Ron,

Just finished watching your video. Your friend is a lucky man, you did a wonderful job on that knife!

BPS

Wow..... hats off to a beautiful knife. I guess it is a sharp one too.

Thanks guys. Actually I hadn't sharpened it yet. I would hate to have had it happen now it is wicked sharp.

Ron...

Just curious seeing as how you mentioned you have "Ken Onion WorkSharp"... do you feel that it puts a better edge on than what one can do by hand (providing they know what they're really doing)? I only ask this because I figured it would save time bringing a knife blade back to life that has been abused by someone that has no concept of how to sharpen by hand and does not maintain their knives. I maintain my knives and I really don't like using any type of grinding equipment on my blades.

I use steels to maintain the edge while I'm butchering, and I steel and strop my blades prior to putting them to bed, but I've thought about purchasing one of the K-Onion systems to put an edge on knives that people bring me that have been abused just to save myself some elbow grease!!

BPS

I am terrible at sharpening any knife. I probably should get one of the sharpening systems that maintains the edge angle. When I really mess it up I give the blade to my wife and for some reason she can use a steel and bring it back. I do that with my fish fillet knives but still work slowly by hand on my hunting knives. I find if I don't let them get that dull I can keep them sharp.

I was very worried about the KO taking off too much. I HATE using anything that "grinds" on the edge. That said the KO changes the edge. It produces a convex edge. After producing the convex edge all you have to do polish the edge.
The KO will sharpen my knives WAY past what I used to be able to do with a Lanski or a stone. The convex edge in my opinion is a superior edge than what I was doing.

When you put a convex edge on the blade a "Sharpening Steel" doesn't work like it used to. The way the steel works is it takes the bur and straightens it after it gets bent over.
When you touch up the edge with the KO you see a mirror finish right on the cutting edge. I tried an electric sharpener made my Chef's Choice on my fillet knives. Those knives are harder than most blades. They are thinner and made to bend while taking meat off and removing the skin on fish. The electric CC grinder would put an edge on them but that edge didn't last.

The knife I used on my Antelope was still sharp enough to shave hair on my arm after I gutted and skinned my antelope. When I sharpened it again after my deer all it did was polish the edge again it didn't take off steel.