Every knife we sell crosses the Edge Lab bench before it reaches its box. The Lab is one long workbench, a rack of water stones, good light and a set of habits we have refined over thousands of edges. This page explains what happens there.
Flatten first, always
Sharpening starts with the stone, not the knife: a stone that is not flat sharpens a curve into the edge. Every stone on the bench is flattened before every session, and every stone we sell ships flattened true. It is dull work and it is the foundation of everything after.
The angle is held, not guessed
Kitchen edges live around 15 degrees per side – a little more for heavy western blades, a little less for thin slicers. What matters is not the number but the consistency: a wobbling angle rounds the edge it is trying to build. Blades are worked at a held angle through the grit progression until a fine, even burr forms along the whole length.
Progression and strop
A typical finish runs 1000 grit to set the bevel, 3000 to refine it and 6000 to polish, then a bare-leather strop to clear the last of the burr. The result is checked against paper and tomato skin – a pass means a silent push cut, no sawing, no tearing.
The final check
Before sheathing, each blade is sighted down the spine for straightness, the handle is checked for gaps and rough seams, and the edge is wiped with food-safe oil. Only then does a knife earn its box. Returns and mail-in regrinds land on the same bench, and every failure we see feeds back into what the catalogue keeps – and quietly drops.
