I Know Nothing About Knives, Really...

[Elspode]

...do you?

I bought a new Gerber 625 , a basic single blade, lockback, nylon handle, half-serrated pocketknife for my general "I need a damn pocketknife" purposes. It will serve its purpose without frills, and that is all I needed.

However...this knife, fresh out of the hardware store case, seems to have only *one* sharp side to the blade. In other words, if you tilt the blade to a 45 degree angle to the left, it is quite sharp. Tilt it the other way...and it is dull as a butter knife.

My question...is this *normal*? Desireable? Standard practice? If not, what should I do about it (I mean to sharpen it properly). I typically use "Colorado Beaver Teeth", a pair of ceramic rods mounted in a small board at an appropriately predetermined angle, meant to allow you to run the blade down first one side, then the other, with the blade perpendiular to the board as you draw it across the rods. Seems to work pretty well on my larger Schrade lockback, but I'd still like advice from someone in the know.

Help?

[zippyt]

Cheaper serated knifes are made this way , ( no offince on the cheap remark )

I personall DON'T like serated knifes , (unless your eating steak )
They are a bitch to sharpen , just try getting down in all those WICked looking grooves with a wet stone ( Yeh I know they make tool for this )
they don't cut verry well , they ssaw ok but don't genrerly cut like SHIT !!!
They are USELESS for cuttin the outer insulation off of comm cable ( what I use mine for 90% of the time )
get your self a nice streight blade gerber ,
http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/st....html?s=GB6701
I like spyderco ,
http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/spyderc/
or columbia river ,
http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/crk/

Currently I am carrying an Emmerson ,
http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/st...%3Dhard%20wear
It is a GOOOOOOD Blade !!! It takes and Holds a good edge .
Comfy in the hand and small and flat in the pocket , well made , GOOD BLADE !!!

Just my 2 cents

[Elspode]

I like the combo thing of having the sawing action available on one blade, though. And the serrations aren't the problem...it is the straight part of the blade that is one-sided.

[wolf]

That baby should be sharp on both sides. I have a lot of Gerber knives. Out of the box they should slice a hair in half lengthwise. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but not by much.

IIRC, Gerbers have a 15 degree sharpening angle. Don't use one of those things you use on your kitchen knives, either.

Did you buy new, or used?

If you check the Gerber website, I think they will resharpen their knives to factory specs ... but only for their straight bladed knives.

[NoBarkDawg]

Originally Posted by wolf

That baby should be sharp on both sides. I have a lot of Gerber knives. Out of the box they should slice a hair in half lengthwise. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but not by much.

...Not by much at all.

I've always bought Gerber knives, and I've gotta say the factory edge they put on them is quite astounding. Sharp as fuck. You can really ruin it though if you're not too great at sharpening knives yourself. As far as only one side of the sharpened half being actually sharp, I';m not sure about that. Maybe it's just the type of Gerber you bought? Either way, you should'nt have a problem chiseling your way through stuff with it.

[zippyt]

I think they will resharpen their knives to factory specs ... but only for their straight bladed knives.

Again why I DON'T like serated knifes !!!

[Elspode]

Are you saying that I should *not* use the ceramic rod arrangement, Wolf, or are you referring to a standard cooking knife sharpening steel?

[wolf]

Most ceramic rod V-arrangements will damage rather than sharpen a knife. You can't make the strokes consistent enough to actually sharpen, instead of dull, the blade. You can't use one of those on a serrated blade anyway.

Everything you ever wanted to know about knife sharpening. Don't let that "with an emphasis on necropsy equipment" subhead bother you at all.

[Elspode]

The serrated portion of this half-serrated blade appears to be alright. It is the traditional portion of the blade that is one-sided.

So...what should I use to get this thing honed properly? Standard oiled whetstone and circular motion?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've been using a Lansky system for many years. Works on any knife, fast, gives very sharp edges and best of all....it's idiot proof.

For 40 years I read every article, watched at every opportunity and tried every gadget, with hit or miss success. I knew people that could produce perfect results every time.........and now I are one.

[Griff]

I can put a really nice edge on my framing chisels with Japanese water stones when I work at it but I do need to learn a lot about sharpening... kitchen full of dull knives as we speak.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I've been using a Lansky system for many years. Works on any knife, fast, gives very sharp edges and best of all....it's idiot proof.

For 40 years I read every article, watched at every opportunity and tried every gadget, with hit or miss success. I knew people that could produce perfect results every time.........and now I are one.

I'd like to see some demo of that system in action. Looking at the sets themselves doesn't seem to reveal much to my tiny little mind.

Until such time as I opt to become more thoroughgoing, I've picked up a small, one-piece cheapass combo carbide/ceramic gizmo. As Wolf noted, the inability to consitently regulate the stroke length, angle and pressure is probably going to prevent me from performing any field surgery with my knife, but with a very small amount of effort, it is now edged evenly and sharp enough to shave my arm with. I just showed the blade to the edge of a piece of copier paper and the paper parted voluntarily upon the sight.

Not perfect by a long shot, but I can now at least consider it functional until such time as I get a real system.

[Bitman]

The theory behind the knife edge is simple, I'm amazed at how complicated all the sharpeners make it seem. The trick is that *all* knives are serrated at the atomic level. The sharpener creates sharp atoms, and the steel straightener gets them all pointed in the same direction. There's no magic behind sharpening; just drag the stone in the direction you want the serrations to point, then do the same with the straightener. To figure out which way the edge leans, drag your thumb across the edge. Downward, not up; you don't want to cut it off.

I've had so much luck with the straightener that I just use the sharpening wheel on the electric can opener now. The stone is moving in the wrong direction (along the edge rather than across it) but the straighener makes up for that.

So to answer the original question, the sharp edge shouldn't lean to either the left or the right, it should point straight down. Use the straightener with heavy pressure to unkink the edge, then gradually reduce the pressure to straighten the edge and form those nanoscale serrations.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I'd like to see some demo of that system in action. Looking at the sets themselves doesn't seem to reveal much to my tiny little mind.

Simple, you have a choice of several grits of stone or diamond hone but no matter what you use, every stroke is at the same angle as the last one.

[MaggieL]

We use this to keep our steel sharp around here, including serrated edges. Like this , ferinstance.
The video that comes with it is quite an edge-u-cation , too.