Thinning Regulariity

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Andrew H

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We already had two threads on thinning, I thought I'd add a third. How often do you thin your knives?
From some of the posts recently it sounds like people wait for quite a long time and then do a huge amount of thinning all at once. What do most of you guys do, thin every time you sharpen or just when you feel the knife needs a bit of a tuneup? If you do thin every time you sharpen do you polish out your thinning scratches and how?

Personally I thin a little every time I sharpen and just leave the scuffs as they are. It's character, right?
 
Probably every time that I have the oppurtunity to luxuriate in my sharpening. i.e: not in between services at work. I guess one in three sessions, but I wish I had time to spend on thinning more often
 
Some time ago I managed to incorporate the clad into the very edge. Since I've learned my lesson. Thinning is how you start a sharpening job.
 
Some time ago I managed to incorporate the clad into the very edge. Since I've learned my lesson. Thinning is how you start a sharpening job.

Hahaha, I did the same thing. So, Benuser, how do you remove your thinning scratches?
 
Hahaha, I did the same thing. So, Benuser, how do you remove your thinning scratches?
I do the thinning with sandpaper, so higher grits and reducing pressure. Last finishing with ScotchBrite. Not very refined, I agree, but food won't stick. Monosteel carbon blades get patina, so I don't care really.
 
I was thinning a lot before.

I got crazy a little too much. I dont do it every thime I sharpen, I think if you reach the sweet spot where knife cuts very well and it takes a seconds to sharpen the edge back it should last like that around 8 sharpenings, so for me around 8-10 weeks.
Then I thin a little again, or using machine or by DMT, then JNS 1k and after that sandpaper, then its much faster. I dont remove all scratches, just make the finish looking more uniform
 
i start high and work towards the edge every time i sharpen. that allows me to keep knives performing well for long periods before real thinning is necessary. i typically thin on sharpening stones, and refinish with sandpaper.
 
I usually thin about every 5th time I sharpen. This regimen seems to hit the sweet spot of performance mentioned before. My initial thinning is usually done on a coarse synthetic, but then I move to a 1k and finish off with J-nats and finger stones (if I have time and feel adventurous). I really hate ruining a nice kasumi finish from thinning, so this alleviates that problem.
 
ideally thinning should be a part of your normal sharpening routine. That doesnt mean you need to thin like crazy all the time, but thinning as part of your normal sharpening is the best way to maintain geometry. Otherwise, you let it get worse gradually and then have to fix it all at once.
 
Some knives lend themselves more toward better maintenance than others.

It's one of the reasons people value well made knives. You want a thing that cuts? Get a Kiwi, they cut food. But they also turn into trash.

A big part of the value of a properly designed and ground knife is that it can be sharpened and resharpened over and over and over, making a progressively smaller knife that is just as functional as it was when new.

There are a lot of good knives being made in the US that do not have this quality--they have dark, chemically etched damascus up to the primary edge bevel, they have flat ground faces, they have loose grinds behind the edge(because it doesn't always affect how the edge is structured/performs). If you thinned those every time you sharpened them, a little at a time, it would constantly be in a state of looking like crap.

The most impressive thing about Japanese single bevels, IMO, is that they are superb cutting tools, and all you strictly need is a good JNat or two and it'll cut for you forever, and look good doing it.

So some knives I do not thin until I am willing to put in all the extra time and effort to make them look whole and organized again, but I do love a knife that is helpful to sharpen, that I can thin as I go and the knife doesn't fight me in the process.
 
i start high and work towards the edge every time i sharpen. that allows me to keep knives performing well for long periods before real thinning is necessary. i typically thin on sharpening stones, and refinish with sandpaper.

Word...
 
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