Hi all

I use a knife sharpener and a steel to keep my filleting knifes sharp, as I'm next to useless on the stone. One of my knifes now now needs attention on the blade it's got  a few chunks missing. What do you guys do?.

Stephen

yeah mine are looking like crap too, good call Stephen........

come on you Guru Knife sharpeners give us some answers i need a lesson in how to.......... Please please forever blunt........

Cheers Lethal

It sounds like they need re-grinding.  Take them to House of Knifes and they have a re-sharpening service.  If you want the best treatment, send them to the many knife makers - e.g. Steve Wheeler knives in Napier.

You can buy the sharpeners that consist of 2 harden tool steel edges and all you do is draw the knife through them - e.g. accusharp.  Many commercial fishermen and farmers use them because they are a cheap no-nonsense knife sharpener especially for people who aren't fussy with how they treat their knives.

This is quite brutal treatment for fine cutlery because it scrapes off the shoulders of the knife edge.

I sharpen my knives before every trip using a stone and finish it off with a steel. I have seen sharper knives but a dressing with the steel after every few cuts brightens them up a bit. I would like to know more about it .... sounds like good advice from Chris. I wouldnt use a knife shapener. I know lots of people use grinders to give an edge and although they seem to cut well it is more of a sawing action than a clean cut.

Ohhh yeah ...they go blunt real quick if you put them in a dishwasher. 

When I was a young chap I worked in a meat processing plant and learnt a couple of things about sharpening knives.

To get a good edge you need a good quality knife. Cheap rubbish wont hold an edge.

Best thing is a diamond sharpener. A good one is worth a bit and even butchers used to get a pro in once a month to touch their knives up. The rest of the time they used a stone and steel.

The main thing I learnt was that I'm crap at doing it and get the pro's to do it for me.

I use the old wiltshire stay sharp scabbard, Wifey's not too keen but the big model fits most knife sizes. Again a bit brutal but very effective.

Cheers

AC

Yup good subject. I'm an ex chef, and did my time as a knife hand at the freezing works as a youngster too. Done my time sharpening knives.

Definately sounds like they need regrinding Stephen. Use a fine grinder, acute angle is best, away from handle direction of grind. Finish with stone and tickle with a steel, always away from handle direction. A stell is for removing the bur, not sharpening. A video clip will be up by the weekend;-)

I'm an amateur as well but here's what works for me.

Bait knifes that get caned cutting bonitor heads, opening scalops,  impaling people who touch their drags all get dealt to with an accusharp.  It's brutal, messy, and works a treat.

When it comes to filleting knifes mine are cheap and cheerful but they still get the stone and steel treatment.  They look better and a quick flick with a steel gives you a break from filleting if you're doing a big batch.  I like a long steel rather than some of the short ones which fit in the knife sheaths.  Gives me a chance to keep the knife away from my fingers esp after a couple of beers!

When filleting, something that I've learnt helps me if to keep your knife hand well away from the blood, slime and scales.  This means you always have a good grip.  It takes a little time to get used to but makes huge difference.

   Cheers

       DA

Yeah this is a really good topic. I always wanted to get better at it. One thing for sure is they cant be too sharp.

For a bait knife I use these little stumpy Tramontina things, The Wharehouse used to sell them for 5 bucks ...really good when you throw them over the side as often as I do. But even bait knives need to be sharp and these things sharpen up nice.

I have three filleting knives ... one a really long skinny bladed ss thing ..... a cheapie and useless. The other is more a butcher type knife a biggish sturdy Green River thing that rusts if you look at it the wrong way. Really good for bigger jobs. My third knife is a Victorinox boning knife with a stippled handle. Perfect!  ...but a bit short for bigger fish with a six inch blade (not usually a problem for me....).

I use a stone to sharpen them .. I think I already said that ... using a fairly light pressure at an angle of ...I dunno about 15 degrees i guess in a circular motion. Your stone needs to be flat, cheap ones wear away too fast. I have an old round one of my dads, it is just a small circular thing with the side busted out of it. It is probably 50 years old and is still ... just .... servicable.

I use a fairly light oil, or just motor oil. When you use the stone you can feel .... DONT CHOP YOUR FINGER OFF!!! ...that the edge is feathered over to one side. Dress it up with the steel a long one is way better, on about the same angle or slightly steeper and it will get real sharp. I had a mate who could sharpen them really well and he used to check them by shaving the hairs off the back of his hand. It was like a razor ... probably not a good thing to do especially on a boat!

After all that I have never got really good at sharpening them but get a reasonable result ... better than a Wiltshire Stay Sharp ..ish ... they sort of put a wavy edge on the things.

Good advice to keep your cutting hand clean too. I remember watching a Bill Hohepa video once ...years ago ... where he bled a kahawai by slashing the tail. It seemd an odd way to bleed a fish to me so I tried it. One flick of it's tail and my hand was out of action for two weeks...ohhh well at least it proved I had sharpened the thing right I guess. The next trip out on the same boat i cut myself again ... geeez smudge you are stupid.... so I am a little more cautious nowadays.

My filletting knives get the same treatment as my skinning and meat knives. they all get the stone and steel before use. The filletting knives get a bit more grinding sometimes because they get a heck of a hard time.

I keep three knives, 1 for the boat, 1 for my tackle box and 1 at home.

Most people that go out with me don't seem to own a knife for the day and use mine. I'm OK with that, theres a knife in the rack by the bait board for all to use. I have to buy a new one each year to replace the one that gets knicked that often. It;s amazing how my mates boats all have my ex knives on them. They say they're sharper than theirs!!

Ross

Lethal.

Geezzz what chance do mere mortals have at keeping a knife sharp if  expert fishermen can't.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else, can't sharpen a knife to save myself. I have a couple of filleting knifes, one for the boat and one for home and a bait knife. All three are Frosts, but the filleting knifes are nearly impossible to get a decent edge on. I also use those accu sharp things and they do work, but I don't like using them on my expensive knifes. My bait knife seems to hold an edge better tho.

I think the quality of the blade makes a big difference. SS seems to be harder to sharpen than carbon steel. Planning on buying a carbon steel knife at the boat  show (perhaps a Wheeler).

I have been using a Lansky knife sharpner for probably about 10 years.  It consists of a knife clamp and guide with a range of stones from very coarse to extremely fine.  The knife clamp has holes for guiding the stones at a fixed angle, so you always end up with a constant angle on the edge of the knife.  For the boat, I normally only use up to the medium stone - figure that I do not need to shave when I go fishing...  You can get a shaving edge, though, but it is also good for repairing a really bad edge, using the coarse stone.

Have a look at the following link http://www.lansky.com">http://www.lansky.com  Probably explains it much better than me. 

Cheers

Stingray

I don't claim to be an expert but have had to sharpen filleting and kitchen knives and can put an o.k. edge on a blade, enough to make me happy anyway.  You have got to have the sharpest possible blade for preparing sashimi, and the sharper the blade the easier and quicker it is to unzip a fish on the dock.  For bait prep I like a short stiff straight bladed knife with about a 3.5 to 4" blade.  For filleting I like a good quality blade about eight inches and for larger fish say 80# and bigger tunas a 10/12 inch model can come in handy but I have more control with the smaller blade and use it most of the time. 

The kind of knife sharpener where you pass a blade back and forth through a fixed stone works very well, but IMO it's better on small blades.  For larger blades like the large fillet knife mentioned above, I like a two sided stone, one side relatively coarse, the other side fine.  Lay on a wetted cloth so it don't move.  Use only water, never oil.  The guy who taught me (a professional chef whom I'm forever grateful to), stroked the blade across the stone more or less on its side and passed it back and forth on the same place on the stone, with pressure placed on the edge, rather than grinding the whole blade across the stone.  A dozen passes one side, then flip the blade over and a dozen passes the other side.  A real blunt blade may take a while to knock into shape, but given time you'll get a good edge.  Switch to the fine side to get it as sharp as possible.  Main thing is to keep the pressure on the edge, and any angle you hold the blade to the stone, constant. 

cheers dustin

I used to have this problem,

I did some research on the net and found everything I needed to know.

Be prepared to put in a couple of hours practicing and you will get there.

Some important things to getting a knife sharp.

The angle you are grinding at must remain constant ( very important)

You can make a knife two sharp for the job. ie if the angle you grind at is two great the cutting edge will be very sharp but paper thin and will deteriorate after a couple of cuts. Cant remember the correct angle for filliting but you will work it out while playing.

The grain on opposite sides of the blade should be against each other.

To establish the initial edge, grind one side extensivly, this creates a very thin bur foliding over in the opposite direction, give it a very light grind on the opposite side to break of the bur, this leaves a very sharp edge. Touch it up with decreasing grained stones. The more the better. If you are obsessed with really sharp knifes, the final step is to strop the edge with a bit of leather or cloth.

I can get all of my knives "scary sharp", able to shave hair with them, there is another level of sharpness cant remember what its called but the hairs make a popping sound as you shave them off your arm. I can only get my really expensive knife this sharp.

The steel should not be used after using a stone. Its purpose is to repair the edge not grind and edge. It straightens the edge back up, thats all. Always cracks me up when you see someone going hammer and tongs with a steel. You only need a couple of strokes on edge side with hardly any pressure. To much pressure and you are bending the edge over.

During the time I was teaching myself how to sharpen I had these massive bald spots allover my arms.

Excellent Paul......

have copied your report and will keep it to sit down and study how to.....

Thanks again Cheers Lethal

Re sharpening knives...............has anyone else tried the chinese style chopper type thingys ? the steel is r/s but they are easy to sharpen and hold an edge that you wouldn`t believe, i have 3, big , small, and a small one with a curved blade, these things are lethal and i have the scars to prove it

zeke

it it ain`t broke , fix it anyway

I was Knife sharpener for a Company in Brisbane for 5  years,and my main weapon for reshaping and getting rid of chips etc was a 120 grit Linishing belt.They go pretty fast and you can burn the edge if you`re not careful,but it`s still the quickest way to reshape a damaged edge.

Once you have got the shoulder off,then it`s all muscle again (Stone and steel)

If you`re steeling a knife make sure you have the edge of the knife at the same angle you stoned it at.If you are steeling a knife towards your body remember to tuck your thumb away and behind the steel handle.I`ve seen a lot of cut thumbs in my time at the Meat works.If you can try steeling the knife away from you,that is,Heel to tip and away from your body.This is a good technique to learn as it is safer for one and it also allows the use of those smaller type steels.

Buy the best knife you can afford(Swibo/Victorinox/Dick)all superior knives,but best left at home for the serious side of your Filleting when the fish are home.On the Boat or the rocks,just any old thing will do really.as long as it has a good pouch to keep it tucked away and safe.

If anyone needs their knife sharpened contact me and i`ll see what i can do for you.I`ve seen some pretty abominable knives so don`t be scared mates.Send them to me with a paid reply post and i`ll sharpen them for you.

I`m a sickness beneficiary  so have plenty of time on my hands now,that is of course when the Trout are`nt running or the Sea is calm.

Happy sharpening guys and gals....

Set your edge with a Mill ******* file then finsh with a standard butchers steel or ceramic rod.

When you use the file don't run it across the blade,wipe it the length of the blade.