Thread: Knife sharpening course chch

I'm want to do a knife sharpening course and properly learn how/be confident using a whetstone. I've watched plenty of youtube videos and get my knives reasonably sharp but I have no doubt they could be better. Anyone know of a course locally in Chch where they run you through it in a 'hands on' BYO knife manner?

Good idea.

Give me a yell if coming through geraldine.happy to show you how I do it.may or may not improve your technique.ive made a point of getting it right in last year,no more near enough,just keep at it till it shaves hair off my arm.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Give me a yell if coming through geraldine.happy to show you how I do it.may or may not improve your technique.ive made a point of getting it right in last year,no more near enough,just keep at it till it shaves hair off my arm.

Cheers for the offer, I'll keep it in mind when im heading south

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Give me a yell if coming through geraldine.happy to show you how I do it.may or may not improve your technique.ive made a point of getting it right in last year,no more near enough,just keep at it till it shaves hair off my arm.

Just as a matter of interest, I just used my Gerber replacement blade knife on my first dear. It was beautifully sharp but I noticed that I hit the bone at one stage and carved down the bone. That blade now has a slight 'shimmy' in the edge. As a beginner is this something that I would need to wet stone and then steel? Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by jpurdon

I'm want to do a knife sharpening course and properly learn how/be confident using a whetstone. I've watched plenty of youtube videos and get my knives reasonably sharp but I have no doubt they could be better. Anyone know of a course locally in Chch where they run you through it in a 'hands on' BYO knife manner?

Happy to give you a few pointers on technique if that helps??

A future forum meet & greet maybe....in ChCh?.
Byo knives lol.

Originally Posted by Mrfants

Just as a matter of interest, I just used my Gerber replacement blade knife on my first dear. It was beautifully sharp but I noticed that I hit the bone at one stage and carved down the bone. That blade now has a slight 'shimmy' in the edge. As a beginner is this something that I would need to wet stone and then steel? Thanks in advance.

A steeling might remove it alone... I believe that once a knife is sharp...we steel it to keep it sharp until our steeling creates a wee "shoulder" and we then stone to take it away again. If you hold knife with back edge uppermost you can see light shine along the back.flipped over any dull spots on edge do the same.

Originally Posted by Twodiffs

A future forum meet & greet maybe....in ChCh?.
Byo knives lol.

Definitely something we could do

Originally Posted by Twodiffs

A future forum meet & greet maybe....in ChCh?.
Byo knives lol.

I’d be keen and could possibly host… might be hard to find somewhere fine with a bunch of blokes carrying knives!

Like others I’m self taught but have had a lot of practice. Messed around with straight razors for a while but it’s pretty time consuming.

Just bought one of the elcheapho jobbies off trademe. For under $50 I figured couldn't go wrong. Had a wee tootoo earlier and so far looking very good/promising.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

A steeling might remove it alone... I believe that once a knife is sharp...we steel it to keep it sharp until our steeling creates a wee "shoulder" and we then stone to take it away again. If you hold knife with back edge uppermost you can see light shine along the back.flipped over any dull spots on edge do the same.

I can say that @Micky Duck was around at my house one day a couple years ago and gave a cheap kitchen knife a fair good rub down on his big flat river stone. Still has a good edge on it and I've only gently run it over my Norton stone once and used a worn out diamond steel when the edge is a bit dull.

Happy to do some hands on knife sharpening anytime for anyone who’s keen. Tutored knife sharpening at the meat works for a number of years and make a few knifes at home now. Flick me a message if your interested, BYO knife.

I will say in my current role I have a similar access to good knife sharpeners.
Ones a robot and one is a hand version of the same thing.
Give the guys the knife and bang it's done in about 30 seconds.
Spoilt.
I do have a freezing works type sharpener I cough, cough "acquired" that can clamp to a bench.
I have a stone on a rod for it but need to get one of the diamond pads.
They will last for years

Originally Posted by Mrfants

Just as a matter of interest, I just used my Gerber replacement blade knife on my first dear. It was beautifully sharp but I noticed that I hit the bone at one stage and carved down the bone. That blade now has a slight 'shimmy' in the edge. As a beginner is this something that I would need to wet stone and then steel? Thanks in advance.

Replace the blade would be the idea. The replacement blade knives come very sharp but are simple steels, that are pretty soft so won't keep an edge for very long.

You can absolutely sharpen them, although if you have edge deflection I'd just throw a new blade in.

Realignment is possible in softer steels but you will end up with an area that is a bit weak and prone to repeat issues. When fixing reflections like this I aim to sharpen the bent steel off completely rather than try to realign the bent bit.

Good knife to practice on to be fair as if you stuff it up can just chuck a new blade in