose a sharpening angle, which for softer knives will be between 15 and 20 deg per side and I check the knife for anything that will hinder the sharpening process. If there is something, chips, bend, tip issue,  I deal with that first. I also check to see if the knife needs thinning, if yes, I take care of that first, I will thin on coarse stones and then refinish the blade with sandpaper and then sharpen.

     I choose my coarse stone which will be from 220 to 800 grit depending on the edge and the steel.  Shapton Glass 220 is usually the first one I go to or it could be a SG 500 which I love.  If the burr formation is taking a long time I may switch to a different stone, the Gesshin 400 or my new Morihei 500 that I got from Tosho Knife Arts, it's really good. 

Morihei Hishiboshi 500

    I start the sharpening process using the same technique that I've used for the last 10 years with minor tweaks within that period.  If you are just starting it is important to focus on the goal, the goal being to re-establish the primary edge and to do this we need to bring Side A and Side B of the knife together as precisely as humanly possible at the Apex of the knife. Our levels of precision will differ but we don't have to be perfect here, we just need to get those two sides back together and form the new edge, the microscopically thin line that we call the Primary Edge.

    Also, know that this involves the BURR and there are three aspects of the BURR that needs our attention and understanding of:

1. BURR FORMATION;

2. BURR DETECTION; and

3. BURR REMOVAL.

    I select my SA (Sharpening Angle) and go for it, I'm shooting for burr formation and this will take me 1 minutes or 8 minutes, there is no rush but it's essential to accomplish this goal and it will test my patience and my persistence will prevail. 

12 Deg dream knife sharpening angle

   Once I have formed a burr, the Primary Burr which runs from heel to tip and is consistent in size, and I have done this on both sides, I start the Burr Removal process, on the same stone. I've reduced my pressure and just keep reducing it, shaving that burr off and moving towards the final goal,  a clean edge, as clean as my skill allows it to be.

     Now before I move on to a 1, 000 grit stone, which is most often the case, I do the LIGHT TEST. This simple, quick check has greatly improved my edges, it's made a huge difference. I am not suggesting I created this test at all, smarter sharpeners than I am have been using it for years. 

    As the final test before switching stones I look at the edge under a good light source. I'm holding it straight up and down and looking for any light, any reflections. If the edge of the knife is a toothbrush, the light would be the toothpaste that hasn't been completely washed off yet.  Sometimes it is hard to see the light, it may not be there at all which means I have successfully brought Side A and B together, there is no lingering metal fragments clinging on to the mother ship. These metal fragments creating the reflections have to go and I found it better to do this on the first stone rather than rely on finer stones.

So if you are having a problem attaining the sharpness that you are used to, try this simple check. 

   If I do see light, I just go back to the same coarse stone, do a little more grinding at a moderate pressure level and keep checking the edge under the light. It doesn't take long and when I am done, the knife is going to be quite sharp and it is time to move on.

       Once I start with the 1,000 grit stone I am using a slightly reduced level of pressure than when I started. I am still going to produce a tiny burr, a micro burr that can be hard to detect but by doing so I know that I have reached the edge of the edge. 

   If your knives are not cutting it, make sure that your angle is not to low, you need to be reaching the very edge of the edge and a sharpie will help here. If the angle is to low, you may just be hitting the area behind the edge of edge, the "shoulder" of the knife and this is not doing anything in terms of sharpening, you're off target.

   I continue this way, I form the burr, I detect it and then I do the most important part of the entire process, I remove it and I really concentrate on this part.  I personally do this by using ever diminishing levels of pressure. I don't get a wire edge or anything nasty this way,  I don't have to run the edge through a cork which always seemed counter productive to me. 

    I always finish on a leather strop usually loaded with green paste, chromium oxide which is easy to get.  This helps clean the edge and will improve the level of sharpness.

   The trick to sharp knives is to accomplish the goals on the first stone, to form, detect and remove the burr and in doing so, to re-establish the primary edge. To get the knife as sharp as you possibly can on the first stone. If the edge doesn't feel really sharp, don't think that you can just rely on the next stone to rectify the problem, it won't. It's a matter of patience and diligence on the first stone used and covering basics. 

   If you are starting off, don't fret about the level of sharpness you get, just focus on technique and the building of sharpening muscles. You've probably seen a million videos of people slicing a tomato without holding the tomato. Big deal, don't worry about that, it's not a goal you need to be thinking about now. Stuff like that will come much further down the road, I sharpened for years before I worked on Parlour Tricks and I got over that.
     I don't care if my knife will fall through a tomato, I want it to fall through 100 tomatoes and that just takes time and a constant reinforcement of technique through practice and focus and enjoyment, above all, enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, take a break and then go back at it.

Easy Peasy

Thanks for being here.
Peter Nowlan