I have a cheap Mercer boning knife made with x 30 cr13 steel (fairly soft I'm sure). Its getting to be pretty thick I'm thinking it's about time for a thinning. Is it worth it you think?
Should i thin my bonin knife?
- Thread starter Blank Blades.
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tostadas
Hobbyist / Craftsman
FWIW, the cr13 knife I had was really annoying to thin.
Yeah. Makes sense.
Yeah it’s pretty slow and terrible. You may have better luck with a relief bevel.
Hmm. Yeah maybe I guess I can try, and see how it goes. If not I can use my belt grinder as a last resort.
That’s a pretty cool joker to have in your pocket. But I guess you’re comparing all this with just buying another one...
Extra money is the one thing I dont have. Anything i do get will go to a new shapton 120 (or something similar) I'm already wearing my atoma smooth from all the use it gets, and I couldn't have had it more than two and a half or three months. Probably I need to start saving it for when I get supersteels only, and flattening stones. Most of the knives I use it on dont really need diamonds. It's just the fastest stone I have.
Not about your boning knife and I'm not entirely sure what you're using your 120 for and I can't remember if we've talked about this before but have you looked into a Baryonyx Manticore?
Yeah. I was pretty close to buying it. I need to go ahead and jump on it. I don't currently have a 120 I need to get another, my last one was used till it broke into tiny peices (which I now use as rust erasers)
In my experience with Mercer they are probably not worth spending any time with trying to "improve" them. If you are spending time with the boning knife and want something better then it's time to go shopping. An often overlooked boning knife that works very well is the Forgecraft vintage boner. Maybe $20 on the bay, you can sharpen it, thin it, and even rehandle it. And at the end of the day have a good knife.
Just ordered the manticore. A 60 or 80 (I can't remember) grit stone will definitely help me out with my sharpening gig. Especially because of how the situation is, I literally will have people standing there watching me sharpen, waiting on there knife and a lot of them are extremely, extremely dull. So I have to get as much work done in about 5-10 minutes as possible.
So the manticore should be perfect, especially being silicon carbide. Does it really eat through metal as fast as it sounds like it does?
He said vintage boner...hahe hahe hahe
My experience is yes. You might find you have to dress it to get it going. I scrubbed mine with a couple screws to get the sintering "glaze" off of it.
The thing I like about this stone is the ability to really lean into it. Unlike diamond, you can use however much pressure you want on it and it just seems to like more. I don't have a ton of actual experience with mine as I don't encounter a lot of need for it, but when I have needed it, it has done its job well. As has been noted in other threads, it will scratch so be aware of that.
Benjamin is the inventor and owner and is a great guy who I've always found very helpful. Mind, I generally interacted with him on another forum and he is quite busy so email exchanges may not be the same.
You can also find his videos on YoutTube (I know he has at least one on the Manticore) and Jef Jewell has posted videos of some of his stones as well.
Hell, I'm close to 60 - and I get further from it every year.....
