Knife Sharpener

[Condorsat]

So the sum total of my experience w/ knife sharpeners has been these two sharpining steels like the one in the image above. They came with two knife block sets that I've owned for years ... one was Chicago Cutlery & the other a culinary school knife set.

I'm trying something different ... just ordered a Japanese wet stone ... YouTube video below looks cool ... anyway ... Ordered a King Home Stone #1000 today. I'm going to be using it to sharpen my everyday kitchen knives.

This will take care of my straight blade knives ... but the serrated ones ... does anybody sharpen those? I've read that some people sharpen those with the steel above.

 

[GuyK]

Serrated knives are an absolute bugger to sharpen. The proper way to do it is find a slipstone that fits the serrations and use that. The easier way to do it is to sharpen the flat side only on a normal stone. I only have one, a bread knife, and it never gets put to a stone. Also, I have a steel but seldom use it. I've seen more damage done to knives with them than I have knives actually sharpened. It can certainly be done, but requires technique most (including myself) have not mastered. They are really only for quickly touching up an edge between sessions with a stone.

 

[misterj]

King stone is a very good stone for the money.

Most sushi chefs start out using king stones, usually 1000 grit.
My knives have never touched a straightening rod (by the way, they don't sharpen, just realign the edge).

There's plenty of youtube videos showing how to sharpen using a wet stone, there is a learning curve though.

 

[Mark B]

 

[KingBubba]

A thousand grit stone will keep a sharp knife sharp; so don't ever let you knives get dull because it will take forever with #1000. I tried my best to use stones and never was able to get a great edge. Then I bought a set of the original Crock Sticks and the World changed. The World changed even more when I found a set of diamond coated rods designed to fit the crock stick holder. I was able to get knives hair or paper cutting sharp. The stick set had a coarse pair, a fine pair and with the diamond sticks, I could sharpen about anything except a serrated. I got a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It do a reasonable job on serrated knife, but will eventually wear the points off. The Spyderco Police Model is the hardest knife to sharpen on the Sharpmaker. The Henckels four star series are the hardest knives, in my collection, to sharpen. I ended being the theater sharpening go to guy. I made a lot of lunch money.

 

[MaxxVolume]

Sharpening freehand, with stones is fine, but it takes a certain measure of concentration and discipline. It`s important to maintain a constant, accurate angle throughout the entire process, or you`ll never get a good edge. This technique is not for everybody, and if it`s not your cup of tea, you may want or need an alternative method.
This device, designed by knifemaker Ken Onion, gives one a different approach. I have personally witnessed a demonstration with this device, and was quite impressed by it. It`s easy to put a nice convex edge on a blade without a whole lot of time or effort. You can even get leather stropping belts for it, which give an incredibly polished edge.

 

[John James]

Member trhee (I think it was him.) linked to these videos a while back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB---GrwQ_U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufyDM5FRkYA

A LOT of info!

 

[Condorsat]

When I was in my teens ... use to know a Yugoslavian immigrant who was really good at working with knives & guns. He used a belt grinder to sharpen knives ... can still remember the sparks flying when he did it. His knives were razor sharp ... he used to shave hair off his arm to check the edge.

Used to live in Japan and I can still remember how meticulous & patient the Japanese were about accomplishing tasks. It was fun, peaceful & relaxing to watch a craftsmen at work.

*** Warning Live Fish being cut ***

Some adventurous folks I use to work with ... they were from California ... would always have to have the "meal of death" ... as they called it ... when they came to Japan. Blowfish ... one missed cut and your customer was dead (not a figure of speech) from poison in the fish ... those knives had to be sharp. The Chef had to be Certified as I recall ... to have a safe meal.

 

[Redtide]

I got a King 1000/6000 combo stone this winter and had a lot better results after I got some angle guides. Having a consistent angle is the key in my opinion. Japanese knives usually have a 70/30 edge so one side has a steeper angle than the other so that's a bit of a hassle for me using guides. It took me a while to learn how much pressure to use to get the initial burr.

I like this video showing the whole process. He is using a stone that cuts a lot faster than my King stone though so I need to use about twice as many strokes.

I've never tried to sharpen a serrated knife with my SharpMaker but it is supposed to work.

 

[MaxxVolume]

For serrated blades, the best solution I`ve found is the DMT diamond-impregnated tapered rod. A few strokes in each serration, just enough to raise a slight burr on the "flat" side, then a couple of light passes over a 600-grit DMT flat stone, with the blade just about flat on the stone, to get rid of the burrs.

https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/...ner-P14.aspx?gclid=CO_i2Zi0880CFQNkhgodhnAL6g

 

[Uncle Bambi]

Sharpening freehand, with stones is fine, but it takes a certain measure of concentration and discipline. It`s important to maintain a constant, accurate angle throughout the entire process, or you`ll never get a good edge. This technique is not for everybody, and if it`s not your cup of tea, you may want or need an alternative method.
This device, designed by knifemaker Ken Onion, gives one a different approach. I have personally witnessed a demonstration with this device, and was quite impressed by it. It`s easy to put a nice convex edge on a blade without a whole lot of time or effort. You can even get leather stropping belts for it, which give an incredibly polished edge.

I have one of these, and it gets my knives razor sharp..... I have a permanent bald spot on my left forearm where I check the finished edges.

 

[Condorsat]

Lot of really good suggestions folks ... tks.

 

[BilboBaggins]

I worked in one of the top 10 restaurants in Canada for 5 years in the late 70s early 80s. I eventually tried every job in the restaurant except chef and maitre d. I have used North American stone, Japanese wet stone, steel, and rotary grinders. I used to be really good with the Japanese wet stone and steel, but now I use the following. It works great and takes minimal effort.

 

[Condorsat]

Follow up ... the Work Sharp knife sharpener definitely peaked my interest ... so I bought one from my local Rural King.

After watching some YouTube videos ... the Ken Onion edition was more than I needed ... so I went w/ the standard edition. Another good bit of info from numerous other videos was that there was a bit of a learning curve to using this mini-belt grinder ... true that ... they recommended starting with your less expensive knives or buying some "beaters" at a thrift store.

One of the test knives I bought was a vintage Old Homestead 10 inch Chefs Knife for 50 cents. Handle & blade looked weathered but looked better after treatment w/ mineral oil (handle) and metal polish. The blade was a bear to sharpen. I used the medium red belt to no avail ... could not feel a bur. Several other knives I've tried worked out great ... so I knew it was not the belt.

So I went for the green belt ... ... felt the bur after running it through five times. Anyway I tried it out yesterday on Cantaloupe, onions, green pepper, carrots, celery & lettuce. Cutting performance was awesome ... like a new knife ... especially on the Cantaloupe ... nice smooth & clean cuts.

So bottom line is that's it's a good product ... but you have to allow for a learning curve. I didn't ruin any knives but some look better (more uniform) than others.

 

[transmaster]

This site is a real treasure.

http://japanesechefsknife.com/

I am looking to purchase my next Japanese kitchen knifes from this outfit, They have high quality Japanese Whetstones. there is also instructions on how to use them. On thing I have learned to like is the Japanese single bevel Deba blades. They take on astonishingly sharp edges. You purchase these knife according to your handedness. The flat side of the blade is always facing down. hold the blade in your closed fist facing across your body to the left if right handed to the right if left handed the flat side of the blade is down. The Deba style knife are used for sushi knifes and for vegetable chopping. The sushi knife, the Yanagiba, is absolutely the best tomato slicer I have ever used. The Western style double bevel knife are best for meat slicing.