Hi Baz, your desire of being real and authentic as you wrote in the description is likely why your videos draw respectful and constructive comments, from what I can see/read so far. Thumbs up and keep up with your great work!
I spent a good year clamping and sharpening on the AMK 75 that has the Tormek jig. During this process I spent time trying to establish my free hand technique. By using a softer leather platen, in the end, I was able to establish better looking bevels by freehand. It just flows smoother when you have your fingers on the tip of the blade and is much more efficient when you are doing large batches of knives. I have gone through this exact same situation where my blade slipped in the clamp. I've also nicked the handle a few time because of the clamp. Clamps definitely have their pros and cons. Always great to watch your videos.
@@WeberSharpening yeah, depends what you're used to I suppose. I know freehand can be faster but I like and am used to the fixed guided system now. Sounds like you've found your rhythm though. Glad to hear it.
Thanks for showing this, I have been a contractor for many years and very rare but you get bitten. We all can have a bugger of a mishap, tools breaking / slipping. It pays to own up and fix it, everyone even surgeons have shit happen. Been watching your content a long time so many thanks for making it. Like your presenting and manner. I have designed a knife sharpening system here in the UK totally manual. Prototype being made over the next few months by my mate a retired engineer with a workshop and tooling. If all goes well I should only be into it for the cost of a Tormek set up. He is going to film it being made but I hate being filmed and would not release the content before Patent consultant agrees. Again top marks for your honesty and not including what the dog heard you say. Regards Keith Burton.
Hi Keith, I second what you said; shit happens, everyone makes mistakes once in a while and I salute Baz humility and willingness to show it. I would also be interested in seeing your sharpening device/tool once it's done.
Hi Baz, from what I can see, the problem with Shun knives is that the edge is very thin and chips off easily, so a big deal of grinding is needed to repair the damage and this leads to shortening the height of the knives within a couple of sharpenings. Good video 😎👍
Why has it to happen on a very expensive knife 😢? I rewatched the grinding and could not detect the slippeage. Edit: I think the knife was not rotating in the clamp, the blade was tilting to a flatter angle because the clamp had contact only on the last little edge of the back of the blade. 🤔 My idea for better grip is using rubber on the clamp, but like you wrote on a comment, it has to be thin. Those finger shaped little party balloons are out of thin rubber (or latex), maybe it works to cut them accordingly to put them on the clamp. Or cut out of any shape of balloons and glued(?) to the clamps....🤷🏻 Cheers!
I know right? No cheap knife ever gets ruined. Perhaps it's the nerves and pressure. Yeah, lots of great suggestions on things to try with grip. I'm thinking of plastidip paint like on plier handles. But honestly this is a 1 in 1,000 event. It rarely happens, is totally avoidable by focusing and not taking anything for granted and I still ended up for the day so no harm done to me and in the end it's a lesson for all Tormek users. If I'm lucky my misfortune might even make this a popular video and TH-cam will compensate me for it anyway. It's already skyrocketing ahead of any of my more recent videos and is currently in the number 1 spot and climbing which I find hilarious. Everyone wants to watch a train wreck...lol
@@iSharpen I wish the vid skyrockets and youtube will compensate for the replacement knife. As you mentioned in the vid, the clamp has to sit flush and secure on both sides of the blade, (with ideally more clamping surface) otherwise your down pressure will flatten the angle between stone and blade.
Thanks for sharing this. We all do mistakes and they feel even worse when a camera is running. It is always a bit nerve wracking to work on expensive knives. It gets even better if they cost 1000 Dollar or more. 😉 A double bevel wouldn’t have to be too bad for this knife. It is always good to thin kitchen knifes a bit as this reduces friction and breaking carrots instead of cutting them. My kitchen knives have a bevel width of under 0.5 mm mostly, except for cleavers and such of course. What did the customer say?
I was actually live when this happened so there was no hiding it. But I see opportunity everywhere the older I get and there were many opportunities in this incident. I mentioned it in the description..."The client was very understanding, not very upset and we came to a compensation deal which included him keeping the knife, some cash in hand and future sharpening credits. I even got a hug because he could see how upset I was. He was a true gentleman about it and appreciated my honesty and that I was direct and up front about everything. "
@@iSharpen Oh, I missed the description totally, sorry for that. Yes, getting older has some advantages. Mostly you have realised that everybody is cooking with water. 😉
Working in retail myself 2 things I learned 1, product knowledge and 2, effective communication skills through I acquired through trial and error. If you with your soft voice and product knowledge could prove to be a valuable mentor to anyone wanting to enter this vocation
I'd love to train knife sharpeners. If I determine there's a need I'll open up for private face time coaching. I bet with just one look at their technique I could diagnose what needs improvement to come up to my standard and (of course) go beyond.
Thanks for showing what can happen with a powered system. I'm only using the edgepro and wicked edge so if there is a problem you catch it before you've done too much damage. Still would like a Tormek T8 though as I watch your skill in powering through many knives.
Nothing wrong with the wicked edge. Doing 40 knives a day might be an issue though. Keep in mind I've sharpened thousands of knives without incident and this has happened only maybe 2 or 3 times. But I thought it had value so I thought I'd show it anyway despite my obvious embarrassment.
The measure of a true craftsman is being able to analyse and summarily fix a problem. You Baz are a true master sharpener. Thanks for the inspirational videos. Much appreciated, my friend. 🥩🐕🥩🧔🇨🇦
@@ronnieblomdahl3008 I have the KJ knife holder. It might be self centering but it's a horrible design. I hate using it. No thumb cup. It slips all over the place. Tormek is excellent at almost everything but have failed at a few things too. They need to stop fiddling with things that work perfectly. I think that sometimes they just want to invent things just for sake of putting out a new product. I do like the look of their new axe jig though.
Thanx for setting such a good example of owning one's mistakes and learning from them. Seeing you hold so firmly by the handle in the first of the video had me cringing. I was always told to "not touch the handle", be it a knife or chisel. Let the grinder guide hold the knife. I also use the marker or tape around the jaw perimeter. The sound of your new strop had be cringing again in the end! What compound do you use on that strop? Diamond spray?
Have to hold the knife by the handle to keep it aligned. There's no way around it. What you shouldn't do is push down on the handle which can sometimes happen naturally when you're focusing on the line of grind like I was. That noise is the way the kangaroo tail strop should sound. It's those ridges that do all the work. I know, it goes against everything we've been told but the results are phenomenal, undeiable and reliable. It works every time to remove that wire edge or burr root (or whatever it's called or whatever it's doing) and produce a sharper edge than before as shown by my dozens and dozens of before and after tests. No compound ever on kangaroo tail. It must be used raw and clean. I'm starting to love the "ratatatat" of the ridges. It's funny because I know it horrifies everyone. That amuses me. You're not the first to have wide staring eyes...lol
Doesn't the tape makes it slip a little bit too? I imagine something like rubber would hold it better. I personally don't use anything, but I also rarely sharpen knives this high end.
Yeah it does, I've tried many different typoes of tape and this one (which I use for another purpose) slips the least of all. Now that I've brought attention to the issue I'm getting some great suggestions which are making me think of a better solution. Thin rubber might work but there's a "squirming" factor so it'd have to be very thin. Perhaps plastidip? Or a thin layer of rubber cement?
I have actually, I found it to be a very poor performer but better than nothing. Very limited in it's scope and quite expensive. Both my (used) T8s cost a lot less than a new T2.
I bought one a week ago, sharpened 5 or 6 knives and sent it back. I really wanted to like it because I thought it would be handy to transport it around to different locations. I found the guide to be the weak spot on the T-2. Very limiting on the knives it will work with. If all you are going to do is thin bladed chef knives it might work out ok. I buggered up my Wustoff fillet knife because the skinny blade slipped out of the guide without me knowing it. The blade was not tall enough to stay in the guide. Cost me $163 to send it back, but no way I was going to keep it.
Fair point. At that stage I'd already decided the knife was destroyed as I couldn't hand a knife back looking like that and I'd rather hand back a new one at the original thickness.
I was thinking of using the large bevel and bring it all the way along the blade length and then establish your set bevel and blend the 2 into each other. Ideally after enough sharpenings it would need to be thinned down anyways instead of removing all that metal. Just another thought but yeah ouch one thing that makes me hesitate about opening my own business or thinking of taking on such an expensive knife. I do have a tormek and fixed angle systems however i honestly prefer freehanding. I think i went the reverse of everyone i struggled to get sharpening down and bought some gadgets and gizmos etc and then i got the key to sharpening and now prefer going by hand. I feel i get better edges going by hand as well, yes its more time consuming but id put my edges against electric systems anytime.
@@robfahey1349 stone sharpening is a real skill and art form but not commercially viable in my opinion. Doing 40 knives a day would get very old very fast. Keep in mind that the risk of this happening is very low and entirely avoidable. I've sharpened thousands of knives and this has only happened to me twice and the first time was when I was very new. It ends up they're only worth $200 (not the $800 I thought) but I can easily cover it, in fact I still made a profit that day from all the other knives I had to do. But I thought this was too valuable a lesson to end up on the cutting room floor and the lesson others can learn was more valuable than my public embarrassment. I can to an agreement with the owner who was still thrilled he got a very sharp knife plus full compensation in cash and credit. I think I've turned a negative into a positive. Cash is important but it not everything all the time. Appreciate your comment.
That is hard to watch and I'm only half way through, fingers crossed it turns out ok in the end. That's why up until the start of the year I did expensive knives on my fixed-angle system because I didn't want to take the risk of screwing one up. I now do them on my whetstone grinder but I'm extremely careful. I had a knife clamping issue like this for a while, especially on thin and or shiny knives, that I cured with a rubber band made off a bicycle inner tube slid over the movable jaw. It stops any slipping and I don't have to clamp anywhere near as hard.
You should have seen it from inside my head! I think I have a very good record though. 99.9% perfect sharps. Not sure I follow on how your rubber band is positioned. Can you elaborate a bit?
@@iSharpen I'll send you a photo when I bet a chance. It makes a big difference to the grip and you don't have to be so accurate with the clamping faces being parallel, cos the rubber has enough “give” to compensate for a millimetre.
Hi Baz,
your desire of being real and authentic as you wrote in the description is likely why your videos draw respectful and constructive comments, from what I can see/read so far.
Thumbs up and keep up with your great work!
Thanks 👍
Hi Baz, I appreciate you showing your mistake so everyone can take something from it. We all learn more from our failures than our successes.
Indeed we do.
Anyone who thinks that couldn’t happen to them is overconfident!!
True.
I spent a good year clamping and sharpening on the AMK 75 that has the Tormek jig. During this process I spent time trying to establish my free hand technique. By using a softer leather platen, in the end, I was able to establish better looking bevels by freehand. It just flows smoother when you have your fingers on the tip of the blade and is much more efficient when you are doing large batches of knives. I have gone through this exact same situation where my blade slipped in the clamp. I've also nicked the handle a few time because of the clamp. Clamps definitely have their pros and cons. Always great to watch your videos.
@@WeberSharpening yeah, depends what you're used to I suppose. I know freehand can be faster but I like and am used to the fixed guided system now. Sounds like you've found your rhythm though. Glad to hear it.
Thanks for showing this, I have been a contractor for many years and very rare but you get bitten. We all can have a bugger of a mishap, tools breaking / slipping. It pays to own up and fix it, everyone even surgeons have shit happen. Been watching your content a long time so many thanks for making it. Like your presenting and manner. I have designed a knife sharpening system here in the UK totally manual. Prototype being made over the next few months by my mate a retired engineer with a workshop and tooling. If all goes well I should only be into it for the cost of a Tormek set up. He is going to film it being made but I hate being filmed and would not release the content before Patent consultant agrees. Again top marks for your honesty and not including what the dog heard you say. Regards Keith Burton.
@@keithburton7516 thanks for the kind words Keith. Would love to see your invention one day.
Hi Keith,
I second what you said; shit happens, everyone makes mistakes once in a while and I salute Baz humility and willingness to show it.
I would also be interested in seeing your sharpening device/tool once it's done.
Hi Baz, from what I can see, the problem with Shun knives is that the edge is very thin and chips off easily, so a big deal of grinding is needed to repair the damage and this leads to shortening the height of the knives within a couple of sharpenings.
Good video 😎👍
Why has it to happen on a very expensive knife 😢? I rewatched the grinding and could not detect the slippeage.
Edit: I think the knife was not rotating in the clamp, the blade was tilting to a flatter angle because the clamp had contact only on the last little edge of the back of the blade. 🤔
My idea for better grip is using rubber on the clamp, but like you wrote on a comment, it has to be thin. Those finger shaped little party balloons are out of thin rubber (or latex), maybe it works to cut them accordingly to put them on the clamp. Or cut out of any shape of balloons and glued(?) to the clamps....🤷🏻
Cheers!
I know right? No cheap knife ever gets ruined. Perhaps it's the nerves and pressure. Yeah, lots of great suggestions on things to try with grip. I'm thinking of plastidip paint like on plier handles. But honestly this is a 1 in 1,000 event. It rarely happens, is totally avoidable by focusing and not taking anything for granted and I still ended up for the day so no harm done to me and in the end it's a lesson for all Tormek users. If I'm lucky my misfortune might even make this a popular video and TH-cam will compensate me for it anyway. It's already skyrocketing ahead of any of my more recent videos and is currently in the number 1 spot and climbing which I find hilarious. Everyone wants to watch a train wreck...lol
@@iSharpen I wish the vid skyrockets and youtube will compensate for the replacement knife.
As you mentioned in the vid, the clamp has to sit flush and secure on both sides of the blade, (with ideally more clamping surface) otherwise your down pressure will flatten the angle between stone and blade.
Thanks for sharing this. We all do mistakes and they feel even worse when a camera is running.
It is always a bit nerve wracking to work on expensive knives. It gets even better if they cost 1000 Dollar or more. 😉
A double bevel wouldn’t have to be too bad for this knife. It is always good to thin kitchen knifes a bit as this reduces friction and breaking carrots instead of cutting them. My kitchen knives have a bevel width of under 0.5 mm mostly, except for cleavers and such of course.
What did the customer say?
I was actually live when this happened so there was no hiding it. But I see opportunity everywhere the older I get and there were many opportunities in this incident.
I mentioned it in the description..."The client was very understanding, not very upset and we came to a compensation deal which included him keeping the knife, some cash in hand and future sharpening credits. I even got a hug because he could see how upset I was. He was a true gentleman about it and appreciated my honesty and that I was direct and up front about everything. "
@@iSharpen Oh, I missed the description totally, sorry for that.
Yes, getting older has some advantages. Mostly you have realised that everybody is cooking with water.
😉
Thats how we learn.👏👏👏😊👍
Yes indeed!
Big kudos for showing this. It is only a question about time before I do it myself.
Keep those knobs tight and be mindful of where you're pushing on the knife.
Working in retail myself 2 things I learned 1, product knowledge and 2, effective communication skills through I acquired through trial and error. If you with your soft voice and product knowledge could prove to be a valuable mentor to anyone wanting to enter this vocation
I'd love to train knife sharpeners. If I determine there's a need I'll open up for private face time coaching. I bet with just one look at their technique I could diagnose what needs improvement to come up to my standard and (of course) go beyond.
@@iSharpen I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor
Thanks for showing what can happen with a powered system. I'm only using the edgepro and wicked edge so if there is a problem you catch it before you've done too much damage. Still would like a Tormek T8 though as I watch your skill in powering through many knives.
Nothing wrong with the wicked edge. Doing 40 knives a day might be an issue though. Keep in mind I've sharpened thousands of knives without incident and this has happened only maybe 2 or 3 times. But I thought it had value so I thought I'd show it anyway despite my obvious embarrassment.
The measure of a true craftsman is being able to analyse and summarily fix a problem. You Baz are a true master sharpener. Thanks for the inspirational videos. Much appreciated, my friend. 🥩🐕🥩🧔🇨🇦
Thanks man. I knew this lesson was more valuable than my embarrassment.
Thanks man!
and the kj56 and 140 is excellent due to its selfcentering design🙂
@@ronnieblomdahl3008 I have the KJ knife holder. It might be self centering but it's a horrible design. I hate using it. No thumb cup. It slips all over the place. Tormek is excellent at almost everything but have failed at a few things too. They need to stop fiddling with things that work perfectly. I think that sometimes they just want to invent things just for sake of putting out a new product. I do like the look of their new axe jig though.
have you tried the diamond stone to your tormek? they are wery good and do not change the form, special good for japanese knifes.
@@ronnieblomdahl3008 not good for commercial operation. Very sensitive, easy to damage and require special water that's also very expensive.
Thanx for setting such a good example of owning one's mistakes and learning from them. Seeing you hold so firmly by the handle in the first of the video had me cringing. I was always told to "not touch the handle", be it a knife or chisel. Let the grinder guide hold the knife. I also use the marker or tape around the jaw perimeter. The sound of your new strop had be cringing again in the end! What compound do you use on that strop? Diamond spray?
Have to hold the knife by the handle to keep it aligned. There's no way around it. What you shouldn't do is push down on the handle which can sometimes happen naturally when you're focusing on the line of grind like I was.
That noise is the way the kangaroo tail strop should sound. It's those ridges that do all the work. I know, it goes against everything we've been told but the results are phenomenal, undeiable and reliable. It works every time to remove that wire edge or burr root (or whatever it's called or whatever it's doing) and produce a sharper edge than before as shown by my dozens and dozens of before and after tests.
No compound ever on kangaroo tail. It must be used raw and clean. I'm starting to love the "ratatatat" of the ridges. It's funny because I know it horrifies everyone. That amuses me. You're not the first to have wide staring eyes...lol
Doesn't the tape makes it slip a little bit too? I imagine something like rubber would hold it better. I personally don't use anything, but I also rarely sharpen knives this high end.
Or maybe some thin pigskin leather glued to the inside of the clamp would work.
Yeah it does, I've tried many different typoes of tape and this one (which I use for another purpose) slips the least of all. Now that I've brought attention to the issue I'm getting some great suggestions which are making me think of a better solution. Thin rubber might work but there's a "squirming" factor so it'd have to be very thin. Perhaps plastidip? Or a thin layer of rubber cement?
@@spechg8927 Good idea also. It'd have to be very thin and glued in place.
Hey ISharpen, have vouchers had experience with the tormek T2?
I have actually, I found it to be a very poor performer but better than nothing. Very limited in it's scope and quite expensive. Both my (used) T8s cost a lot less than a new T2.
I bought one a week ago, sharpened 5 or 6 knives and sent it back. I really wanted to like it because I thought it would be handy to transport it around to different locations. I found the guide to be the weak spot on the T-2. Very limiting on the knives it will work with. If all you are going to do is thin bladed chef knives it might work out ok. I buggered up my Wustoff fillet knife because the skinny blade slipped out of the guide without me knowing it. The blade was not tall enough to stay in the guide. Cost me $163 to send it back, but no way I was going to keep it.
@@KodiakKen wise move. Get a T8, you'll never look back.
Was there any benefit besides looks to grind the knife down?
Isn't it kind of a shame to reduce the life span of the knife just for looks?
Fair point. At that stage I'd already decided the knife was destroyed as I couldn't hand a knife back looking like that and I'd rather hand back a new one at the original thickness.
That knife costs 413 in Australian money
@@Allan8080 he paid $245. Currently on sale on eBay for $199
@iSharpen okay-, by the way love your Chanel 🥰
@@Allan8080 thanks man! It still has a long way to go. I feel like I'm only just getting started. Always happy to get requests for videos.
I was thinking of using the large bevel and bring it all the way along the blade length and then establish your set bevel and blend the 2 into each other. Ideally after enough sharpenings it would need to be thinned down anyways instead of removing all that metal. Just another thought but yeah ouch one thing that makes me hesitate about opening my own business or thinking of taking on such an expensive knife. I do have a tormek and fixed angle systems however i honestly prefer freehanding. I think i went the reverse of everyone i struggled to get sharpening down and bought some gadgets and gizmos etc and then i got the key to sharpening and now prefer going by hand. I feel i get better edges going by hand as well, yes its more time consuming but id put my edges against electric systems anytime.
@@robfahey1349 stone sharpening is a real skill and art form but not commercially viable in my opinion. Doing 40 knives a day would get very old very fast. Keep in mind that the risk of this happening is very low and entirely avoidable. I've sharpened thousands of knives and this has only happened to me twice and the first time was when I was very new.
It ends up they're only worth $200 (not the $800 I thought) but I can easily cover it, in fact I still made a profit that day from all the other knives I had to do. But I thought this was too valuable a lesson to end up on the cutting room floor and the lesson others can learn was more valuable than my public embarrassment.
I can to an agreement with the owner who was still thrilled he got a very sharp knife plus full compensation in cash and credit. I think I've turned a negative into a positive. Cash is important but it not everything all the time.
Appreciate your comment.
At least it only took an hour....
Also, that took a whole hour! :-)
That is hard to watch and I'm only half way through, fingers crossed it turns out ok in the end.
That's why up until the start of the year I did expensive knives on my fixed-angle system because I didn't want to take the risk of screwing one up. I now do them on my whetstone grinder but I'm extremely careful.
I had a knife clamping issue like this for a while, especially on thin and or shiny knives, that I cured with a rubber band made off a bicycle inner tube slid over the movable jaw. It stops any slipping and I don't have to clamp anywhere near as hard.
You should have seen it from inside my head! I think I have a very good record though. 99.9% perfect sharps.
Not sure I follow on how your rubber band is positioned. Can you elaborate a bit?
@@iSharpen I'll send you a photo when I bet a chance. It makes a big difference to the grip and you don't have to be so accurate with the clamping faces being parallel, cos the rubber has enough “give” to compensate for a millimetre.
You should have the email in your inbox.
@@thechumpsbeendumped.7797 Got your photo, thanks. Interesting.
@@iSharpen
Only put it on the movable jaw or you’ll slightly offset the knife symmetry, taking the blade of the clamps centreline.