"Thinning behind the edge"?

[panda]

thinning behind the edge means shrinking the lower calf and ankles of your knife. kankles on a knife = crappy cutter.

[mkriggen]

thinning behind the edge means shrinking the lower calf and ankles of your knife. kankles on a knife = crappy cutter.

Ok, that made me smile

[Squilliam]

For me it means wearing away the steel at an angle somewhere around 4 degrees

[spaceconvoy]

[toddnmd]

Nice pics, SC.

[TheDispossessed]

I have been tweaking my sharpening routine for some time, because i'm still a beginner (1.5 years now almost daily). I feel most satisfied with the current approach:
Thin the bottom 1/4" of my gyuto once a week, symmetrically on a 400 grit stone.
Keep up the edge through the week on a 4k stone at a much higher angle, creating a 1mm bevel, symmetrically again.
pull through a cork and strop on newsprint laid on the 4k stone (too lazy to buy a proper strop kit).

when i wasn't thinning behind the edge, my knife cut like crap.
when i sharpened it asymmetrically, it cut like crap (steering).
when i didn't apply the small bevel at the edge, it got destroyed on the board (and was miserable to sharpen and touch up).

the way i see it, the poly boards most of us have to use at work will destroy and edge at some point during the day, at which point you are left more with the function of the knife's geometry. a slightly dull edge and thin knife will still perform admirably if you don't get a chance to touch it up.

plus, making a 'shinogi' line on your gyuto is fun.

[NO ChoP!]

I'm still a firm believer that many are too quick to remove a bunch of metal. Why thin and sharpen so frequently? Does ones knife really need a full progression starting all the way down to low grit full thinning every week? I like to try and do as little metal removal as possible, increasing my knifes longevity. I do agree that some knives need a bit of tuning, and thinning is all part of upkeep; that being said, I only resort to a full progression when my actual bevel has deteriorated, which takes a ton of abuse to achieve. Usually touch ups will get me through for a very, very long time.

[Mrmnms]

+1

I'm still a firm believer that many are too quick to remove a bunch of metal. Why thin and sharpen so frequently? Does ones knife really need a full progression starting all the way down to low grit full thinning every week? I like to try and do as little metal removal as possible, increasing my knifes longevity. I do agree that some knives need a bit of tuning, and thinning is all part of upkeep; that being said, I only resort to a full progression when my actual bevel has deteriorated, which takes a ton of abuse to achieve. Usually touch ups will get me through for a very, very long time.

[K-Fed]

I'm still a firm believer that many are too quick to remove a bunch of metal. Why thin and sharpen so frequently? Does ones knife really need a full progression starting all the way down to low grit full thinning every week? I like to try and do as little metal removal as possible, increasing my knifes longevity. I do agree that some knives need a bit of tuning, and thinning is all part of upkeep; that being said, I only resort to a full progression when my actual bevel has deteriorated, which takes a ton of abuse to achieve. Usually touch ups will get me through for a very, very long time.

+2
I haven't had to actually go through the full progression on my knives for months. Once they're set up how I like em touch ups on finishing stones, usually my little nakayama that I keep with me at work, keep my edges alive and kicking for a loooong time.

[Leer1217]

Just a c-hair off the stone with the spine. Changes the geometry a touch but leaves a bit of convexity that I like.

i love that you used that "measurement". i rarely hear this outside of the kitchen. haha