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From novice sharpeners you can often hear the question: “What is needed for good knife sharpening?”. A comprehensive answer is required, and there are five factors that have a key influence on the results of the work:

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   Quality sharpening device

2. Suitable abrasive

3. Knowledge of steels.

4. Knowledge of sharpening methods and techniques

5. Know how to sharpen knives (work skills)

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Let’s review them in order.

1. Sharpening device

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In the past, when sharpening knives by hand, the basic skill of the sharpener was the ability to maintain the desired angle while applying minimal pressure to the abrasive. This was a skill achieved through thousands of repetitions of the same movements, over a long period of time. However, with the advent of controlled angle sharpening machines, this skill has lost its power. Now the device itself creates the stability of maintaining the angle. And the sharpener just needs to find the right equipment for the job. It must meet several important criteria: ease of setting the sharpening angle, high speed of abrasive change, and ease of turning the knife in the clamps.

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TSPROF offers a full line of these machines. From the professional device Profile K03 Pro with electronic angle meter Axicube, to the most compact home – Blitz Pro. There are also devices with high mobility: Kadet Pro and TSPROF Pioneer. Now the sharpeners only need to make a choice, matching the device to their needs. All machine parameters can be found on our website.
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2. Selecting the appropriate abrasive

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We live in an era of maximum diversity in sharpening abrasives. It is hard to imagine that 100 years ago, all tasks were solved using only natural stones. Today, the market offers water and oil stones made of silicon carbide and aluminum oxide; diamond and elborium stones on galvanic, metal, organic, rubber and polymer bonds.

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With this choice, the main task of the sharpener to pick up the abrasive under the steel. And if with hard steels (including powder steels) everything is quite simple – diamond or elbor on the bond that the sharpener subjectively likes. But when selecting bars for the softest steels, first of all on cheap kitchen knives, there are difficulties. It is the most “simple” knives that cause the greatest problems in sharpening and require the maximum labor input. If a sharpener wants to become a master, he will have to acquire a wide pool of different abrasives and flexibly change them depending on the reaction of the steel in the process of work.

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However, there is an “easy” way – to buy any knives only from proven and quality manufacturers, giving preference to modern powder steels. In this case, it will be possible to use only one extended set of “superabrasives”. For example, such as TSPROF Alpha rubber-bonded diamond stones, which can be purchased on our site.

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3. Knowledge of the chemical compositions of knife steels

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Just like with abrasives, there is now a maximum selection of modern metals on the market that are used on knife blades. From the “simple” 420 stainless steel, to the most “advanced powders”. Knowledge of their chemical composition plays an important role, as it allows you to understand even before sharpening the approximate level of their heat treatment (hardness), and hence the degree of toughness/strength. These are very important criteria on which the choice of abrasive depends.

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Ductile, soft steels can behave unpredictably. It is not recommended to sharpen them with diamonds and elbors on an organic bond, as the abrasive in such work will quickly get sallow and lose grain. Also on these steels it is necessary to use diamonds on galvanic bond with caution, as it is possible to carve them out, especially with rough rough roughing stones, at small grinding angles. The best abrasives for such knives are ceramic-bonded aluminum oxide stones, including vacuum-sealed ceramics.

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Also, great care should be taken when sharpening hard carbon steels such as P6M5, P18, CVG, 9XS, etc. with diamond stones on any bond. These metals are often brought by manufacturers to the hardness limit of 63-65 HRC and can be pitted.

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The case with powder steels is somewhat simpler. Virtually all of them, provided that heat treatment standards are met, can be easily sharpened with diamonds on virtually any bond.

4. General knowledge of sharpening methods and techniques

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If you have a good knife sharpener and quality abrasives, as well as knowledge of knife steels, the next step is to gain knowledge of the sharpening process itself. The most important points here will be the rules of positioning the blade in the clamps, choosing the angle of sharpening according to the purpose of use of the knife, methods of deburring, the use of step sharpening, sharpening in the lens and many other nuances. You can get all this knowledge from the videos on our YouTube channel.
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5. Knife sharpening skills

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All of the previous elements add up to the main skill – the ability to use a sharpening machine and abrasives. Modern devices do a lot for a person and help even a beginner. But this does not exclude the need to have a “set” hand, to sharpen without pressure on the abrasive, to be able to reprofile the blade and correct possible irregularities of the factory approach (so-called “locksmithing”). In addition, a master sharpener knows how to deal with over-hardened or too soft steels, remove foil burr, know how to create the most transparent mirror on the approach, etc. Understanding of all these moments comes with experience. And it is experience that transforms all of the above factors into sharpening skill.

For those new to knife sharpening, we have prepared a brief glossary of our product names and product details.

Axicube”
– The world’s first specialized electronic angle gauge for sharpening. It has two versions Axicube-I – integrated in the abrasive holder and Axicube One, used independently. In addition to sharpening, Axicube One can be used in construction, wood and metalworking and other areas.

TSPROF Blitz is TSPROF’s most compact sharpening device, folded to fit in a desk drawer. Allows you to sharpen any knife with a blade length of up to 280 mm and a thickness of up to 4.5 mm. Equipped with a unique system for setting the sharpening angle without the use of a rack and pinion elevator.

Abrasive Holder
– A special device for attaching abrasive stones to a rod. The holder is always connected to the sharpening angle adjustment system and is always in the hands of the sharpening machine operator. It is used in all TSPROF brand sharpening machines.

Angle stand
– The upright part of the Kadet Expert and Kadet Pro sharpeners. It supports the swivel unit in which the knife is fixed. The angle of sharpening is adjusted by moving the swivel unit on the stand. Can be folded for easy transportation.

Зажим
– A single or paired device for securing knives and other tools in sharpening machines. It allows the blade of the knife to be held securely in place so that a stable angle is maintained during sharpening.

TSPROF Kadet
– TSPROF brand sharpening device. It is characterized by high mobility: it has a weight of 2100 g and can be disassembled into a transportable state without the use of special tools. In the Kadet Expert modification the sharpening angle was set with the help of an arc stand. The Kadet Pro version is equipped with a rack and pinion elevator.

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Насадка для заточки в линзу
– A special attachment for sharpening knives “in the lens”, i.e. convex approach geometry. Both customizable and non-customizable attachments are available. The latter can have either a single angle range or multiple angles.

Swivel mechanism
– is a special mechanism of the sharpening device, by means of which, during the sharpening process, the knife is turned without re-installation in the clamps, while maintaining the set angle. All TSPROF devices are equipped with a turning mechanism.

TSPROF Profile
– TSPROF sharpening device. Universal machine for professional sharpening of knives with blades of any size. This device is used by many professional knife makers and sharpeners both in Russia and abroad.

TSPROF Pioneer
– TSPROF sharpening device. It is characterized by its compact size and wide functionality. It can sharpen any knife with a blade length of up to 250 mm and a cutting edge thickness of up to 5 mm.

Подставка
– A base for sharpeners that allows them to be placed on the surface of a work table. It can be monolithic (made of a single piece) or folding (made of several interconnected elements).

Swivel lever is a special locking device on TSPROF machines that locks the swivel frame in a horizontal position. It can be located either on the side of the slewing gear axis or above or below it.

Tekhnostudiya Profil (TSPROF) is a Russian manufacturing company founded in 2012 in Izhevsk, Udmurtia. One of the world’s leading manufacturers of handheld knife sharpening devices. As of 2024, the #1 manufacturer in Russia.

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Friends! We have compiled a brief dictionary of hand sharpening for you. It is intended to give the novice sharpener a first glimpse of the common terminology of the sharpening craft.

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The dictionary is not of the academic type. The terms do not pretend to be absolutely accurate, but only approximate the slang terms accepted among sharpeners. The terms are not intended to be academic.

Roughingcoarse sharpening).
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The edge of a knife is the opposite edge of the blade that is not sharpened. On the blade has the greatest thickness and is the basis of mechanical strength of any blade product.

Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) is a white refractory substance, a binary compound of aluminum and oxygen. It is used for sharpening in the form of artificial corundum (electrocorundum). One of the most popular abrasive materials for manual sharpening. Most often used in the form of ceramic and magnesia-bonded stones and polishing pastes. It is used for processing steel with hardness up to 63 HRC.

Optics for sharpening – optical devices of various powers used to monitor the sharpening process. These include magnifying glasses (loupes) as well as optical and electron microscopes. Allows you to visually monitor the state of the approach and cutting edge of the knife, the course of deburring, the size of the sharpening risk, etc.
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Hunting knife is a kind of knife used for hunting. It has a fairly large strength and thickness of the blade. Varieties of hunting knives are: skinning knives, camp knives and knives for catching game.

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Parasite Risk
– traces (scratches) arising on the blade’s base as a result of working with an abrasive “contaminated” with grain of a larger fraction. Such a risk is detected by visual inspection of the underfeed with optical means (see visual inspection of sharpening).
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Polishing Paste.
– is a special abrasive composition designed to grout various damages on metal, ceramic, glass and other surfaces. The composition is characterized by a viscous consistency, can be made on the basis of water, fats, polymers. In manual sharpening it is used at the stage of knife finishing (see finishing).
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The turning mechanism is a special mechanism of the sharpening device, by means of which, during the sharpening process, the knife is turned without re-installation in the clamps, while maintaining the set angle.

The garter
– the part of the blade below the descenders that forms the cutting edge. It is the formation and maintenance of the angles of the blade, is the main purpose of the application of any sharpening devices.

Powdered steel is steel ground to powder that undergoes a process of atomization, crystallization and baking. As a result of this processing cycle, the so-called “powder remodeling” takes place – the steel receives a large amount of carbides, and can be alloyed with additional elements in greater quantities than standard rolled counterparts.

Printer (in manual sharpening) is a special bar designed to apply polishing paste to its surface. It is used with diamond and elborovyh pastes, as well as pastes based on aluminum oxide, chromium oxide, etc.. It can be made of various materials: wood (oak, ebony, lime, etc.), metal (cast iron, copper, bronze), getinax, glass, etc.
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Natural Abrasive
– Natural stones with high abrasiveness, capable of shearing metal in the sharpening process. They belong to various geological rocks: slates, quartzites, sandstones, etc. Until the early 20th century, they were the main abrasive materials for home and industrial sharpening.

The blade sharpener is a special sharpening device with a V-shaped abrasive arrangement. The knife is sharpened by pulling the blade between the abrasives, which can be either ceramic or diamond-coated metal.

The blade’s heel
– (from pęta “thick part, heel”), ricasso (ital. ricasso), choil (English.choil) – not sharpened part of blade, adjacent to guard or directly to the hilt of blade weapon or tool. In manual sharpening, the presence of a heel plays an important role, as it allows you to use it to fix the blade of the knife in the clamps.

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The pivot frame is the part of the sharpening device to which the clamps that secure the knife are attached. It is made of metal. In most cases, the frame is designed to allow the clamps to slide along its length for easy knife retention.

The cutting edge (of a knife)
– The edge of the blade which, when in use, creates the line of contact between the blade and the surface to be cut. It is formed by the two sides of the lead, or in the case of single-sided (“chisel”) sharpening, the lead and the plane of the blade.
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Ricasso
– unsharpened part of the blade (see
heel of the blade).

The pivot lever is a special locking device on TSPROF machines that locks the pivot frame in a horizontal position. It can be located either on the side of the slewing gear axis, or on the top or bottom of it.

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Knife Taper – the thickness of the blade at the edge of the transition of the escapement to the undercut. It is measured in fractions of a millimeter. Thickness of information – this is one of the most important indicators of the cutting qualities of the knife, because immediately after the initial cutting through any material cutting edge, the plunge of the blade to the depth of the descent is due to the information. The smaller this value is, the less force (“easier”) the knife cuts with.

The chamfers.
– is a structural element of the blade, formed at the stage of locksmithing of the workpiece. It is intended to increase the cutting properties of the knife. It is a narrowing of the metal plate of the blade to the cutting edge. Chutes can have a wide variety of shapes, but most blade products use three shapes: straight, concave and convex.

Folding knife.
– knife whose blade retracts into the hilt. Today there are many designs of hilt and ways of fixing the blade in it.

Straightening glass – a special tempered glass designed to align abrasives by rubbing a bar against its surface. Alignment can take place with abrasive powders (silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, and various polishing pastes).

Stage sharpening.
– A special angle-increasing sharpening method that adjusts the angle by a fraction of a degree after each abrasive change. It allows a more precise abrasive exit on the cutting edge and faster sharpening of the knife compared to standard sharpening. Can also be used to remove “foil burr” (see The technological barrier (in manual knife sharpening) is a method of removing a persistent, “foiled” burr by moving an abrasive bar across the surface of the knife’s cutting edge at a 90-degree angle.

The sharpening angle is the angle formed by the edges of the blade’s approach. The most important parameter for the cutting properties of blade products. The formation of an identical and geometrically correct angle of sharpening on both sides of the approach is the main goal of sharpening knives and tools.

Carbon steel (carbon)
– A tool or structural steel containing no alloying additives. It is divided into low carbon (up to 0.25% carbon), medium carbon (0.25 to 0.60% carbon), and high carbon (0.60 to 2% carbon). It is susceptible to corrosion and requires maintenance.

Angle gauge (in sharpening)
– A measuring tool designed to determine sharpening angles. It can be either mechanical or electronic, such as the specialized TSPROF AxicubeE

Elbor (borazon, cubic boron nitride).
– superhard abrasive, belonging together with diamond to the group of so-called “superabrasives”. It is able to quickly process any steel of hardness up to 70 HRC. It is used in abrasive bars on various bonds (metal, galvanic, organic, etc.), as well as in the form of polishing pastes.
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Sharpening is the saturation of the surface of a material with abrasive (mostly paste-like) materials. It is used in molding and lapping work in production and in the repair/restoration of geometric dimensions of mainly hard metal bodies. At manual sharpening is used in work with cast iron, copper, brass and other lappers.

The hinge unit (w/u) is a part of the sharpening device that holds the abrasive holder rod at a given angle and allows it to make longitudinal-sliding movements on the knife feed.

Sludge (when sharpening)
– crushed particles of cut metal, which remain on the abrasive and the blade feed as a black mass.

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Foil burr is a type of burr that does not separate from the cutting edge during sharpening. It occurs in the presence of defects in the heat treatment of the steel of the blade. To remove it, it requires the use of special techniques: step sharpening or technological barrier.