Knife Sharpening: How To Sharpen A Large Curved Blade A Butchers Knife

Knife Sharpening: Butchers Knife

 

This week I am doing a Knife Sharpening video on a large curved butchers knife by request of a Youtube subscriber of mine from England. He sent me a personal message last week telling me that he works in a carvery in England. In other words he is a butcher. He asked me how I would sharpen a large curved bladed butchers knife like that found in a Scimitar style of butcher knife. His contention was that it would not be an effective way to sharpen the curved blade using the Japanese style of sharpening stroke that I did in a previous video as the Japanese style of stroke might end up flattening the "belly" of the scimitar knife.

My subscriber is right to an extent in that using the Japanese style of sharpening stroke can and will flatten out the belly of his blade if not done correctly. So in thinking about the subject I decided to do a video for him on how to sharp a butchers knife.

In Knife Sharpening there are many ways to sharpen a knife and not all of them are the correct way. Knife sharpening takes time and patience and when working with something like a curved butchers knife the chore of Knife Sharpening takes even more patience to get it right.

When it comes to large knives one must consider having sharpening stones that are long enough and wide enough to provide enough "real estate" to perform the knife sharpening chore efficiently! A Butchers Knife that is large and curved demands a bit more attention to detail when performing the Knife Sharpening chore. I usually sharpen my larger knives at twenty degrees. I find this angle to be optimal and strong enough to last. I know other people that just have to have their knives sharpening at 15 degrees or better and that is a razors edge. The fact of the matter is that 15 degrees or less will not hold up to any amount of long term useage in the kitchen or in the field of butchering.

In this Knife Sharpening video I will be using My own DMT diamond plates at 220. 325, 600 and 1200 grit/mesh respectively. I will also be using my Spyderco Ceramic finishing stones at fine(roughly 1800 to 2000 grit) and ultra fine(2200 +++) Spyderco does not give the grit information on these stones so it is a bit of guess work but one you see how they work you get a good idea of the grits for these excellent ceramic sharpening stones. I will then go to my surgical black arkansas stone to put a final polish on this butchers knife and then I will be finished. So sit back and enjoy the video!