Buerste wrote:
...
http://www.chefschoice.com/tips_myth_all.html
....
"Fact" of Myth #14:
quote
Sparks produced during sharpening mean the knife is being damaged. The
sparks are actually bits of red-hot, overheated metal coming off the
knife. They indicate that the grinding wheel is seriously overheating
the knife-edge, which detempers (weakens) it.
/quote

I don't think that I buy this: just because the torn-off bits are red
hot doesn't mean that the edge is too hot. Annealing ("detemper-ing")
requires a red hot edge. Now the edge is very thin so it *could* get
red hot while just behind it doesn't, but I'm still skeptical.

Harold?

Bob