On the hustling streets of London knife sharping is not just a trade; it’s a waltz of metal and motion, precision and patience. It is London’s master knife sharpeners who possess the secret of placing life back in the edge that has been dulled by life’s many daring adventures. Ever tried chopping with a dull knife? It is like trying to write with a broken pencil-pointless.
Well, sharpening an ordinary knife may be an activity; when one goes to fiddle around with special blades, it will be where the rubber meets the road. When it comes to this, these special blades do need much more than a quick pass on any whetstone. Take a bread knife for instance; the serrated edge has first to be honed, but each groove should be given perfection in itself. A craftsman may employ a set of sharpening rods, each cut in the likeness of the teeth the blade serves.
And then, of course, there are the Japanese knives: prima ballerinas of the steel fraternity-fairly fragile but finicky in upkeep, much more high maintenance: steeper angles, harder blades, and expectations soaring high!
These would have any other average sharpener cowering in abject fear; to these seasoned veterans of London, these were tamed into submission-a wild yet so-elegant stallion. First, they were working with every possible stone, from coarse down to the finest of grit, the analogy being the artist and his palette of color, insuring that that final stroke would bring out the opera of sharpness. The mezzaluna, for instance, with its curved blade rolling back and forth through herbs like some rocking chair on a sunswept porch, needs one to sharpen the quirky performer in his particular m tier of keeping the graceful arc razor-sharp. The best in London are very good at keeping these blades brilliantly performant without making them boomerangs-and nobody wants that kind of cutting edge.
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