How to sharpen knifes like a professional take 2

[@texasfirefighting]

I’m a retired firefighter/paramedic (LT for last 8 yrs of my career). Considering a side hustle providing knife sharpening. Wish I had thought of this when I was still on the job. It would probably be a full-time gig by now had I planned it right. Could still be. Great video! I’ll keep watching for more tips. Thanks!

[@jonathanbtodd]

I have a KO Elite coming in a couple of weeks and I’ve been watching videos for how to use it. Yours is the most helpful I’ve seen so far. Thank you for the video!

[@oklikeuknow4827]

Thank you for the knowledge drop Sir

[@bruce6099]

Ive got 1 of the ken onion blade grinding editions and a wicked edge system. Wicked edge gets sharper edges but is slower if you're fixing damaged edges or if reprofiling. I tend to use the wicked edge for pocket knives and the ken onion for bigger blades and tools ( axes, machetes etc).

[@jerrystark6766]

Great setup. I used to have a Work Sharp knife "Original" sharpener, which worked well until I broke it. 😒 I still have a Workshop 3000, which is great for establishing edges on chisels and plane blades. After that, I use diamond stones -- up to 8000 grit. I also have several Work Sharp kitchen and field sharpeners, and they all work well. I have given them as gifts to friends and family. I am eyeing a Work Sharp Ken Onion Mk 2, similar to what you are using, so I really appreciate your videos on this subject. Thanks!

[@killam95]

Thank you for your service to our country and showing some patriotism on your channel. Great video! I love my Ken onion work sharp. I didn’t know the grinding attachment was a thing and now I need one.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Thank you and you are welcome. No matter what I will always honor our flag and the country I stand for.

[@David-m6f5p]

God bless you brother , I'm also a vet.

[@slimjam44]

The blue tape is a great idea. I recently got a ken onion machine like yours. I then got the blade grinding attachment and love it. Your video cleared up many of my questions. Regarding serrated knives, do you use the ceramic sharpener on both sides, or just the flat side? Thnx much, J.W. from K.C.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Just the flat side

[@Defossion1]

I have the Ken Onion w/ the blade grinding attachment as well. It is the bees knees. I used to sharpen all the household knives and my hunting knives on a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It works, but it is a slowwww process, especially compared to the Work Sharp KO. This video is 100% accurate--belts are wayyy faster and give an edge that is scary sharp; they are more than sufficient for everyday users and knife enthusiasts. Sure, if you want to enter a contest, measured by a BESS tester, break out the stones. But, if you have a normal life that you like to live and you just use your knife to open boxes, plastic clam packaging, bags of snacks, cut zip ties and bales of hay, do yourself a favor and follow the advice in this video.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

You nailed it!

[@KennyRamsayMedic48]

Volunteer Firefighter/Full Time ACP Paramedic of 20 years. Alberton, Prince Edward Island, Canada I’m about 5 or so years out from retirement. Looking to start a small business. Sharpening is one that I have been researching for a while now. Really appreciate your videos and insight. I’m looking at home based and also mobile based. I haven’t watched all of your videos yet but will. Wondering if you take your business mobile and do you have any pointers for anyone thinking of going mobile? Thank you for your service Brother. Keep the flag🇺🇸 in the shop. 🇨🇦🤜🤛🏻🇺🇸

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Thanks brother for the comment and congrats on your upcoming retirement. I haven’t started my countdown yet haha. As far as mobile I really only do hair salons mostly bc of convenience of the hairdressers/barbers I work out of the back of my truck I can either run a small inverter generator or plug directly into my truck and sharpen on my tailgate. The rest of my sharpening is dropped off at my home via a drop box. To help your decision on being mobile I would be looking at the are you plan on servicing and what competition is local to you. If you have a lot of restaurants it may be advantageous to go mobile. If I were to go mobile I would look into getting a used ambulance 🚑, already has power, lights, ac/heat, storage. And is eye catching. Hope that helps some. Feel free to message or pick my brain

[@KennyRamsayMedic48]

@@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather awesome sir thank you. My home province has only a few sharpeners that are registered with Google search that I could find. Does not appear that anyone in the province does mobile. Province is about 330kms long with two cities. One located 45mins from me and the other 90mins. Lots of smaller towns and communities dotted throughout. With the world of convenience that we live in, I’m thinking that going mobile might be better in my case. I would still do it at home for local folks as well. The ambulance idea is exactly what I had in mind. We run Mercedes sprinters here on the island. Like you said they are already powered, heated, lights etc. would be some cost savings going with a retired ambulance as long as a fella got one that was still decent. Thanks for your reply and advice. I will surely be picking your brain as I move forward with this idea. 🚒🚑🇺🇸🤜🤛🏻🚑🚒🇨🇦

[@wesleycotten9580]

I bought one of these and I do love how fast it is. I have been noticing my edges losing their edge faster though then with my V edge with my fixed angle system. Sometimes I think I may be leaving a micro burr but other times I have been very careful to get that off. I get that a convex will lose its shaving edge faster but keep working longer but I feel like i am losing the working edge faster with the convex too. Do you have any suggestions?

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Try stropping on leather afterwards and see if this helps. Also what is the final belt you are using? It sounds to me you may still have a light bur. On some knives I notice this with I will run the blade along the edge of my (wooden) work bench to peal that foil bur off then run on the final belt.

[@wesleycotten9580]

@@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather I always use a leather strop but have not tried scraping off that foil burr before the last belt but that’s a great idea and I will try that! Thank you

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

@wesleycotten9580 sometimes I have to do this, you’ll get a stubborn knife that the foil bur just keeps folding one side to the other.

[@peterspeets9950]

Thank you for all the great information you show to us. I am practicing with the ko I Just bought and I am learning quickly. It's a very good, well made unit. There is just one thing I am worried about and that's the dust. It's very bad for your lungs. I use it now only outside and with a dust mask. You really should protect yourself and it's even more important for you because you run a sharpening business so you must inhale a lot of dust and fine dust without protection. Success with your nice business.

[@davestelling]

Agree! I've looked at these portable bench top dust collection units - but man, they are pricey. Gonna have to pull the trigger on one, though - sooner than later...

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

@davestelling your not kidding on the cost!

[@scottr22]

Thank you bro, this was very helpful. I have 3 1x30 and I use them, but I have found with my first work sharp grinder that I felt much more confident with it and I was doing a more concise edge at a more accurate angle. So now I have 3 work sharp grinders and a load of belts. I also have a Tormek that will be used mostly for chisels and plane blades. My question for you is, are you doing this for a living or in addition to a regular job? For context, I am semi retired and I haven't even started a business yet but building up to it. thanks so much for your video's, they are informative.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Thank you for your comment! For me this started as a hobby then into a small business. I do this on the side in the evenings and days off. My full time job I work as a firefighter at a nearby nuclear plant and my schedule works nicely with this business. Over the years I have gained reputation as well as a great client base along with several businesses that I work with regularly. When I started I had to bring something to the table that the competition wasn’t for me that was a 24hr turnaround. To this day that gets me customers who come to me instead of the other (fast convenient turnaround)

[@Murzington]

The jump from the first belt to the second seems quite drastic. How did you decide to go from 220 to so fine without something in between?

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Primarily this was trial and error and also not far off of the recommendation from work sharp. When I first started I would use a five belt progression. After some testing I saw that cutting it to four didn’t impact the sharpness or the edge finish any.

[@dougsmith4525]

Ty for the great video. Tell me more about the drop box please. Is it just a box on your porch or place of business? Does it lock somehow? Do you put knives in for more than one customer at a time? So many questions because ive been try to figure out how my customers can drop off and pick up safely without me being there.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

It is a drop box designed for packages I bought mine off of Amazon. It’s us bolted along the side of my drive way and has a digital key pad to access. I put trays in the bottom and that allows multiple customers to place their items inside. Also have a acrylic flyer display that I double side taped to the inside that holds tags and pens for customers to leave a name and number on or in the tray. I put my decal on the lid that has my email and phone number so people will contact me prior to drop off and I will give the code. I change this code randomly to keep it somewhat secure. I also have multiple security cameras strategically placed to keep an eye on everything adding more security. When items are done I wrap them all up with knife guards and wrap in butcher paper with an invoice. These get placed back in the drop box for customer pickup. This has been very beneficial for my myself and my customers. Hope this info helps you out!

[@KnifeSharpeningbyDoug]

tyvm! It's very helpful. I'm looking, but can't find one with a code. Or do you use a combination lock?@@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

a.co/d/2tT8VZa Here’s a link to an updated version of what I use

[@dougsmith4525]

@@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather thank you very much!

[@Carnivorous_edc]

AMERICA ❤

[@ronigo2468]

Not a pro,but enjoy your instructional/learning video!

[@jeffcaptain6738]

So you’re not attempting to match the angle of the knife given to you, but reforming the edge to fit your predetermined angles. Is this simply a time issue both on the initial knife and the return of the same knifes for touch up? Other than sometimes removing more material from the blade then is necessary , are there other disadvantages you might see? Do any customers,if they know enough, ask for their angles to be matched? How do you handle this? Do you do the same for your own knifes when time and volume aren’t an issue?

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

For a convex egde I use the most average blade angle this allows for durability as well as longevity. I have had several customers ask for specific angles or to have a more razor sharp edge. For my kitchen knives I’m ashamed to say they are dull as can be. What’s that old saying. The shoe cobblers kid has the worst shoes. But when I do get around to sharpening my own I use the same angle I use on the majority of all customer knives. Yes it keeps it simple for repeatability and allows to quickly process numerous knives without having to reset each machine. For most general purpose knives there’s no need to get to hung up on the blade angle. Unless your drastically at either spectrum of the scale. The other caveat to this is I have sharpened enough knives over my time that if I have a knife that needs a bit of a different angle I just rotate my wrist and accommodate the angle instead of resetting the machine. The biggest and most important part of sharpening isn’t the angle. It’s keeping passes even from side to side and making sure you have apexed the blade before moving to a finer grit after the first grit.

[@codyconrad7333]

I totally support the american flag.I don't know if I'd want to be getting metal shavings on it.

[@charleswilson4598]

I sharpen my kitchen knives ocassionally with some waterstones. I am not very good at it and I am not expecting super sharp finishes. If I can cut vegetables without a lot of effort then I am happy, but I would like to have a belt sharpener. It just seem to make sense to me that a belt sharpener is much faster and easier than doing it manually. Anyone who claims that they are faster tthan a belt grinder would have to prove it for me to believe that. I don't know for sure but I would bet that knife manufacturers sharpen their knives with a machine of some kind.

[@Rood67]

🇺🇸 *Keep ‘er flying* 🇺🇸 Looking through the comment, not many, but some got their man-panties in a wad over stone sharpening. They obviously didn’t listen, and got their calisthenics on by jumping to conclusions. You praised stones for the cleaner sharper result; however, you stated belt was faster. I’ve watched a lot of sharpening videos for oil or water stones, diamond stones, etc… and they all say the same thing, a *damaged or neglected* knife will take up to thirty minutes to re-profile and then sharpen. Professional Japanese chefs showing their stone skills state it takes several minutes to get the edge they desire, on a well maintained blade. So I don’t see why several are getting bent out of shape because you said the belt method is faster. There is a black smithing / knife making show, Forged In Fire; every single episode they use what appears to be a 2x70 belt, not six different diamond grits - Why? Because they are in a speed competition.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Thank you for watching my entire video and hearing what I said. You nailed it on the head. People act like I say the way I do it is the best and only way when I clearly have stated against this on about every sharpening video I have posted. My way is the fastest and best for ME and my business. Thank you again!

[@michaelmorrison4843]

Your vid could've been a lot more helpful if you hadn't speed up the sharpening process! We can't really actually see what you're doing! It's almost a blur! 🤔😵

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

I have a more in-depth video on my channel that shows that not time lapsed.

[@yellowflag4803]

keep that flag flying, if it offends someone they should leave the united states

[@andreasjonsson8075]

Buy yourself a dust extractor

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

I would love one! I just don’t have the space for one. When I don’t film I use a shop vac that is paired with a cyclone and hepa filter to collect as much dust as I can. I’ve modified several shop vac attachments to work with a multitude of my tools.

[@user-pm7pw1tl3t]

There are people who sharpen on stone for people as a buisness...but okay.

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Very far and few between. It’s not a profitable way to sharpen as a business. Facts are facts Only way to make that type of sharpening profitable is to charge a premium price. Then you run the issue of not being attractable to customers who just want a sharp knife and not have to pay a premium or have long wait times. I challenge anyone who sharpens by hand with stones to take an equally dull/damaged knife and sharpen it in the same time I can using a mechanical sharpener

[@HardShavings]

​@@ACutAboveKnifeandLeatherChallenge accepted. Let's see what you can do!

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

@HardShavings 90 seconds of sharpening let’s go!

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

Keep comments clean on this channel or you will be banned.

[@jimbeaux89]

And some people are idiots…but okay. 🤣

[@brianmccoy9548]

gave up after 2 straight minutes of blabbering about stones edit the bull

[@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather]

If you didn’t like it then why did you watch it? This channel is here to show the how and why. I’m transparent and give reason behind what I say and why I do something.