#17 Sharpening Story. Hobal Grajeda

Hobal Grajeda

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Hello, I’m Hobal Grajeda and I live in southern California. My fascination with knives began at an early age when I used to go camping and fishing with my father and grand-father. As a kid I was not allowed to keep knives, but that changed once I grew up and starting working in construction.
At first I just got by using a utility knife for work, but I later learned from other co-workers of the benefits of carrying a pocket knife for everyday use. I started buying cheap knives because I had yet to learn that not all knives and steels are the same. My first good quality knife was a Benchmade Griptilian and I was happy with just that one knife for a long time. Since it was my first nice knife, I would take that knife to be sharpened because I was afraid that I would damage the edge if I tried doing it myself. As time went by I started buying more knives and after having a few knives, I started to look into sharpening systems. My first sharpener was a block with ceramic rods in a form of a “V” similar to the Spyderco Sharpmaker. That system worked for me for a few years until I started getting into the world of super steels. After that I bought myself a guided system with diamond stones and I saw my edges improving significantly.
Everything was going fine in my sharpening journey until November of 2008 when I was involved in a motorcycle accident where I lost the use of my left arm and became paralyzed from the waist down. After my injury I started to see my hobby of collecting knives and sharpening as a part of therapy. I started to learn how to disassemble my knives and sharpen them using only my right hand. It was very difficult at first, but I liked the challenge and over time I became better. My sharpening time became I time where I could tune the world out and concentrate on one task. I wanted to take my edges to a new level so I started looking into a professional sharpening system. I looked at many of them, but eventually landed with the TSPROF Blitz 360 with Venev diamond stones. It has become the best sharpening system that I have ever used. I love it because it’s easy to use, even with one hand, and I can take my edges to a mirror finish with it.