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Southpaw

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I need help... I’ve started sharpening knives for a few cooks around my area... but this one cool gave me THE crappiest knives I’ve ever sharpened.

ive brought your standard Chicago Cutlery up to a pretty respectable edge on the stones, but these are just killing me. Really crappy paper test, won’t go through magazine or newspaper.

I figure it should only need a 1k treatment, should I try lowering my edge?

anyone run into a really low ceiling on a crap knife?
 
Btw this is her santoku...
70B4A215-2494-4EF3-AC53-06C875F45280.jpeg
 
My rules for sharpening crappy knives:

Always use diamond.
Always assume there is still a burr hanging on, unless otherwise proven.

Wait. What is that? Is it some sort of souvenir knife sold at theaters where Twilight was shown?
 
Dude, she's gonna be so stoked with what you've done to that blade! Did you do that all with finger nail polish?
Maybe you should stop sharpening and get a job in a high end nail salon.

But for real, lately I've been doing crap knives on my Atoma 400, then a quick finish up & deburring on an SG 2k. Sometimes these poopoo knives really need a few edge leading strops to help pull that floppy burr off
 
Up_dog128 said:
Dude, she's gonna be so stoked with what you've done to that blade! Did you do that all with finger nail polish?
Maybe you should stop sharpening and get a job in a high end nail salon.

But for real, lately I've been doing crap knives on my Atoma 400, then a quick finish up & deburring on an SG 2k. Sometimes these poopoo knives really need a few edge leading strops to help pull that floppy burr off
Click to expand...
Dude when I opened her roll I was speechless...

they can move through product, but maybe you’re right, take it to the damage stones...
 
I've had decent success with coarse sandpaper followed by Sharon glass 320 and stropped with cardboard
 
Southpaw said:
So people keep saying strop on cardboard... why is that? Like why cardboard over leather?
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It is coarser than plain leather and I have better results with in on crap knives. I use leather too but only with high carbon when I want more refined edge and only 1-3 sweeps per side
 
Southpaw said:
I need help... I’ve started sharpening knives for a few cooks around my area... but this one cool gave me THE crappiest knives I’ve ever sharpened.

ive brought your standard Chicago Cutlery up to a pretty respectable edge on the stones, but these are just killing me. Really crappy paper test, won’t go through magazine or newspaper.

I figure it should only need a 1k treatment, should I try lowering my edge?

anyone run into a really low ceiling on a crap knife?
Click to expand...
The worst I ever have sharpened was a Kai Wasabi with huge, clotting carbides. Go coarse. @IsoJ 's suggestion sounds good to me. Make sure to keep the Shapton wet and avoid glazing.
 
for cheap steel knives like this, I usually stop at the 45 micron range, which is about 400 grit max. any higher and i find you get diminishing returns

also you may have to increase angle. 15º can be too low. you may have to try 20º or 22-23º dps.
 
Really soft steel simply won't hold an edge. You can put on a low angle back bevel (relief bevel, secondary bevel) to let geometry do as much of the work as possible, then put on a small edge bevel at a very steep angle, like 60° inclusive. The small steep bevel resists rolling over, and if it is finished coarse it can still saw through things a bit.
 
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