Cutco always advertises their "Double D" serrations as being the greatest thing since sliced bread, but also tells consumers that it's "not possible" for them to sharpen them; instead advising that they be sent back to the factory for sharpening.
Just before Christmas I was at my dad's house talking to him about an elk hunt and quartering the animal on a mountain side. He told me the guide and the helpers all used the same kind of knife and pulled out a Cutco orange handled, Double D hunting knife to show me. He said his Randall knife, while shaving sharp when he started, needed lots of sawing to get through the hide of the animal, while the guide's knives just flew through it.
I handled the knife and noted that it was quite dull. He said he might send it back to the factory, so I volunteered to try sharpening it for him.
Later I broke out the sharpmaker and the white rods. The flat side of the knife was rolled so badly in some spots that I could almost hang the blade's full weight from the roll hanging on my fingernail. Seriously rolled. Holding the flat side *almost* flat to the white rod, I did a bunch of strokes, checking to see where I was getting. Eventually I could feel the rolls disappearing, completely in some spots, and not so completely in others. I decided to move to the medium (brown/gray) stones instead.
The medium rods made this go much faster and I had a nearly completely smooth back in less than 10 minutes. I switched back to the white rods and did a few strokes on the scalloped side of the serrations until I could feel a burr starting to form on the back side again. Back and forth a number of times and I was pretty sure it was sharp.
At first it wouldn't slice phonebook paper very cleanly, but doing more strokes on the serrations and the back side eventually got it to phonebook paper slicing sharpness.
I brought along a color catalog to show dad the sharpness and handed him the blade (in a sheath) for him to check out. I should mention that dad can sharpen a knife and can make most shave hair. I watched him unsheath the knife and touch his index finger to the blade. I was wondering what he was going to do as he usually feels for sharpness with his thumb pad stroking 90 degrees to the blade. I had no time to do anything as he slowly drug his index finger *down* the length of the blade. About 1 inch down he said "Oww!! I guess that thing *is* sharp!", and turned his finger over to show a thin cut with a little blood in it.
The only thing I can figure is that knife was either never sharp, or had been dull for so long that he didn't think it could be truly sharp. Guess he was wrong.
I'm also glad to see that Cutco was just being typical Cutco. It wasn't really that hard to sharpen that blade from extremely dull to quite sharp using just the sharpmaker. ...and I had fun doing it.
Brian.
Just before Christmas I was at my dad's house talking to him about an elk hunt and quartering the animal on a mountain side. He told me the guide and the helpers all used the same kind of knife and pulled out a Cutco orange handled, Double D hunting knife to show me. He said his Randall knife, while shaving sharp when he started, needed lots of sawing to get through the hide of the animal, while the guide's knives just flew through it.
I handled the knife and noted that it was quite dull. He said he might send it back to the factory, so I volunteered to try sharpening it for him.
Later I broke out the sharpmaker and the white rods. The flat side of the knife was rolled so badly in some spots that I could almost hang the blade's full weight from the roll hanging on my fingernail. Seriously rolled. Holding the flat side *almost* flat to the white rod, I did a bunch of strokes, checking to see where I was getting. Eventually I could feel the rolls disappearing, completely in some spots, and not so completely in others. I decided to move to the medium (brown/gray) stones instead.
The medium rods made this go much faster and I had a nearly completely smooth back in less than 10 minutes. I switched back to the white rods and did a few strokes on the scalloped side of the serrations until I could feel a burr starting to form on the back side again. Back and forth a number of times and I was pretty sure it was sharp.
At first it wouldn't slice phonebook paper very cleanly, but doing more strokes on the serrations and the back side eventually got it to phonebook paper slicing sharpness.
I brought along a color catalog to show dad the sharpness and handed him the blade (in a sheath) for him to check out. I should mention that dad can sharpen a knife and can make most shave hair. I watched him unsheath the knife and touch his index finger to the blade. I was wondering what he was going to do as he usually feels for sharpness with his thumb pad stroking 90 degrees to the blade. I had no time to do anything as he slowly drug his index finger *down* the length of the blade. About 1 inch down he said "Oww!! I guess that thing *is* sharp!", and turned his finger over to show a thin cut with a little blood in it.
The only thing I can figure is that knife was either never sharp, or had been dull for so long that he didn't think it could be truly sharp. Guess he was wrong.
I'm also glad to see that Cutco was just being typical Cutco. It wasn't really that hard to sharpen that blade from extremely dull to quite sharp using just the sharpmaker. ...and I had fun doing it.
Brian.
