# What do you do when all the knives in your kitchen are sharp?



## RubbishCook (Mar 30, 2016)

I have been practicing sharpening the last couple weeks and I want to continue practicing but all of my knives are sharp. I cannot cook enough to keep up with the amount of sharpening I would like to be doing.

Should I dull my old knives? I want to keep getting better such that I can attempt to sharpen my Wilburn without sending it out.


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## WingKKF (Mar 30, 2016)

You have friends and family right? Be the sharpening evangelist. Go forth and spread of gospel of keen edges. Trade sharpening services for food with your local friendly restaurants.


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## jacko9 (Mar 30, 2016)

Friends and family - you'll build up a lot of good karma and they will have sharp knives (most of them for the first time).


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## Smurfmacaw (Mar 30, 2016)

I even do my coworkers and neighbors knives, especially if they accidentally have something worthwhile (i.e. no freaking full height bolsters.)


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## Smurfmacaw (Mar 30, 2016)

Oh yeah, also sounds like you need more knives. :whistling:


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## ThEoRy (Mar 30, 2016)

Buy more knives.


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## Jovidah (Mar 30, 2016)

I guess that's the point when you dive into straight razors, just so you always have something to sharpen.


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## Castalia (Mar 30, 2016)

Agree with ideas above, like friends knives and straight razors, and I will add pocket knives, and woodworking hand tools like planes and chisels. Lots of things that need to be sharpened.irate1:


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## Mucho Bocho (Mar 30, 2016)

Have the same problem, exceptional knives and stones lend to touch ups more than low to high grit stone work.


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## Keith Sinclair (Mar 30, 2016)

Opposite end of straight razors - hatchet, Axe, wood chisel, Machete, Garden Tools.


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## Anton (Mar 30, 2016)

You could also talk to your significant other about our porblems


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## clsm1955 (Mar 30, 2016)

I got so desperate I sharpened my dough scraper


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## Cashn (Mar 31, 2016)

clsm1955 said:


> I got so desperate I sharpened my dough scraper



I've considered putting a little bit more of an edge on my fish spat before hehe.


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## gic (Mar 31, 2016)

I buy oldcarbons on the bay and fix them


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## JayGee (Mar 31, 2016)

flatten the backs of your chisels and planes..


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## Mrmnms (Mar 31, 2016)

You can also hook up with a local favorite restaurant or butcher. Pick one or 2 and do it as a freebie. I also do all my kid's teacher's kitchen knives, some parents of my kids friends.


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## Mangelwurzel (Mar 31, 2016)

gic said:


> I buy oldcarbons on the bay and fix them



Haha. This sounds a little like a confessional! 

One word of warning: sharpening knives made of rubbish stainless doesn't quite give you the same enjoyment as sharpening decent steel. I've sharpened poor quality knives of friends/family and always slightly resent using my nice stones on them.


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## daveb (Mar 31, 2016)

Like the old carbons. Search eBay for vintage knives and Forgecraft and you should be able to pick up a decent carbon in the $20 range. The chef knives are sometimes pricey but the bullnose and the boning knife are cheap and are actually usefully in your kitchen.


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## chinacats (Mar 31, 2016)

All of the above advice is good...if you don't feel you need more knives though and your friends all have crappy stainless then I would suggest "cutting across glass" it won't cut but it should immediately dull the edge. If your knives are carbon, just cut some fresh citrus and they will need instant re-sharpening.


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## SmithSins (Jul 2, 2019)

Found this very good article: 6 + best way to sharpen a machete
https://bestmachete.co/how-to-sharpen-a-machete/


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## Elliot (Jul 2, 2019)

ThEoRy said:


> Buy more knives.



This dude hear clearly has the highest IQ in the room. Buy. More. Knives.


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## Ivan Hersh (Jul 2, 2019)

What your doing with practice of your sharping, is learning how to control holding the proper angle at the contact point of stone, so i recommend getting a 8000K grit finishing stone and keep on with practicing.


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## ian (Jul 2, 2019)

gic said:


> I buy oldcarbons on the bay and fix them



At some point, I thought that I’d be able to break even doing this as I kept selling them. However, to sell for a higher price consistently (high enough to cover all the shipping costs) I feel like you have to make visually dramatic improvements to the knife on the order of rehandling or something. Sharpening and polishing don’t really cut it.


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## playero (Jul 2, 2019)

Go to knife stores around you and offer to fix knives that have been returned either chipped or that client didn’t like. Tell them they can use as demos or loaners or for classes they might offer.


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## Prgcook (Jul 2, 2019)

Buy a cheap sanmai single bevel and a naural or to and go down the rabbit hole of polishing and kasumi finish it's very rewarding and eats up a lot of time


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## Nemo (Jul 2, 2019)

I use those sharp knives. Then I eventually get to sharpen them again.


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## Huntdad (Jul 2, 2019)

Try new stone combinations....buy more knives....buy more jnats


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## ojisan (Jul 2, 2019)

Buy kiridashi knives and kanas


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## panda (Jul 2, 2019)

turn your dinner knives into hella sharp steak knives.


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## Desert Rat (Jul 3, 2019)

SmithSins said:


> Found this very good article: 6 + best way to sharpen a machete
> https://bestmachete.co/how-to-sharpen-a-machete/


K....
Pumice stone first to remove rust.








It works fine but it's to much wear on my stone. To be continued...


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## lowercasebill (Jul 3, 2019)




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## ian (Jul 3, 2019)

When I’m drunk I sharpen my plastic spatulas.


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## Michi (Jul 3, 2019)

Get started on sharpening the spoons…


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## Ryndunk (Jul 3, 2019)

Cook something!


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## Nemo (Jul 4, 2019)

Ryndunk said:


> Cook something!


Or at the very least, cut something.


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## Carl Kotte (Jul 4, 2019)

Nemo said:


> Or at the very least, cut something.



Yes, like paper for example. Destroy some important documents, make the knife blunt and go back to the stones.


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## Nemo (Jul 4, 2019)

Carl Kotte said:


> Yes, like paper for example. Destroy some important documents, make the knife blunt and go back to the stones.


Not what I had in mind, actually...


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## Kozuka (Jul 4, 2019)

Define sharp. Strangely one of them is always not sharp enough ;-)


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## Thorndahl88 (Jul 4, 2019)

Michi said:


> Get started on sharpening the spoons…



Spoons, to remove Meat from bone or fish. 
Pro tip [emoji108]


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## Xenif (Jul 4, 2019)

Thorndahl88 said:


> Spoons, to remove Meat from bone or fish.
> Pro tip [emoji108]


Use a melon baller, they are thinner behind the edge [emoji6]


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## Carl Kotte (Jul 4, 2019)

Nemo said:


> Not what I had in mind, actually...



I didn’t think you did, and I didn’t imply you did either.


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## Thorndahl88 (Jul 4, 2019)

Xenif said:


> Use a melon baller, they are thinner behind the edge [emoji6]



Hard to sharpen or is it just me [emoji28]


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## GorillaGrunt (Jul 5, 2019)

If you’re confident that any knife you put to the stones will be at least sharper than before, open a booth at your local farmers market, $5 a blade.


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## ian (Jul 6, 2019)

GorillaGrunt said:


> If you’re confident that any knife you put to the stones will be at least sharper than before, open a booth at your local farmers market, $5 a blade.



Man, I’d be a little afraid to do this until I could not only improve knives, but could do it really fast. The knife sharpener who comes to our farmers market always seems like she can’t keep up with all the demand even though she does it all on some sort of powered wheel. I guess if you set hard limits and make it clear that you can’t handle more than a few knives, it would be ok.

Some communities have a “Buy nothing” online board/community, though, for free goods and services. I might even try listing on the one around here myself, now that you mention it. A little less formal, and less pressure.


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## Desert Rat (Jul 7, 2019)

Reset the bevel pretty quick and left a toothy edge. These wheels are not as coarse as some believe.


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## GorillaGrunt (Jul 7, 2019)

I think my busiest day was about 50 knives in 4 hours (really closer to 3) stones only. This is where the Sigma 240 shines! I had looked into the antique grindstone route too mainly for the cool factor.


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## ian (Jul 7, 2019)

GorillaGrunt said:


> I think my busiest day was about 50 knives in 4 hours (really closer to 3) stones only. This is where the Sigma 240 shines! I had looked into the antique grindstone route too mainly for the cool factor.



Nice, I didn’t get from your previous post that you’d actually done this! Inspiring. 

Now if I only had the time to actually do something like this, what with the day job and the family.


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## GorillaGrunt (Jul 7, 2019)

I came up with it as an answer to the question “where will I find a thousand knives to sharpen?” Loads of fun and good practice. I also really enjoyed the people telling stories of the guys with the bicycle grindstones who would come around decades ago, and memories of grandfathers and fathers and uncles who sharpened their knives and how nobody does it anymore (lol), and the guy who said to his teenage son, “see Zack, you gotta do stuff the old fashioned way to get arms like that guy!”


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## ian (Jul 7, 2019)

GorillaGrunt said:


> “see Zack, you gotta do stuff the old fashioned way to get arms like that guy!”



Sadly, I doubt I would inspire such a comment.


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## GeneH (Jul 10, 2019)

Ummmm....start over? Actually that's what I did. I kept at it, thinning, changing, testing, re-doing. My wife as it turns out is really sensitive to how a knife works on food. I had no idea because the knives never really had good edges. Burrs, lopsided bevels, you name it. I learned a lot by all the feedback.


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