CountryBoy19
Grandmaster
Ok, I know I'm speaking the the choir here but had to post my experience.
For years I carried cheapish knives, mostly because working on the farm I would lose them long before they broke or wore out. A 440C S&W was the one I most recently carried until I got my Benchmade about a year ago.
Anyways, I never could get any of my knives razor sharp. I just always assumed I sucked at sharpening.
Until a couple weeks ago I went to sharpen my Benchmade (154 CM blade) with my Gatco sharpener. It's just a pocket knife so I didn't really care much about having a razor sharp edge, just wanted to touch it up. Well, it came out with a razor edge with very little effort... I was pretty surprised.
So I thought what the heck, may as well try to sharpen my Shun kitchen knives (VG-10 blades) that desperately needed a touch-up. These aren't just any kitchen knife, these are top of the line Japanese kitchen knives that cost a pretty penny and had a fantastic edge on them from the retailer. Anyways, 20 minutes work and sure enough, razor sharp again... maybe not quite as sharp as the original edge but I think that's pretty hard to attain. Kershaw quit offering free sharpening on the Shun knives because they can't even get the edge back to original sharpness so I'm confident that I can't. But I got it pretty close; close enough for my uses.
So the take-away lesson is this. If you always thought your sharpening skills sucked don't chalk it up to that. It is very likely your blade material sucks. Try sharpening quality blades and see how you do...
BTW, I always thought 440C was an ok blade material and my friend told me I was being ridiculous and needed a 154CM knife. He was right, I don't even know where that S&W knife is anymore...
For years I carried cheapish knives, mostly because working on the farm I would lose them long before they broke or wore out. A 440C S&W was the one I most recently carried until I got my Benchmade about a year ago.
Anyways, I never could get any of my knives razor sharp. I just always assumed I sucked at sharpening.
Until a couple weeks ago I went to sharpen my Benchmade (154 CM blade) with my Gatco sharpener. It's just a pocket knife so I didn't really care much about having a razor sharp edge, just wanted to touch it up. Well, it came out with a razor edge with very little effort... I was pretty surprised.
So I thought what the heck, may as well try to sharpen my Shun kitchen knives (VG-10 blades) that desperately needed a touch-up. These aren't just any kitchen knife, these are top of the line Japanese kitchen knives that cost a pretty penny and had a fantastic edge on them from the retailer. Anyways, 20 minutes work and sure enough, razor sharp again... maybe not quite as sharp as the original edge but I think that's pretty hard to attain. Kershaw quit offering free sharpening on the Shun knives because they can't even get the edge back to original sharpness so I'm confident that I can't. But I got it pretty close; close enough for my uses.
So the take-away lesson is this. If you always thought your sharpening skills sucked don't chalk it up to that. It is very likely your blade material sucks. Try sharpening quality blades and see how you do...
BTW, I always thought 440C was an ok blade material and my friend told me I was being ridiculous and needed a 154CM knife. He was right, I don't even know where that S&W knife is anymore...