OT - Anyone sharpen their own knives? Looking for advice.

Figure I should throw out an update

I ended up ordering the Work Sharp Precision Adjust Elite kit, as well as a 1k/6k whetstone with guides. While Craigdt's system is an amazing bit of kit, I just don't have that kinda dough in the budget at the moment. I briefly considered making my own version of it (Ok, I just like to visit the 80/20 site from time to time, and this was a good excuse... :laughing: Last time there I built an adjustable cargo holder for the back of the Mrs' car.), but I'm sure I could spiral that cost well above just purchasing a premade system.

The Precision Adjust operates on a similar principle to the TSProf, just on a much, much smaller scale. Poking around at reviews, it looks like it could work out well. Like anything there were some negative comments, but you get a, um... very wide population sample when you're looking at Amazon reviews (Seriously - there was a video review attached to a negative review where they clamped the knife in the unit with the sharpening stone blocked underneath it, 100% user error but of course it's the tools fault. I see it all the time with people doing their own car repair - just because you can work on your car, doesn't mean you should work on your car...).

A lot of this is mainly to find out if this is a hobby that I'll enjoy. As much as I love detailing, I joke it's my "aspirational hobby" - I aspire that some day I'll have the free time (and lately weather conditions!) for detailing to be my hobby. Feels like it would be much easier to find some time to pull up the stool at the counter and spend some time doing a different form of correction.

The bad part about getting into this has been now I've been looking at a lot of knives as well. I think a piece of Japanese cutlery may be making it's way to the kitchen soon...
 
oneheadlite said:
The bad part about getting into this has been now I've been looking at a lot of knives as well. I think a piece of Japanese cutlery may be making it's way to the kitchen soon...
Click to expand...

Whenever I'm at Marshalls or HomeGoods or something, I look for Japanese knives. I've found a few that are not too bad, but require a little work to get them right. But like you, I've been interested in dropping some coin on a legit piece of cutlery. I've seen some MAC knives that I'd like to get.
 
Been meaning to check back in here and update in case anyone was curious.

Definitely happy with the Work Sharp. I've had a chance to do a few blades now, and it's really a foolproof system.

Going into it I was just hoping to bring the knives to a safer working state, but it turns out it's very easy to get a really good edge. My wife's daily driver knife that had gotten roughed up by a carbide scraper style sharpener we had in the drawer turned out at least as good as the factory edge if not better.

All of the knives I've done pass the see-through carrot slice test when done. The only downside is now my daughter wants all of her carrots paper thin. :laughing:

First knife I did was a Chicago Cutlery that a coworker gave me to experiment with - not only was the edge trashed, but the whole thing was just gross. Cleaned it up by scrubbing the blade/handle/rivets with a paste of baking soda and water, q-tips and a paper towel. I've got the after-cleaning-but-before-sharpening picture; I forgot to grab an after shot.

Second knife was my wife's daily driver - A Wusthof Santoku. Whether or not it's really needed, I treated it like correcting clear coat and started with as mild a stone (well, sharpening plate) I could and worked more aggressive until I got the results I was looking for. Then worked back up through the grits. Finished with the ceramic plate and the provided pre-applied-compound strop plate. The Mrs is very happy to have her knife back. :D

Next I did my go to knife - a super cheap santoko I got at the grocery store. It's probably pressed from recycled tin cans, so it had worn flat at the high use spot. This one I used the Precision Adjust to help even out the profile and put a uniform angle back on. Then this one I used as an opportunity to practice freehand whetstoning with a WorkSharp 1000/6000 stone I bought at the same time (it was basically free, they had a 20% off coupon for their site). All in all it also turned out great. Looking forward to more time with the whetstone to get more familiar with it.

I'll jump on Tapatalk and throw some pictures up shortly.
 
The co-worker's knife post clean up, pre sharpening:
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My wife's daily on the left, mine on the right. (That's a water spot, not a stain on hers!). You can see how the blade on mine has a wear spot. I know it's a throwaway knife, but it's really nice in hand and easy to sharpen...
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The Mrs' blade in progress
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Hers after sharpening (it's very hard to get a 5 year old phone to focus on a sharpened edge...). You can see the edge is still a little roughed up from the drag through sharpener, but I feel like it's only going to get better from here.
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Mine after getting an edge back both guided (Precision Adjust) and freehand (whetstone).
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