Repairing Kitchen Knives

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

I spent a couple hours on repairs this morning. The before and after pics didn't come out great, but I can't really go back and get another before pic!
View attachment 1605242

The edge was mangled by what seemed to be kitchen abuse and some kind of grinder or belt with no idea how to use them. The tip was broken. It was the perfect specimen!


I finally got around to using this advice, and it was great! Thanks again!

For my tip, I drew directly on the knife with a sharpie. It was very helpful to see the profile as I ground towards it.

I didn't want to gouge out my King 300, so I took the knife to a concrete step and a brick for rough reprofiling. I went longer than expected, because the edge steel was pretty eaten up and flimsy.

When I finished that rough stuff, I brought it in for some thinning. It has plenty of scars already, so I wasn't concerned about clouding up the sides as I thinned. The stones made it look better anyway!

I cleaned up the roughness around the newly ground tip, set a new edge on a King 300, refined that on a Naniwa pro 1000, and "stropped" on a dry denim apron.

View attachment 1605241

Looking at the pics, I can't tell how much work it was. I'm excited to give it to a friend of mine!

I initially thought it was an unmarked blade, but I could see reflections of what was once branded there. It's a F. Dick Superior series, I'm guessing a 10" chef knife.

I sent the after pic to the friend that found the knife, and she said "Wow, I don't see any of the divots where it looked like they used it to open cans!" So that made me feel good.

F Dick make some good knives. Take care of it! You brought life back to that work horse!

 

[cotedupy]

I spent a couple hours on repairs this morning. The before and after pics didn't come out great, but I can't really go back and get another before pic!
View attachment 1605242

The edge was mangled by what seemed to be kitchen abuse and some kind of grinder or belt with no idea how to use them. The tip was broken. It was the perfect specimen!


I finally got around to using this advice, and it was great! Thanks again!

For my tip, I drew directly on the knife with a sharpie. It was very helpful to see the profile as I ground towards it.

I didn't want to gouge out my King 300, so I took the knife to a concrete step and a brick for rough reprofiling. I went longer than expected, because the edge steel was pretty eaten up and flimsy.

When I finished that rough stuff, I brought it in for some thinning. It has plenty of scars already, so I wasn't concerned about clouding up the sides as I thinned. The stones made it look better anyway!

I cleaned up the roughness around the newly ground tip, set a new edge on a King 300, refined that on a Naniwa pro 1000, and "stropped" on a dry denim apron.

View attachment 1605241

Looking at the pics, I can't tell how much work it was. I'm excited to give it to a friend of mine!

I initially thought it was an unmarked blade, but I could see reflections of what was once branded there. It's a F. Dick Superior series, I'm guessing a 10" chef knife.

I sent the after pic to the friend that found the knife, and she said "Wow, I don't see any of the divots where it looked like they used it to open cans!" So that made me feel good.

More nice work, good job.

"stropped" on a dry denim apron.

One of the great benefits of cotton clothing! Denim and other general cotton is absolutely excellent for knife stropping. As well as paper and card I often use; aprons, jeans, tea towels &c. My left sleeve basically always looks like this (and this really quite clean):

 

[2bit_collie]

So here is a different type of kitchen knife repair question - my apologies if it really should go in a separate thread. Got my sister’s kitchen knives in. Mostly just dull. But the Santoku had a really messed up handle that had melted after being left on the stove or against a hot griddle. I don’t have a before (the knife was quite uncomfortable to hold). I used a dremel to grind off all the plastic that stuck out beyond the original profile. But there is still a bit of a canyon where the griddle edge left a ”canyon“ going along the handles length. A thought is to build a tape mold, fill in with epoxy, and then sand down to fill in the void. Any thoughts? Wustof by the way.

Also, any suggestions for stones that might be most effective on these knives? They are mostly Henkels and Wustof stainless, so I am guessing that they have pretty high wear resistance. While I reset bevels on my razors with a 2k Shapton Pro, I am thinking that I will go coarser for this. Some options are SP 320 (really to me this is only for chip removal), an SG 500, a Norton fine India, a King 800, and some SG < 2.2 Washitas. All sorts of options when and if I go to higher grits, including BBW, coticule, TOS, and Grecian Idwal.

Thanks!

 

[cotedupy]

So here is a different type of kitchen knife repair question - my apologies if it really should go in a separate thread. Got my sister’s kitchen knives in. Mostly just dull. But the Santoku had a really messed up handle that had melted after being left on the stove or against a hot griddle. I don’t have a before (the knife was quite uncomfortable to hold). I used a dremel to grind off all the plastic that stuck out beyond the original profile. But there is still a bit of a canyon where the griddle edge left a ”canyon“ going along the handles length. A thought is to build a tape mold, fill in with epoxy, and then sand down to fill in the void. Any thoughts? Wustof by the way.
View attachment 1608702
Also, any suggestions for stones that might be most effective on these knives? They are mostly Henkels and Wustof stainless, so I am guessing that they have pretty high wear resistance. While I reset bevels on my razors with a 2k Shapton Pro, I am thinking that I will go coarser for this. Some options are SP 320 (really to me this is only for chip removal), an SG 500, a Norton fine India, a King 800, and some SG < 2.2 Washitas. All sorts of options when and if I go to higher grits, including BBW, coticule, TOS, and Grecian Idwal.

Thanks!

Knives, handles, epoxy and sharpening... now we're talking my game!

First up yes - epoxy. Epoxy can do anything. Make sure the handle is very clean, it doesn't bond so well with oily stuff. 2 part epoxy also changes consistency and setting time depending on temperature; if it's warm it's a lot more runny and sets quicker. You can use this to your advantage here by working with it quite cold, leave it outside for a bit before mixing and you probably won't need a tape mold, you can just put blobs of it on and it won't run down the sides. Then leave it to set properly and sand to shape flush with the rest of the handle. '5 min' epoxy should be left at least 24 hrs for it to be hard enough to sand well. Also try to be as accurate as possible when measuring the two parts, if you don't get the 50:50 ratio right then it sets a little more gummy and doesn't sand so well. The ones that come in a syringe thing where the two parts come out at the same time are good for this, plus part of the plunger is a little spatula for mixing and application.

Sharpening - I've always quite liked sharpening Wusthofs and Henckels, even stainless versions take nice edges and aren't too picky about stones. I've used most of your stones there on them; SG500, Fine India, King 800, and Washitas will all work well. I wouldn't go with the others.