My first sharpening was pretty bad, I bought a terrible stone that is too fine to remove material, at the same time of not having any polish agents, so I've spent hour and hours and I couldn't sharp my knife, so I gave up trying to sharp my knives for 2 years when I finally could sharp a knife and I've never stopped. Now, I use this stone as a support for sand paper
mine went awesome. my stone £5 amazon 1000green 4000white. never bother with the 4000 like you said. i have cheap stainless knives. i don't have much hair left on the back of my wrist so i must have got something right?
Just wanted to THANK YOU for posting this video. Total novice here. Never used a stone before. Not only was I able to take a dull knife and sharpen it to something I could shave with, I was able to do it easily and confidently. I need more practice, but at least i have a good foundation now. Your video really helped.
Good video. I've been sharpening kitchen knives for 5 years and I've watched a lot of sharpening videos in that time. I was still able to pick up some useful tips from this video. It's always interesting to see how others approach this process so thanks for making this tutorial.
@@SharpKnifeShop Most definitely. I thought you did a particularly good job of explaining the deburring process and I picked up a couple of tips in that regard that I will be implementing on my next sharpening session. Thanks.
I wouldn't consider myself a beginner or an expert at sharpening, but somewhere in between. Everything I've learned since I first attempted to sharpen a knife (unsuccessfully) was pretty much covered in this video. The only thing I was missing was an explanation of why we want some slurry on our stones as we're working. Other than that, this video should be a one stop shop for anybody learning to sharpen!
Very good video, which sums up the most essential things about sharpening on whetstones. I have seen many videos of this kind and the vast majority were neither educational nor exhaustive. Thank you for this very well structured overview which is really useful for beginners. Even the most experienced (of which I am one) will certainly have learned something... I have only one remark: you recommend here to start again exactly the same process by passing from one stone to another. Personally, this is also what I do when it comes to moving from a #320 stone to a #1000 stone. But beyond that, it is not necessary in my opinion to repeat the whole process. You can just do the deburring gestures. In my personal experience, you save time (and you preserve the edge from small angle errors on stones that have less feedback ;) and you get the same sharpness as well as the polish.
Excellent, very comprehensive, not complicated for the beginner. What do you guys think about using both the right and left hands? Do you have a video for using both hands?
Hello ! Thank you for all of the fantastic info. I watch them as much as I can. I’m hoping you guys works do a video on the theory and technique on sharpening a petty knife and his that changes anything if at all. Thanks !
thanks for the video. flattening stones: I am cheap, to flatten my black Ark, I use a stilt mark stone, they are use in ceramic making to remove the marks left by the stilts. mostly they are aluminum oxide, they build a quick slurry, and cut really fast, probably not as fast as a diamond plate, but they only run about 2 bucks. It might be too aggressive for a water stone, but it works nicely on my Norton oil stone, and my Histodan stone.
Just looked those up, they look pretty similar to the naguras that are included with most of the stones we sell! While theyre certainly helpful tools, theyre better for cleaning out a loaded stone or building a slurry like you said, as such a small tool won't give you a particularly flat plane from which to sharpen!
Thanks for the video! What do you think about the Horl device to sharpen a good japanese knife? I have a hard time reaching a good result with a wet stone so I tried different solutions and Horl seems fine
We've already shown off a lot of Gages personal knives actually! Im thinking maybe some spotlights on all of our collections at the shop could be fun !
so always have the spine lead the stroke? The instructions that came with my straight razor said to push the blade forward into the stone, not sure if that because its a shaving razor's edge?
I have a question. If I almost only chop vegetables, and I have a super high grit(6000 and above) whetstone will my knife benefit of this high polish? Or will it be better to finish it with a 3000?
It can depend on the steel as well as the specific food. In general, I would say to try not to overdo it with time spent on stones in the 3-8k range (and going above 5k starts to show diminishing returns and even performance losses in kitchen knives) for general purpose until you know how your knife feels really well. In my experience it's more likely to hurt cutting feel and ease of initiating cuts as you go higher and, when the knife is properly apexed and deburred on your medium grit stone, which it should be, it won't take many strokes or passes to get a nice feeling of polish from higher grits, and it can soon go past being beneficial into being harmful sooner than you think. In general for steels that can hold it the sweet spot should be around 3-6k, but depending on steel, you can overdo it even there, at least for general purpose cutting. Really, it will take experimentation to see what you like.
WormyLeWorm made some great points! I prefer somewhere in the 1-3000 grit range for my board knives (everything Im doing general work with, which is mainly chopping veggies). As he said, a higher grit isnt a bad thing but if you spend too long on it, or try to just do the touch up on the 6K stone you will refine the edge PAST the existing tooth left from your lower grit stones. Which may make that knife great at shaving arm hair, but it will skate over a tomato skin!
@@SharpKnifeShop Agreed. After a stone I'd feel happy finishing and sharpening on alone (usually a chosera 400 or shapton 1k) I tend to jump right to 5-8k just for a little bit, or basically entirely finish on a chosera 3k (I also touch up here; 2k might be even nicer sometimes for that) then quite literally just a few swipes on something that finishes in the 5k-8k range. Either approach tends to give me the right balance I like. My knives in white #2 I find become suuuuper refined very easily so I have to be careful or they get too slidey, like you said, and even if they cut still they don't feel good to use. Though something like SKD (at least in my Yoshikane) I find stays toothy and aggressive no matter how long I polish it up, at least with the stones I use. I was told it has something to do with carbides. Softer knives though, I tend to just leave at chosera 400 + few strops on denim. Love that stone and the finish is nicer than it seems for the grit rating. 1k is nice too.
I'm trying to create a burr on a very cheap stainless steal knife on a Ninawa Pro 1000 stone, but even after like 30 passes, nothing is forming. Is this expected?
I have many more passes on it and at some point, I decided to flip it and continue. Then I continued as I had a burr (but I hadn't). It's a lot sharper now, but doesn't pass the paper or hair test. It slices through tomatoes though and the work is visible on the knife. But I'm wondering: What can I improve? Maybe it was still not enough and using 1000 is too high at the beginning, if the knife was in a really bad shape?
@@fluttershy77x It's hard to say without being able to see the knife. There are a lot of things that could lead to this happening. Feel free to shoot us an email at info@sharpknifeshop.com with some pictures and I'd be happy to try and help!
I cut my finger : ( But other than that, my first sharpening wasn't a disaster! I believe that I managed to make the tip really sharp, but the rest of the blade is still dull. I believe it's because I put more work into the tip. I'll have to see tomorrow when I try and sharpen again. I'm finding it hard to know exactly how intense the burr needs to be. To me, both sides of the knife felt a little coarse. The burr side being a bit more rough
Hey Najibah! If your burr is uneven its for one of a couple reasons. Firstly its very likely that you don't use the entire length of your blade equally, so some spots will be duller than others and require more work to even out with the rest of the knife. The other reason I can think of is that you need more practice on the heel and belly+tip area to be applying even pressure to those more difficult spots than the other parts of the knife!
How did your first sharpening go? Let us know down below!
My first sharpening was pretty bad, I bought a terrible stone that is too fine to remove material, at the same time of not having any polish agents, so I've spent hour and hours and I couldn't sharp my knife, so I gave up trying to sharp my knives for 2 years when I finally could sharp a knife and I've never stopped. Now, I use this stone as a support for sand paper
mine went awesome. my stone £5 amazon 1000green 4000white. never bother with the 4000 like you said. i have cheap stainless knives. i don't have much hair left on the back of my wrist so i must have got something right?
Criminally undersubscribed channel. Some of the best info on TH-cam for knives/technique and absolutely no bs or fluff. Kudos.
Just wanted to THANK YOU for posting this video. Total novice here. Never used a stone before. Not only was I able to take a dull knife and sharpen it to something I could shave with, I was able to do it easily and confidently. I need more practice, but at least i have a good foundation now. Your video really helped.
Good video. I've been sharpening kitchen knives for 5 years and I've watched a lot of sharpening videos in that time. I was still able to pick up some useful tips from this video. It's always interesting to see how others approach this process so thanks for making this tutorial.
Glad we could help! Theres certainly more than one way to get to the same end result!
@@SharpKnifeShop Most definitely. I thought you did a particularly good job of explaining the deburring process and I picked up a couple of tips in that regard that I will be implementing on my next sharpening session. Thanks.
One of the best sharpening videos out there. Great job
Top vid again guys! Detailed, informative, concise. Top work fellas! 👍🙌🙌
Glad you enjoyed it!
Think I’ve watched every sharpening video there is, this is an excellent one.
I wouldn't consider myself a beginner or an expert at sharpening, but somewhere in between.
Everything I've learned since I first attempted to sharpen a knife (unsuccessfully) was pretty much covered in this video.
The only thing I was missing was an explanation of why we want some slurry on our stones as we're working.
Other than that, this video should be a one stop shop for anybody learning to sharpen!
Thank you, really good sharpening lesson.
Very good video, which sums up the most essential things about sharpening on whetstones. I have seen many videos of this kind and the vast majority were neither educational nor exhaustive. Thank you for this very well structured overview which is really useful for beginners. Even the most experienced (of which I am one) will certainly have learned something...
I have only one remark: you recommend here to start again exactly the same process by passing from one stone to another. Personally, this is also what I do when it comes to moving from a #320 stone to a #1000 stone. But beyond that, it is not necessary in my opinion to repeat the whole process. You can just do the deburring gestures. In my personal experience, you save time (and you preserve the edge from small angle errors on stones that have less feedback ;) and you get the same sharpness as well as the polish.
Thank you Gage. Well done video.
Excellent, very comprehensive, not complicated for the beginner. What do you guys think about using both the right and left hands? Do you have a video for using both hands?
Hello ! Thank you for all of the fantastic info. I watch them as much as I can. I’m hoping you guys works do a video on the theory and technique on sharpening a petty knife and his that changes anything if at all. Thanks !
Excellent video!
Dude. Learned so much. Been making so many mistakes 🙄
Thanks for sharing your knowledge 🙂✌️
Awesome tutorial. Thanks a lot.
This definitely helped me!
Glad to hear it!
thanks for the video. flattening stones: I am cheap, to flatten my black Ark, I use a stilt mark stone, they are use in ceramic making to remove the marks left by the stilts. mostly they are aluminum oxide, they build a quick slurry, and cut really fast, probably not as fast as a diamond plate, but they only run about 2 bucks. It might be too aggressive for a water stone, but it works nicely on my Norton oil stone, and my Histodan stone.
Just looked those up, they look pretty similar to the naguras that are included with most of the stones we sell! While theyre certainly helpful tools, theyre better for cleaning out a loaded stone or building a slurry like you said, as such a small tool won't give you a particularly flat plane from which to sharpen!
Fantastic, thanks
Thanks for the video! What do you think about the Horl device to sharpen a good japanese knife? I have a hard time reaching a good result with a wet stone so I tried different solutions and Horl seems fine
I have an idea for a new series about knives. We have Gages favorite, but maybe Gages Private ( knives Colection) ? What knives and why these? ;)
We've already shown off a lot of Gages personal knives actually! Im thinking maybe some spotlights on all of our collections at the shop could be fun !
so always have the spine lead the stroke? The instructions that came with my straight razor said to push the blade forward into the stone, not sure if that because its a shaving razor's edge?
My last purchase is cerax1000 and rika 5000 :D
I have a question. If I almost only chop vegetables, and I have a super high grit(6000 and above) whetstone will my knife benefit of this high polish? Or will it be better to finish it with a 3000?
It can depend on the steel as well as the specific food. In general, I would say to try not to overdo it with time spent on stones in the 3-8k range (and going above 5k starts to show diminishing returns and even performance losses in kitchen knives) for general purpose until you know how your knife feels really well. In my experience it's more likely to hurt cutting feel and ease of initiating cuts as you go higher and, when the knife is properly apexed and deburred on your medium grit stone, which it should be, it won't take many strokes or passes to get a nice feeling of polish from higher grits, and it can soon go past being beneficial into being harmful sooner than you think.
In general for steels that can hold it the sweet spot should be around 3-6k, but depending on steel, you can overdo it even there, at least for general purpose cutting.
Really, it will take experimentation to see what you like.
WormyLeWorm made some great points! I prefer somewhere in the 1-3000 grit range for my board knives (everything Im doing general work with, which is mainly chopping veggies). As he said, a higher grit isnt a bad thing but if you spend too long on it, or try to just do the touch up on the 6K stone you will refine the edge PAST the existing tooth left from your lower grit stones. Which may make that knife great at shaving arm hair, but it will skate over a tomato skin!
@@SharpKnifeShop Agreed. After a stone I'd feel happy finishing and sharpening on alone (usually a chosera 400 or shapton 1k) I tend to jump right to 5-8k just for a little bit, or basically entirely finish on a chosera 3k (I also touch up here; 2k might be even nicer sometimes for that) then quite literally just a few swipes on something that finishes in the 5k-8k range. Either approach tends to give me the right balance I like. My knives in white #2 I find become suuuuper refined very easily so I have to be careful or they get too slidey, like you said, and even if they cut still they don't feel good to use. Though something like SKD (at least in my Yoshikane) I find stays toothy and aggressive no matter how long I polish it up, at least with the stones I use. I was told it has something to do with carbides.
Softer knives though, I tend to just leave at chosera 400 + few strops on denim. Love that stone and the finish is nicer than it seems for the grit rating. 1k is nice too.
Do you consider R2 steel as stainless that you don't need to go above 1000 grit?
You said on the 1st side to sharpen at a 45 deg angle. But when you flipped over you just did parallel passes.
I'm trying to create a burr on a very cheap stainless steal knife on a Ninawa Pro 1000 stone, but even after like 30 passes, nothing is forming. Is this expected?
I have many more passes on it and at some point, I decided to flip it and continue. Then I continued as I had a burr (but I hadn't). It's a lot sharper now, but doesn't pass the paper or hair test. It slices through tomatoes though and the work is visible on the knife. But I'm wondering: What can I improve? Maybe it was still not enough and using 1000 is too high at the beginning, if the knife was in a really bad shape?
@@fluttershy77x It's hard to say without being able to see the knife. There are a lot of things that could lead to this happening. Feel free to shoot us an email at info@sharpknifeshop.com with some pictures and I'd be happy to try and help!
Folks that’s Aaron Paul
I got over my meth addiction and decided to open a knife shop.
I cut my finger : (
But other than that, my first sharpening wasn't a disaster! I believe that I managed to make the tip really sharp, but the rest of the blade is still dull. I believe it's because I put more work into the tip. I'll have to see tomorrow when I try and sharpen again.
I'm finding it hard to know exactly how intense the burr needs to be. To me, both sides of the knife felt a little coarse. The burr side being a bit more rough
First time sharpening I sadly decided to "sharp" my brand new 200 USD kasumi gyoto in a 240 stone and scretch the hell out of it
😳😭
What is the knife in the thumbnail?
Thats a Sakai Kikuzuki Kiritsuke!
omg the intro was so loud for some reason my ears are ringing now
Sorry about that
the intro is very aggressive on loud volume lol.
this guy has apparently never bought sandpaper.
how to overcome uneven burr formation
Hey Najibah! If your burr is uneven its for one of a couple reasons.
Firstly its very likely that you don't use the entire length of your blade equally, so some spots will be duller than others and require more work to even out with the rest of the knife.
The other reason I can think of is that you need more practice on the heel and belly+tip area to be applying even pressure to those more difficult spots than the other parts of the knife!
Almost had a seizure over that intro, the heck
omg my ears :( this intro music is too loud
I'm sorry :' ) I edited this on my laptop and the speakers don't have much juice, I'll nail it next time!