When is professional sharpening needed?

[whittlinwit]

Not that often, you should learn to maintain your own tools.

Use a professional:
When you are unable to restore the cutting action of a tool at home.
V-tools should be re-ground at least once a year by someone who really knows what they are doing.

Knives can benifit from regrinding when they become rounded from stropping and hand-sharpening.

If a tool isn't enjoyable to carve with, a professional tuneup is recommended.

[richy-ruff]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

Okay....a real dumb question. How do you sharpen a knife with a serrated edge on it. Now mind you this is not my carving knife, but the one I carry for cutting stuff around the house. To date I have been sticking it in the power can opener/sharpener, but the results are less than pretty. When I first got it I cut myself all the time with it, and now I am lucky if I can get a cheap thrill out of it. :-/

[whittlinwit]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

Rick, try this site for a fair explaination.

http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/sharpen/instser.html

[Guest]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

Would you recommend using a belt sander to speed up the sharpening process?

I seemed to take a long time to sharpen and strop my tools and was looking for a faster method.

Thanks,
Jim

[richy-ruff]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

I use an oil stone and a strop. I have one of those Sears sharpeners, but never got the hang of it, so back to the manual way. I strop often and don't spend a lot of time on the stone as a result. I do however know that some of my gouges probably need the factory angle modified for better cutting, but never tried it for fear of runing them.

[richy-ruff]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

Thanks for the link Rick. That shed some light on the matter. Bottom line for me is that I will just keep my old schrade in my pocket and throw the serrated knife in my tool box. I can't see taking the time to hone each groove. I can get a better blade on the schrade without all the time. That also opens up a whole set of questions on the set of serrated kitchen knives we got as a present last year. The wife is always complaining about how dull they have gotten. Maybe time for some good old fashion knives.

[whittlinwit]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

Jim,
For me, power sharpening is the only way to go.
I have never use a belt sander for that purpose, but I don't see why you couldn't.

[Bandaid]

Re: When is professional sharpening needed?

Rick...a round ceramic rod does a pretty good job on a serrate edge.