Sharpening crappy knives
- Thread starter Southpaw
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Well the serration removal went quickly but getting this thing keen is tough. Got sloppy with the NP400 but it’s way the hell better than it used to be. It threw up a bunch of weird sticky swarf as well - crappy steel is much, much less fun than j-steel.
Yea, make sure to test cut some carrots with it before sending it back to the owner. Geometry behind the edge matters a ton, especially with crap knives where the apex will be dull in like a week.
Well it's already going to be a load better than when you got it I'm sure
It looks like it could just do with a bit of thinning and evening up, which shouldn't take too long. I assume it was only serrated on one side originally...?
Yup just on one side, had to create the bevel on both sides as the original single bevel was like 45 degrees. Definitely could use some thinning but it’s got this weird hollow grind that I’m not going to bother with. I do plan on taking it a bit higher grit to clean it up but mostly for aesthetics and my own benefit
You just thin granton knives like normal knives. You won't grind enough metal away to effect the hollows of it.Yup just on one side, had to create the bevel on both sides as the original single bevel was like 45 degrees. Definitely could use some thinning but it’s got this weird hollow grind that I’m not going to bother with. I do plan on taking it a bit higher grit to clean it up but mostly for aesthetics and my own benefit
Think he might be talking about the concave grind near the edge, not the grantons. It should def be thinned tho.
Yeah the concave was my excuse. My rubber arm has been twisted, back to the 220.
The path to madness has begun - thinning and polishing an at most $10 knife. SG220 surprisingly effective and smooth (for the grit) with excessive pressure. Upgrade over NT220 for sure.
Kawa
Senior Member
Id like to see a choilshot to compare vs. post #62 when you are done.
Looking good!
Looking good!
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
As hideous as some of those coated knives might actually look... did you test the food release? I've seen some cheapass teflon-coated knives and I can imagine that the food release on them might actually be decent; for all its flaws, teflon does actually work.
Appreciate the positive comments guys
Next up, polishing!
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Kawa
Senior Member
Woah, looking good. Nice and straight 
I think it looks much better.
Pre and post thinning and polishing - polished on NP400 with no mud. Weird low grit mirror effect but quite smooth to the touch.
dafox
Senior Member
Thanks!
Not mind blowing but better overall. Didn’t do much more after the “after thinning” stage a few posts ago.
Grayswandir
Senior Member
Are you going to try and thin the knife down more, are are you close to being done?
I’m done with this one, spent about 3 hours total on it and learned a few things. The steel is really gummy soft weirdness and not quite worth taking all the way down to proper thinness/geometry with how slow I am at thinning.
@Grayswandir
The steel is also not hard enough to handle it. You'll end up with a weak foil edge that crumples
Serrations removed was the request, I merely complied. Chances are it won’t hold the edge beyond a couple uses, but the idea was to have it not destroy the food it goes through. The good news is it survived 2 (gentle) preps with little loss in keenness.
Eh the serrations those kind of knives have are kinda useless imo
Idk, I feel like the way to make these crap knives perform decently is to have them be reasonably thin behind the edge, but then put a conservative bevel on it. The edge will dull immediately, but it'll still cut because of the reasonable geometry.
Ya, that's often true. His choil shot doesn't look super thin tho.
Most definitely not thin enough to worry about edge integrity. Being completely honest I got distracted by how strange the NP400 “polished” and said screw thinning, let’s play with the finish and decided not to put more effort in.
I agree, it’s not nearly thin enough to perform like I want my own knives to perform, but the end user in this case isn’t going to be able to tell. Laziness won this round.
