Sharpen Your Knife with a Coffee Cup

reply to post by jibeho



Thank you my friend

reply to post by EyesII


The coffee cup wouldnt be cut in half if the cup was able to sharpen the knife.

I believe the knife can "cut" a brick in half because the hardness of the brick is less than the hardness of the knife, and because the knifes tiny serrations act as grinders, rather than cutters. So when you cut that brick, you were actually very slowly grinding through it, ie, making small scratches in the same places over and over, scratching away the brick material.

reply to post by PayMeh


Nice find, we have several dull knives and more coffee mugs than glasses so I know what I will be doing today.

My grandfather used to sharpen knives on the unglazed bottom of ceramic crocks.

I have done it myself.

Ever hear of a crock stick (knife sharpener)?

Lansky Crock Sticks

I never would have thought of that. Thanks for sharing that great tip with us!

Originally posted by CaticusMaximus
reply to post by EyesII

 

The coffee cup wouldnt be cut in half if the cup was able to sharpen the knife.

I believe the knife can "cut" a brick in half because the hardness of the brick is less than the hardness of the knife, and because the knifes tiny serrations act as grinders, rather than cutters. So when you cut that brick, you were actually very slowly grinding through it, ie, making small scratches in the same places over and over, scratching away the brick material.

As I recall from the TV commercial, the point of the brick thing was that you could saw the knife against the brick for numerous strokes without dulling the knife. I don't remember them saying that you could cut a brick in half using the knife.

The knife has a scalloped edge, so when you slice away at the brick, it only dulls the points of the scalloped edge, the upward curves do not touch the brick and stay sharp. When you cut something soft like a tomato, the curved up edges come into play, actually doing the majority of the cutting.

Originally posted by irsuccubus
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.

awesome! i have mad respect for chefs that know the difference and aren't afraid to buy good blades. life is too short for cheap steel in the kitchen.

i've been using 5" & 8" (i think, didn't measure) Santoku style for the past year. they've become my go-to favorites. the height allows me to safely slice & dice at speeds that make observers cringe. they also take top pressure well, and i like using the dull side to quickly easily scoop up what's been cut.

damm when i worked at a pot bank i could have grabbed loads of china and flogged it for loads of money given its "extra" usage

On the Moh's Scale of Hardness steel is about a 5.5/10 while ceramic is somewhere around 6.5/10 I believe, which is why a ceramic cup will certainly sharpen a steel blade.

I personally like my Ginsu knives for cooking. Remains one of the only As Seen On TV items my wife ever got, that actually seems to live up to the claims. The other is the Foreman Grill, man I love that thing....and the Magic Bullet (a must have at parties).

Of course, there's plenty of other crap she's bought that just collects dust....lol.

Thank You OP for that information.
S&F for you.
I will certainly try that. I also sent the link to my son-in-law.

Originally posted by Gazrok
I personally like my Ginsu knives for cooking. Remains one of the only As Seen On TV items my wife ever got, that actually seems to live up to the claims. The other is the Foreman Grill, man I love that thing....and the Magic Bullet (a must have at parties).

Of course, there's plenty of other crap she's bought that just collects dust....lol.

Please don't forget Mr. Microphone. That baby rocked the neighborhood when I was a kid



Good times!!

For anyone who does wood working, the glass will give a very smooth final finish.

Any glass that is smooth enough not to make grooves in the wood.
The finish will be satin smooth. The glass is just rough enough in the micro scale to finish wood to a smoothness never seen with sand paper.
I have used a piece as a final finish on wood projects and you would not believe how smooth the wood feels afterwards.

Originally posted by PayMeh
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

Oh my gosh yes, I can't tell you how many times I have been lost in the woods with dull knives thinking "oh now where did I leave my coffee mug?" and looking down to find one at my feet.

Well actually I don't go in the woods. But if I did, I would be glad to find broken coffee mugs. But then I would be sad because I would probably be thirsty and need something to drink out of. And it is hard to dig for water with dull knives.

Like I said, I am not a woods kind of person. I'll just stick to my urban setting where dull knives come in handy, especially when defending against muggers who don't know they are dull. But then again, if the mugger had a broken coffee mug, I suppose I could borrow his to sharpen it with. The city is a jungle you know.

Awesome! Thanks for posting! Now I know how Rambo got his knife so sharp

Originally posted by JoeDaShom
Awesome! Thanks for posting! Now I know how Rambo got his knife so sharp

Did he find broken coffee cups in the woods too? That must be in the directors special cuts on the dvd.

I hope you all realize I am just joking around with the one guy's post about broken coffee cups in the woods..lol.

But still, did not know before about sharpening knives with them. I have a lot of culinary friends who never told me about this. What else can you sharpen them with? I am not a knife person because I tend to cut myself every time I use them and have become so nervous around them I try to avoid them at all costs.

Originally posted by BadNinja68
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.

I'm quoting this because I think it needs to be said again. Most people who try this will probably just ruin their knives. Putting aside the fact that ceramic mugs aren't made with sharpening in mind, the fact that it's a freehand method is bad for most people as well. When sharpening, you have to maintain a consistent angle, or else it's not going to work. It's really hard for amateurs to do without some kind of angle guide.

It might work decently for a $2 knife from Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't risk it for anything else.

Originally posted by potential_problem

Originally posted by PayMeh
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..

edit on 9-9-2011 by PayMeh because: (no reason given)

one question:

are you accepting suicide, even after using your multi-star-status-making-method for 15y.o. kids readin useless bs?

yes, it is serious question.

edit on 9-9-2011 by potential_problem because: (no reason given)

Uhm, not so sure what you mean here. Are you saying you are 15? Are you saying you are actually reading this? Or are you saying this is b.s.?

The OP presented something very good for us all to know and perhaps may come in handy one day. If you intend to disparage the OP you should be a little more clever about it. But then again, perhaps you are friends with the OP and am joking around with him. I learned something new today by reading this. And the older you get, the more you realize that useless information is not really useless.

And so now you know this little bit of useless information and one day you will remember it and say "Oh crap, I learned that on ATS." Funny how that works, isn't it? ATS gets in your head and messes with it.

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