How sharp?

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Ready_fire_aim

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I can almost guarantee you that you’re just not spending enough time on the 1000 grit. Don’t even worry about the stropping, or the 6000 finishing stone initially. Just practice and put in the work on that 1000 grit. You can get awesome edges with that stone. It will be a “toothy” edge but great for most uses. The 6000 stone just polishes if you want shaving sharp

1000 is a good beginner stone because it can re-form an edge, but it’s not so aggressive that you’ll ruin a blade. I don’t think most people understand that you don’t just make “passes” on a 1000, you need to sit there and hold the angle while working the blade countless times back and forth. It takes time

Also, all things considered, wustof knives are actually made of a softer steel. They should sharpen easily. Most German knives are a bit lower on the hardnesses scale, because it makes them more versatile/utility geared. I’ve got some high end Japanese knives that are much harder and do indeed get sharper. But you have to use a proper cutting board and proper cutting technique because they are prone to chipping (can’t just hack away deboning for example, like you can with softer steels that are meant for rougher work)

I’m not sure on a local sharpener. Stay away from any place that just runs them through a machine though! (Especially nice knives)

This video is a bit long, but worth the watch. Great tutorial on whetstone sharpening.

 

turkeyrun

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I LIKE a sharp knife. I can get them sharp enough for me to work with, but I am no where near professional or even knowledgeable.

We butchered a 2500#, older bull, for hamburger. I had 16 knives on the table. Son and myself were skinning, deboning and slicing. Son-in -law was sharpening, as we changed knives.

Normally, I hit them with the steel, followed by a ceramic. Use whetstone on the ones needing help.


Papa kept his Old Timer pocket knife where it would shave. A small Arkansas stone and ceramic, fence insulator was all he ever used. I never was that good.
 

Chris Hayes

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Before StevesPages came my way I had started a knife making business. Here's my favorite and you can use it on anything (almost).
1 in. x 30 in. Belt Sander
$59, inexpensive belts and easy to use. for sharpening or resharpening I started with a couple of passes with a 320 or 400 grit belt. Then 800 then switch the 800 belt for a leather belt with black compound. Start to finish with these belts is about 3 mins depending of course on if the blade has been used for a hammer or not.
58359_W3.jpg
 

Snipe

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Take the time to learn to sharpen on stones and strope on leather. A knife should always be sharp, it's safer. And for me it's a nice release time when I am just sharpening a knife. All the toils of the world just go away for a bit.
 

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