Old Hickory kitchen knives

I

initb2009

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Jul 7, 2009
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I bought a 5 piece Old Hickory kitchen cutlery set and I'm disappointed with the factory edge.They are made out of fully heat treated and tempered 1095 high carbob steel and my question is: If I sharpen them on a spyderco sharmaker,how long will it take me to get the sharp enough to do all kitchen chores while holding the edge for a resonable amount of time? and would you guys recomed the 30 or 40 degree angle?
 
After you initially get them sharp, it'll only take minutes to touch them up. Use the 30-degree setting. There's no reason to worry about chipping in the kitchen.

You may want to use a coarse stone, diamond SM rod, or sandpaper to set the profile first. It could take forever on the medium rods.
 
If you own a Sharpmaker, you must add the diamond stones or you will be there all day trying to rebevel the edge to match the set angles of the Sharpmaker. Even more so on the newer harder steels. Been there, done that, learned the hard way and bought the diamond stones.
 
or ya can wrap the stones with some emory cloth or sandpaper (220 grit or so).

i never sharpen kitchen knives on a SM, kitchen knives are usually very dull so i just do it freehand with a norton hard india stone & wd40.

old hickory is a good brand & i have 6 or 8 of them.
 
old hick.is inexpensive decent stuff.buy a dmt 10 in. reversable in blue and red.lifetime purchase;use blue ist then red.small stones arent feasible ;; kitchen cut.
 
SIFU1A said:
or ya can wrap the stones with some emory cloth or sandpaper (220 grit or so).
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Good idea... cheaper than diamond stones/sleeves and will probably remove steel faster too. One would want to do an edge-trailing stroke instead of edge-forward one though, to avoid damaging the paper.
 
It's hard to estimate what it would take to sharpen them without knowing what's wrong with them now. After all, sharp is sharp, but dull could be a number of problems. Maybe it's just a rolled over burr. In that case, a few minutes on the medium Sharpmaker stones will do it.

The one objection I have to the Sharpmaker settings is that for some purposes -- like kitchen knives! -- a 20 degree inclusive might be better. I have some fairly heavy-bladed Bark Rivers that work beautifully because the convex grind is effectively very narrow at the edge.

For this reason, I agree with the benchstone suggestions for some serious reprofiling.

(I'm going to move this from General Knife to Maintenance.)
 
Esav Benyamin said:
...a 20 degree inclusive might be better.
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I agree, but it's not hard to do on a Sharpmaker. Certainly easier than benchstones. Just lean the blade into the stone, one-third of the way from vertical to flat against the stone (on the 30 degree setting). This will give you a perfect, repeatable, 20-degree inclusive edge.
 
A flat mill bastard file works extremely well for setting the initial bevels. It takes about 1 minute. Then use your stones.
 
Phillip Dobson said:
That's sad to hear. All of mine can whittle hair at any given moment (except for the antique butcher's cleaver).
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for some reason while i keep all my other stuff razor sharp i tend to let the kitchen knives go until they all get dull, i'll use one untill its dull then go to the next untill they are all dull, then i sharpen all at once.

my wife used to not let me do that, she had her favorite 2 or 3 and it was hell to pay if they werent sharp 24/7, but since she passed away i just dont do them like that anymore.

i can do all of them (12 or 13) in less than an hour.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
A flat mill bastard file works extremely well for setting the initial bevels. It takes about 1 minute. Then use your stones.
Click to expand...
Amen on the file, Bill !
Just practice enough to hold a consistent angle during the stroke.
Also, Silicon Carbide paper (black grit, 'wet or dry') cuts very well and comes in grits from 80 (too coarse) to 2400. Get it at auto parts stores.

My method, after the file, is to strop with 400, 800, then 1000 grit, using a pull stroke. Just lay the paper on the kitchen counter.
If you need a really polished edge, then you can go to a compound loaded strop.
 
The Old Hickory knives I have bought also came with quite dull edges. Finish on them is generally a bit rough. They will sharpen up ok on a Sharpmaker with the standard rods - the steel is not that hard. The downside of course is that they don't hold an edge all that well. I wouldn't agonise over the edge angle on these knives - just follow the Sharpmaker instructions.
 
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