Welcome to A Cut Above Knife and Leather Co, formally know as A Cut Above Knife Sharpening. I started out doing knife sharpening and as time passed branched into sharpening other items such as scissors, salon, beautician shears, barber scissors, woodworking tools such as carbide saw blades, and many other items. I them branched my business into making custom and production knives. Today I am still do lol the above but have marketed to include leather work. This started with knife sheath sans other small projects for clients and eventually turned towards my other passion in life Firefighting. I make and sell leather goods tailored towards the fire service this includes helmet shields, glove straps, chin straps, radio straps as well as suspenders.
Hit that subscribe button as I take you along on the day to day sharpening jobs and how I make knives start to finish. Other things to watch for on this channel is leather sheath making as well as kydex sheath making.
I get that paper sheaths from Noon sharpening inc there are out of Ohio I can give you an email of your direct message me at ecrisler@acaknife-leather.com
Edge leading for me is faster and working through the grits the way I am by the time I get to the 12k I’m polishing the edge. A leather strop with edge trailing passes would give a more refined edge but for everyday kitchen knives and pocket knives the way I showed will render an extremely sharp knife. To date I’ve never had a customer come back and say I wish you made my knives sharper. Most say these are sharper than anything I’ve ever used. So it boils down to what is the result you want and what is your time worth to get said result.
Great setup. I used to have a Work Sharp knife "Original" sharpener, which worked well until I broke it. 😒 I still have a Workshop 3000, which is great for establishing edges on chisels and plane blades. After that, I use diamond stones -- up to 8000 grit. I also have several Work Sharp kitchen and field sharpeners, and they all work well. I have given them as gifts to friends and family. I am eyeing a Work Sharp Ken Onion Mk 2, similar to what you are using, so I really appreciate your videos on this subject. Thanks!
I was really happy with my stitching pony . It was a different model . It was $14.85 and I got it in Wa state in 2 days . It holds nice and tight . I was also real happy with the waxed thread i bought from temu . The thread I bought from Tandy was $2.99 for 25 yards . I bought thread that seems to be the same diameter as I buy at Tandy , but in 284 yards for $4.48 . I cant see any difference in the thread , so I bought 15 spools of it in different colors .
So you’re not attempting to match the angle of the knife given to you, but reforming the edge to fit your predetermined angles. Is this simply a time issue both on the initial knife and the return of the same knifes for touch up? Other than sometimes removing more material from the blade then is necessary , are there other disadvantages you might see? Do any customers,if they know enough, ask for their angles to be matched? How do you handle this? Do you do the same for your own knifes when time and volume aren’t an issue?
For a convex egde I use the most average blade angle this allows for durability as well as longevity. I have had several customers ask for specific angles or to have a more razor sharp edge. For my kitchen knives I’m ashamed to say they are dull as can be. What’s that old saying. The shoe cobblers kid has the worst shoes. But when I do get around to sharpening my own I use the same angle I use on the majority of all customer knives. Yes it keeps it simple for repeatability and allows to quickly process numerous knives without having to reset each machine. For most general purpose knives there’s no need to get to hung up on the blade angle. Unless your drastically at either spectrum of the scale. The other caveat to this is I have sharpened enough knives over my time that if I have a knife that needs a bit of a different angle I just rotate my wrist and accommodate the angle instead of resetting the machine. The biggest and most important part of sharpening isn’t the angle. It’s keeping passes even from side to side and making sure you have apexed the blade before moving to a finer grit after the first grit.
Most knives are fairly close to the angle I’m sharpening at. As long as you keep your passes even and make sure to apex the edge you are golden. Regardless of the angle you set. And yes matching each and every blade would be inefficient as well as unnecessary for the average kitchen knife.
I have not. I have an Alec Steele 2x72 belt grinder I use for this. Not saying it couldn’t be done but the 3hp motor with 2” belt makes short work of it.
A note on the reassembly (at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L-7iO8reZuY.htmlsi=wlIfQTv3u8BIXwsN&t=861): those are Belleville washers, not wave washers--both a type of spring washer--and the flange nut should go against the stack of Belleville washers with the smaller nut next to act as a jam nut. The flange nut offers a larger surface for the Belleville to press against. You can also reverse one or two of the Belleville washers to change the springiness (i.e., spring constant). Good, concise video, though.
Sorry, I'm not convinced that watching you drag the knife across your hi tech machine is worth my time. I want to see the new edge after you sharpen. Cutting paper is the least or my interest.
Hey brother, I just ordered a workshop ko mk2. I have been using a grizzly 1 x 30 variable speed. On sale now for $134.00... beats the heck outta the worksharp price but I will give it an honest try . I want to like it because of the size and weight. 👍
Im getting back into trying to figure out knife sharpening after i gave up uears ago. I have the onion with grinding attached. And a harbor frieght 1x30. The harbor frieght rpm's seem too high.
That’s what I love about Ken onion is the ability to dial in the speed. I use higher speed on coarse belts and slow speed the finer the belts go. If you run fast speeds with fine grits you will overheat the blade very quickly. You may be able to get a variable speed controller for your harbor freight or play around with pulleys to slow the belt speed down.
I’m a retired firefighter/paramedic (LT for last 8 yrs of my career). Considering a side hustle providing knife sharpening. Wish I had thought of this when I was still on the job. It would probably be a full-time gig by now had I planned it right. Could still be. Great video! I’ll keep watching for more tips. Thanks!
I order from Temu at least once a week, and I’m very rarely disappointed with the quality of what they send. When I’ve received something that isn’t quite what the listing described, I submit a refund request, and they either give an instant credit to my Temu balance or refund the original payment method without any hassle at all. I’ve never had to send anything back to get a refund either. The Crazy Horse leather looks just like the Crazy Horse leather panels I’ve seen on BuckleGuy’s website. I’m actually wearing a Temu Crazy Horse leather bracelet right now that I cut & engraved a while back on my xTool M1. It’s a good weight for making leather hat patches and koozies. Thanks for sharing your Temu haul!
Thanks for sharing this great info. I considered several 1x30 grinders, and the Kalamazoo 1x42. The compact size is a big reason I went with the Work Sharp. Question: how fast do you run your Work Sharps?
I would love one! I just don’t have the space for one. When I don’t film I use a shop vac that is paired with a cyclone and hepa filter to collect as much dust as I can. I’ve modified several shop vac attachments to work with a multitude of my tools.
Ive got 1 of the ken onion blade grinding editions and a wicked edge system. Wicked edge gets sharper edges but is slower if you're fixing damaged edges or if reprofiling. I tend to use the wicked edge for pocket knives and the ken onion for bigger blades and tools ( axes, machetes etc).
@@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather sorry I guess I asked that wrong what I mean is what's the best grit to put on d2 I've noticed it's less effective at a mirror polish with a super high grit but when I keep it around 800 grit it keeps it just toothy enough that it last alot longer till needed another sharpen and it cuts way better what's your opinion on this I also carry a bestech Toucan I keep the recurve toothy and the belly part at a mirror polish what would you do in my situation?
Does anyone know if this is an attachment? I have the Ken Onion version, which it looks like he has as well, but it looks a lot different. Is this a better way to sharpen knives than what comes stock?
Curious if the glass cutter and other tools were as expected after using them? Were there any surprises or issues with them lasting after initial uses?
I use a wen inverter generator. It’s very quiete and sips on fuel. I can work all day on a single tank of fuel. I’ve looked into battery generator investors but they are very costly
Thank you for all the great information you show to us. I am practicing with the ko I Just bought and I am learning quickly. It's a very good, well made unit. There is just one thing I am worried about and that's the dust. It's very bad for your lungs. I use it now only outside and with a dust mask. You really should protect yourself and it's even more important for you because you run a sharpening business so you must inhale a lot of dust and fine dust without protection. Success with your nice business.
Great tutorial.... But on other things. In order for you to be offended about the flag you first would have to value that person's advice, BUT YOU DON'T. probably some brainless idiot. Ok, back to the show.
I almost bought a work sharp but did a little research and got a 1 by 30 inches wood sander added. an array of ceramic sharpening belts from course down to 5000 grit an adjustable angle guide a leather strop and am probably still under the price of a work sharp with attachments. The sharpening guild's Chanel the place to see how the professional operates.
I would have gone this route but I just don’t have the space in my shop. Maybe someday in a new shop I will go that route but for now the size of the work sharp is perfect for the shop
This is a RU-vid short. If you would an informative video on sharpening chisels you may refer to one of my full length videos of how to sharpen chisels. Thanks
Great information! I have bought the Ken Onion sharpener with the attachment but have been finding the belts are not lasting. Just had the x4 explode while running. Would that be the quality of the belt or user error? I am hoping to start my sharpening business in the future but need to iron out these issues.
Sorry to hear you have had issues with belts. I personally have not experienced this. With thousands of knives sharpened I haven’t had a belt explode on me so either I would think it’s a defect or user error. As far as wearing out quickly I tend to get 100 plus knives per belt. Are you getting that usage or are the wearing faster?
@ACutAboveKnifeandLeather The heavy grits have probably got through 50 so far wirh no issues but it's just the x4 grits so far that almost straight away break at the join. I was going to look at getting 3M belts instead, what brand do you use?
@cocobeans-iz3ff that is odd I would contact worksharp, maybe you got a bad batch. I have tried some red label abrasives in the past but went back to the work sharp branded belts. Mainly bc I get a discount making them cheaper.
Ty for the great video. Tell me more about the drop box please. Is it just a box on your porch or place of business? Does it lock somehow? Do you put knives in for more than one customer at a time? So many questions because ive been try to figure out how my customers can drop off and pick up safely without me being there.
It is a drop box designed for packages I bought mine off of Amazon. It’s us bolted along the side of my drive way and has a digital key pad to access. I put trays in the bottom and that allows multiple customers to place their items inside. Also have a acrylic flyer display that I double side taped to the inside that holds tags and pens for customers to leave a name and number on or in the tray. I put my decal on the lid that has my email and phone number so people will contact me prior to drop off and I will give the code. I change this code randomly to keep it somewhat secure. I also have multiple security cameras strategically placed to keep an eye on everything adding more security. When items are done I wrap them all up with knife guards and wrap in butcher paper with an invoice. These get placed back in the drop box for customer pickup. This has been very beneficial for my myself and my customers. Hope this info helps you out!
