How my awesome professional knife sharpening business works.

Posted on October 1, 2018 by admin

super thin carrot slice — With a sharp knife, you could cut carrot slices this thin.

How my knife sharpening service work

I’m writing this post to clarify a few things. I work out of my home, and I do run in and out a lot. So always call, text, or email to set up an appointment. Text messages are the fastest and most convenient way for me to communicate, my number is 310-486-6068, and my email is. magnus@memagnus.com

I’m an early bird, many days I just work between 7.30 am-1 pm. The turnaround is around 10 min per knife, sometimes more depending on how busy I am and the condition and type of knife.

I’m sharpening all knives by hand on whetstones.

I do all sharpening by hand on stones, but I use a machine for major repairs, thinning, and re-profiling. Thanks to that I do all the sharpening by hand. I’m limited in how many knives I can sharpen in a day, before I get sore and have to stop. This is the main reason to set up an appointment, before coming by. Some days my hands are so beat, that I’m taking the day off to give them a chance to recover.

Feel free to visit my Instagram @santamonicashrp

Happy Professional sharpener, shows how to sharpen a knife better

Posted on January 26, 2012 by admin

What you need to do before you can sharpen your knife

Start with making sure that the knives are clean, and straight, also determine if they have chips or other damages that need attention. You also have to check if the edge bevel is straight, with the correct angle for the knife. All of this needs to be corrected before sharpening could begin. Straighten and do all repairs, for this, I recommend a really coarse DMT plate which makes it fast and easy, and for bevelling something in the 500# grit range is perfect to set the initial edge.

Putting the correct angle on the knife

Before starting, prepare the stones and make sure they are flat and clean. Find the right bevel angle for the knife, somewhere between 15-20 degrees is a good starting point. An easy way to find the angle is to measure the height of the blade at the heel, let’s say that your knife is 2” high at the heel, as in the picture below.

best knife sharpening in Pacific Palisades measuring knife blade height at heel

Measuring knife blade height at the heel

In this case, you could just divide the height of the blade, to get an estimated height that you need to hold the spine above the stone. Below I have a large heavy-duty knife of bad quality so I decided to give it an obtuse edge angle of 30°. I divided the height of my blade by 2 and that tells me that I have to hold the spine one inch above the stone, see the picture below.

Measuring knife spine distance from stone

Here is a table of rough estimates of values to divide the blade height for different angles.

For 30° divide by 2

For 24° divide by 2.5

For 20° divide by 3

For 15° divide by 4

For 12° divide by 5

The knife sharpening process

When you have fixed everything you need and the angle is right you can start sharpening. I usually start with a coarse stone 700# grit till I get a smooth straight even edge with a burr. Next, I continue with a medium stone in the 1000# – 2000# grit range making sure that I keep it tight and have a light burr. I usually hold the knife diagonal over the stone to avoid wobbling, see the picture below.

best knife sharpening in Los Angeles Hand sharpening knife diagonally to avoid wobbling

Santa Monica hand sharpening knife diagonally to avoid wobbling

After this I deburr with some light edge trailing strokes on both sides and a few slicing strokes on a cork or a piece of wood, before moving on to the finishing stones.

Edge tailing strokes on fine sharpening stone to deburr

Deburring knife edge on cork

Finishing the edge to your desire

Usually, I start the finishing work with a fine stone in the 4000# – 6000# grit range. While using lighter and lighter pressure, this stage it’s a lot about feedback. What does it sound like, does the water roll up on the edge evenly, and so on? If the groundwork has been done correctly on the coarser stones 10 strokes per side should be enough. This should be enough for most ordinary kitchen knives, just deburr on a cork. At this stage, you should be able to shave with the knife with a little bit of pressure.

If you want you could continue with super fine stones, but that is pure vanity. I most often only use a 8k# and 12k# stone to get that shiny mirror finish. Of course, you could continue to refine it even more, but that is more for straight razors.

Things to remember

Make sure the stones are flat and clean.
Don’t use too much pressure, let the stones do the work.
Avoid doing it too fast, so you don’t wobble.
Try your best to keep the angle, after a while it will come naturally.

Magnus Pettersson hand knife sharpening

1423 Euclid Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404

To request knife sharpening call or text 310-486-6068 or email.

Please follow me on Instagram @santamonicasharp

Knife repair, giving new life to a broken knife

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening

Unsharp broken knife before regrinding

This knife was given to me by a good friend, at first look it doesn’t look to bad except for the big chip right there the heel starts. After a closer look I realized that the primary bevel was concave and parts of the edge was folded over, I also realized that the secondary bevel was way wider in the back and at the tip. Look at that tip I could have folded it by hand, it was thin as aluminum foil. At the moment I just saw two different ways to fix it, one was to leave the primary bevel concave and try to give it a new edge on the side of a sharpening stone, or regrind a new flat primary bevel and give some sort of compound edge. I decide to give it a new primary bevel to get rid of all edge damages and big scratches on shinogi.

Illustration of edge before and after regrinding

Above is a little illustration what it look like before and after, and what I would like to achieve. First I went to work with a large blacksmith file, because of the amount of material that I needed to take off, just to realized that it didn’t give me much precision, tried a bunch of different coarse stones, the one that eventually seams to do the best job was Beston #500. With this stone I worked until I got an even flat primary bevel all the way to the edge, I also used it to set the secondary bevel. After that I changed to King #1000 to smooth both bevels out and did some initial sharpening. After that just a fast brush with Bester #2000, before starting with my favorite stone it’s a man made blue Aoto rated to #2000 but feels much finer. This blue Aoto gives that perfect mist to the soft steel on the primary bevel, its super soft and have great feedback; the only thing is that if you don’t want your hand to look dirty for days after, use glows. For final sharpening and finishing on the secondary bevel I use Kitayama #8000 also a great stone, after this just some light stropping, before setting the micro bevel with Shun #6000 wish gives a nice bite to the edge.

I also did some clean up and light polishing just to make it easier to clean, I’m using it daily now, and its one of my favorite knives. I realized that I’m not good at always cleaning and drying the knife after use, so it started to get some stains/rust on the pretty mist on the primary bevel, so I gave it a light polish with #2000 sandpaper and all is good now. Yes of course its sharp, not hair popping sharp, but sharp enough to shave with or to slice cigarette paper into small strips. Pictures of the knife after regrinding below.

Knife after repair, regrinding and polishing

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Fixing reverse bow edge and sharpening a Global knife

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Reverse bow edge

As you see in the image of the knife, the edge just make contact at heal and tip, with a big gap between the surface and the edge in the middle. This is a common damage for knives that has been sharpened on small electrical counter machines. The easiest way to fix this is to grind the edge down till it makes contact all the way on the side of a coarse sharpening stone.

The bow edge is know fixed and in contact with the whole edge

This is after the edge grinding, as you see the edge makes contact with the surface all the way. Time to start to recreate the bevel, for this I used a coarse DTM (steel plate with diamond particles embedded. After that I started the sharpening on Beston #500 until I got a good burr, to follow up with a no name #1000 stone, #2000 Bester, #5000 Naniwa and finally Kitayama #8000 stone.

The edge is straight, shiny and sharp on the Global knife

The Global knife once again has its edge straight, sharp and smooth

The edge is straight, smooth and shiny, and you could see that it make contact all the way after the sharpening job.

The edge in x15 magnification after the sharpening job

Well the edge doesn’t look to shiny magnified x15 in real life it looks mirror polished.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

When to have your knife hand sharpen and when to buy a new one

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening blog explains, when to have your knife hand sharpen and when to buy a new one.

A lot of this will be my personal opinions. Usually if you don’t have extremely high quality serrated knife, I would recommend buying a new one instead of getting it sharpened. Example if you have an old 8 inch bread knife, like the one in the picture below. Pro sharpeners would charge around $9 plus $1 per inch of serration, so the total fee of the sharpening job would be around $17

Old serrated bread knife

For $11.95 you could buy J.A. Henckels International Fine Edge Pro 8-inch Stainless-Steel Bread Knife in the picture below. That I’m sure has both higher quality and a better, sharper edge than anything a pro sharpener could accomplish on your old cheap serrated bread knife and it would save you a few dollars.

New cheap serrated bread knife

Old stainless boning knives, like the one in the picture below. Many times they have been along for a long while, sharpened down to a stick, beaten, sharpened again.

Old boning fillet knife

I’m sure they might have been ok knives once, but after all that abuse and wrongful sharpening, they are not very useful for anything. You will do better in investing in a new knife, like Victorinox 47513 6-Inch Flex Boning Knife for $17.41 bellow.

New cheap boning fillet knife

It will have better edge geometry, better harder and more flexible steel and have way better edge retention. As for buying both boning/fillet knives and serrated knives I actually recommend to buy cheap decent quality knives, and save the money to buy a better chef knife and paring knife.

Small guide to buying new knives

1. Don’t buy a knife set, you will probably just end up using 2-3 of the knives any way, use the money to buy better quality chef, slicing and paring knife instead.

2. Most important, make sure the handle works for you. It should fit well in your hand, not being to slippery and give a sense of stability.

3. Choose the right length for your chef knife, your wife wife might prefer a 6” knife and you a 10” knife, an 8” inch would work okay for both of you.

4. Think of how you cut, I’m a rocker so I prefer to have a good bow on my knife, my friend is a push cutter and prefer straighter edge.

5. Choose a knife with high quality steel, high carbon steel knife if you don’t mind some stains and are good on keeping it clean and dry, or a high carbon stainless steel if you are less careful with your knife. Usually the harder steel they sharper the knife could be and softer steel will take a little more abuse. I personally prefer extremely hard Japanese knives.

6. Think about if you prefer a bolster on your knife, some people like the heft it gives the knife. I personally don’t like it and have removed it from the knives I have that had it. Mostly because it makes the knives to front heavy, hard to pinch properly and a real pain to sharpen. Most German knives have bolster, and it is rare to see on Japanese knives now more.

7. Avoid Cutco knives, they are a rip off, they are $25 knives that they sell for a $100, no wonder they could give great warranties with that mark up. Good and affordable knives brands are; Global, Shun, Tojiro and Mac. If these are too much for your budget I would recommend Forschner knives that a great knives for the price.

How to maintain your knives

1. Use the right knife for the right duty, slicing knives for slicing, chef knives for chopping and dicing and paring knives for light duty.

2. Always use a good end wood or nylon cutting board, no cutting on counter, plates and ceramic cutting boards.

3. Always rinse them and dry them off right after use, don’t run them in the dishwasher, don’t let them lay in a dirty sink and so on.

4. Don’t use any kind of electric home knife sharpener, they ruin your knives.

5. Don’t steel your knives if you don’t know how to steel, you just make the knives duller.

6. Keep your knives sharp, and sharpen them before they go dull. If you keep on working with a dull knife you just use more and more force and damage the knife more.

How to sharpen you knives

Get a Japanese combination water stone #1000/#5000 grit, and practice using it on some cheap knives first. There is tons of information online how to do it right, watch a few you tube videos and read up on some of the theory behind sharpening. After just a few hours I promise you will be able to do an ok sharpening job, the knives will be far from razor sharp and will not stay sharp for very long, but will be good enough for kitchen use and with time you will get better and better. If you don’t have the time or feel like sharpening your knives yourself try to find someone that do hand sharpening.

What kind of knives you need

I can’t answer what knives you need, it is rather personal, but for a start I would recommend.

1. A medium size chef’s knife, as a Global G-2 or MAC Superior 8″
2. A decent paring knife like Tojiro DP or Calphalon Katana
3. A good single bevel Japanese slicing knife (Yanagiba) they are great for precision slicing any meat.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Sharpness testing, professional knife sharpener explaining what sharp is happy

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Sharpness scale from 0 to 5

Customers say that they want their knives super sharp. I have to ask them how sharp that is, which they never could answer. Instead, I asked them what or how they cut, meat, produce, or boxes. The follow-up question was if they sliced or chopped, and if they pulled or push cut. If we had a scale from ridiculously sharp as five down to a dull 0. Let’s start with sharpness 5 which is the hanging hair test (HHT).

Hanging hair test

5 the hanging hair test

You see that this old knife doesn’t pass the test, because the hair is hanging on the edge. The pieces of cut-off hair on the paper came from that I came in with a bit of an angle lining it up. Next up is sharpness number 4, which is to smoothly slice cigarette paper from heel to tip or push cutting it.

cigarette paper slicing

cigarette paper cutting with knife tip

cigarette paper cutting with knife heel

4 cigarette paper cutting

As you see the old knife passes this test, the only thing was that I felt a light resistance at the back and of the heel starting. This is too sharp for a kitchen knife, except for single beveled knives, and delicate fillet knives. 3, which is that it should be able to push-cut Para-cord without a problem from heel to tip and be able to shave hair.

Push cutting paracord easy 1

Push cutting paracord easy 2

Shaving hair

3 shaving hair and push-cutting paracord

These tests are passed easily; 3 is a good sharpness for most thin kitchen knives like slicers, and fillet knives. Sharpness 2 is to slice magazine paper from heel to tip, slowly, and smoothly without any snagging.

Slicing magazine paper easily and smoothly

2 Slicing magazine paper smoothly

This knife is almost too sharp for this test I’m pretty sure the paper will dull it. 2 is good for medium, and heavy-duty kitchen knives. Believing that most people would be comfortable with 2 sharpness of their kitchen knives. To be able to slice ordinary printing paper, cutting into the side of a tomato or lemon without slipping is the lowest sharpness.

Slicing lemon paper thin

Slicing printing paper smooth for heel to tip

Slicing printing paper smooth from heel to tip

1 Slicing magazine paper

This is still a good sharpness for your heavy-duty kitchen knives and cleavers. If you don’t pass the test, your knife is dull and needs sharpening. I call this sharpness number 0.

Sharpness: Test: For:

5 Hanging hair test Straight razors

4 Slicing cigarette paper Delicate slicing knives

3 Push cut Para-cord, shaves Thin kitchen knives, fillet knives

2 Slicing magazine paper Most medium kitchen knives

1 Slicing printer paper smooth Heavy kitchen knives and cleavers

Other sharpness testing is better but takes more skill and danger

Finger nail tests, Does it dig into the nail and grab it? Does it slide smoothly over the nail? If put a low angle against the nail does it stay? The test could all be modified, and be done with a plastic pen but with less feedback.

Slice test, Hard rolled Kleenex, wet rolled towel, tomato slicing, hemp rope slicing, slicing into the side of a standing toilet paper roll.

Thumb test, feel for burr, feel how much it sticks to the finger.

Machine test, Njut, Catra, Bess, Lasergionometer.

Magnus Pettersson hand knife sharpener

1423 Euclid Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404

To request sharpening call or text 310-486-6068 or email.

Please follow my Instagram @santamonicasharp

Why you should make your knives happy with professional whetstone sharpening

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Santa Monica knife sharpening is all about hand sharpening quality knives on whetstones, to perfection.

Why you should spend a little more and have your good knives hand-sharpened

Never take your expensive knife anywhere, that doesn’t use whetstones to sharpen them by hand, or at least use a water-cooled system. Most often they will sharpen your knife on a machine that looks like a belt sander or on a grinder, and sparks will fly. These machines are very abrasive and will remove too much metal, and apply excessive heat to your knife. This could ruin the heat treatment, softening the steel and the knife will go dull faster.

Avoid the ones using sharpening gadgets

Kitchen supply stores, and mall shops, use machines like Truehone, and Chefs Choice to sharpen their knives. These machines also overheat the edge, and they seldom have the correct edge angles. Please don’t use these machines at home either, because you are ruining your knives. Anyone who has ever tried to put a decent edge on a kitchen knife with an electric grinder can attest to this.

Most likely your knives are not permanently damaged

I have been fixing knives for customers who have taken their really expensive quality knives to these places. The only way for me to fix them is to grind the knives down past the “de tempered” and damaged steel until I get back to the hard steel.

Machines have a few advantages like; Perfect angles, uniformity, and speed. The downside is that; it could overheat the edge, and it grids down way more material than needed. Of course, this shortens the life of your knife. If the blade doesn’t need it, grinding off excessive material is just throwing money away.

Why hand sharpen knives on whetstones are superior

I hand-sharpen all knives on Japanese water stones because I think a good hand-sharpened edge beats a machine-sharpened edge. The blade bevels come out polished without rough grinding marks, and the hand sharpening also allows for a minimum of steel removed to provide a superior edge. Blades with sweeping curves, such as kitchen or restaurant knives, really shine with a good hand-sharpening job. The edge is certainly less mechanically precise, but the sharper edge and polished bevels more than compensate, requiring less effort to get through the same material.

Why you need a sharp knife:

1. A sharp knife is important in order to
preserve the true flavors and beauty of fresh ingredients. Cutting with a dull
knife will damage food on a cellular level and alter its taste and appearance.

2. A sharp knife is also important for
safety. A dull knife is more prone to slip on food and may result in bodily
injury.

3. Sharp knives are also important for
kitchen efficiency. It will take more time and effort to cut with a dull knife
than a sharp knife.

4. Using a sharp knife is also undoubtedly
much more enjoyable to work with.

Santa Monica knife sharpening is recommended

If you like your knives sharp, I recommend you buy a few water stones and learn how to sharpen your knives yourself. If you are not able to or not having the time to sharpen your knives yourself let a professional hand sharpener sharpen your knives for you.

Magnus Pettersson hand knife sharpener

To request sharpening call or text 310-486-6068 or email.

Please follow me on Instagram @santamonicasharp

Stay amazingly happy and healthy professional, sharpening knives

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening

Since I was a little boy I have had a fascination with edges. If it slices, dices, cuts, guts, shaves, etc, it fascinates me, and I want to sharpen it. For me sharpening isn’t a chore, it’s a passion, it makes me concentrate and forget everything else. The feeling and the rhythmic sound of the blade against the sharpening stone give me bliss. The satisfaction of putting a new edge on the blade, makes me feel that I have treated everyone involved in making the knife, from the beginning with respect.

The knife sharpening

I have sharpened knives and tools for as long as I can remember, as a teenager, I worked with a Swedish “Skärslipare” during the summers. I learned a lot, but mostly about sharpening Scandi-grind knives, and I started to recognize extremely sharp, truly hair-popping sharp straight razors.

The rocky road of learning knife sharpening in every way

After this, I spent time sharpening woodworking tools. While I worked full-time sharpening butcher knives at a commercial meat processing plant. I often sharpened several hundred knives a day, but the passion was gone. I love knives, and I knew all the machines that were used were ruining the knives.

I took a well-deserved break from sharpening

I stayed away from sharpening and finished college with a degree in fine arts. Got to realize how hard it was to make a living as an artist, and I started an art gallery instead. Running an art gallery gave me a lot of extra time. I started a little hand-sharpening business in the back. Everything was good and I loved it.

The hobby sharpening years

Like all good things, it didn’t last forever. Hard economic times led to the closure of the gallery. I ended up in the consulting business, which meant a lot of travel and no time for my beloved edges. However, it gave me time to hunt for the optimal edge. Matching stones and different steels to cutting duties, grit, type, and so on. Deburring became a big mystery. All of the wizardry we do as professional knife sharpeners has to do with burr formation.

Knife sharpening on a new continent

In 2001 I moved from Sweden to Santa Monica. I got introduced to Japanese knives, which made a great impression on me. Never before had I seen knives that well made, and the blades were talking to me. I got possessed, and an old passion was reborn. I called my brother in Sweden, to have him send me all the sharpening stones that I had there.

The passion for Japanese knives and whetstones

I researched and read everything I could, and lay my hands about Japanese knives. I couldn’t wait for my sharpening supplies to arrive from Sweden. I bought a few Japanese water stones and started to sharpen the knives I had at home. Once again I had the feeling of bliss. Hearing and feeling the rhythmic shh, shh sound of the blades, dating with the stone.

The amazing sharpness of Japanese knives

The result was incredible, the edge of a kitchen knife, got tacky sharp right away. The steep angle was challenging, and I did get some small scratches between the bevels, I realized that getting the perfect texture on all surfaces would take me a while.

Japanese knives still humble me, getting them razor-sharp and even polished is hard. With a mirror polished and straight even lines and a perfect polish is art. Getting it all right at once takes time and patience, I have been hand-sharpening knives daily for 20-plus years. Still, I doubt I will ever master it fully.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener

1423 Euclid Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Feel free to visit my Instagram @santamonicasharp

Call or txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

A beautiful sharp knife

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening, is a blog about hand sharpening knives.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener

call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

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