With great sadness we have lost one of the greatest contributors to knife sharpening.
"Knife Grinders" Dr Vadim Kraichuk
He was known for his Knife Deburring Book, and his extensive exploration into something that is perhaps one of the most important components of knife sharpening that is often never discussed.
Deburring.
Whether you agreed with his work or disagreed there is no doubt he got you thinking about the details and ruling things out.
Dr Vadim had an inquenchable thirst for knowledge and sharing. His quest started to put an end to the myths and rumors surrounding sharpening and to explore how and what can be done to create a high performance edge. He did this not only for his Sharpening business, but also because it was his passion and he also shared his work and research with the public.
He wrote a book "Knife Deburring" which has some very interesting ideas in it. He also has a YouTube channel which he went into detailed testing with researching the effects of heat damage on edges and also videos to demonstrate his prowless with sharpening.
One of his greatest works was on showing that super steals need super abrasives and that the edge retention and edge stability was better with cBN versus Alumina for super steels.
However his most well known contribution was helping to quantify the BESS test values and what the values mean.
He essentially set the standard.
He was mistakenly dismissed by some as just a Tormek guy but a lot of his idea apply universally to any sharpening method.
This announcement comes with such great sadness because his work was ongoing.
We will never know what other mysteries he would have been able to shine light on.
We will never know the full potential of where his work would have gone.
So, perhaps this is a reminder that tomorrow is never promised
