The Jende Book of Sharpening Double Hollow Ground Reed Knives

I just wanted to post a shameless plug for my reed knife sharpening book – The Jende Book of Sharpening Double Hollow Ground Reed Knives.

The book is based on my reed knife seminars, and teaches the same exact method that I use to sharpen every Jende Reed Knife. It walks you through the entire process with lots of color pictures and descriptions along the way. The first half of the book contains a lot of sharpening theory and information (including an illustrated glossary) and is a useful reference for any reed knife user. The second half of the book focuses on the sharpening itself, taking you step by step through the shaping, refining and polishing stages of sharpening, and includes detailed instructions and pictures for both right and left-handed knives.

This book is a must have for any reed knife user’s library.

Jende Reed Knife – Find Out For Yourself….

Jende Reed Knives are the sharpest reed knives on the market right out of the box for making and adjusting oboe, bassoon, clarinet and even saxophone reeds. But I’m just a salesman if I write a post about how great I think they are. I suggest trying one for yourself.

Here is a list of current Jende Reed Knife retailers (in alphabetical order):

1. Expert Woodwind Service
2. Hodge Products, Inc
3. Jende Industries, LLC
4. North Texas Oboe Reeds and Cane
5. Oboe Works
6. Weber Reeds
7. Weiner Music

Original Jende Reed Knife

Shapton Stone Tutorial Part 1: Introduction to the Shapton Pro and Glass Series

I was asked to put together something to help people discern between the different Shapton product lines by Locutus, a respected member of The Knife Forums. This is my first installment.

First, a little background information. I have been a Shapton retailer for over 5 years, and have used the Professional and Glass Series almost exclusively in that time – by choice. I sharpen many different things outside of the forum’s normal Japanese/Western kitchen and EDC knives, including woodworking tools, reed knives, straight razors, beautician and medical scissors, periodontal instruments, and orthodontic cutters and pliers.

OK, so first thing first – Shapton has 2 main product lines in the US – Professional and Glass. There are several more lines – some have been discontinued over the years and others are not readily available in the US. (I hope to cover them in another installment, later.)

The Professional series have 10 stones, with some specifically formulated for carbon or stainless steels(or Japanese or Western knives and planes). They are really designed to be used in a coarse to medium to fine progression.

Coarse:

#120 – (White) – This stone is very aggressive, but tends to need a lot of maintenance to keep it flat and to keep it aggressive. (IME, Chisel users like this stone remove chips, but I generally don’t recommend it for kitchen knives)

#220 – (Moss Green) This stone is “harder” and is formulated for stainless steel.

#320 – (Dark Blue) This stone is “softer” and is formulated for carbon steel.

Medium:

#1,000 – (Orange) This stone is labeled Coarse/Medium, and is formulated for stainless steel.

#1,500 – (Lighter Blue) This stone is formulated for carbon steel and IMO, is a great 1 stone solution for minor repairs and edge maintenance.

#2,000 – (light Green) This stone is formulated for both carbon and stainless, and is one of my favorite, although very under used, stones.

Fine:

#5,000 – (Wine Red) This stone is pivotal in the Shapton pro series. It is a dense stone that produces the first mirror finish. It sets the stage for the finer polishing stones while producing an excellent edge for most conventional knives and tools.

#8,000 – (Melon Green) This stone takes the 5K to the next level. I find it “rubby”, but yet it always produces a wonderful finish and edge. (While I always recommend going from the medium to the 5K first before going to the 8K, this stone can also be used in a 2K-8K progression.)

#15,000 (Yellow) This stone takes everything even further. It is a “softer” stone and really puts a wonderful finish on an edge. (The Japanese version of this stone is the 12K. The only difference seems to be the packaging. The reasons for the numbering differences are unknown by me, and I do not have the 12K myself. I do not see why only one stone would be different or why each would not be offered in the other’s market.)

#30,000 (Purple) This is a truly wonderful stone, although it is very expensive. It is dense and hard, and takes sushi knives and razors to the ultimate level.

——

The Glass stones are the second main Shapton stone line. They were specifically formulated to accommodate the cold-hardened Lie-Nielsen A-2 plane blades, which are RC 63. (The Pro series will work on the Lie-Nielsen blades, but at 5K +, the feedback feels a little weird.) The Glass Stone series is considerably softer than the pros (relatively speaking – they are nowhere near as soft as a Norton 4K) in order to keep a steady supply of fresh abrasive to cut through the hard steel.

It should be noted that Shapton stones seem to be aimed at the woodworking market, mainly plane and chisel blades. I won’t expand too much on this in this installment, but the reason I bring it up is because the Glass Stones’ 5mm of abrasive vs. the 15mm on the pros have reduced the weight and cost of the Glass Stones, making them more affordable, and therefore very desirable for many other sharpening applications, such as kitchen knives.  The technology for the hard steel also made the Glass stones very attractive to the more exotic steels used in many tactical, fixed blades, custom knives, etc.

With some help from Jim Rion from the SRP, I was directed a very good chart on a Japanese website that explains what each glass stone is ideal for (and I pretty much agree with). It has been translated below. You’ll note that there are several stones that are not available in the US, and that there are 3 gray colored JP (Japan) Glass Stones.

Shapton Glass Stone Series Chart (English)

The “regular” Glass stones are white in color, and in the US come in #220, #500, 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k, 6k, 8k, 16k, and 30k. The gray JP Glass stones are gray in color, and are formulated for carbon steel. The three JP stones are available in the US. (Only the #120, #320, and 10K are not.) In my mind, the JP stones are like the Shapton Pros with Glass Stone technology. As far as I know, there are only the 4k, 6k, and 8k in these JP stones, and that there is not an entire set of JP stones. (If there is proof otherwise, please let me know!)

While the Pro series was designed to go from coarse, to medium, to fine, the Glass series is pretty much mathematical, with doublings along the whole series. These stones are also broken down by the abrasive sizes in microns, giving a clearer indication of what each stone is doing.

Thanks!

Shapton and Chosera Edge Pro Stones 1″x 6″x5mm – WOW!

I’ve been working with Ken Schwartz at Precise Knife Sharpening, who is custom cutting Shapton Pro, Shapton Glass, and Chosera stones into Edge Pro sized stones (1″ x 6″x 5mm thick). They come mounted to an aluminum blank that fits perfectly in to any existing Edge Pro machine. They can be found on my website here.

Why, you may ask?…

Well, the stock Edge Pro stones are very nice, indeed, but they are stock. It’s like buying a stock Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Stock Edge Pro stones do the basic job, and produce edges that are much better than using freehand sharpening.

But imagine a world with the Edge Pro where extreme levels of sharpness and refinement can be had just by changing the stock stones out for three of the highest quality sharpening stone lines on the market – the Shapton Pro, Shapton Glass and the Naniwa Choseras.  It’s the Edge Pro on Steroids!

Here is a picture of the Shaptons:

Shapton Edge Pro Stones #120 through 15K

Here is a picture of the Chosera 10K, mounted:

Chosera 10K Edge Pro Stone, Mounted

The Edge Pro will never be the same…..

Taping the Spine of a Straight Razor – In a New Light

So I went to one of my knife makers yesterday in order to discuss the possibility of making a Japanese style straight razor for a member of the SRP. Everything was going fine with the design specs, and we started discussing the possible steel types, overall hardness, and thickness of the spine. This post is in relation to what happened when discussing the thickness of the spine.

Now, on the SRP, it seems a common mathematical figure that the spine of the knife should be 1/4 the thickness as the height of the blade, in other words, a blade that is 20mm high should have a 5mm thick spine. When we told the maker that we thought the spine should be 5mm thick, he said no, a 3mm thick spine should be sufficient.

Now let me just say that this maker knows his stuff. He is an expert sharpener and he really knows his steel. But like most Taiwanese people, he only shaves, well, not very often -  and he has no beard. He also revealed that he likes the Mach 3 ( the poor guy…) So my mind started to smell like smoke, and I developed a slight twitch while trying to figure out why he said only 3mm would be just fine!

At this point it should be noted that this maker, Mr. Wu (not Maestro Wu – same last name, but two entirely different people) is big on Chinese Philosophy, kung-fu and Tai-Chi. For a “blue collar” guy, trying to decipher in Chinese what he is saying is like me reading Shakespeare to him in English. His language is very high level and quite philosophical.  However, I had some help yesterday, and between us (and a handy little PDA language converter) we manged to get immediate translations. It should also be mentioned that we went to him seeking his expertise and input – I trust his knowledge and experience, and in 9 years of knowing him, he has been a constant and a huge source of knowledge.

Basically (and loosely translated) his reason was this: “Technical skills are the result of experience, and someone that has technical skills and experience doesn’t need to rely on the math. My skills are more philosophically influenced.” In other words, I’ve been making knives for a very long time, if you want a Japanese style razor that works, listen to me.

Don’t forget, we specifically wanted his input on this matter, and we opted almost immediately to go with his recommendation of 3mm.

OK, so the title of the post is Taping right? Well, in all of this discussion of the thickness of the spine, the western razor has a “built in jig”, and the 5mm thick spine is supposed to create the ideal angle of the bevel and edge. Mr. Wu’s 3mm argument was also followed by an intense discussion about edge angles on razors. Bottom line, he said that they were too thin. This made me think about another experiment with micro bevels and how members of the Badger and Blade were posting magnified edges. It is also influenced by the fact that I did sharpen up a reed knife (which this Mr. Wu makes for me) that has a 4.5 mm spine as a razor. (I know it’s a lot to take in.)

So I revisited taping because, in my mind and limited experience, taping seemed to be used to prevent spine wear, and to make sharpening faster. These reasons made using tape unappealing to me in the past – but – now, since taping can be used not so much as a micro bevel, (as the thread describes), but to purposely make the edge stronger while acting as a built in jig. (Is it really different? To me the reasoning makes it so)

I set a bevel on a Wade and Butcher wedge, did a light bread knife (ala Harrelson Stanley) Then added 2 pieces of tape (I found that 1 piece really didn’t alter the geometry “enough” for what I was attempting to do) and then set the new bevel on the Shapton 4K Glass Stone and moved on to the 8K, 16K and finally the 30K. No stropping. I did the same on the converted reed knife.

The shave with both blades was great. WTG, ATG. The beautiful part was that I usually need to use a reduced angle when shaving ATG, but I found myself just shaving, with no real regard for the edge angle to get results or to stop from ripping those stubborn hairs out from under my chin…

Looks like the 3mm will do just fine. I can’t wait to see the results of our prototypes from Mr. Wu.

Adventures with my Meastro Wu pocket knife – Part 2

So I went for a walk with my daughter this morning, and on the way there is a baby store. Since the sun was beating down pretty hard on us, so we went inside to cool off a little before continuing.

The store was nicely air conditioned, and they had a little play area with a bunch of toys and even a small double swing. She hit the swing while I hit the massage chair (obviously put there for the dads!) that was in the small seating area for nursing and watching the kids in the play area. We were the only two people in the store, and my daughter was content on the swing – for about an hour. Meanwhile, my back was getting a little sore from so much massaging!

Then it happened – one of the store employees came to the seating area, where there is a little fridge and sink, and asked where the fruit knife was. My eyebrow went up. I didn’t pay too much attention as I figured they had a knife, even though it probably wasn’t worthy of being called so. As the bliss of the massage chair kicked back in, my eyes closed and I quickly forgot about the knife issue. Then my phone rang, and when I answered it, I looked over at the store lady and she was trying to cut a lemon with – wait for it – A SPOON! Really! A teaspoon!

I told the person on the phone I would call them right back – there was an emergency I needed to take care of.

Needless to say, the girl with the spoon was not making any progress, and who knows how long she was trying… I took out my Maestro Wu Mini Folding Knife and called her over to my chair and offered it to her. She looked at me, confused by what was in my hand, and then made the connection (something like OOooh -that looks like it will work faster than the spoon…)

As the lemon was large, and the blade of the knife small (a little over an inch), she ended up doing a cut around the circumference, and the lemon was cut in half. She rinsed and wiped down my blade, and gave it back to me with a smile, and took a sip of her fresh lemon water.

I put the knife back in my pocket, made sure my daughter was still on the swing, and settled back into the massage chair…….I never did call the person back….:)

Shapton Glass over Shapton Professional Stones For Straight Razors?

So I’ve recently changed my thinking that the Shapton Professional Stones are the best in any sharpening situation (excepting Lie-Nielsen A-2 Cold Hardened plane blades, for which the glass series is specifically designed). The Shapton Glass Stones, seem to be better suited for straight razors (with some exceptions, though…)

I had my theories for about this for 3 months of so, but only know has it been proven which might be better suited for straight razors. My thinking was this: The professional stones keep their shape longer, therefore the bevel on the straight razor would be “straighter”, while the softer glass stones would produce a slightly rounded or convexed bevel.

It looks like the glass stone theory was correct, but there’s more to it now. I think the consistency of the glass stones’ softness through the series is what allows each consecutive stone to conform to the slight roundness of the bevel in fewer strokes than it would take the professional series stones to either abrade the edge flat and/or conform to the bevel.

Think of it this way, with the Glass series, the stones conform to the edge (making sharpening faster), while the professional series makes the edge conform to the stone (making it take longer). That is why some people have reported the higher grit pro stones requiring more than the usual amount of strokes. This makes sense because little or no pressure is used on the razor when sharpening, so wearing down a pro stone will take some doing – especially at the higher grits.

So armed with this new information, which series is now better for straight razors?

Think before you answer……  : )

Straight Razor Exchange

After two shaves with my exchange partner’s Boker that was finished on a Japanese Nakayama stone, I am happy to report that it was very fun and interesting. I recommend it to everyone!

My first shave was smooooth! The blade was a lot lighter than my TI or Bismark, and the thin hollow grind made the blade sound “weird”, but these had no effect on the performance. I was a little tentative on my first shave, as I didn’t want to break anything as I was finding out what the blade could handle. I was able to get my usual WTG and ATG shaves, along with some resulting BBS. Overall, the result of a very nice sharpening job, IMO.

The second shave required a little stropping. I decided not to use the stones because I figured that if I brought out one stone, I would bring them all out and want to resharpen the entire razor – and that wasn’t part of the deal. The strop kept the blade alive in order for me to finish the shave. This time around, the blade found its way around my face much easier, as I was more comfortable with the weight and balance of the razor. There was a slight difference in the overall edge of the second shave, but nothing that was the fault of the sharpener. – Which leads me to my conclusion:

I would say that the bottom line is that the owner of the Boker did a very good job at honing his razor.

Just in thinking about it, I realize that it is difficult to pinpoint anything accurately – is anything I notice the sharpening job, the razor characteristics, my expectations, or a combination of any of them? The only answer I could come up with, based only on my culminated thoughts, was “Corporate Shave”.

The razor was sharpened well, no doubt there. What I imagined was that I know my razor has more of a “sharp” feeling on the face, and it will keep on scraping the skin on subsequent passes, no matter if there is hair to cut or not. The Boker seemed to know “when to stop”, even if I could feel the hair on my face with my fingers. While this is not a bad trait, per se, it lead me to believe that the edge could benefit from some more refinement – not necessarily from higher grits, but just from more passes.

The “Corporate Shave” entered my mind because I could very well see this blade being used every day or every other day, leaving a “smooth enough” shave for work. It is quite light, and it found its way around my face very quickly. The characteristics of the blade – relatively thin hollow grind- lent itself to this.

As all of this is subjective I think everyone should try other people’s razors (with permission, of course)

Is Stropping Still Necessary in a 30K (or .5 Micron) World?

It’s kind of funny that I always seem to be thinking about straight razors.

I am eagerly awaiting a razor exchange with a member of the SRP. I sent him my Thiers-Issard sharpened to 30K on the Shapton Glass Stones. We discussed the terms for evaluating each others blades, and we agreed that we were to send the razors shave ready in order to “keep it real”.

For me, this simply meant touching up my razor with a couple of strokes on the 30K glass. As for my exchange partner, he uses natural stones, and finishes with stropping. I am very excited to use a razor that has been finished on natural stones.

With the advance of synthetic sharpening stones, sharpening anything to 8K and finer is as easy as doing a Google search and using a credit card. To me, if you can sharpen up to 30K, or .5 microns, stropping is a little redundant (and maybe even counterproductive??) With the internet, you can now secure natural Nakayama stones that, as my exchange partner said, rival the 30K. In fact, it is this very statement that made me wonder about why he is going to strop his razor after using this stone.

This got me thinking – with the commercial availability of stones that go to 30k, or .5 microns, is stropping really necessary anymore? Back in the day, when sharpening stone  and barber hone technology weren’t nearly as technologically advanced as they are today (I’m not saying  that they were bad, though), I can see using stropping to clean up an edge, and to even  mask some imperfections, as stropping rounds over (or convexes) an edge over time (actually improving it before it becomes too convex).  But gone are the days of only having Arkansas or India stones, which at best their best, are not good enough on their own.

Of course one can strop as a form of sharpening on several different strops loaded with CrO2 or diamond pastes that go as high as .25 microns, or 60K. If this were the only method a person used, I can see that being effective. The argument that the edge will eventually need to be reset on a flat stone comes into play, though.

I guess the  tradition of using strops is so well ingrained in our straight razor history that it will never go away. Besides, this technology has only been available in the last few decades. Just a thought…….

Failing Forward – Every failure is a success in waiting – even if it takes 7 years

I am about to embark on my first straight razor restore. I won a few old straight razors off of eBay, and I’ve been doing my homework on the SRP these past few days. The old razors will have surface rust, and possibly even some pitting.  It is my goal to get a really shiny finish on them, if possible. The problem is that some of the blades are very thin, so using a higher speed buffer or sandpaper flap wheel could easily overheat the blade, or damage it, and using wet/dry sandpaper will just plain take a long time.

So, I was driving to work, and it hit me – I had actually come full circle!

About 7 years ago I started getting into the reed knife business, I had absolutely no intentions of learning how to sharpen. I wanted to simply be a middleman. But when I got the knives from the maker, they had this nasty coat of polyurethane sprayed on the blades. The maker said that they would rust, otherwise.  I obviously couldn’t sell them that way, so I set out to find a way to polish the blades. I tried a lot of methods, but ultimately ended up getting these little slip stones and used them to polish the blades by hand. Each blade took about 3 hours to complete, but they were smooth, shiny, and they didn’t rust.

I realized after about 100 knives that it just wasn’t going to be economical, as much as it was pretty. A failure, if you will, because I wasted many, many hours trying  a solution that just wasn’t worth the effort. So I started looking into other polishing methods and materials. This lead to several things. First, I found that using a buffing wheel worked much, much faster in polishing up the blades. And even though the scratch marks on the blade from manufacturing were still quite visible, they were “polished”, and that stopped the rust from forming. This was a success, because my blade polishing time was reduced from hours to seconds – but it’s not why I am writing this post.

This is where failing forward comes into play. First, in my quest for knowledge on polishing blades, I ultimately got into sharpening because all of the information available was for polishing, as in sharpening. The failure of hand polishing the blades with slip stones lead me to make the market’s sharpest reed knives, to me becoming something of an authority on sharpening reed knives, and to me actually writing a reed knife sharpening book (with plans for a DVD in the works as well…).

But here’s the kicker. As I was thinking about how I would be polishing up the old straight razor blades, the idea of using the slip stones came into my mind. Here’s the full circle – 8 years ago, I spent a plethora of time trying to polish the reed knife blades using the slip stones – developing a technique that was uneconomical. It was abandoned for 7 years – until today.

So for my first razor restore job, I will already have the skills, and a considerable amount of experience to polish up a rusty blade.

So every failure is a success in waiting, even if it takes 7 years (or more) to reveal itself!