# Fixing a chipped tip



## CoqaVin (Jul 31, 2014)

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I can't seem to find it through the glorious search tool, I left my knife on the line at work and someone knocked it down or maybe even myself, I can't seem to remember, anyways it ended up having a bent tip, so I went at it on the stones and thought I could just fix it that way, as I was successful doing this before. But it must have been a lot worse or something, when I sharpened out the bent tip, I ended up noticing that the tip was no just fatigued steel, and now it is just a chipped tip. What is the best way of going about this, I do not have a super coarse stone, since I am into naturals, any stone suggestions as well as techniques would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!


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## ThEoRy (Jul 31, 2014)

Diamond plate from the spine down until the chip is almost gone to where one quick sharpening will bring the edge up to make it whole again. No diamond plate? Sidewalk.


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## Zwiefel (Jul 31, 2014)

Or cinderblock!


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## CoqaVin (Jul 31, 2014)

ThEoRy said:


> Diamond plate from the spine down until the chip is almost gone to where one quick sharpening will bring the edge up to make it whole again. No diamond plate? Sidewalk.



really? I saw this on youtube with a cheapo knife, but I wasn't sure if I should do it with a more expensive knife


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## Mucho Bocho (Jul 31, 2014)

Talk about nails on a chalk board. It must feel and sound torturous grinding a hard steel on a coarse concrete block.


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## vai777 (Jul 31, 2014)

Zwiefel said:


> Or cinderblock!




What in the hell happened there?


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## Zwiefel (Jul 31, 2014)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Talk about nails on a chalk board. It must feel and sound torturous grinding a hard steel on a coarse concrete block.



Yeah. Not pleasant. 



vai777 said:


> What in the hell happened there?



It came to me in this condition so I don't really know....I'd guess it's a combination of "chippy shun," hard plastic cutting board, and abuse. Except for that chip that appeared on the polishing stone, I was quite happy with the product.

For the OP: this was the first time I did anything like this...so I'm sure you can fix yours too!


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## vai777 (Jul 31, 2014)

Zwiefel said:


> Yeah. Not pleasant.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah that is pretty insane... I have a shun santoku and it gets beat... the wife uses it... never got a chip ever. That thing looks like it was used to hack bone.


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## Talim (Jul 31, 2014)

Probably was used as a can opener.


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## Dave Martell (Jul 31, 2014)

Zwiefel said:


> Or cinderblock!




Nice repair Danny!


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## ecchef (Jul 31, 2014)

Seriously! I have a beater Norton just for this. Then I use the edges of waterstones for the in-between shaping.


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## LKH9 (Aug 1, 2014)

Zwiefel said:


> Or cinderblock!



Seeing that chipped edge reminds me of blades coming out of a battlefield. How many lives did it claim?:knight:


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## Squilliam (Aug 1, 2014)

Removing the chips is straightforward, thinning the edge is the tricky part.


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## CoqaVin (Aug 1, 2014)

that shun reminds me of my old bosses, he used to literally beat the hell out of the thing, threw it everywhere and put it through dish multiple times a day, thing looked like the rocky mountains, and was a great example to me of how chippy VG10 shuns can be.


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## panda (Aug 1, 2014)

knives get 'chippy' because of user error, not because they are inherently brittle steels.


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## Zwiefel (Aug 1, 2014)

panda said:


> knives get 'chippy' because of user error, not because they are inherently brittle steels.



I think a combination of user error and poor heat treatment, no? That was my understanding about the Shuns anyway, hardened beyond the sweet spot for the steel.


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## CutFingers (Aug 1, 2014)

Looks like a chippy old Sun. I got my 8 inch classic kind of uneven from my early days of inexperienced sharpening. Now it's got a huge fat convex that helps support the edge better. Despite the hideous bevels it draw cuts soft tomatoes better than some of my more expensive knives. That cinderblock puts my atoma to shame  That was a great repair job and those bevels OMG...very nice.


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## panda (Aug 2, 2014)

i've dealt with plenty of shuns, they are not that chippy. their only downfall (if it applies to you) is it feels gross on the stones, and that deep belly profile, yuck.


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## CutFingers (Aug 2, 2014)

Yeah that big Shun belly almost took a finger off last week  I didn't want to wipe a carbon knife so I grabbed the old shun and rock chopped...wow that belly was so big the knife slid out from under me and sliced my finger...a good little clean cut.


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## Keith Sinclair (Aug 4, 2014)

panda said:


> knives get 'chippy' because of user error, not because they are inherently brittle steels.



I agree, sharpened up a guys shuns that were badly chipped like Zwiefel's knife. After repair used them a while, all kinds of cuts including chopping no chips at all. I kept a small slicer 160mm as payment. It had been chipped all along the blade. I use it to carve up & go between the joints of Costco roasted chickens, again no chipping at all.

Shuns are sold everywhere, most people who buy them know nothing of knife care. It is not like someone buying a Carter. They throw them around banging the edges into hard objects. Most come from German panzer soft steel bloc sets. I sharpened a lot of these too with dents & broken tips. The Shuns don't stand a chance.


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## Zwiefel (Aug 4, 2014)

keithsaltydog said:


> I agree, sharpened up a guys shuns that were badly chipped like Zwiefel's knife. After repair used them a while, all kinds of cuts including chopping no chips at all. I kept a small slicer 160mm as payment. It had been chipped all along the blade. I use it to carve up & go between the joints of Costco roasted chickens, again no chipping at all.
> 
> Shuns are sold everywhere, most people who buy them know nothing of knife care. It is not like someone buying a Carter. They throw them around banging the edges into hard objects. Most come from German panzer soft steel bloc sets. I sharpened a lot of these too with dents & broken tips. The Shuns don't stand a chance.



The above is my only experience...maybe we are seeing a disproportionate number of users with poor habits on those knives rather than poor quality heat-treat. :dontknow:


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## Keith Sinclair (Aug 4, 2014)

Just my experience, I sharpen a fair amount of soft stainless (mostly on diamond plate)finish on 1K stone & leather strop. The Vg-10 Shuns seem easy in comparison to sharpen. I do most of burr removal on the stone & strop a couple times on newspaper, no problem with burr removal on VG-10. I find that AEB-L is even better to sharpen almost like carbon. Also like the way the Carbonext & Gesshin Ginga take to the stones. Have little experience sharpening very expensive stainless, since it does not come my way ,my better knives are all carbon steel.

They make tons of shuns I would think that they go through a very specific Heat-freeze-lower heat again process. Even Cutco's have a quality heat treatment. The only thing I can think of besides abuse is perhaps because of the large quantity the edge steel is fatigued in the final edge work & has to be removed to get to the good steel. This is pure speculation only a guess. I have had that happen with a stainless Japanese small cleaver.


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## panda (Aug 5, 2014)

when i see a knife with as much damage as the one zwiefel repaired, the first thing that pops into my head is people trying to cut frozen stuff with bones. you use a knife with a 'good heat treat' doing the same thing, i guarantee you the damage will be just the same if not worse.


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## Zwiefel (Aug 5, 2014)

OP: sorry, I seem to have totally threadjacked you.

Strangely, I got a note from the owner of that knife a couple of days ago asking if I could fix it again, "it's almost as bad as before." <sigh>



panda said:


> when i see a knife with as much damage as the one zwiefel repaired, the first thing that pops into my head is people trying to cut frozen stuff with bones. you use a knife with a 'good heat treat' doing the same thing, i guarantee you the damage will be just the same if not worse.


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## panda (Aug 5, 2014)

tell them to trade in for a henckels


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## Zwiefel (Aug 5, 2014)

That would not be the worst advice they received that day. 

Unfortunately they were a gift from her father...so rather unlikely. I will offer some usage advice though. In any case, I enjoy doing the work. 



panda said:


> tell them to trade in for a henckels


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## Keith Sinclair (Aug 6, 2014)

Zwiefel said:


> OP: sorry, I seem to have totally threadjacked you.
> 
> Strangely, I got a note from the owner of that knife a couple of days ago asking if I could fix it again, "it's almost as bad as before." <sigh>



At this rate it will become a petty, give the person the facts about knife care


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## Zwiefel (Aug 6, 2014)

keithsaltydog said:


> At this rate it will become a petty, give the person the facts about knife care



Actually, I think it is a petty...headed towards 135mm though. But yeah.


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## krx927 (Dec 1, 2014)

Any reason why you would not use just a flat file to remove all the metal? Why are you so keen on diamond plates, sidewalk and cinderblocks?


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## Sabaki (Dec 1, 2014)

krx927 said:


> Any reason why you would not use just a flat file to remove all the metal? Why are you so keen on diamond plates, sidewalk and cinderblocks?



you would ruin the file, a file is used to file iron not hardened steel

i prefer a diamondfile in this case to do the shaping and then finish on the stones


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## krx927 (Dec 3, 2014)

got it


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## mhpr262 (Dec 4, 2014)

Zwiefel said:


> Or cinderblock!



When people should rather be using a German knife ... :bigeek:


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## LKH9 (Dec 8, 2014)

mhpr262 said:


> When people should rather be using a German knife ... :bigeek:



This is why I rather let people use cheap stainless, they are not ready to handle these great knives. These are only for knifenuts.


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## CoqaVin (Dec 9, 2014)

what makes me even more mad, is when people know better, and they still do stupid things with knives, like really? come on I know you know better than that, if you are going to be lazy or just do stupid things like bang my knife in the cutting board or on something metal, then don't use it THANKS! :knife:


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## krx927 (Dec 9, 2014)

I completely agree, but you should not forget that many people do not care about knives, like us, knife nuts! If they are loaded and they have a knife for $100 (or more) they just do not care, it's peanuts for them...

Just as a comparison, how many times you rev your car past 3000/4000 revs when it is cold? Same thing :shocked3:


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## daveb (Dec 9, 2014)

LKH9 said:


> This is why I rather let people use cheap stainless, they are not ready to handle these great knives. These are only for knifenuts.





krx927 said:


> I completely agree, but you should not forget that many people do not care about knives, like us, knife nuts! If they are loaded and they have a knife for $100 (or more) they just do not care, it's peanuts for them...






I challenge either of you to find any correlation between income level and interest/caring for kitchen knives. It's a niche interest group that spans all socioeconomic groups. The same is true of any number of other niche groups be it stereo systems, wine, outdoor grills, stamp and coin collectors etc. etc. etc. Granted more disposable income allows more pursuit of specialized interests but lessor income is not a barrier to entry for knives discussed here. 

LK suggests that those not sharing the knife interestt should not be allowed to own/use a Shun??? Hello??? I don't think a bunch of housewives, cutlery stores, and even certified knifenuts would agree with you. Shun probably would not either and they're doing quite well targeting a demographic that knows little to nothing of knives. 

A recent LK quote "I've explained enough before and also got heavily shot down" We've got a saying in the states that goes something like "If enough people are telling you that you're growing a tail, you ought to turn around and look at your ass". Consider that maybe everyone else isn't wrong. 

KR notes that many people don't care about knives or don't take care of knives. Thats true but not because a $100.00 iknife represents peanuts. Most people think of knives as tools, pure and simple. Regardless of their income and quality of knife. And if they don't care about their knives, (cars, carpets, wine, coffee,)....why does it matter to you? Nice touch on asserting Rick must not know anything about cars btw.

LK if you're going to share your "Dumb and dumber" show across all the subforums here you should at least print a program so we know where to watch next.


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## LKH9 (Dec 9, 2014)

And that all flamewar wasn't enough? Want a revenge now? Back then, everyone was saying the earth is flat... Nope, I don't follow the majority, sorry. I have my own opinion and my own methods, and it works for me.


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## daveb (Dec 9, 2014)

LKH9 said:


> I have my own opinion and my own methods, and it works for me.



That's all well and good. It's when you espouse your own "facts" that the keyboards come out.


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## LKH9 (Dec 9, 2014)

I have already grown out of all those flamewars. Like someone said here, it's like different religions. I don't cross the border and tell you you're wrong or force my opinions down someone's throat, but you are doing right that.


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## Dardeau (Dec 9, 2014)

Nevermind


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## malexthekid (Dec 9, 2014)

LKH9 said:


> And that all flamewar wasn't enough? Want a revenge now? Back then, everyone was saying the earth is flat... Nope, I don't follow the majority, sorry. I have my own opinion and my own methods, and it works for me.



Maybe you should stop sprouting your opinion as a fact, and making statements like "This is why I rather let people use cheap stainless, they are not ready to handle these great knives. These are only for knifenuts."

Because even a knife nut can easily bump a knife off of a cutting board to the floor, or have it slip out of their hands while washing it, and seriously damage, just ask half the guys on this board, I am sure most of them can tell you about of their knives they have damaged. Does that mean they shouldn't be allowed to be on here or own the knives they own?

I really don't want to pick a fight or anything, but your comments just appear to come across so arrogant and elitist.


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## ThEoRy (Dec 9, 2014)

LKH9 said:


> This is why I rather let people use cheap stainless, they are not ready to handle these great knives. These are only for knifenuts.



Because cheap knives don't get damaged in this way? All knives get damaged. **** it if they do. It's just a tool.


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## Geo87 (Dec 10, 2014)

I'm getting deja vu here...


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## Mucho Bocho (Dec 10, 2014)

I'm ready for the popcorn myself.


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## krx927 (Dec 10, 2014)

daveb said:


> I challenge either of you to find any correlation between income level and interest/caring for kitchen knives. It's a niche interest group that spans all socioeconomic groups. The same is true of any number of other niche groups be it stereo systems, wine, outdoor grills, stamp and coin collectors etc. etc. etc. Granted more disposable income allows more pursuit of specialized interests but lessor income is not a barrier to entry for knives discussed here.
> 
> ...
> 
> KR notes that many people don't care about knives or don't take care of knives. Thats true but not because a $100.00 iknife represents peanuts. Most people think of knives as tools, pure and simple. Regardless of their income and quality of knife. And if they don't care about their knives, (cars, carpets, wine, coffee,)....why does it matter to you? Nice touch on asserting Rick must not know anything about cars btw.



Exactly, knives are just tools. But somebody who is not into knives and does not have much money will for sure treat nice (valuable) knife differently than somebody who is loaded. Despite knives only being tools.
And on the other comment, some things are just obvious, aren't they?


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## malexthekid (Dec 10, 2014)

krx927 said:


> Exactly, knives are just tools. But somebody who is not into knives and does not have much money will for sure treat nice (valuable) knife differently than somebody who is loaded. Despite knives only being tools.
> And on the other comment, some things are just obvious, aren't they?



Actually, for the most part, generally people who are loaded got their by being extremely frugal and generally respecting money. I can't say I have met too many people that are "loaded" that just throw away money and treat it poorly. Now of course there are exceptions that make the rule, but if you want to make general statements, then you had best get them right.


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## krx927 (Dec 11, 2014)

I give up guys...


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## Matus (Dec 11, 2014)

This thread could use some clean-up by moderators me thinks.


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## malexthekid (Dec 11, 2014)

krx927 said:


> I give up guys...



Sorry didn't mean to have a go at you. But i just hate it when people make statements and generalizations that are the opposite of what the generalization should be.


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## chefcomesback (Dec 11, 2014)

Go to the profile , choose add to ignore list , you can show the spoiler if you want an expert opinion on sharpening , works like a charm


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