Sharpening A Serrated Knife On Kalamazoo Belt Sander

[@williammack3018]

I have made a specialty out of sharpening serrated knives as it's hard to find a sharpener who does and those that do usually sharpen only the backside of the blade as shown in this video. Eventually this will wear all the teeth away to nothing. I use a Norton Crystolon Sharpening Steel that is available from Amazon $17.64. The "steel" is NOT made of steel. It is a 1/2 by 9inch rod made of a soft abrasive the wears fairly quickly . I keep several of these rods at various stages of wear on hand to fit different sizes of serrations. Each tooth is "filed" to deepen the valley and raise the peaks. For extreemly fine serrations I use a fine chainsaw file and finish off with a diamond DMT file. The burr can quickly be removed with a couple of swipes with the rod on the backside of the blade. If the serrations are almost completely gone, I remove the remains and reserrate with a grinder set up with very narrow wheels made for sharpening chainsaw chains.

[@briangentry3118]

This is kind of the great debate in serrated sharpening: Do you try to duplicate the factory geometry, or "just get it sharp"? For me, just getting it sharp is enough. Particularly on knives that are not prized possessions. Yes, the geometry will be altered slightly during each sharpening. I have an older Delica that I've sharpened on a SharpMaker probably at least 100 times. It's teeth are no where near as pointy as they were from the factory. Your method would almost certainly preserve the pointy teeth better and probably give the blade a bit more longevity. The down side of your method, for me, is the time and precision involved. The blade in this video has something like 25 separate serrations. I think that would take me longer than I would like to sharpen by doing each individual tooth. In summary I admire your method, but choose to not try to do it because I'm lazy.

[@ChristopherSalisburySalz]

@@briangentry3118 I've never seen a high end serated blade before, if they even exist. I am kind of with you, Brian, a $10 blade maybe isn't worth the effort.

[@briangentry3118]

@@ChristopherSalisburySalz There are many rather expensive serrated blades, some of them very intricate and interesting. For example the Spdyerco Matriarch: www.spyderco.com/catalog/details/C12BK2/Matriarch-trade-2-FRN/719 I have another video showing the "after" of working on my own serrated Delica which came out nicely, though the serrations are not as nicely pointed as they used to be, due to me sharpening that particular blade probably 100 times or more on a Sharpmaker. As for "worth it" or not: I think it was worth my time because it was fun, got the blade kind of ridiculously sharp, and has lasting effects. I mostly cut sandwiches and things like that with this blade and don't use it a lot. It's probably been used 40 or 50 times since I sharpened it 2 years ago. I just went to the kitchen to test it with a newspaper ad. It sliced the paper fairly cleanly both diagonally and straight up and down. In the rounded part near the tip, which always hits the plate when I'm cutting sandwiches, it was less sharp, and cut the paper less cleanly. It could use a touchup sharpening. It's still very functionally sharp.

[@theodorechan8665]

for a few bucks off amazon you can buy a static discharge strap to ground yourself. helps big time for the shocks during winter time!

[@briangentry3118]

That's not a bad idea. But where's the comedy in that? :) :)

[@homesteadhandyman4481]

Hi Brian I Am new to sharpening . Max the knife has been helping me . I just got a Kaly SM1. Do you think you could do a video about changing belts and tracking. Having a bit of trouble with mine. Thanks, Don

[@briangentry3118]

Hey Don, Check out this clip from my KallyRest installation video. I briefly go over adjusting the centering of the belt. It's only about a minute of the video, but it might help you out. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWfOn4Wlos1kh8k If you still have questions, please ask. Maybe I can make a video to help. Or maybe you can come over to the BESS Exchange and get help from the members there, including me. Thanks.

[@Sweetknives]

Maybe I am missing something but why are you not using the Kally Rest to sharpen this knife? It looks like you are using the platen but not the angle piece?

[@briangentry3118]

You are correct. I'm not using the KallyRest and not really using the platen either. Though the platter is definitely still attached. The method I've choose for sharpening a serrated blade is: 1. Thin the blade from the flat side, by sharpening at an extremely shallow angle. Less than 10 degrees is the goal. 2. Raise a burr while doing this, along the entire edge. This raises a burr inside the scallops of the serrations. 3. Remove the burr from the scallop side, by allowing the belt to slide in and out of the scallops. The corner of the belt is used for this. In #1, #2 I might be able to use the kalyrest, but it seems in the way and seems hard to maintain this very shallow (close to zero) angle. In #3 (burr removal), it's essentially impossible to use the rest and is undesirable in my opinion. The kallyrest is a good product. But I don't think it's suited to sharpening serrated blades. I'm fairly certain that the inventor of the KallyRest (Mark) does not sharpen serrated blades with it. There are many ways to sharpen serrated blades. Some people think this way is "terrible". I've found it to produce a very sharp blade and it isn't too time consuming.

[@Sweetknives]

@@briangentry3118 Sounds good, I understand what you are saying about the serrated blades, I was hoping what you said was the case instead of not using the kally rest altogether for other types of knives, looks like it was just this specific type of knife with serrates that you didnt use it and that makes sense. :) Thanks for the clarification. I just ordered up one of them so hopefully it works as good for me as it does for you. :)

[@taz9041]

helped me out a bunch great vid bro

[@ChristopherSalisburySalz]

You can wear one of the grounding wrist wires that computer techs wear to ground yourself to the machine so that you won't get shocked. Sometimes the shocks are crazy strong! It would be fine if it was just one every once in a while but when you're getting them every 20 seconds it gets old real fast.

[@robertmunguia250]

What belts would be good for serrated knives? A 1 by 30.

[@briangentry3118]

I would want a variety of belts for a 1x30 to sharpen all kinds of blades. As low as about 36 grit for crazy dull stuff like old machetes. Something around 100 grit for regular abused kitchen knives. Then around 300, 600, and perhaps 1000 to 1200. The 300 is a good starter for most beat up serrated blades. 600 is a good finisher for serrated as well as many regular straight blades. A leather belt is good for removing the burr from all kinds of blades. Some hardware store compound is very useful to use with a leather belt as demonstrated in this video. There are a few other belts for other purposes, but something like 100, 300, 600, leather is an excellent starter kit for all kinds of blades. Good luck!

[@bucko1948]

Could not understand what you said the belt is. Please advise

[@briangentry3118]

List of belts used: Trizact A65 (~ 280 grit) Trizact A30 (~ 600 grit) Smooth Leather loaded with green compound. Compound is probably about 3 micron, but it might be as high as 10 micron or so; not sure because it came from StropMan, who makes his own, so I can't be sure of the composition. If your serrated blade is not quite as dull as the one I was using, you could do all of this with a 600 grit belt. I hope this helps.

[@ChristopherSalisburySalz]

I am curious, did you look at other sharpening machines besides the Kalamazoo? I have been looking at them and wonder what advantages and disadvantages they have. Do you wish you invested in something different or are you happy with the Kalamazoo?

[@briangentry3118]

@Christopher Salisbury I also considered the Canadian made Viel S5M. It looks like a very good machine. But I was considering doing a motor swap in order to get variable speed and it's much harder to do so on the Viel. That turned out to not be relevant for me. I kept the stock motor at its fixed speed and it works just fine. The availability of the KallyRest also influenced my purchase. The KallyRest was specifically designed for the Kalamazoo so... I think the KallyRest is a really good product, but obviously increases the price of the overall setup. I'm very happy with my purchase overall. It gets a lot done in a medium amount of time. It's slow enough to not be very dangerous to knives, but fast enough to not be frustrating. It's a very nice balance. PS: You made another comment about serrated blades and I think I accidentally deleted it. Please feel free to make your comment again and I will respond. Thanks for watching. Brian.

[@ChristopherSalisburySalz]

@@briangentry3118 I have also been looking at the AMK 75 sharpener. It looks like a high quality machine. They don't have good advertising so Google searches often don't have it in top results. Would you take a look and give me your opinion on it?

[@briangentry3118]

@@ChristopherSalisburySalz I looked up the AMK 75. It's a neat design. The pluses are: Variable speed. Horizontal belt! Included Light. Good looking angle guide with clamp. The negatives are primarily the price. It's about 2x or maybe 2.5x what I paid for the Kally plus KallyRest. The clamped guide is a bit of a minus also as it requires a good bit of extra effort to clamp up a blade. I don't think I'd spend the money on one of these just because it's so close to $1k. But it's nice for sure. Brian.

[@ChristopherSalisburySalz]

@@briangentry3118 I agree with you. Does your sharpner scratch up the sides of you blades from running back and forth along the guide? That's the down side usually of an system that has a guide system like that.

[@briangentry3118]

@@ChristopherSalisburySalz Occasionally I have seen marks on my blades from the guide. I think it gets metal shavings on the guide, from repeated sharpening, and then moving the blade back and forth over the guide gets it marked/scratched. My solution for the moment is to use a piece of painter's tape on the guide face. I replace the tape every few sharpenings, and especially if I have a knife I'm concerned about. That way I start with a nice clean surface. Seems to work pretty well so far, but I haven't been overly concerned about the sides of the blades I've been sharpening lately. As we always used to say: YMMV

[@swiggamortis5521]

That IS NOT easy to do. Well done sir.

[@billybobwombat2231]

Dude, that's the lazy way to do a serration on a blade, get a thin aluminium oxide wheel, a diamond dresser and shape the wheel to fit the serrations, you'll end up with no gullets in the serrations, lazy way mate 🤙

[@briangentry3118]

My way is certainly not perfect and does not replicate factory serrations. Lazy is a good description actually! Lazy, but effective. I do not do this for a living. I have a limited budget for equipment. More importantly, I have limited patience and time. Thanks for the comment. I'll bet your results are really nice.

[@billybobwombat2231]

No probs mate, a cheap bench grinder, one thin aluminium oxide wheel, one diamond dresser and experiment, its all cheap kit off ebay and a dozen or so paying knives will pay for it 🤙

[@dennismason1187]

@@billybobwombat2231 I am researching various tools and methods for pro knife sharpening. What do you think of using this Kally and a small bench grinder with a stropping wheel for finishing? There is so much information out there. Thanks

[@billybobwombat2231]

@@dennismason1187 hi, what's a kally?