Thread: Knife sharpening

https://klevarange.com.au/products/k...rpener-tv-deal

Yep! That's the one!

So Art, 3-4 months on, do your knives have any steel left?

I like the idea, but I'm concerned that the are a knife maker's dream (in that it will gobble up a blade in short order). They seem to be reminiscent of the ceramic sharpeners.

When you say the knives are sharp, would you say as sharp as perhaps a 1000 waterstone edge?

When it comes to el cheapo knives there isnt much to loose by using any type of sharpener that will render an edge. But when it comes to quality cutlery I would much rather avoid sacrificing steel to an over enthusiastic metal muncher. The art of using a steel requires practice and much thereof. Until mastered, the steel is more a dulling tool than a sharpener. Steeling a blunt knife is useless. It must be honed first, then followed by steeling. When working with raw meat a sharp knife is mandatory. A steel is a quick and handy tool to get that edge back to where it needs to be to handle the job. No oil, no cleaning, hung on the belt, just grab it and use it and drop back by your side.

That's my concern Ken - my knives ain't cheap, but OTOH I've never found that a steel puts the same edge on as a waterstone (even 1000g). I have 4-5 Wusthof knives and a Japanese Knife, and the Steel is also a Wusthof, so the quality of the steels involved should be pretty reasonable. My usual routine is 1000 then 5000 to polish them, but stones are such are PITA that they are not done as often as they should be....

I just can't see two TC blades being gentle on a piece of steel being passed through them.

One of the local knife companies had a representative in a kitchen shop a couple of years ago, giving lessons in knife sharpening. They used 1000g for the demo, my stone at home is a 1000/3000 combo. I only have to do it every couple of months or so...probably longer. I haven't found a gadgetised sharpener I've liked.

I agree, a waterstone does give a nice edge. As for it being superior to a steel is a debatable point. It very much depends on the operator and the quality of the steel being used. My great uncle owned a slaughter house and as a boy, I used to spend a lot of time with him, learning what I could. I never met anybody that could put a better edge on a knife. He started me on a steel when I was eight years old, during the school holidays. A very vertical learning curve. Today, almost sixty years later, I find steeling a knife to be second nature and am eternally grateful to The Old Boy for teaching me the basics of what has proved to be a simple, handy and clean way to revitalize an edge when you are up to your armpits in blood and gore.
As much as I love waterstones, I prefer not to use them for knives as I find them way to soft for the action required to hone a blade and the resulting stone surface is rendered unsuitable for other tools until such time as the stone is resurfaced.
My preferred method for a knife is an oilstone followed by a flat, reeded steel, followed by a smooth steel. Final four strokes - reverse the blade edge.

This has been a very interesting discussion, I too own a Klevasharp thingy but only use it on very blunt knives as you can see material being peeled from the blade surface. My kitchen knives are "Bacarat" from one of the various kitchen shops and when sharp are adequate for my meagre culinary skills. Unfortunately my beloved and our daughter are the best knife blunters in the business.

After recutting the edge on the Klevasharp thingy I use the Bacarat steel to finish the job. It is my understanding that a steel doesn't remove any material, it merely burnishes and polishes the two sides of the edges. Once sharpened this way I give the blade a lick with the steel before each use to keep the edge.

I was shown an interesting way to use the steel many years ago. Rather than the professional method involving the flashy waving of the knife and steel I was shown to hold the steel vertically down with the point embedded in a chopping board. The knife is then pulled along the steel towards me; this method allows me to gauge the angle by eye rather than relying on muscle memory.

Call me a knife butcher perhaps (and its not like our knives are that fancy to begin with) but I usually use one of those multitool belt sander things with an old (ie almost smooth stuff all grit left on it) 240 grit belt. I also run the belts on slow (~1/4) speed with a light touch and it touches up one side of the blade in just one or two pass and then I run a steel over the blade.