Step by step sharpening of serrated knives

[Brosenfeld86]

Hi guys, I needed to know exactly how to sharpen a serrated knife on the T-7, I've read that it's possible, but I wanted to know if there are any techniques or steps that are different from sharpening a plane edge knife. different for fully serrated and partially serrated? Let me know, thanks

[Herman Trivilino]

Check to see if there's a bevel on one side.  Grind that bevel on that one side only.  The scallops on the other sine can be honed on the edges of the leather honing wheel.

[Brosenfeld86]

So grind the back side of the serrations and hone the serrations themselves on the leather honing wheel? I'm not quite understanding which side of the serrations should go on the grinding wheel. Also is there a youtube video of anyone doing this? Thanks a lot!

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum.

I'll offer a different approach.  I have a Henckel bread knife with fairly large serrations.  While I like the Tormek for my other kitchen knives, I'm not a fan of grinding the non bevelled side of the blade.

I use a quarter inch piece of dowel with some adhesive backed abrasive attached.  I use it like a file.  Filing each serration might seem like a lot of work.  One foot in front of the other and soon the journey has been completed. Ten minutes will see much of the job done.

Chose a dowel whits a little loosely in the serrations.  An alternative would be to use a piece of wood approximately 3/4" x 1/4" thick (or whatever fits your knife) and sand the edge round.  Attach the adhesive abrasive paper or (probably better) use diamond paste.  I would start with the coarse diamond paste and use a second stick for medium grit paste.

For inexpensive knives I might not bother with this.  Do be sure to grade your wheel fine and work slowly.  You can always go back for a second pass.  With experience you will get a feel for how much pressure to use.  Start light.

Incidentally, the other serrated edge blade I used to own was a Henckel tomato knife.  To my surprise, my chef's knife does a very good job with tomatoes after sharpening it with the Tormek.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

So grind the back side of the serrations and hone the serrations themselves on the leather honing wheel? I'm not quite understanding which side of the serrations should go on the grinding wheel. Also is there a youtube video of anyone doing this? Thanks a lot!

The flat side is the side that you grind.  Then you hone both sides on the leather honing wheel, using the edge of the honing wheel in the scallops.  This video gives you the right idea, even though there's no Tormek machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCqby2dO3_Q

[Brosenfeld86]

Thanks for all the great advice guys! I also wanted to know if you sharpen a serrated blade with the same angle as you would a regular knife? will 20 degrees be good on a standard serrated blade? Thanks again!

[grepper]

I think the correct way, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, is to use a tapered round file on the side with the scallops and match the existing angle.  Then strop any burring on either side.

If you just grind the back side of the blade, eventually it will end up simply removing the the tips and ultimately turn the knife into a flat blade.

I suppose you could round the edge of the grinding wheel...

[Herman Trivilino]

Thanks for all the great advice guys! I also wanted to know if you sharpen a serrated blade with the same angle as you would a regular knife? will 20 degrees be good on a standard serrated blade? Thanks again!

As the guy in the video mentioned, the angle on his knife was about 10^o, if I recall correctly.

Regardless, you'll want to match whatever angle is already there.  Use the marker method, as described in that video and also in the Tormek literature.  You color the bevel with a marker.  Then touch it to the grinder and look to see if you're grinding the bevel evenly all the way across.

You'll have to either free hand it or use one of the homemade jigs such as the HK-50.

[Herman Trivilino]

If you just grind the back side of the blade, eventually it will end up simply removing the the tips and ultimately turn the knife into a flat blade.

That's very true, Mark.  I'm talking about sharpening my cheap Ecko bread knife.  I've had it for over 25 years I think, and have sharpened it only once or twice.

[grepper]

I have an old Ecko too Herman.  It's a long slicer knife.  I use it for experimentation and do mean and horrible things to it.

It's some sort of polished steel, and it's hard as nails!  It resists all of my torture devices and abrasives.  I can see why you have only had to sharpen yours a couple of times in 25 years! 

[Ken S]

I have an old Flint "sandwich knife".  It belonged to my father, and probably dates to around 1950.  I keep it in a slot with the other knives for sentimental reasons and to open letters.  It was dull enough so that the "sharp" edge could almost be measured with a radius gage.

Recently I ran it through the Tormek.  It now does amazing things with letters and opening cereal boxes.  I had no idea the old knife was capable of such things!

Ken

[Rhino]

I think I read somewhere that the parts that gets blunted are the tips of the serrations.  Therefore, if you don't care about maintaining the shape, just sharpening the knife like a regular knife will sharpen the tips and solve your problem. 

Just sharing.  Not advocating.  Have not actually studied the problem and I don't know if this is a true fact.

I like to maintain things, that's why I've never bought a serrated knife unless forced to (like buying a set of knives).

[wootz]

Video how we sharpen serrated kitchen knives, bread knives etc

https://youtu.be/T4LItIdH-FI

[Ken S]

As much as I like my idea of using wooden dowels, Wootz' technique is head and shoulders above my simple idea. Anyone wishing to do a quality job of sharpening serrated knives should pay close attention to Wootz' video.

Ken

[jeffs55]

I forget who said it but to me that was "much ado about nothing". The dowel method is superior if only because the blade will last longer. I sort of doubt anyone is going to grind their bread knife into filings but it will happen sooner than your method. Oh yeah, there is a language known as American but that guy spoke English and was hard to understand.