03-17-2017, 12:15 PM
Hello Ken,
Thank you for your question and a little background will help us to answer it.
Sharp Pad has been an interesting product launch for us. It was, originally, and still is a product targeted at the home kitchen user. However, a very significant number of these products have found their way into the hands of accomplished sharpeners like you as well as a great number of our industrial users. This was a bit of a very welcome surprise to us. We feel that we understand why this is now and the discovery falls into two spheres. The first is very simple: its simply a very handy tool to have laying around the sharpening room. Doesn't take up much space, simple to use and very effective burr removal for one-off knife sorts of applications. Secondly, the polymer plates provide just the right combination of grip and firmness for even and clean burr removal. The rubber base is part of the burr removal tool set as well and there is simply nothing out there that is more effective at removing that last bit of burr, particularly on stainless steel knives. In short, while devising a simple and effective means of burr removal for home kitchen users we also managed to devise a simple and effective means of burr removal for accomplished and professional sharpeners.
With that said, now I can answer your question regarding the leather plate. It's a good tool but it's burr removal, edge straightening, and work hardening characteristics are largely redundant with regard to the capabilities of the polymer plates and rubber base. Now remember, I said "largely redundant". We can almost always buy another 15 or 20 points with the leather plate but for the target market, home users, what's 15 or 20 points when you started at 650 and now you're sitting at 240? A perfect kitchen edge for the home user in our opinion. For us, the leather plate is very much a final finishing tool. Sort of that last coat of lacquer on a fine piece of furniture.
Leather is simply difficult to work with in a manufacturing setting. Each hide is a different color, different texture and a different thickness. In a kitchen setting there are sanitary and appearance issues associated with leather as well. Quite frankly, if we start addressing that last 15 or 20 points again we will likely go to either a canvas, denim, or ballistic nylon material all of which demonstrate very similar performance properties to leather but that can be replaced much more economically. There is no "magic quality" to leather as opposed to several other man-made materials as far as we can tell. It is simply a very traditional and well suited material for the task. With regard to burr removal and work hardening an edge though it is very much second fiddle to our polymer plates and rubber base.
Eliminating the leather plate from the Sharp Pad package simplifies our message and instructions to the home kitchen user. Does that mean that we are going to leave a segment of our customer base, the ones who use and like the leather plate, out in the cold? No. We have a large inventory of leather plates here and if you need a new or additional one just drop us an email and one will be in the mail to you.
Hope this helps
Thank you for your question and a little background will help us to answer it.
Sharp Pad has been an interesting product launch for us. It was, originally, and still is a product targeted at the home kitchen user. However, a very significant number of these products have found their way into the hands of accomplished sharpeners like you as well as a great number of our industrial users. This was a bit of a very welcome surprise to us. We feel that we understand why this is now and the discovery falls into two spheres. The first is very simple: its simply a very handy tool to have laying around the sharpening room. Doesn't take up much space, simple to use and very effective burr removal for one-off knife sorts of applications. Secondly, the polymer plates provide just the right combination of grip and firmness for even and clean burr removal. The rubber base is part of the burr removal tool set as well and there is simply nothing out there that is more effective at removing that last bit of burr, particularly on stainless steel knives. In short, while devising a simple and effective means of burr removal for home kitchen users we also managed to devise a simple and effective means of burr removal for accomplished and professional sharpeners.
With that said, now I can answer your question regarding the leather plate. It's a good tool but it's burr removal, edge straightening, and work hardening characteristics are largely redundant with regard to the capabilities of the polymer plates and rubber base. Now remember, I said "largely redundant". We can almost always buy another 15 or 20 points with the leather plate but for the target market, home users, what's 15 or 20 points when you started at 650 and now you're sitting at 240? A perfect kitchen edge for the home user in our opinion. For us, the leather plate is very much a final finishing tool. Sort of that last coat of lacquer on a fine piece of furniture.
Leather is simply difficult to work with in a manufacturing setting. Each hide is a different color, different texture and a different thickness. In a kitchen setting there are sanitary and appearance issues associated with leather as well. Quite frankly, if we start addressing that last 15 or 20 points again we will likely go to either a canvas, denim, or ballistic nylon material all of which demonstrate very similar performance properties to leather but that can be replaced much more economically. There is no "magic quality" to leather as opposed to several other man-made materials as far as we can tell. It is simply a very traditional and well suited material for the task. With regard to burr removal and work hardening an edge though it is very much second fiddle to our polymer plates and rubber base.
Eliminating the leather plate from the Sharp Pad package simplifies our message and instructions to the home kitchen user. Does that mean that we are going to leave a segment of our customer base, the ones who use and like the leather plate, out in the cold? No. We have a large inventory of leather plates here and if you need a new or additional one just drop us an email and one will be in the mail to you.
Hope this helps