Any other sharpeners here?

T

The Tourist

Guest
I can understand that sharpening is a fractile craft among cutlers, but are there any other professional sharpeners here? As stated, I have no formal training, other than history books and conversations with suppliers.

We do have a polisher here in the Madison area, and I would have loved to become his apprentice. Yikes, if I would have planned ahead better I wouldn't have wasted +30 years in finance.;)

There are many scheduled gatherings for cutlery, like a "hammer in" or S.H.O.T. and even places where company owners themselves come to press the flesh. I was wondering if there were similar events for swarf guys.
 
All right. I'm curious. What do you sharpen? Knives only or other items?
Full time or part time?
Thanks, Dozier
 
All right. I'm curious. What do you sharpen?

Right now I like to do kitchen knives, but it's been a long weird journey. Being retired I don't really have to do anything, but I began simply sharpening at a sporting goods store. I began to do a few jobs for area chefs as the work presented itself.

I became itinerant to local restaurants for a few years.

If I had my choice I would only do the Japanese style, they are the most fun and the most demanding. However, most of my clients have become my friends, and we sit around in my kitchen over a cappuccino, tell some lies and put an edge on just about everything.

The study is primarily a personal thing. For example, I bought a "working" katana (the type a bushido student might utilize for cutting grass mats), and hope to get into polishing over the next year. Not to become a togishi polisher, mind you, just for the experience.

Edit: Besides, it's fun to be a heretic. Do you know anyone else would puts a +100 dollar edge on a five dollar Chinese folder just to do a favor for his favorite bike mechanic?

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb231/TheTourist_bucket/004-1.jpg
 
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Dang Tourist, now ya have me wanting to get a set of waterstones, you certainly put a polish on your work, Outstanding!
 
Dang Tourist, now ya have me wanting to get a set of waterstones!

LOL. Careful what you wish for. Insiders refer to this supposed "art" of sharpening as "the curse."

At the face of it, it seems so simple. After all, a knife is a piece of metal, any fool can dip a rock into a bucket of water and rub a little bit. How hard can that be?

Oy. Ben Dale and I actually search through bins of broken glass looking for an odd style (many times used in lighthouses) manufactured from our Civil War until about 1901. It polishes edges better.

I have sat on the phone for over an hour many times salivating over strips of antique glass like they were a Delmonico steak...
 
Wow. Opened up a whole world I didn't realize was there. I mean I know sharp knives but civil war glass. Can't you get a glass blower to make you exactly what you want? Probably not, something in the glass, and the finding. Great Picture. A good mechanic is hard to find. I take my vet's office cooking and donuts occasionally though!
Thanks for the info, Dozier
 
Wow. Opened up a whole world

In reading Japanese history I have found that there was a unique relationship between the cutler and his polisher. It took a skilled craftsman to fold and weld the metal, and then a knowledgable polisher to bring out that beauty.

I learned this one time in polishing the edge of a 1 of 1,000 collaboration knife that Buck and Strider offered. As I sharpened the mirror finished blade, I saw that my bevel appeared 'yellow' when I turned it in the light.

When I buffed the bevel to the proper grit level, the icy blue color appeared.

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb231/TheTourist_bucket/buckstrider.jpg
 
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Hey Tourist, not long ago, a couple of drunk young guys shot out some glass in one of the many lighthouses along the coast, I have a fishing trip planned in a few weeks, and will go see if I can get some hunks of the glass to send you, and keep a few pieces for myself.
 
if I can get some hunks of the glass.

Here's the sitrep on this type of glass.

At this point in history (about 1860 to 1901), we had technology in trains and ships that surpassed our lighting techniques. Did you ever hear a driving instructor warn you about "over-driving your lights"? Same deal.

Since they couldn't do much about the parabolic reflectors of the era, they refined the quality of their glass. It was called "glaziers glass."

A glazier is simply a guy who makes glass. However, the phrase meant 'high quality.' For our purposes it is pure, devoid of flecks and grit and uniform in thickness. A sharpener can utilize this product for the mounting of polishing tapes, or eel skin papers, etc.

One of my friends from Wyoming went to a local glazier and had some slabs cut for measurements. He found a variance in modern products. But in measuring a slab from the Victorian age I sent him, he found it to be dead-flat and so pure he could read newsprint even when turning the piece on its side.

If you cannot find such glass, you can go to a glazier and purchase what is now known as "thick glass." It is decorative glass, very thick and pure and most often used on upscale coffee tables.

Granted, you do not need glass to sharpen, and even poor quality glass is useful. But if you're sharpening and polishing a 2,000 dollar Hattori at 20 bucks per inch, it doesn't hurt!
 
I'm feeling pretty humble right about now.

Yikes, I hope it's not something I said. You're a knife maker. I'm not even a polisher, I'm a tinker.

Last night I was perusing this forum and found that one of our members here made an engraved pistol from scratch. I was dumbfounded by his skill and execution. I only rub stuff with a wet rock.

One morning I was talking to Mike Crenshaw on the telephone. He calls himself "hso" on the THR forum. He knows lots of cutlers, and he says that very few of them are stellar in all forms of knifecraft--stock removal, HT, handles and then sharpening.

In fact, my Graham SS3 is about as close to a complete "in house" package as I have ever owned as an EDC.

It once took me all morning to sharpen a sushi knife for my doctor's mother, who was born in Japan before the war. She liked the edge, and he reports that at +80 years of age she still has her waterstones "to touch it up."

And you feel humbled...?
 
Yikes, I hope it's not something I said. You're a knife maker...

I think of myself as a sparkmaker ;) Occasionally one of my projects comes out resembling a knife and can actually cut things. Then I smile.

Your edges look sweet.
 
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Good thread, love your highly polished edges but you have made me curious.

I like Japanese laminated blades and I'm Anxious to see some pics of those $2K+ Hattori 's you have been sharpening/Polishing, if you would post them Sir? 2thumbs
 
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