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A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
since y'all were bitchin about the last one
(any annoyed responses I give are sarcastic and I'm not actually frustrated)
The Whetstone Knife Sharpening Stone Kit - Double Sided Whetstone Knife Sharpener 1000/6000 Grit, Professional Honing Sharpening Stone Set With Slip-Resistant Bamboo Base and Angle Guide is too large in relation to the knife.
what-why-how did you find the actual Amazon product I found randomly? also shut the fuck up
It's on the first results page for "whetstone", you're not sneaky.
well
Damn, bro got yo ass
Get absolutely fucking obliterated.
Did you Photoshop the tip off just to annoy people who use knives?
ye
Nice work
Just make sure you put it through the dishwasher when you're done with it
That particular knife would be fine in the top rack of a dishwasher.
Nah they used it to open a bathroom door and broke the tip off (to annoy knife people).
So the main issue with double sided whetstones is that as you use any whetstones they “dish”, so if you use both sides it ends up being way harder to keep them flat. The “combo” stones tend to be lower quality in general as well
You’re usually better off getting a normal stone, then sharpening using only one side of it. A decent 1000 grit alone is good for sharpening undamaged kitchen knives. Don’t need a strop or a super high grit stone or anything you can just do stropping passes right on the same stone. But overall it’s not really that serious, people who know what they’re doing can sharpen knives with like a rock from the woods
OH MY FUCKING GOD HERE
STONE USE YOUR IMAGINATION PRETEND ITS A WHETSTONE
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
MERIDIA'S BEACON FROM ELDER SCROLLS AHHHHHHHH
Do people not just use their 5 axis CNC to plane their double sided whetstones? I mean I get that the whole reason you wouldn't just machine sharpen the blade with your belt grinder is that it's a hobby, but that doesn't mean you need to spend time manually flattening your stones when you have a perfectly good aerospace machine shop.
Oh, plenty of people actually do use a belt grinder with an angle guide lol. It’s probably the best way to do it if you want quality + fast results tbh. I prefer a stone for the simplicity
The thing about the advice you're giving is that it's for pretty advanced users. But by the time you're that advanced, you should probably know all of that stuff, anyways.
At a certain point, you might even get to the point where you feel it's better to have your knives professionally sharpened rather than doing it yourself.
But when you start out, I think you should buy cheap knives and a cheap knife sharpener. The knives get dull quickly, but it's super fast to sharpen them, so you don't have to let them get dull. And you don't really care if you wear down your knives by sharpening them too much because they're cheap.
When you need to move on to a better system, you'll know it.
You really shouldn't need to sharpen your kitchen knives on a regular basis. If they become dull, using a honing rod to straighten the edge back out is all you need.
I've used my cheap victorinox chefs knife almost daily for 8 years and it's never touched a sharpener, but will still slice through a tomato with no pressure.
It’s really not anything advanced, you can learn whetstone sharpening with like a ten minute youtube video. Might take more research to feel confident getting started if you have lots of trepidation about it
But from there you’ll never want to bother with the time commitment and cost of having your knives professionally sharpened. Just makes no sense when you can simply take out your stone as needed
I would strongly advise against the pull through sharpeners you’re talking about, in all cases. A cheap knife doesn’t actually have any problem retaining a sharp edge. My inexpensive stainless steel chef’s knife that I abuse every day lasts months without issues.
The problem you’re experiencing is that pull through “sharpeners” do not actually sharpen the blade at all. They just create and leave you with a huge burr.
Whetstones also create a burr, but you deburr the blade with stropping passes and reveal the stable geometry you have created underneath. On pull throughs, they’re relying on you not to know any better and to simply try cutting your food with the burr. This works in the extreme short term, because the burr is “sharp” at first…. until literally the first time you use it, when it proceeds to crumble off or roll over onto itself. After which point you can once again “save time” by pulling it through the device again and again
You need another stone that has gaps slotted into it to slide against the cupped stone. That helps keep things flat. Not perfect but good enough for my knife making hobby.
I just bought a whetstone for my knives, any advice? I'm gonna try sharpening in a few weeks
It's way easier than people make it out to be, unless you're chasing very specific things. Like, if you want to literally split a hair in two, expect to spend time refining your techniques.
Otherwise? You're rubbing metal on a rock. You can sharpen a knife on a brick and get a damn sharp edge on it in five to ten minutes, no bullshit, no hyperbole.
There's two things that matter: burrs and removing burrs.
What's a burr?
When you rub a knife against a rock long enough, the very tippy edge is going to roll over a tiny bit. That's a burr.
Once you get one all along the edge, flip that sucker and do it on the other side until a new burr forms. Boom! First thing done.
Now you have to remove that burr and finish up the edge. Use real gentle pressure and alternate sides on the same stone you just used. Lift the back of the knife a teeny bit higher than when you were grinding it before.
Do this maybe five times each side, then check the edge. Most types of steel, you should be able to make a clean slice in a piece of paper. If it can't, give it a few more passes and try again.
If you raised a burr in the first place, you'll get rid of it fairly quick, so if you've hit maybe twenty passes trying to remove it, chances are you didn't raise a burr, you just thought you did. No biggie, they can be hard to see or feel sometimes. Particularly with really hard steels. Might have to go back and try again.
However, there's a nice little trick to help. Get a sharpie and mark that edge. When you're grinding, if you've got an angle close to what's already there, you'll remove the ink and know youre on track. If there's a band of ink left at the edge, you're too shallow. Ink left towards the back, too deep.
Truth is, for a useable edge, it doesn't matter what the angle actually is, only that it's fairly consistent along any straight sections. Yeah, the more acute the angle, the better it's going to work for some tasks, but a morr obtuse one has benefits too. So don't worry about nailing some arbitrary angle. That's for later, once it becomes a hobby as much as a tool maintenance task.
Legit, while you can get fiddly with sharpening and fine tune a given knife to be better at specific tasks, that's optional. You can take a crappy knife, run it over a crappy stone and cut things. That's what matters; that it works. And the learning curve to get to where it works isn't huge.
Watch videos and read some articles about it. There are different edge angles for different use cases, but you'll generally aim for 20-25°. For things like razors and kitchen knives you'll want a straight grind/edge and for more heavy use knives a slightly beveled edge is okay. Low grit is for large corrections like burrs and blunt spots. Those kinds of corrections will take a lot of time and you'll want to look for uniformity before moving to higher grits for a sharper edge and eventually polish. Highly recommend starting with an angle tool and going slowly with a knife you don't really care about. Work on keeping your angle and pressure consistent and don't press down very hard. If you apply too much pressure you'll damage both the edge and stone, especially for softer (higher grit) stones. Check your work regularly to make sure the edge is consistent, you'll see it pretty clearly under a light. It takes practice. I've been freehand sharpening for about 20 years and I still mess up sometimes.
My biggest tip is regular maintenance! I clean and do a few passes on 3000 grit with my kitchen knife every time I use it and it's been my sharpest knife for 10 years. And clean your stone! Residual steel will build up, making the stone less effective and also risking damage to the edge.
I'm sure someone more experienced will say this is awful, but I found this video to be pretty handy to watch.
Hope it helps!
thank!
nope. never used one
Check out Kneeves Knives on YouTube, he has a ton of videos about sharpening with various different sharpening systems.
If you're just getting started with sharpening, I'd recommend picking up a fixed angle system. It's very hard to screw up, and helps you keep a consistent angle (which I'd say is probably the biggest challenge with freehand sharpening).
You are going to find all the info you want on YouTube, but one thing most people don't mention is that make sure the ergonomics of your working station are good. The worst part about sharpening knives is the shoulder and back pain from bending over on a kitchen counter. See if you can use a table and chair to sharpen instead. To avoid making a mess, put your Whetstone on a large baking tray.
I watch outdoors55. https://youtu.be/uwlWVmUEsH8
Despite the name there's really no outdoor content. It's him in his garage sharpening knives and reviewing stones and systems.
I will say that despite how he shows it is easy, I've never achieved the skill to do it effectively. I 3d printed a guide to hold the angle and can now sharpen my kitchen knives
It's also worth noting that he doesn't randomly break into nazi adjacent rants like seemingly every other knife YouTuber
it sounds like freehand takes a lot of practice!
but it's dry...
Those are the biggest stones on the planet (next to the ones dangling between my legs).
Or that's a tiny knife. Like the one hanging between my legs.
Instructions unclear: dick is shredding my undies because the tip is now a chisel
I use one of these:
🙃
same
Hearts just broke
!like that knife!<
<3