Knife Sharpening

[zippydedodah]

OK..i will try again... anyone find a good place to sharpen decent (Wustof) knives?

[eyecatcher]

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

[kaptainrob]

3 places to go ...

1./ Wororot Market - up the broken escalator and straight out to the balcony - old man with poor eyesight. Not recommended.

2./ off Chiang Moi Rd > HERE < south of Kasem store blue marker in the one-way lane which links up with Chiang Moi Tud Mai Rd - just above the 'd' of Leng Huad Auto Mechanics. Shop is halfway down on left (east side).

3./ Hair Salon supplies south-side of moat where all the songteaws stop - virtually opposite Chiang Mai Gate, toward WuaLai Rd. They send out and can take ~7 days. Good for sharpening manicure scissors and fiddly stuff!

[RxDan]

I have wustof knives go to PIAK custom

Knives off Cm sankaphaeng road. He will do a excellent job sharpening your knives

[harrry]

Haven't times changed. There used to be lots of guys going round sharpening nives in ever village. Now it is throw away.

Does anyone remember those men with the little boxes that sat by the side of the road and fixed broken thongs (jandles or sandles for those from other countries) with a few stitches.

[zippydedodah]

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

I worked in restaurants (cooking, in the back) for many a year and used to be able to sharpen knives blindfolded...then, when i had a farm for 8 yrs in Brasil, i could sharpen the machetes and scythes (i used a scythe to cut my lawn!) with the best of the mountain locals... now, in my later years, the skill has abandoned me completely.. i used to be the guy you loved to see drop by ... and you would ask me to put a little edge on your knives... now, nada, zip, zilch... i have a stone and have struggled mightily to recapture my youthful skills...

long story short...thanks for the recommendations.. i will hit one up this week..

[KRS1]

Knife sharpening, these are the 4 things i carry with me wherever i travel:

The Lansky Blue Sapphire does a great job, followed by stropping on my leather belt. Hair shaving sharp !

In a bind the bottom of a white ceramic plate, or porcelain does a pretty good job. Final stropping is important

Edited February 27, 2013 by KRS1

[rene123]

By far the biggest problem with sharpening is keeping the angle identical with each pass on the stone, or steel. The steeper the angle the more difficult it is to maintain a precise angle. That is why scissors are so difficult to sharpen. I prefer diamond grit sharpening steels. Gerber blades were and are always difficult to sharpen because of their steep angle bevel.

Unfortunately, I've not been in Chiang Mai long enough to help the OP with where to get his blades sharpened. I hope the other replies have been more useful.

[KRS1]

Knife sharpening, these are the 4 things i carry with me wherever i travel:

The Lansky Blue Sapphire does a great job, followed by stropping on my leather belt. Hair shaving sharp !

In a bind the bottom of a white ceramic plate, or porcelain does a pretty good job. Final stropping is important

Yes, lansky is the way to go!!

Using the toothpaste as honing cream?

Different results with antiplague?

[dickyknee]

I remember seeing a while back on the chiang Mai forum a good DIY on knife sharpening.

I can't help with the OP as i do my own, but personally wouldn't put a good knife on a cheap stone from a hardware.

Also, steels aren't for sharpening. They may help keep a good edge, but if the knife is blunt you need a stone.

[KRS1]

I remember seeing a while back on the chiang Mai forum a good DIY on knife sharpening.

I can't help with the OP as i do my own, but personally wouldn't put a good knife on a cheap stone from a hardware.

Also, steels aren't for sharpening. They may help keep a good edge, but if the knife is blunt you need a stone.

...and if they put it on a grinding wheel run as fast as you can.

[stejames1975]

3 places to go ...

1./ Wororot Market - up the broken escalator and straight out to the balcony - old man with poor eyesight. Not recommended.

2./ off Chiang Moi Rd > HERE < south of Kasem store blue marker in the one-way lane which links up with Chiang Moi Tud Mai Rd - just above the 'd' of Leng Huad Auto Mechanics. Shop is halfway down on left (east side).

3./ Hair Salon supplies south-side of moat where all the songteaws stop - virtually opposite Chiang Mai Gate, toward WuaLai Rd. They send out and can take ~7 days. Good for sharpening manicure scissors and fiddly stuff!

Thank you for that. Today I dropped some expensive tailors scissors in at the hair salon supplies place. They will be up to two weeks getting sharpened, so I am told, but for a mere 35 baht - a bargain if it helps them to recover from their abuse by paper cutting children!

I will let you know how good they are when I get them back...

[Johpa]

Although no expert myself, I do sell knife shapeners in my store. If your not too picky about the angle then for quick jobs get one of the mini crock sets with both the carbide and ceramic sharpening insets. With the crocks all you need to do is pull the blade straight through, the angle is pre-set. Smith's makes a 3-in-1 pocket pal that also includes a serrated sharpener. These mini crock sets are not that suitable for larger kitchen knives. One of the best best full sized crock sets is the Sypderco Tri-Angle sharpener which offers two angle settings. Crock sets are preset angles, but you don't have to maintain the personal skills needed for sharpening on a flat whetstone. ( I too once worked in agricultire and sharpened a machete by hand every day, but have lost that skill over the decades). Another good no-brainer sharpening system is the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener which allows the non-professional to use a mini belt sharpener. This is electric based on US standards so you would need an adapter. This item sharpens just about everything although beware, the coarse grit belt can remove a lot of metal in the blink of an eye, which is good for a lawn mower blade but no so good for an expensive kitchen knive. The Lansky system, when it first came out, used to be the cat's meow, it still works well, but it is a bit time consuming. But if you can find someone locally who does a good job for under 50 baat, well you can't beat that!

[keemapoot]

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

I had never used a flat stone before, but recently experimented by buying one of those stones at Tesco. There is a video on youtube which shows you how to do it and get great results! It's not hard, but there is an art to the way you pass the blade etc.. Not that difficult with a little practice on old blades.

[cooked]

I don't agree that any old oil, even cooking oil, will do the job. I
always use lamp oil, you can definitely feel the blade biting. I have
tried with different cooking oils, no good. When you know how, a glance
at the edge with light in the right direction will show you if you are
doing a good job or not. (Light shouldn't be reflecting off the edge).

A good solid leather belt to finish off will get your axe head ready to shave bum hairs.

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

I had never used a flat stone before, but recently experimented by buying one of those stones at Tesco. There is a video on youtube which shows you how to do it and get great results! It's not hard, but there is an art to the way you pass the blade etc.. Not that difficult with a little practice on old blades.

[zippydedodah]

3 places to go ...

1./ Wororot Market - up the broken escalator and straight out to the balcony - old man with poor eyesight. Not recommended.

2./ off Chiang Moi Rd > HERE < south of Kasem store blue marker in the one-way lane which links up with Chiang Moi Tud Mai Rd - just above the 'd' of Leng Huad Auto Mechanics. Shop is halfway down on left (east side).

3./ Hair Salon supplies south-side of moat where all the songteaws stop - virtually opposite Chiang Mai Gate, toward WuaLai Rd. They send out and can take ~7 days. Good for sharpening manicure scissors and fiddly stuff!

OK...so we did not take the knives to the blind guy... i had the wife take our 6 steak knives (a slightly lesser quality than Wustof, but still decent steel) as a test run to option number 2.

She dropped them off and returned a short time later and eventually brought them home ....

Well, i am glad we sent over our lesser knives for a trial run. While they are sharp... it is quite clear that he used some kind of grinding wheel... had that happened to my good knives i would be a very unhappy camper.

Option 3 does not sound like it suits my needs...

so...back to my original question... anyone know of a good place to get good knives sharpened?

[Dante99]

I have wustof knives go to PIAK custom Knives off Cm sankaphaeng road. He will do a excellent job sharpening your knives

I tried contacting Piak with an email address I found on the net but got no answer. I know CM Sankamphaeng Road but where do I turn off to find him or do you have the address/phone number? Thanks for the help.

[FolkGuitar]

If you can wait a few months, I'll be back in Chiang Mai and will sharpen them for you. I can use Japanese water stones by hand, and can produce an edge so sharp that if you just look at it your eyes will start to bleed... However, I prefer to use an EdgePro 'Apex,' which is a hand-operated 'guided sytem' for accuracy.

But should you want something sooner, and can't hand-sharpen well, I'd recommend the DMT Aligner kit with their diamond stones. It's very easy to use right out of the box, gives a wide range of edge angles, and quite cheap to buy. Buy it once, re-use it forever. The diamond stones don't wear out. It works well for almost any size knife. If price is a problem, you can just buy the Aligner clamp and use it with ordinary wet/dry sandpaper on a table top! The clamp alone sells for less than $15 USD, and for larger kitchen knives, using it with sandpaper is very fast and effective.

The Spyderco 'Sharpmaker' is also a very handy, easy to use sharpener that is almost fool-proof. You are limited to a choice of two angles, but they are 15 degree and 20 degrees so pretty solid choices for most home chores. I use the Sharpmaker in my kitchen as a 'touch-up' device once a week. I 'steel' the blades before each use, touch up once a week on the Sharpmaker, and sharpen on the EdgePro 2-3 times a year. I like my knives sharp...

[JimShortz]

I'm sure I will get shot down in flames for this, but I use a simple (and cheap) knife sharpener like the one in the image attached. Actually mine looks cheaper, with a plastic handle, but the same sharpening idea, with sets of metal rings doing the sharpening. It's quick to use and makes my knives sharp...

[FolkGuitar]

I'm sure I will get shot down in flames for this, but I use a simple (and cheap) knife sharpener like the one in the image attached. Actually mine looks cheaper, with a plastic handle, but the same sharpening idea, with sets of metal rings doing the sharpening. It's quick to use and makes my knives sharp...

While these pull-through sharpeners will produce an edge (of sorts,) they will tear up a good quality knife in just a short time. The carbide wheels actually rip away metal leaving a ragged, toothy edge. On softer steels such as 1095 Carbon, the metal is soft enough not to chip and distort so carbide wheels in the sharpener do leave an edge that can work for cutting fruit and veggies. Doesn't work nearly as well when cutting meat or fish though, things that require a smoother, finer edge.

When used on newer, harder steels with a higher chromium content (found in most of the stainless steels,) the tearing action really rips up the edge rather badly. This result can be felt easily if you use the knife to cut fish or other soft-flesh foods. On the other hand, when cutting something with a harder skin like tomatoes, the saw-tooth edge that the pull through wheels create work really well! The teeth bite into the tomato skin better than a semi-sharp fine edge.

It really boils down to what steel is being sharpened, and how one likes their edges; fine or toothed. I wouldn't hesitate to use one of these on a hill-tribe farming tool or machete, or an old carbon steel camp knife. But I would NEVER use it on a high quality Wusthof, JA Henckels, Shun, Global, or any high carbon Stainless knives. But that just me...

Edited March 4, 2013 by FolkGuitar

[jaideeguy]

My Thai wife tells me that it's the duty of a husband to keep the knives in the house sharp.

I can't believe that there are people out there that can't sharpen a knife......maybe they are not married??

[zippydedodah]

Although no expert myself, I do sell knife shapeners in my store. If your not too picky about the angle then for quick jobs get one of the mini crock sets with both the carbide and ceramic sharpening insets. With the crocks all you need to do is pull the blade straight through, the angle is pre-set. Smith's makes a 3-in-1 pocket pal that also includes a serrated sharpener. These mini crock sets are not that suitable for larger kitchen knives. One of the best best full sized crock sets is the Sypderco Tri-Angle sharpener which offers two angle settings. Crock sets are preset angles, but you don't have to maintain the personal skills needed for sharpening on a flat whetstone. ( I too once worked in agricultire and sharpened a machete by hand every day, but have lost that skill over the decades). Another good no-brainer sharpening system is the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener which allows the non-professional to use a mini belt sharpener. This is electric based on US standards so you would need an adapter. This item sharpens just about everything although beware, the coarse grit belt can remove a lot of metal in the blink of an eye, which is good for a lawn mower blade but no so good for an expensive kitchen knive. The Lansky system, when it first came out, used to be the cat's meow, it still works well, but it is a bit time consuming. But if you can find someone locally who does a good job for under 50 baat, well you can't beat that!

Johpa: and which store would that be?

[vagabond48]

My Thai wife tells me that it's the duty of a husband to keep the knives in the house sharp.

I can't believe that there are people out there that can't sharpen a knife......maybe they are not married??

I cannot believe that you cannot believe that.

Actually, I haven't needed to sharpen the few knives I possess since they appear to continue to do the cutting I require.

[KRS1]

My Thai wife tells me that it's the duty of a husband to keep the knives in the house sharp.

I can't believe that there are people out there that can't sharpen a knife......maybe they are not married??

I cannot believe that you cannot believe that.

Actually, I haven't needed to sharpen the few knives I possess since they appear to continue to do the cutting I require.

There are knives that are sharp enough to cut and knives that are REALLY sharp. The sharper it is the less effort thats required.

Skinning an entire deer/pig with a really sharp knife is way faster than a mediocre edge.Plus you can cut things you couldnt normally cut easily.

[FolkGuitar]

There are all degrees of 'sharp.' What "I" think of as a dull knife may well satisfiy someone else's needs. And 'how' I cut something may be very different from the way someone else cuts. There are 'push' cuts and there are 'slice' cuts. Each requires a different type of edge, as well as a different degree of sharpness. A lot of folks will sharpen a knife on those old black corundum Boy Scout oil stones, sharpening to a grit size of 320, while other may insist on a Crystolon stone with a grit size of 2,000. Many people have never even USED a really sharp knife... A 'Ginsu' knife works well enough in the kitchen for a lot of people, and actually is the perfect choice for cutting up cardboard boxes. But it will tear up a raw fish like a grater, rather than slicing it like a razor. Then there is the choice of convex edge or beveled edge. There is more to a knife than just the handle, but most people have little idea of which is the correct tool for the job at hand. A knife is a tool, just like any other, and there actually IS a correct tool for each job.

Edited March 5, 2013 by FolkGuitar

[doggie888888]

Don't mean to veer off topic but I was once given a ceramic knife. It remained sharp for 3 or 4 years without me ever sharpening it, then I broke it by dropping it on a tiled floor. Looking to get another one, because I was very happy with that one.

[FolkGuitar]

Don't mean to veer off topic but I was once given a ceramic knife. It remained sharp for 3 or 4 years without me ever sharpening it, then I broke it by dropping it on a tiled floor. Looking to get another one, because I was very happy with that one.

Ceramic knives are great if you treat them gently. (Dropping them isn't recommended, nor cutting into bone, as the edge can chip easily.) Edges last and last, and after a few years, you can touch up the edge using a fine diamond stone and a bit of time. They are slower to sharpen than D2 tool steel but with a guided sharpening system such as GATCO, Lansky, EdgePro, or DMT, and diamond stones, no more difficult to restore the working edge.

[Somnambulist]

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

I started sharpening my kitchen knives, machete, and even garden shears this way a couple of years ago, but just use water because I saw a Thai guy alongside the road doing it that way. I'm going to try oil today. On the YouTube videos I learned from, they all say to pass the blade over the stone only three times before changing sides, but Thai meatcutters in the local market and garden laborers I've seen stay on one side for a long time and never even lift the blade. Can you guys give me some insight on these two ways?

[cooked]

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

I started sharpening my kitchen knives, machete, and even garden shears this way a couple of years ago, but just use water because I saw a Thai guy alongside the road doing it that way. I'm going to try oil today. On the YouTube videos I learned from, they all say to pass the blade over the stone only three times before changing sides, but Thai meatcutters in the local market and garden laborers I've seen stay on one side for a long time and never even lift the blade. Can you guys give me some insight on these two ways?

Sorry to repeat myself but lamp oil (paraffin) is the best. Up to you anyway, I sharpened everything from swords to axes to carpentry and turners' tools, saws, chain saws, scissors, lawn mowers and hedge shears. I am sure that some stones work better with water, especially the grinding wheels that you see still (in this case, the water stops the blade from overheating. If the blade gets red hot, the quality of the steel is gone, you may be able to rescue it by quickly dousing it in water or oil but you generally need to carefully shave off that part of the blade and start again. I haven't used my diamond stone for a long time now, I couldn't see much advantage over a good sharpening stone.

As to your question, I only sharpen knives, where possible, on one side, this gives much less work and is ok for most jobs. Finish off by placing the other side of the blade flat on the stone and get rid of the burr that will have been created. Leather to finish.

[FolkGuitar]

Its easy enough to sharpen knives yourself. go to any hardware shop, many around the moat, or global further afield and buy a small carborundum stone about 9in x 2in cost between 50-100bt.

drop a bit of oil on the stone, even cooking oil and a few rubs will get a razor edge. more traditionally used for sharpening chisels and plane blades.

scissors are the most difficult things to sharpen.

I started sharpening my kitchen knives, machete, and even garden shears this way a couple of years ago, but just use water because I saw a Thai guy alongside the road doing it that way. I'm going to try oil today. On the YouTube videos I learned from, they all say to pass the blade over the stone only three times before changing sides, but Thai meatcutters in the local market and garden laborers I've seen stay on one side for a long time and never even lift the blade. Can you guys give me some insight on these two ways?

While sharpening edges goes back a long ways, as with other things, time marches on and improvements develop. Oil was always the choice of mediums for keeping a stone free from getting clogged with metal particles ground off during the process, but things change. A man named John Juranitch came up with the idea that perhaps using a stone 'dry' might work well, and proceeded to develope the 'Razor Edge' system of sharpening, where he uses dry stones to get a shaving edge on any knives... or axes, as he's demonstrated many times. His stone of choice is silicon carbide, and that's been an old standard in the west for years. (Man-made silicon carbide stones are the ones called 'Carborundom.') In the East, water was the fluid of choice, especially for Japanese water stones, and the degree of sharpness that can be achieved with a series of good water stones is amazing. I like Japanese water stones as they give a very polished edge, but they wear out quickly. Then modern science came along and gave us the 'man-made' stones, ceramic stones, and even glass stones, and it turns out that the best fluid for those is ordinary water with a few drops of dish washing liquid. In all these cases, when hand sharpening, nobody can move fast enough long enough to over-heat a blade, and the fluid does nothing more than prevent the stones from getting glazed over with metal swarf. Personally, I don't like to use oil as it's too much of a bother to clean up afterwards. I like diamond stones as they never wear out, and only require water (with some soap) to keep them from clogging up, and come in all different degrees of grit these days. So for 'me,' it's either diamond stones, water stones, or ordinary wet/dry sandpaper, using water with a few drops of dishwashing liquid. With any of these, I can get an edge that will 'whittle' hair, not just shave it.

As far as changing sides goes, if my blade is beveled both sides, I sharpen on both sides. If it's only beveled on one side, that's the side I sharpen. When starting out the process with a course grit stone, I'll work one side uptil I've raised a 'burr' along the edge, the switch to the opposite side and work that until I've worked up a burr. I'll often run a Sharpie Marker along the edge so I can be sure that the stone is making full contact right up to the apex of the edge. Then I'll move to a finer grit stone and do the same thing. By the time I've reached a fine grit stone, I'll only make a few passes on a side, switch sides, make a few more passes, etc., etc. When I've reached the very finest stone, I'll switch after every pass. Then, if I really want a shaving edge, I'll finish up on a piece of MDF board on which I've rubbed some Green chromium oxided buffing compound, and using an edge-trailing stroke, alternate about 15-20 strokes on that. For hair whittling, I'll take it a step further and strop the edge on a high quality shell cordovan horsehide strop.