Sharpen Your Knife with a Coffee Cup

I found this on youtube and thought it was a neat piece of info to have. Not only is it good for the chefs that end up invited to Thanksgiving dinner and find themselves being the "chef of honor" in a dilapidated kitchen with dull knives, but you never know what you'll have at your disposal in a survival situation. I'm cross posting everywhere to get the info out.

www.youtube.com...

Edit: I've forgotten how to embed here, if someone could help me out..

reply to post by PayMeh


Here you go:



That's a handy tip,I will try it today and report back later.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Ahhh.. Thank you!

It works surprisingly well! Basically anything harder than the steel should work. All it really does is unroll the edge for you.

Thats awesome! S&F

Wow, just a few swipes with great results. Thanks for sharing, I have a lot of dull knives haha.

reply to post by goochball


I know!

I've started using this in the kitchen just to keep me from having to unpack my ALICE pack to find my knife sharpener. And you never know. Finding a broken mug in the woods can be like finding gold now! lol

Thats really awesome, so simple, and easy to

I have the same knife the guy was sharpening on the video.

It is one of those Ginsu Knives that supposedly can cut a brick in half, and then proceed to perfectly cut a tomato in half.

These knifes are not made to be sharpened as they are never supposed to become dull.

When I first got my original set some 20 years ago, I tried to cut a brick in half. It too a long time, and I only got half way and stopped as my arm hurt from using the knife. I then cleaned the knife off and tried to cut a tomato.

It worked. Tomato was cut clean and was not torn. I was amazed.

Over the years we lost or unknowingly threw out the knives after hosting BBQ's, party's and affairs. Recently, I saw these knives on sale at Costco. Well I picked up a set. It was the same knife that is in the vdeo. It has never failed me and is razor sharp. It's the sharpest knife set I have in the kitchen.

It bothers me that the ceramic bottom of a coffee cup can revitalize the knife with only a few seconds of sharpening. The metal used in the knife must not be very hard then.

I wonder what would happen if someone tried to cut a coffee cup in half. Would that dull the knife?

Well I guess I have now assigned a project for myself over the weekend. I need to try cutting a coffee cup, with this amazing knife.

After I have tried that, I will then try to resharpen the same knife with another coffee cup.

-E2

Plenty of nifty ways to hone a blade without a conventional sharpening stone or sharpening rig.

If you're in the bush and don't have a ceramic coffee mug handy, make your way to a creek or river and pick up a smooth and flat river stone and work the blade just as you would on a conventional stone.

If you're wearing a leather belt or carrying a leather sheath you can use that to realign your blade as well. This is called stropping. It does not remove metal it is the process of realignment. It's how barbers manage to keep those throat cutters so sharp. Plenty of videos on stropping to learn the basic technique.

Or use a piece of cardboard to strop

reply to post by EyesII


That's not a Ginsu in the video. It's a hollow ground Santoku knife with a smooth cutting edge. The Ginsus were definitely equipped with micro serations and could not be sharpened in this manner.

I love threads like this because they get me thinking.

I mentioned the belt as a strop in the bush technique that my grandfather taught me. I found a good video of fella using this technique as well as using the edge of a car window to sharpen your blade. I never heard that one before. I guess its similar to using the bottom of the coffee mug. Makes sense.

Anyway here you go.

If you can sharpen a razor with a stone you can sharpen a knife with the bottom of a cup, that's how I discovered it. My knives are crappy so I have to get the cup out whenever I cut up meat. It never fails.

reply to post by PayMeh


Well I just dug out my old camping knife-its a french "opinel"type,the sort with a wooden handle.
It was very blunt having been used heavily on my last camping trip.

In my opinion,the coffe mug base is as least as good as one of my finer sharpening stones.
It put a very sharp edge on the blade,although I did more strokes than in the video.

I wasn't expecting it to work as well as it did-Its officially a good little tip for anyone who can't find a sharpening stone IMO.

reply to post by jibeho


These are really good sharpening tips.
Many of your sharpening stones are ceramic anyway so any piece of fire-hardened pottery will work.
Never thought about using a car window though - pretty sweet idea.
I guess I really don't need a stone in my B.O.B. anymore!

Dave Wendell from Bushcraftonfire is one of our regular guests on the All Things Survival Radio show.
He always has great survival tips so listen in if you can on Thursday nights at 8 EST

Ceramic coffee mugs will work... on 440 stainless steel or softer... sorta...eventually, with alot of work, and hope that you dont make any mistakes.
It's not for the layman... you can get a better edge with a $2 china-made kitchen stone..or a $5 ceramic rod sharpener, with 1/10 the effort and less chance of ruining the bevel.
Odds are.. you'll ruin the knife with the mug before you get any useable results.


For example: The edge on my blades cannot be reproduced with a coffee mug.
You cannot maintain a correct bevel angle with a coffee mug.


Unless you are a seasoned knife sharpener, please don't destroy your nice blades with this method.
Knife sharpeners cost so little to begin with, there's no excuse not to own at least one.

lastly, you will most likely ruin your edge with this method.
it will work in a desparate, last resort situation, but if this is all you have to sharpen your blade in a SHTF situation, you are not prepared and have bigger problems already.

a few more posts and I'll start posting tutorials on knife making and sharpening.. then you can all see the downside to many of these types of tricks.

Will a leather belt or old leather shoe work also. Just in case?

Awesome! I am a blades gal and I have a Henkels and Wusthof kitchen set that I usually have sent out to be sharpened. Since times are kind of hard I havent done it in a while and have been quietly going mad dancing between knives as they grow ever duller. I actually have a 7 and a 9 inch Santoku and I can't wait to try this.

reply to post by BadNinja68


Okay now reading your post made me hesitant. those damn knives are too expensive to ruin, lol

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
Will a leather belt or old leather shoe work also. Just in case?

Go up a couple of posts and watch the video I posted. You will see him use a standard leather belt and a little fine dirt as an abrasive to hone an edge. You could apply the same technique with a leather sheath and probably a boot in a pinch. The nylon strap of a BOB will work also. If your edge is terribly damaged you're going to have to find a more mechanical approach to reshape it using the mug, stone or car window technique.

Get in the habit of regularly maintaining your blades and a quick touch up the field will be easy. For that I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker on a regular basis for my kitchen knives, my pocket knives and fixed blades. Its a good system that just gets easier every time you use it. Spyderco made these sharpeners before they started making knives. It was their first product.

reply to post by irsuccubus

Buy a ceramic V style sharpener.
Best ones are lansky style but they are kinda pricey.
Faberware, gerber, and many comanies do make less expensive ones.. I have a Faberware ceramic "v" sharpener that I use on our kitchen knives.

Most knives should only need a light touch up unless youve seriously abused the blades.

For high end kitchen knives, get them sharpened, then touch them up regularly, after every use with the "V" sharpener.
they should stay sharp for ya..

It's all about maintaining the angle of the beveled edge, for ther type of blade you are sharpening.