Re: Sharpening knives

Louis Cohen said:

I use a 2-sided stone, medium and fine, from the hardware store. I
soak it in water before and after using it each time. This is the
lowest-cost, lowest tech, most traditional solution. I don't get a
shaving edge, but, then, I don't shave in the kitchen. The knives do
go through tomatoes very nicely, and seem to hold their edges pretty
well.

You may want to practice with some of your less-favorite knives first.

Good idea to practice on ones klunkier knives.

For a novice they may want to first paint the knife edge with machinist
layout blue, will indicate where they've been and where they're going.

I find that most often a few licks with a stone is all that's
necessary, and water stones are clean and fast. But for a razor edge
an oil stone can't be beat.

Another technique is to tape a sheet of wet-dry polishing paper to a
flat surface... polishing paper is available in various grits from any
automotive parts store. Squirt with water or kerosene and use the same
as a whet stone... the beauty is in how the paper never goes off flat
(does not become concave/convex) and is cheap to replace with a fresh
surface.

For most kitchen chores a razor sharp edge is way over the top,
especially for slicing veggies. But for serious meat cutting I like as
sharp an edge as possible. Also, for those times a knife is badly
dulled or knicked I would opt for filing, a bench vice with soft jaws
to secure the blade and a few licks with a high speed machinists file
will remove metal effortlessly, evenly, and without fear of
overheating... use a smooth cut file and the "draw filing" technique
(very precise). Then dress up the edge with the stone. For lawnmower
blades I reverse the process; quickly remove mangled metal first with
the bench grinder and then dress the edge with the file... no need for
a honed edge for mowing grass, in fact the idea is to actually dull the
edge with about a 1/32" flat... too sharp an edge will roll over...
remember, a lawnmower blade tip smacks into grass at about the velocity
of a 30 caliber bullet from a high powered rifle, to the lawnmower
blade that blade of grass becomes a 2 x 4. I have two triple blade
rotary mowers, sharpening the blades myself much more than pays for the
cost of equipment... and by my method I can get about 50 sharpenings,
the so-called professional in town gets maybe 6 sharpenings before I
need to buy new blades. A decent 10" bench grinder runs about $300,
but more than pays it's own way in one summer of mower blade
sharpening.

Little bit on draw filing:
http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/Wood_How_To/Smalser_on_Files.htm

Hint: When filing metal, especially draw filing, it's beneficial to rub
the file with ordinary chalk, prevents teeth clogging.

I can sharpen a knife better with only a file than most people can with
the most expensive/sophisticated machinery... and so can you with a
little practice.

Sheldon