Brusletto - onderhoud

Brusletto - onderhoud

How do I get the knife to last

When you have taken the step and bought yourself a quailty knife from Brusletto, you have a knife that will last for many years. To keep the knife looking good, we recommend that you clean it after use with clean water or perhaps lightly soapy water and dry it well before you put it back in the sheath.

The handle will not normally need any further care for a long time, but if necessary, you can use a good furniture oil. The sheath may need to have the leather greased.

There are four things that decide how well the knife will retain its sharpness:

1. The quality of the steel

2. The hardness

3. The shape of the edge

4. How the knife is used

Our knife blades are made of Sandvik 12C27 stainless steel, which is hardened to a hardness of 56-58 Rockwell C. Some blades are hollow ground, others are convex ground and yet others have the usual flat grind.

In use, there are two processes in particular that dull the edge. One is heavy loading which breaks of small pieces of the edge and makes it saw-toothed. The other is the edge rolling. This can be corrected by some strokes with a steel. After use for some time the knife will in any case become blunt and we distinguish between grinding and whetting the knife.

When a knife becomes blunt this means that it losses the tapering shape it has been given in manufacture. Whetting the knife can, however, restore this. In the case of larger notches or damage, the knife blade must be ground. This should be done on a grindstone, where it is important that the temperature does not become too high so that you ruin the blade`s hardness. There has always been discussion about thether one should grind with or against the grindstone. What is important is that the edge is straigth, not curved, and then you must grind at the angle in relation to the grindstone the whole time on both sides of the blade.

When the knife is bo be whetted, we recommend that you hold the whetstone still and pass the knife over the whetstone as if you wanted to cut thin slices off it. Move the knife to and from or in circles utnil it is sufficiently sharp.

To polish a super-sharp edge further, you can draw the knife across a leather strop. Whetting with a leather strop must always de done with the edge, if you do it against the edge, you won`t have a leather strop any more.

A steel must be used at exactly the same angle as when grinding. Hold the knife and the steel so that you have control of them and draw the knife steadily in a curved movement from handle to point. Change sides for each pass. Start with light pressure finish carefully

Look after your knife and it will last for generations.