One Brick Challenge

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

Rules for the One Brick Challenge:
1) Brick, any kind
2) Kill the knife edge before sharpening
3) No stropping (i.e. leather or compound; alternating edge trailing strokes on the brick are okay.)
4) You can modify the brick as long as you give the details.
5) Show your results: slice paper, paper towel, etc.

Here is an old video of Burrfection being perplexed by his own brick sharpening results:

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

I went to the local JNAT store and found these awesome deals on JNATS. I picked up a paving brick for ¥258 and a fire brick for ¥438 yen. I wanted a red brick but they had a number of large white rocks in them which would probably be a problem. The paving brick and fire brick were more consistent in their particle sizes.

I bought two because I wanted to rub them against each other to get them flat, and also for beveling the edges. After a light flattening and beveling I sprayed them with some old spray lacquer that I’ve had for a few years in the shed. The hope is that will act as a binder and keep them from releasing grit while sharpening.

I used an old Galaxy knife I picked up from the ¥100 yen store years ago. These probably cost more now. It is still dull, as in squeeze it with your hand dull.

The knife is a bit thick behind the edge so I tried to keep the angle low, almost a thinning angle. The knife does appear to not like a low angle though….hmmmm, I wonder why?

The fire brick held together and did not release any grit. The lacquer worked. Unfortunately, despite being very coarse, it is not as fast I would have liked but it worked.

The knife slices paper nicely, will shave some arm hair, but it won’t slice a paper towel….. too toothy and needs some higher refinement. I’ll make some tweaks to this brick and go for round 2.

 

[stringer]

I'm so in.

 

[Simply]

Love this, need to get my hands on a brick

 

[Desert Rat]

Mrs. Rat is home today so she filmed.

This fire brick is no slouch with the speed. Looks like it was made with crushed sand, it self-slurries also.

 

[aporigine]

Mrs. Rat is home today so she filmed.

This fire brick is no slouch with the speed. Looks like it was made with crushed sand, it self-slurries also.

I like an Old Hickory.

 

[KasumiJLA]

Rules for the One Brick Challenge:
1) Brick, any kind

I'm in. I just need to call @ethompson to loan him a "special brick" before

 

[Desert Rat]

I like an Old Hickory.

It still has the price tag on the handle from the secondhand store, I think it was two bucks.

 

[aporigine]

It still has the price tag on the handle from the secondhand store, I think it was two bucks.

I have a set (gift from ex). Unbeatable value. They feel good on the stones. Gotta find a brick to steal now.

I have a cinderblock, which plus some cheap Zon carbide is my flattening mainstay for the very coarse stones. Once the weather breaks (record sustained heat in the western Mojave currently) I will give it a go.

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

This one didn’t turn out so well…
I sharpened my wife’s $25 wustoff and it came out quite well. I figured I would step it up a couple notches.

I know what you’re thinking: who is crazy enough to use an exquisite Dalstrong on a fire brick???? Well, me of course. Oh! And Burrfection.
Anyways. It didn’t work out. I killed the edge and the brick just didn’t have any cutting action on the knife. Didn’t bring it back at all.

Upsides. I like the real estate. This is a large brick that makes 8x3 stones look puny. The height is also very nice. Lots of hand clearance all around. Downside is that 1) it is quite heavy. 2) my wife’s eagle eyes spied it the moment it crossed the boundary from outside to inside, “What is THAT??”. 3) Doesn’t have the chops to work on some ultra high end knives.

I’m going to try to embed some diamond powder on the surface next. I received some 2 micron powder but the order for the 35 micron powder got cancelled. Looks like I’ve only got the 2 micron to work with now. Next step is to find some kind of binder…..

 

[deltaplex]

This one didn’t turn out so well…
I sharpened my wife’s $25 wustoff and it came out quite well. I figured I would step it up a couple notches.

View attachment 341485

I know what you’re thinking: who is crazy enough to use an exquisite Dalstrong on a fire brick???? Well, me of course. Oh! And Burrfection.
Anyways. It didn’t work out. I killed the edge and the brick just didn’t have any cutting action on the knife. Didn’t bring it back at all.

Upsides. I like the real estate. This is a large brick that makes 8x3 stones look puny. The height is also very nice. Lots of hand clearance all around. Downside is that 1) it is quite heavy. 2) my wife’s eagle eyes spied it the moment it crossed the boundary from outside to inside, “What is THAT??”. 3) Doesn’t have the chops to work on some ultra high end knives.

I’m going to try to embed some diamond powder on the surface next. I received some 2 micron powder but the order for the 35 micron powder got cancelled. Looks like I’ve only got the 2 micron to work with now. Next step is to find some kind of binder…..

Just add some loose SiC next go round...

 

[aporigine]

This one didn’t turn out so well…
I sharpened my wife’s $25 wustoff and it came out quite well. I figured I would step it up a couple notches.

View attachment 341485

I know what you’re thinking: who is crazy enough to use an exquisite Dalstrong on a fire brick???? Well, me of course. Oh! And Burrfection.
Anyways. It didn’t work out. I killed the edge and the brick just didn’t have any cutting action on the knife. Didn’t bring it back at all.

Upsides. I like the real estate. This is a large brick that makes 8x3 stones look puny. The height is also very nice. Lots of hand clearance all around. Downside is that 1) it is quite heavy. 2) my wife’s eagle eyes spied it the moment it crossed the boundary from outside to inside, “What is THAT??”. 3) Doesn’t have the chops to work on some ultra high end knives.

I’m going to try to embed some diamond powder on the surface next. I received some 2 micron powder but the order for the 35 micron powder got cancelled. Looks like I’ve only got the 2 micron to work with now. Next step is to find some kind of binder…..

It is desperately trying to communicate to you that it is an abducted trowel given garish makeup and pushed into white slavery.

Give it to a kindly old mason for edge&corner work. “And they lived happily ever after.”

 

[Desert Rat]

This one didn’t turn out so well…
I sharpened my wife’s $25 wustoff and it came out quite well. I figured I would step it up a couple notches.

View attachment 341485

I know what you’re thinking: who is crazy enough to use an exquisite Dalstrong on a fire brick???? Well, me of course. Oh! And Burrfection.
Anyways. It didn’t work out. I killed the edge and the brick just didn’t have any cutting action on the knife. Didn’t bring it back at all.

Upsides. I like the real estate. This is a large brick that makes 8x3 stones look puny. The height is also very nice. Lots of hand clearance all around. Downside is that 1) it is quite heavy. 2) my wife’s eagle eyes spied it the moment it crossed the boundary from outside to inside, “What is THAT??”. 3) Doesn’t have the chops to work on some ultra high end knives.

I’m going to try to embed some diamond powder on the surface next. I received some 2 micron powder but the order for the 35 micron powder got cancelled. Looks like I’ve only got the 2 micron to work with now. Next step is to find some kind of binder…..

LMAO!
I was busted too, she came into the kitchen to say something to me and oh **** was all over my face, caught red handed with that brick in the porcelain sink.

That brick is back out on the deck with it's mates, I set my charcoal chimney starter on them.

 

[tostadas]

I had to look up what "fire brick" was. I found this on amazon, and now I'm even more confused than before.

https://www.amazon.com/Buddingco-Indo-2000-Fire-Bricks/dp/B01MY724QU

 

[mikaelsan]

i really did not feel like making too much of an efford here, but here goes. litterally just found something random of the streets. Real first and second attempt, and yes that is indeed a large burr still remaining on the knife after sharpening. It could continue but it would not get smaller. - take 2 was purely because i was curious of flattening the stone would be better. It was pretty soft, think i flattened in 10-15 seconds.

i did actually start my journey on a red brick, long ago i my sharpening mentor had not been chef hiroyuki terada, i might have actually had some nice results.

 

[cotedupy]

I finally got round to locating a couple of pieces of misc brick round the back of my shed, to give this a go. For my first attempt I chose the lighter coloured piece, because it had one face that looked pretty much flat and so I didn’t need to do anything to it.

Alas that proved something of a tactical error, because it is not a very good sharpening brick by any stretch of the imagination.

Alarm bells were raised when it took me several goes even to blunt the knife, and at one point before this video I had to resort to using the wall behind me, cos the brick really wan’t making much of a dent.

This was compounded by the fact it was also extremely light - it almost floats on water. And extremely soft - I couldn’t use leading strokes at all without digging in. The knife proving considerably better at cutting the brick, than the brick at cutting the knife.

Nevertheless with quite a lot of repeated trailing strokes I was getting somewhere. Kinda.

There is still some microchipping from when I breadknifed the wall. But you could use it in a kitchen, and probably the majority of the general population would think it was quite sharp. It doesn’t do well on paper towel though, the picture below is somewhat flattering.

I suspect the more normal type of brick will be better, once I’ve flattened it a bit. This one struck me as what it might be like trying to sharpen a knife on a large chunk of parmesan.

 

[Asian8640]

OHOOHO! A literal brick. I can't wait to have a little fun with this one. Do ceramic tiles count as a brick?

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

i really did not feel like making too much of an efford here, but here goes. litterally just found something random of the streets. Real first and second attempt, and yes that is indeed a large burr still remaining on the knife after sharpening. It could continue but it would not get smaller. - take 2 was purely because i was curious of flattening the stone would be better. It was pretty soft, think i flattened in 10-15 seconds.

i did actually start my journey on a red brick, long ago i my sharpening mentor had not been chef hiroyuki terada, i might have actually had some nice results.

Sir, this is the “One” Brick Challenge, not the “Half” Brick Challenge.
Just kidding.

Thanks for uploading the full length video. It always appreciate watching the subtle nuances people have for sharpening techniques.

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

I finally got round to locating a couple of pieces of misc brick round the back of my shed, to give this a go. For my first attempt I chose the lighter coloured piece, because it had one face that looked pretty much flat and so I didn’t need to do anything to it.

View attachment 342364


Alas that proved something of a tactical error, because it is not a very good sharpening brick by any stretch of the imagination.

Alarm bells were raised when it took me several goes even to blunt the knife, and at one point before this video I had to resort to using the wall behind me, cos the brick really wan’t making much of a dent.

View attachment 342370


This was compounded by the fact it was also extremely light - it almost floats on water. And extremely soft - I couldn’t use leading strokes at all without digging in. The knife proving considerably better at cutting the brick, than the brick at cutting the knife.

Nevertheless with quite a lot of repeated trailing strokes I was getting somewhere. Kinda.

View attachment 342366


There is still some microchipping from when I breadknifed the wall. But you could use it in a kitchen, and probably the majority of the general population would think it was quite sharp. It doesn’t do well on paper towel though, the picture below is somewhat flattering.

I suspect the more normal type of brick will be better, once I’ve flattened it a bit. This one struck me as what it might be like trying to sharpen a knife on a large chunk of parmesan.

View attachment 342367View attachment 342368

@cotedupy can you edit your post to remind us again that you are a professional knife sharper?

Oh, and a very impressive job on a soft unflattened brick. I’d like to see what you do on a slightly better quality flattened brick.

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

Last time around the fire brick I used did not work well with my Dalstrong knife. I decided to see if I can modify it to work better with the harder steel. I had a little 2 micron diamond powder on hand and mixed it with 2000 grit SiC in about equal parts. I put this on the top of the fire brick and rubbed it in a bit.

After that I applied some spray lacquer. That went on well and I sprinkled some more of the abrasive powder on top and then sprayed a little more lacquer on top of that. This will need to sit for a few days to fully cure.

I know. It kinda looks like crap right now.
So……. Onto the other one, and I know what you are thinking. “HEY! That’s not a brick! That is a paving brick!”
Well, you’d be right.

So this one has more mixed grit than the fire brick. Looks like very coarse sand.

This actually worked quite well and despite not appearing to cut fast, in fact, did cut pretty fast. It created a burr and set a bevel pretty quickly on the Dalstrong.
After a couple of edge leading alternating strokes it was done. It had a very toothy edge. Too toothy to get through a paper towel but good enough to easily slice through magazine paper.