sharpening service costs for used tools

[SLG]

Was at my local sharpening service this morning to see if they had jointer knives for my 6 inch jointer for sale. Turns out they did, but when he told me $35 bucks for a used sharpened set, I almost fell over. I can buy a new freud set for 20 something, I say. He tells me that this is old steel, much better than the new steel they use today. Professional grade, rather than "home depot" grade, as he put it. As he was a rather ornery old Italian from the old country, and was in the possesion of many sharpened instruments, I wasnt going to argue with him, plus I kinda liked the old guy. I think I went up a notch in his book when I told him I have a forrest saw blade, as he is a distributor. However, I left without a used $35 set of 6 inch knives. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knew if he was feeding me a line about the 'old' vs. 'new' steel? Sounded like BS to me, but who am I to argue...I bet his wife made some mean pasta, though...

Drew

[Scrub]

On Thu, 12 May 2005 21:50:50 GMT, "SLG" wrote: . As he was a rather ornery old Italian

What does his country of origin have to do with this? ( please see below)

Sounded like BS to me, but who

You are a stereotyping asshole.

[Tattooed and Dusty]

Scrub, That is the problem with reading and posting to online world, most of the people feel comfortable to make jokes that they wouldn't feel was ok with strangers.

Lots of zenophobia, racism, homophobia, and other stupid fears come out when people feel free from criticsm.

Andrew

[Vic Baron]

Well, I'm Italian and I didn't find it offensive or stereotypical. Also I think it's smart not to antagonize an old Italian with sharp implements. DAMHIKT.

[Vic Baron]

and you sir are just an asshole with a very brown outlook on life.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Scrub, That is the problem with reading and posting to online world, many people don't get it that life is too short to be so Fu$%^&ing paranoid that a little lighthearted humor is taken as an attack rather than the acknowledgement that we are all in this jackpot together.

Lots of zenophobia, racism, homophobia, and other stupid fears come out

when people suspect the worst in others.

BW

[I would never seek to impair anyone's right to react and comment to anything posted here but you also have the right to go away if you are offended, an important corollary to freedom of speech]

[Drew Morton]

And you are an uptight asshole. Lighten up. As 2 of my grandparents were from their own respective 'old countrys', I am no stranger to immigrants. As an American, I welcome them. If they bring good work ethics and morals with them, then all is good. When I made the comment about his wife being a good cook, it was a compliment. All the older Italian women that I know are excellent cooks. (Not a stereotype, just my own observation) And, although I dont think I have any Italian blood in me, Ive always said my stomach was Italian.

I meant no disrespect to any Italians that may or may not be reading this newsgroup, and apologize if it was taken that way.

Drew

[Never Enough Money]

Not really. Little details like that make writing interesting. I seriously doubt he's sterotyping as much as you are by calling him an "asshole" based upon one benign use of "Italian."

[jo4hn]

Drew, It could be that the old knives were made by hand 30 years ago, and by heating, turning, beating, and quenching many times. On the other hand, they could be 30 years old and what the guy had on hand. Tool steels have not gotten worse over the years. Buy the Freuds unless your guy wants to match the price. mahalo, jo4hn

[Drew Morton]

Thank you. Kinda what I figured. I probably will spend some money there (but not on jointer knives), and its nice to know theres a sharpening shop so close by. He also told me he could sharpen my forrest blade as well as the forrest guys. I have a CMT blade that needs sharpening, and I think Ill give him a try. He also told me he goes to auctions and buys old tools. This is the kind of guy I want to get to know.

Drew

[toller]

I took a blacksmithing course a few years ago. The instructor buys old steel knives and other articles for the steel. The new stuff has too much carbon to be worked properly by hand. But I expect the new stuff holds an edge better.

He has also imported steel from Turkey where they still have production blacksmithing.

[Patriarch]

"toller" wrote in news:ulVge.116$ [e-mail]:

And I like the steel used in my SW Stanley plane blades, but that doesn't mean that, in many very real ways, the A2 and O2 blades used by LV & LN aren't much better and more repeatable.

Some of us just like old stuff. Sometimes, I think it's personal.

Patriarch

[Prometheus]

I was talking to my cousin last weekend about getting my Freuds sharpened, and he said something very similar. He said he'd sharpen them for $10 each, or just sell me a couple of blades for $30, and they'd be twice as good, because of the steel used. He might have been just trying to make an extra $10, but I doubt that'd make much difference to him. Evidently, the blades they use are milled from forged steel and then tipped with a higher quality carbide sharpened to a .0005" tolerance, but most of the commerically availible brands are just cut from sheet goods that have been rolled to thickness, and have a much looser tolerance and lower grade of carbide.

Of course, I still like the Freuds an awful lot, but I figure I'll try a couple of his as well. For $15 apiece, they don't even really have to be that good, but if they are, I definately know where I'm gettting my dado stack from.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Stephen M]

Once upon a time I bought some jointer blades from Harbor Freight. That was a lesson learned well. Blunted on contact with pine.

They were replaced with freuds, with which I was very happy. Yes there are shit-grade modern knives knives out there. He may have been comparing his vintage knives with generic bottom-end knives of Chinese manufacture (not to say that all items of Chinese manufacture are of poor quality, but frankly, many are).

Then again, it's only a $10 experiment.

-Steve

[Pig]

Oh for god's sake, lighten up. You think Drew wrote that the guy was a dumb dago or something...... but what do I know, I'm just a dumb Polack from Joisey.......

Mutt

Scrub wrote:

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 13 May 2005 01:46:48 -0500, the inscrutable Patriarch spake:

I dunno; maybe some old stuff. I like old tools, but I'd much prefer to trade in a 50 y/o woman for a pair of 25s.

[nomex=ON; I'm kidding, I'm kidding!]

------ We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there. -

Website Application Programming -

[Doug Miller]

I used to work with a Polish guy who grew up in NJ. He said he never heard a "Polack" joke in his life, until he moved to Ohio at age 25 -- same jokes, except they were "Italian" jokes where he gew up.

FWIW, "polak" is the actual Polish word for "a man from Poland".

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[Scrub]

OK, I gues we're even up at this point. Apology accepted and acknowledged. Please accept mine for not counting to 10 before hitting the SEND button.

[CW]

Steel can be bought with any carbon content you want. He is either full of it or misinformed. BTW, good quality old knives generally had a higher carbon content than new ones.

[Mike Marlow]

Try to remember to post a follow up on this. I have to wonder, every time I hear about such things as "old steel" and "higher quality" this or that, just what the difference really is. Certainly we all are familiar with quality difference in some things, but we've all also seen where the differences between "lesser" and "higher" quality is only measurable on a spec sheet. Curiosity has me anxious to see what your results are.