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Knife sharpening

Cotis are something I haven't played with much. I have a couple for razors, but don't know how they would work for knives. I'm assuming they are similar to Japanese naturals with the hardness grades, but I really don't know enough about them to give you an honest answer. If it's another shaving forum, I am going to say it would be a razor grade coti and would be above your 6k. But again, I don't know a lot about them.
 
what im mainly concerned about is when chopping tougher vegetables like sweet potatoes, potatoes or butter nut squash. some times it can hard to cut through them, is there a happy meduim you can get where you can cut through tougher vegatables like sweet potatoes and butter nut sqaush but still have a good slicing edge for things like tomatoes and onions and bell peppers?
 
this is the coticule that is up for grabs, not sure if this helps at all La Grosse Jaune Coticule Selected / Slurry Stone – Ardennes
 
You could do that with your 1k, and could get a little better with a 3k. You need to take into consideration the bevel angel too. Too fine of an edge, and it will wear quickly or chip.

I don't know if I'd recommend a coti to start with. They are tricky to learn with the way the slurry works. there is a lot of diluting and such going on to get your grit. That's why I haven't gotten into them much. I like knowing what my grit is and not needing to guess by how thick the slurry is. I'd recommend getting the basics down first before you throw another learning curve in there.
 
ShawnF said:
You could do that with your 1k, and could get a little better with a 3k. You need to take into consideration the bevel angel too. Too fine of an edge, and it will wear quickly or chip.

I don't know if I'd recommend a coti to start with. They are tricky to learn with the way the slurry works. there is a lot of diluting and such going on to get your grit. That's why I haven't gotten into them much. I like knowing what my grit is and not needing to guess by how thick the slurry is. I'd recommend getting the basics down first before you throw another learning curve in there.
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ok, i want to get the coit becuase its a natural stone, but you do make a good point on the slurry and not knowing the acutal grit. i originally got the 220 for my old chefs knife to fix chips in the blade, it was a victorinox chef knife which i no longer have because someone threw it in the dishwasher and it was getting pretty old as well, the 220 is mainly for fixing the blade correct, you arent trying develp a bur on the 220 stone correct?
 
Old? My Wusthof knives are 25 years old haha. But in all fairness I don't give them a lot of heavy use either.

I generally don't do the burr method. I usually just go side to side watching my apex for any reflection. Once there is no light reflected off the edge and it feels consistent along the entire edge then I move up and start honing it.
 
it was my first knife, and i took a lot of metal off while sharpening it, took it to a belt sander as well, my thinking was why not try to get a bevel faster, but i ended up shaving off too much metal. i used it as practice knife. it was thrown in the dishwasher a number of times, and the handle got really bad as well, it was a nice redish wood color, but he dishwasher did a number on the wood unfortenatly, and taking off so much metal over the course of about 4 years my knuckles were hitting the cuttingboard.
 
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Dishwashers are hard on knives. My in-laws retired from alcas, so I have a fair number of cutco knives. They are "dishwasher safe" but I still don't put them in there. It destroys the edge.
My wusthofs and forged knives have never and will never see the inside of one. Hopefully no one that has one of my forged knives will either..

I do put edges on with a belt grinder now, but still refine them on stones. In all fairness it is a variable speed turned down low and a very fine belt. Plus since I already grind the whole blade its easy to just put the rough edges on too..
😜
 
i was sharpening one of my knifes today and i had the fingers on my right hand a bit to close to the stone and it wore away the padding on my fingers, not bad enough to draw blood but bad enough to notice that the area was red and pretty thin. is there any thing i can do for this. Also im trying to get more experience freehand sharpening, are there any knives that you would recommend getting to get more pratice on? like a set of beater knives that i wouldnt have to worry about messing the edge up to get some more experience sharpening.
 
Got your fingers with the edge? Or rubbing on the stone? If it was on the edge and you were holding the stone, put it down. You will be able to hold a more consistent angle with the stone supported instead of hand held. If you were rubbing your fingers on the stone, just move them up. You don't want to get near the edge. If you get in that habit, once you get to finer edges you can roll them by using too much pressure there.
If the latter was the case, I am going to assume you had the stone on a table or something and using both hands on the blade? If so, keep your fingertips back closer to the mid point between the apex and the spine. If you happen to rock the blade and get your finger under it, you will definitely know it.

As far as a "beater" knife, Ontario Knife makes the Old Hickory knives. You can get a 7 inch butcher knife on amazon for about 15 bucks. They are actually a pretty decent carbon steel knife, so they will take a good edge. There is a lot of steel on a butcher design, so plenty of practice material there.
 
yea my fingers were to close to the edge of the knife so the stone wore away part of my finger tip, trying to get outt of that habbit and move my fingers up a bit.
 
Fingernail or needle. Go from the spine side out towards the edge (using much caution not to go sideways especially if done with the nail) on both sides. If anything catches at all on either side, there is still a burr.

After your stone fiasco, you might be better off opting for the needle. 😜 😜 😜 (JK)
 
hahahahahahah, todays wasnt even that bad, theres been some sharpening sessions were i wore the pads on my fingers down so much i drew blood. Its a learning process for sure
 
@ShawnF is there any way i could restore the polish to this knife, not the edge but the body of the blade? the shine on the blade has gone from like mirroir finish to really dull looking. ive had it for about 3 years or so and it gets used quite frequently and washed alot.
 

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Flitz or mothers polish works. MAAS is a little more aggressive but would work also.
For just restoring shine, I would go with flitz.
 
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