Finger protection.

[Newbflat]

So it has been quite a while since I have posted here. Life, waning NAD and other obsessions have taken over the small bit of my brain available for things other than breathing, heart beat and muscle control.

I am at a bit of a quandary though. I'm obsessed with sharpness so every knife in the kitchen will shave.. always. I sharpen often and not just mine but other peoples knives as well so I'm at the stone a lot. I also have been playing my guitars a lot and really focusing on becoming a better guitar player.

The problem.... I cut the fingers on my left hand too often. Not when cooking (well sometimes) but when sharpening. I follow all my rules about keeping my fingers on the stone and try to slow down ect.. But i still occasionally cut myself. The problem is that this usually happens when the knife is quite sharp and can leave quite a cut, inevitably on the tip of my left (fretting) hand. As a result of playing a lot more and investing time and money (lessons and a new (to me) 52 Tele reissue) i have been over using my strop and avoiding stones.... yes i have become slightly (only slightly!!) paranoid of sharpening my kitchen cutlery.

Certain stones have been the most problem in the past. Mostly my Kitayama and my old Aoto natural. These both seem to make very slippery mud. The Kitayama (yah, I'm blaming the stone?!?!) caused my fingers to slip off blade a few years ago and sliced the tip of my finger bad enough for 9 stitches and almost a year before i could push on a guitar string.

Soooo, my question is....... Has anyone worn anything on there hand to guard against the dreaded fillet-o-finger. Kevlar gloves? thick rubber? leather?..... or am i a hopeless klutz and should just run my Kikuichimonji Honyaki gyuto threw the knife "sharpener" on the back of the electric can opener and call it good.?

Bill in Seattle.

[kcma]

Practice and more cutting :p and eventually you'll cut less ;)

[Seb]

Use less water? I find the Kit works better if I add less water so the mud doesn't get diluted/washed away. Then it gets quite sticky and gloopy and maybe less likely to contribute to a slip. I've also slowed my strokes down and use more deliberate back-and-forth strokes.

[BreadFan]

not a problem:

give up the guitar.

open an account at your local blood bank - pick one that does liar loans, they're easier to deal with.

>>I follow all my rules
??except the one about slicing up your fingers??

it's all in good jest, but seriously - have you considered whyfor art thy knives required to be so sharp?

as in a cherry tomato dropped from four centimeters is cleanly cleaved,
but if dropped from three centimeters and fails to cleanly cleave = bad sharpening day?

might be time to write a tune about "how sharp is double flat sharp enough....."

[LumberJ]

Thick rubber would certainly help. I had an incident when the stone jumped due to being poorly secured which cause me to take the tip off my ring finger and had three weeks of fun waiting for skin to grow back in. Outside of just staying focused and things I don't know what else to do aside from the aforementioned gloved options.

[Newbflat]

Seb.....After 20+ years of obsessive sharpening, Im on my second Kitayama. I know what you mean about the mud with the Kitayama but i find just the opposite. The thicker the mud the slippery it is on the knife but not on the stone. I get the best results with the mud as dry as i can get it without it bringing the knife to a halt. I like it almost sticky.. almost. I get a markedly better edge if i polish right there. But, its a dangerous place as the mud on top the blade is Very slick at this point and it can dry out in seconds causing the knife to skip or stick. I wouldn't use it like this if it didn't work so well. I have no issues with it used wetter other than less of an edge. Personally i think its what makes the stone. Its ok wet but killer if used with a dryish past...

BreadFan....Give up the guitar?!??!?... wash your mouth out!

"have you considered whyfor art thy knife required to be so sharp" ..................................?............... ...............?? Clearly you have never used a sharp knife before.

[tapsilog21]

tryout other sharpening methods. See what works for you...sharpness and safety wise. :p

[blwchef]

I had this problem. I'm a bass player. I just really maintain focus when I sharpen now. I don't go any slower. I just make sure I'm zoned in. If someone talks to me I stop. If anyone is moving near me I stop. Just a thought, but you may be applying too much pressure on your blade. I go pretty light on the finishing stones. It help with sticking and the sudden forceful movement of ones fingers jumping in front of the blade.

[aja]

I would try out different types of band-aids. There are types made of all sorts of materials. You could leave half your finger type bare to retain feel.
May I ask what you use before the kitayama?

[Seb]

Seb.....After 20+ years of obsessive sharpening, Im on my second Kitayama. I know what you mean about the mud with the Kitayama but i find just the opposite. The thicker the mud the slippery it is on the knife but not on the stone. I get the best results with the mud as dry as i can get it without it bringing the knife to a halt. I like it almost sticky.. almost. I get a markedly better edge if i polish right there. But, its a dangerous place as the mud on top the blade is Very slick at this point and it can dry out in seconds causing the knife to skip or stick. I wouldn't use it like this if it didn't work so well. I have no issues with it used wetter other than less of an edge. Personally i think its what makes the stone. Its ok wet but killer if used with a dryish past...
.

I agree with everything you said here. That exactly describes my experiences with the Kit too.

[Newbflat]

I expect your right Brandon. I really like the feel of my fingers on the blade for the feedback. I will try a few different things just to see if they will work. I have some green friction tape around here some were i use wood working.Its kinda like rubberized gauze. I have used it when doing heavy grinding on a diamond plate. I ground off my finger tips doing that once. Damn that hurts!... not doing that again.

Shorter sessions might help as well I have a tendency to sharpen to many knives and get tired and sloppy. Come to think of it most of my bad cuts have been on big sharpening / re-profiling events.

Before the Kitayama i used a King 8000/ G-1 and 6000, a Takanoko but didn't use it long. I accidently froze it (forgot on a job site) and didn't survive. Arkansas black.
I still like the King G-1. Its still the stone i judge all others buy.

[Newbflat]

I expect your right Brandon. I really like the feel of my fingers on the blade for the feedback. I will try a few different things just to see if they will work. I have some green friction tape around here some were i use wood working.Its kinda like rubberized gauze. I have used it when doing heavy grinding on a diamond plate. I ground off my finger tips doing that once. Damn that hurts!... not doing that again.

Shorter sessions might help as well I have a tendency to sharpen to many knives and get tired and sloppy. Come to think of it most of my bad cuts have been on big sharpening / re-profiling events.

Before the Kitayama i used a King 8000/ G-1 and 6000, a Takanoko but didn't use it long. I accidentally froze it (forgot on a job site) and didn't survive. Arkansas black.
I still like the King G-1. Its still the stone i judge all others buy.

[piscator]

Bill,
I too, am obsessive but with lower standards, competence and application. The thing about "The truth shall set you free but first it shall piss you off" has come into play for me in simlar situations. The realization that these were MY games let me see that I was stuck in a box of my own making. I'm free to change the rules and my behavior as well. Given my nature, the impulse was to get more and better stuff - a popular choice on this forum. The way out of this box proved, for me, to be the one you are using at the moment. Use of a good honing and stropping set-up has me grinding on the stones very infrequently. A few light licks on the borosilicate whenever I pick up knife maintains well on a daily basis. Maybe once a month I'll take an hour and run every knife in the block through my array of Handamerican strops. This has served to maintain my edges from a low of "kitchen sharp" to a high of "wow!". It has been six months and now I'm reaching the diminishing returns that tell me that it is time to get out the stones.
To sum up, fewer occasions for pain blood and stitches, more time for food prep, garnish, new licks, and assaulting friends with my arcane knife lore. Sure, the trancendental light lazer moments are fewer, but that's fine with me.
If you really like what you are getting - relax and keep doing what you are doing. If not, you are always free to trudge the higher road to lower expectations.
Regards,
Piscator

[thombrogan]

Anyone else have the same Carly Simon song stuck in their head, too?

[mano]

Anyone else have the same Carly Simon song stuck in their head, too?

What, you think the reason he needed stitches was he hit a vain, I mean vein?

[thombrogan]

LOL! Superbly done! Was thinking "Haven't Got Time For the Pain," but your one was much better!

[Newbflat]

Hmmm... Not sure how i double posted?

Never been a fan of using a steel on harder steel but i love it on my old French and German carbon.. Not that it doesn't work, i just don't get the results i want . I have only used old smooth steels though and not new fancy glass ones.

I have stropped for years and have an arsenal of "strops", on paper, leather, felt, balsa, basswood and cloth.... all for different things. I have a Basswood and very hard old leather strop loaded with CrOx sitting on the counter behind the cutting board all the time. If i even sense that the knife is loosing its edge at all, a trip to the strop fixes that. My main Gyuto has be nothing but stropped for some time now. Its turned into a bit of a test to see how long i can keep it up to snuff without taking it to the stone.... 2 months and counting.

I think its coming to the end though. The edge is still very sharp but the geometry right behind the edge is clam shelling too much. It seems to be getting a touch harder to say..... make horizontal cuts in half a large onion with just a flick of the wrist. I think I'm now getting a touch of, ready for this........ micro wedging? Forget i ever said that.

I will except nothing less than " transcendental light Lazer moments"

thombrogan..... are you waiting in "Anticipation" for my follow up post on how i still cut threw a kevlar glove and there is no hope for me..... except learning to play like Django.

[wsf]

You may know of this, but they make a metal mesh glove for meatcutters that isn't too obtrusive and might work for you.

[Newbflat]

You may know of this, but they make a metal mesh glove for meatcutters that isn't too obtrusive and might work for you.

Chainmail..!!! Now i have an excuse. Don't you think it might be prudent to wear a whole suite when sharpening?.... just in case?

[wsf]

Comes in handy when you're sharpening in a shark tank.

[dough]

i played upright bass and electric bass (and trombone) for a long time now and for a time i supported myself that way for a long time in the past... i found it funny how people used to mock my profession and tell me to do something else then i found my way into food and everyone told me i was gonna ruin my hands and not be able to play.
i obviously like sharp knives so at first ran into these issues to a degree but i had serious callouses... i used to practice eight hours a day plus giggin so in turn i had thimbles on my fingers.(all upright at the time) as some musicians would say i lived in the shed but i had to live in the woodshed and it doesnt matter... and i digress.
sharpening issues for guitar players
i can use both hands to sharpen but tend to only hold the handle of the knife with my left hand. it used to be a big deal and id never hold the handle with my right hand but now i feel like Brandon. most important for me making a good edge is focus and as it turns out focus also helps me not cut myself. i tend to make sure when im sharpening a knife that is all i am doing each and every stroke. if im tired i stop. if im distracted i stop. also i made it a daily activity which i feel was the biggest key of all. well not that it had to be daily but make it regular activity.
my first trombone teacher used to say(im sure its a real quote but i dont know who said it so he did to me) "practice doesnt make perfect. only perfect practice makes perfect."
i dont take this to mean im actually perfect but merely in a serious attempt to find it.
so i try to pick up where i left off and move forward each and every time. (clearly a bit of hyperbole here im only human and i can and will party or in blunter terms often im not perfect and often i make mistakes... although we arent talking about uberman here so in the box of sharpening/guitar its way more controllable and i do a better job)
either way hopefully we do our best and at best we dont become stagnant or move backward.

btw if you are a serious playing music and your investing in finding that side of yourself... you are right to consider why you are cutting your finger tips. that cant happen because muscle memory means so much and when you have to stop when you haven't truly reached a position you can almost "play anything"... you forget more then is easy to realize.
such has been my experience anyway so i suggest to you... work on your left hand fingerings and your picking techniques... id also encourage you to get lessons for a classical fretless instrument.

[Newbflat]

i played upright bass and electric bass (and trombone) for a long time now and for a time i supported myself that way for a long time in the past... i found it funny how people used to mock my profession and tell me to do something else then i found my way into food and everyone told me i was gonna ruin my hands and not be able to play.
i obviously like sharp knives so at first ran into these issues to a degree but i had serious callouses... i used to practice eight hours a day plus giggin so in turn i had thimbles on my fingers.(all upright at the time) as some musicians would say i lived in the shed but i had to live in the woodshed and it doesnt matter... and i digress.
sharpening issues for guitar players

i can use both hands to sharpen but tend to only hold the handle of the knife with my left hand. it used to be a big deal and id never hold the handle with my right hand but now i feel like Brandon. most important for me making a good edge is focus and as it turns out focus also helps me not cut myself. i tend to make sure when im sharpening a knife that is all i am doing each and every stroke. if im tired i stop. if im distracted i stop. also i made it a daily activity which i feel was the biggest key of all. well not that it had to be daily but make it regular activity.
my first trombone teacher used to say(im sure its a real quote but i dont know who said it so he did to me) "practice doesnt make perfect. only perfect practice makes perfect."
i dont take this to mean im actually perfect but merely in a serious attempt to find it.
so i try to pick up where i left off and move forward each and every time. (clearly a bit of hyperbole here im only human and i can and will party or in blunter terms often im not perfect and often i make mistakes... although we arent talking about uberman here so in the box of sharpening/guitar its way more controllable and i do a better job)
either way hopefully we do our best and at best we dont become stagnant or move backward.

btw if you are a serious playing music and your investing in finding that side of yourself... you are right to consider why you are cutting your finger tips. that cant happen because muscle memory means so much and when you have to stop when you haven't truly reached a position you can almost "play anything"... you forget more then is easy to realize.
such has been my experience anyway so i suggest to you... work on your left hand fingerings and your picking techniques... id also encourage you to get lessons for a classical fretless instrument.

Sooooo.... your saying i shouldn't get the Chainmail?