knife grinder

Damn, that guy is still around? I'd love to use him.

I agree with fafner on this one..I also bought an electric knife sharpener that works very well.. it makes a lot of noise.. as it does its job.
Hey there is something"romantic" about the knife grinder and the seltzer man delivering bottles.

fafner wrote: Be warned -- if you have good knives I wouldn't him. He uses a grinder to sharpen. He is actually grinding the factory edge off the blade not actually sharpening it.

The only use for a grinding wheel like he uses is if you break the tip off your knife -- he can reshape the blade so you can use it again.

Grinding the edge off the knife ruins the factory edge. You would be better off buying a cheap diamond stone from amazon and spending 10 minutes doing it yourself. Between a diamond stone and a steel you can get an amazing edge anytime you want.

This makes absolutely no since to me. What do you mean when you say "factory edge"? Perhaps you are confusing sharpening and honing?

When a blade is sharpened you take away metal, as with everything else there is a right way and a wrong way to use a grinding wheel, in fact, to get a hollow ground edge you HAVE to use a grinding wheel by definition. Now it is possible to be overly aggressive in knife sharpening and take off more metal than needs to be but that is a different issue. And i know nothing about this mobile grinder under discussion, and I'm sure you mean well, but the post just makes no since

BTW if you are looking for sharping perfection this is the place to go http://www.korin.com/ . I think they give lessons too.

BrooklynJack wrote: [quote=fafner]Be warned -- if you have good knives I wouldn't him. He uses a grinder to sharpen. He is actually grinding the factory edge off the blade not actually sharpening it.

The only use for a grinding wheel like he uses is if you break the tip off your knife -- he can reshape the blade so you can use it again.

Grinding the edge off the knife ruins the factory edge. You would be better off buying a cheap diamond stone from amazon and spending 10 minutes doing it yourself. Between a diamond stone and a steel you can get an amazing edge anytime you want.

This makes absolutely no since to me. What do you mean when you say "factory edge"? Perhaps you are confusing sharpening and honing?

When a blade is sharpened you take away metal, as with everything else there is a right way and a wrong way to use a grinding wheel, in fact, to get a hollow ground edge you HAVE to use a grinding wheel by definition. Now it is possible to be overly aggressive in knife sharpening and take off more metal than needs to be but that is a different issue. And i know nothing about this mobile grinder under discussion, and I'm sure you mean well, but the post just makes no since

BTW if you are looking for sharping perfection this is the place to go http://www.korin.com/ . I think they give lessons too.

Ok, let me rephrase this. The experiences I have had with these knife sharpeners in the trucks is they grind down excessive amounts off your knife. They free grind the knife and the factory angle/bevel you had on the knife is lost. Yes -- by definition the act of sharpening on a wet stone or grinder removes metal while the act of using a steel re-aligns the teeth after use of the grinder of wet/dry stone. It is a two step process.

The one (and only time) I have used the sharpener in question resulted in a knife with a ridiculous bevel edge on it, and scratches/grind marks all the way up to the top of the knife. Also it wasn't honed after grinding. You are much better off doing it yourself.