All my kitchen knives had become dull, so a couple of days ago I sharpened them. I also sharpened a couple of Japanese Global knives + some small potato knives and my pocket knife, but the ones you see on the images are made by @evilhippie after my design. You can read about it here: The birth of a blade 6. The Madsted knife.
Here is how i do the sharpening:
My two Japanese whetstones - about 400 and 1000 grits. They are beautiful but not better than industrial carborundum stones. It's all aesthetics :)
The stones need a lot of water, but luckily we have lots of that in Denmark. Too much sometimes.
The actual sharpening takes some experience, but the principal is simple. Keep the knives in the same angle while moving them back and forth. You can see the metal that is being rubbed off in the water on the stone and in the patterns on the knives.
I test the knives by cutting in a piece of toilet paper. If it tears the paper it is not sharp enough.
The last thing to do is polish the knife. I have a white Arkansas Stone that I use with oil instead of water. There is not any more of them left in the quarry, so it is a bit of a treasure.
It doesn't take long to polish the cutting edge of the knives, but it makes a lot of difference.
In the end the knives are dangerous to an untrained person, but I have taught my two daughters to handle a knife and am quite comfortable with their handling of them. I did sharpen the knives of my parents though, and that was not a good idea. My mother cut herself immediately.
Those are some beautiful knives! Sadly, I'm horrible at sharpening knifes; my MAC knives agree.
MAC knives are great - almost the same alloy as my Global that I have had for 20 years - but they do need sharpening. I was always very interested in things where the motoric skills was in focus. My favourite painters are Velasques, Tizian, Frans Hals etc. The virtuoso painters and also the Japanese zen-painters from the eighteen century. Knife sharpening, though very different of course, has the same element, and combined with my interest in cooking it has become a part of my chores.
Sad thing is that my family now demands sharp knives so from being a nice ritual it has become a duty.
Those are some fancy looking stones as are the knives. Whenever i see someone sharpening with these on youtube i get a urge to buy some just don't have so many nice things to sharpen to excuse it.
I bought my Japanses stones here: https://www.dictum.com/en/natural-japanese-stones-eai/japanese-natural-stone-binsui-711518
They do last for a lifetime, so if you get yourself some more knives you could consider getting one.
I would describe myself as a master of knife sharpening, even i use only a classic rod sharpener, i just feel the knofe and a few secounds later its sharp as hell! xD
Btw these are really cool knifes ;)
I use the rod sharpener too sometimes, but at some time they need to get on the stone again (except when it is really soft iron knives :) But no matter what sharp knives are a must for me as it obviously is for you.
Im absolutly not a professional i themes of knifes etc. But i really enjoy the sharpening process and a sharp knife! xD
I always test my pocket knife by shaving some hairs off my arm. Using toilet paper from now on 8-).
It's an easy way to see which part of the blade is sharp enough. with long edges it can be sharp in one end and not in other.
We have one carbon steel knife that we use for everything. We also have a stone like the one you show in the little wooden box. It was just in one of the drawers of our house, which long dead relatives have been putting things into for years, and we use it to sharpen the knife. I wonder, is that meant to just polish it? Oh well, it gets sharp. I'm always super careful with that knife. I cut salad greens, peppers etc daily for my veg eating and I'm always super slow and methodical. Of course then I drop something on my toe and break that. I guess we can't be careful with everything :)
Polishing means that it has very fine grid. You start coarse and end with the finest stone. It is probably an Arkansas stone which is depleted so take good care of it :)
Thanks.I will be exciting because your all equpment is vary dangerous on this work.so be carefully my dear......
wonderful art and knives @katharsisdrill
excellent art.
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