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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1133 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 25, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Knife sharpening tips? I've watched a few videos and I can get a knife from dull to OK but definitely not youtuber-sharp.

The biggest two tips I have are blade geometry, a fixed-angle sharpening system and a honing steel. Three tips.

Kitchen knives cut really well if you pick a more acute sharpening angle than they came with. My chef's knife has a 34-degree angle, and the smaller knives have a 22-degree angle (my sharpener won't go any lower).

You can freehand your knives on a whetstone, but a gizmo that locks your knife in place and lets you control the angle is 1000 times easier to use. I didn't splurge on a KME or a TS-Prof, and the cheap knockoff I got has its limitations, but it's not like I use it every week.

You can keep your kitchen knife tomato sharp much longer without sharpening it if you hone it on a steel rod.

My goal is not to keep my knives youtuber-sharp, though.

I am not that good at sharpening to educate others. My edges are - you don't feel resistance when cutting a tomato, being able to cut tomato sideways, doing S trough A4 printer paper and kinda cutting kitchen towel. But here are some tips I have learned in the last few years. After the first tip the order is not mandatory. Also keep in mind that when doing youtube stunts - technique makes as much difference as the edge - which I realized a week ago when I gave a girlfriend of mine to test a knife I sharpened - I was doing an S trough the paper and she was making the knife and paper create sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I also mostly sharpen kitchen knives, for EDC and survival - have no experience.

  1. Buying sharpening gear and using it are two different hobbies. Unless your gear is total crap you probably don't need, but only want that new 8000 stone.
  2. Good rough stones are harder to find than good high grit ones.
  3. When sharpening on wetstones - your back musles should be under tension and push and pull with them - the hands are for stabilization. Something close to doing pushups. I have noticed that separating holding the knife stable and generating pressure and movement to different muscle groups helps doing both better and more consistent.
  4. Having your setup being comfortable is important.
  5. Stropping is more important than you think. From what I see in the last few years more and more the communities are paying attention to burr removal and final strop. Thanks to science of sharp. So up your stropping game.
  6. Cheap 3$ diamond plates with grit 200 from temu make a decent wetstone cleaner and slurry raiser.
  7. Cheap 2$ diamond paste makes a good stropping compound
  8. Make sure that what you are sharpening could actually take an edge. Mystery and cheap stainless with poor or totally without heat treatment - it is better to just give the guy a set of kiwi brand knifes.
  9. You could unknowingly be using the wrong angle. Buy a cheapo angle meter from amazon, temu and just check on every knife you sharpen at what height of the spine relative to board is the desired angle. I was unknowingly sharpening cheap stainless at around 18 inclusive (9 per side) - which is just too low for that specific steel and I was wondering why the edges collapsed, rolled or didn't form at all. Moved to 30 inclusive - yeah bably - different beast. Error could come from the other direction too - to sharpen at 30 per side and wonder why this axe style edge doesn't perform.
  10. You could unknowingly be using the wrong pressure. Either too little or too much - two days ago I was a bit angry and started just pushing harder on the 1000 - suddenly my bevels were thinner, more consistent in width and with better finish. Also sharper. And I was using way too much on 12000 and probably rounding the edge.
  11. Thinness after the edge matters a lot - almost any mass produced knife could use a good thinning there.
  12. Always have vegetables on hands - no matter how much you cut and season paper - it won't taste good. So it is more important a knife to be joyous to use on the cutting board than to do stunts. And you will eat tad healthier.
  13. No you won't be able to cut prosciutto or mortadella or sashimi or make katsuramuki like the pros. Deal with it.
  14. Nothing written by a guy on the Internet is beyond scrutiny - do your own experiments to confirm or deny what is being told. Too much is subjective to be taken as granted.
  15. Cheap Chinese microscopes are a godsend if you are having troubles.
  16. Practice. Also nothing wrong in buying cheap practicing knives. There are finds in the 10-20-30 dollar range. Getting a Mora, thin it sharpen it - it will be awesome experience. Both their stainless and especially carbon are amazing. Also there are finds in the local Chinese market, and some of the western cheap brands are also good. But this requires a lot of reading.
  17. Every stone has it's own character. It may not fit yours - if you have the budget gift/trade it to someone else.
  18. Some stones are just crap. End of story.
  19. Classical knife shapes have a good reason to be classical.
  20. Science of sharp, knifegrinders are good resources about the theory of sharpening.
  21. Never sharpen someone else's knife that has sentimental value.

Thanks a lot, lots to digest here. I don't have a stropping setup at all, so I think that's a good place to start.

You can get good results for stropping with news paper. Or just leather on wood. Or even an old belt. There are a lot of good videos in the net. Compounds are nice to have but not mandatory.

For stropping I use green stainless steel polishing compound. Does diamond slurry work better if you have experience with both?

I use a leather stop loaded with 0.5 micron chinesium diamond. Works ok. Couple of years ago I used leather with green compound worked ok. I have also tried the newspaper/a4 paper stropping people do seem to get amazing results also.

But I am not yet skilled enough to determine the difference between different methods.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WFsNGNomP78 here is a video that shows both the paper and other insane deburring technique.

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