Minor heart attack

Aaaaaah! Managed to break the tip on my kato in true rookie fashion. (wiping the blade and lifted the handle with tip on board) The sound it made resembled the heartstring that subsequently snapped. Anyway, looked at videos and read how to fix it. I already have a atoma 140 and rika 5k en route from tools from japan. Im confident in the process, but having never done it before was wondering how difficult it is for a relatively novice sharpener. Should i attempt it or just take it into leigh at chefsarmoury.

I've broken tips on many many of my knives and am certain that's not gonna stop.. At least I know how to fix it! IMO, it's a skill everyone who yields a kitchen knife should learn..along with sharpening.

if you're so confident, just do it yourself. I think that's a good experiment, while you get to know better how to fix the tip or anything else with your knife. Good luck...

It's a piece of cake: just make sure you don't alter the profile of the knife by only taking metal off the spine. I put the stone in front of me lengthways and then use a sawing motion, lifting the handle up quite high as I pull back to get a nice curve. You'll be surprised, with a brand new atoma, it won't take very long to fix at all.

I will also suggest that you make higher sharpening angle on the tip to make it stronger

Try and colour in the area to be ground off with a permanent marker, it may take a couple if goes to get right, but that will show you exactly how it will look when it's done. Remove some from the spine, and some from the edge. Also you may want to thin behind the edge as it will have thickened up a little. But I usually don't thin when I'm fixing other peoples knives because the extra strength will help the tip not to break so easily in the future.

maxim said:

I will also suggest that you make higher sharpening angle on the tip to make it stronger

Click to expand...

+1

Thanks guys! From what i had read, was only going to remove from the spine, the new point being at the end of the edge. If i am to take some off the edge also, is my new point somewhere in the middle of break? I like the sound of keeping a bit of strength in there too....

or a micro bevel =D

What you're looking for is to keep the angle of the knife to remain the same for extreme tip contact. Losing a bit of the tip will reduce the angle that you contact the board with, and you may like it that way, or you may want to return it to how it was. If you attacked it from both sides, you would take about 1/3rd of the edge side in my estimation. That is why it is helpful to draw your plan of action onto the knife before you begin. It gives you a clear image of how it will end up.

Also changing the bevel angle won't give you any strength beyond the width of the bevel, which is completely irrelevant in this case.

A little repair I did for a coworker, you can see the area I took off....



Bad cell phone pics, but you get the point. Be careful to not get the blade too hot, I dipped it in water every few seconds.

I've fixed a couple of broken tips, and have found that it's much easier to do if you only take material off the spine. Preserves the geometry, too.

I wld not do it on the water stones meant for sharpening. I normally do it on sandpaper. For polishing purposes may be on the sides of the J stones as I do not like deep grooves on teh sharpening surface of the stone.

If alot of steel removal is required, i believe that there are cheap belt sanders available; less than USD 60 . be aware of teh heat generated. The last bit I wld still use sand paper as the belt sander is too fast adn turns the tip black.

have fun.
D

I second the recommendation to take the metal off of the spine. If you start grinding off the edge you are getting into more complicated work..

Righto, thanks for the tips (he he) guys. I guess now i have posted this i will have to show the success/failure.

Hehh I have 4 Shuns with broken tips. not all rookie mistakes, just seems to happen with their geometries. On thing as a plus is cutting onions blindfolded is easy cause you don't have to worry about sticking yourself