General knife talk

[blades]

I use the Edge-Pro doohickey to sharpen my knives. and I keep a log of what 'settings' aka 'angles'
I use a 10x loupe to see/evaluate what I'm doing/have done.

for 10 years I did the free hand stone thing - never managed to impress myself.
the Edge-Pro is far superior for establishing a consistent edge - and the cutting performance of the same knives speaks to the doohickey's ability to produce a bad-xss edge.

there are any number of similar sharpening gadgets. since I don't sharpen knives on a weekly/daily basis and don't have 30 years to perfect my skills . . . these styles of guided sharpening devices are a real boon.

chef's: 10 + 8 + 6
slicers: 10 + 8 + 6
plus santoku, boning, , , and misc paring, etc etc

I too use the edge pro. A guided system like that maintains a consistent angle throughout the process and produces a better edge in less time. My kitchen knives are all Japanese made with thin hard blades and I use 15 degrees per side for all of them except for cleavers which I grind to 25 degrees per side.

 

[billmarsano]

I've searched for a general thread just for knives and couldn't find one, so I opened one for nice conversations and exchange of informations about knives.

Here is my small collection
View attachment 55586
Thomas bread knife~ 40€, Tramontina bread knife?, Wüsthof chef knife ~65€, very cheap chef-knife knife~5€, Zwilling petty-knife~45€, WMF Santoku~75€, Fiskars deboner ~30€, Wüsthof office knife 5€, Tucan office knife 9€, from top to bottom.

As a german, I'm very proud of our knives, but in my opinion every knife is a good knife and every knife maker is a good knife maker. There are some cool knives out there, but they are to expensive for me, right now I'm looking for an office knife with a length of 12cm.

What knives do you have, are you sharpening them by yourself, what kind of knife would you like to buy in the future?
Stay healthy

I’ve cooked for my family off and on since the 1980s, and often do the knife work when my wife, a much better cook, is at the ‘piano,’ which is French chef-talk for stove. It pains me to see her use a knife, but you don’t stay married long without being flexible, so over the years I’ve let her have a couple of those horrible pull-through sharpeners, her own knives and her own way. I have on occasion put temptation in her path and have been pleased to see her move up from doing everything with a paring knife to using a 6” utility knife (now called for some reason a ‘petty’ by fanboys) that I slyly left within reach.

My main blade is a Zwilling Pro 8” w/a blade width at the heel of 2-3/8”—perfect for scooping “off the board and into the pot.” (Too bad, but I don’t think Z’s Pro 8s are that wide anymore.) It’s about 10 years old and it has never been sharpened—and I believe that unless you are abusive to it, your chef’s knife, too, can avoid sharpening. What I do is steel my knives often. I use a 14” Z steel, very fine grained., that’s now about 40 years old. Four to six strokes a side, edge toward me, followed by reverse steeling: edge still toward me, but sweeping the knife away. It’s like stropping. Oddly, I’ve never heard of anyone else, online or off, doing it. I think it helps.

Try it for yourself. Steel your knife as usual and have a go at some sheets of newsprint (never printer paper, please). If satisfied, go back to the steel for a little reverse steeling—say four strokes a side—and then the newsprint again. The power of suggestion is strong but I’m pretty sure I’m right when I say the first thing I notice is that the cutting SOUNDS a little different. And the cutting itself is improved, too.

I also do, occasionally, a little ‘real’ stropping. I use an old 40” leather belt loaded with neatsfoot and mink oils. I keep it semi-slack, not taut. I like the blade to ride along comfortably.

And that’s it. Ten years of even light use and NO sharpening stones? Give it a try.

 

[Fooodie]

I’ve cooked for my family off and on since the 1980s, and often do the knife work when my wife, a much better cook, is at the ‘piano,’ which is French chef-talk for stove. It pains me to see her use a knife, but you don’t stay married long without being flexible, so over the years I’ve let her have a couple of those horrible pull-through sharpeners, her own knives and her own way. I have on occasion put temptation in her path and have been pleased to see her move up from doing everything with a paring knife to using a 6” utility knife (now called for some reason a ‘petty’ by fanboys) that I slyly left within reach.

My main blade is a Zwilling Pro 8” w/a blade width at the heel of 2-3/8”—perfect for scooping “off the board and into the pot.” (Too bad, but I don’t think Z’s Pro 8s are that wide anymore.) It’s about 10 years old and it has never been sharpened—and I believe that unless you are abusive to it, your chef’s knife, too, can avoid sharpening. What I do is steel my knives often. I use a 14” Z steel, very fine grained., that’s now about 40 years old. Four to six strokes a side, edge toward me, followed by reverse steeling: edge still toward me, but sweeping the knife away. It’s like stropping. Oddly, I’ve never heard of anyone else, online or off, doing it. I think it helps.

Try it for yourself. Steel your knife as usual and have a go at some sheets of newsprint (never printer paper, please). If satisfied, go back to the steel for a little reverse steeling—say four strokes a side—and then the newsprint again. The power of suggestion is strong but I’m pretty sure I’m right when I say the first thing I notice is that the cutting SOUNDS a little different. And the cutting itself is improved, too.

I also do, occasionally, a little ‘real’ stropping. I use an old 40” leather belt loaded with neatsfoot and mink oils. I keep it semi-slack, not taut. I like the blade to ride along comfortably.

And that’s it. Ten years of even light use and NO sharpening stones? Give it a try.

Wow, that's a really interesting method. I had thought about knife tempering before, but it seemed like a complicated process where you'd have to constantly sharpen them. I'll give this a try, thanks!

 

[blades]

Probably time to interject some information here. Steeling a blade doesn't sharpen it. It straightens the edge. It is a useful function because the edge collapses when it contacts the cutting board so the steeling makes the edge stand up straight so that it cuts better. You should steel without applying any pressure. The weight of the blade is sufficient and one or two swipes on the steel per side does the job. After a while steeling the edge no longer helps the knife cut as it should. Then you have to sharpen it. If you are trying to sharpen the edge with pressure against the steel then the blade definitely needs sharpening.

In order to sharpen the blade you must remove metal to reform the bevels on the edge. That requires grinding, not just steeling. If the poster above thinks his knife is still sharp after 10 years of steeling then he doesn't realize what a sharp knife is. I don't doubt that he he can cut things with it but not with the ease and safety of a sharp blade.

I sometimes oversharpen my blades and they stick in the cutting board. I can lay the edge on a tomato, take the very end of the handle between my thumb and forefinger, pull the knife toward me and the blade will slice the tomato with just the weight of the blade. I can do the same thing with a sheet of paper. I use a steel to dull them a little to stop the sticking.

I can use one of my hard gyutos for 2 or 3 weeks before sharpening if I steel it regularly. But at that point it doesn't perform terribly well. I use a gyuto for three meals per day. Sushi chefs will grind similar knives every day after work. Their sharpness requirement is higher than mine and their edges are thinner and more acute than mine. And, of course, they cut all day long not just for 3 meals like I do. Sushi knives have traditional Japanese single bevel blades. They have an acute bevel on one side and are flat on the reverse side. I grind my gyutos to 15 degrees per side for a total edge angle of 30 degrees. The sushi chef may grind his bevel 12 degrees. With a flat reverse side the total edge angle is, well, 12 degrees. Sushi knives are really sharp.

My blades are hardened to RC 59 to 61 which is noticeably harder than the RC 54 to 57 of the German knives like that of the OP. They will hold an edge 3 to 4 times longer than his. So, Bill, let me recommend you sharpen that chef knife or have it sharpened by someone. You will then understand what I am talking about. It could be an epiphany. Happy cooking.

 

[blades]

Feeling the condition of the cutting edge of your knife

People sometime ask me how to judge the condition of a knife edge. The edge of a blade can have different profiles but the simplest form is a V with two bevels ending in a point. As you grind one side of the edge a burr will form on the other side of the edge. Grinding the side with the burr will move the burr to the opposite side. That burr is important. You should move to a finer grit abrasive when the burr moves to the opposite side the full length of the blade with a pressure free swipe against a steel on both sides of the blade.

You can't see the burr without a magnifier but you can feel it. After grinding one side, lay the the opposite side of the edge on your thumb nail at an angle. Dont use the skin of a finger or you may cut yourself. You can feel the burr snag on your nail. Then you can put the side of the ground bevel and it should be smooth against your nail. So you can monitor the formation of the burr and its condition easily in this manner.

As you progress through the various abrasive grits the burr gets smaller and smaller and you can feel the difference on your thumb nail. When you finish with your finest grit the burr may be so small that it doesn't get in the way of cutting. Or you can remove the burr by pulling the blade away from the edge against a strop.

I won't get into sharpening technique here but it is useful to be able to monitor the condition of your edge as you progress through whatever process you use. Now you know a safe and easy way to do it.