Thread: How to sharpen kitchen knives????

heheh ... nothing's foolproof but maybe consider this.

There is also a cheaper stone-based version you'll find on that website.

Either will give you a good result, but if you really want razor sharp much much more is required.

I sharpen knives in the kitchen on the bottom of plates or bowls. they are unglazed on the ring around the bottom. Mike

+1 on the Lansky. I have one and think it is excellent.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Alan,

That is a big ask, foolproof and razor sharp.

But I think Ern and Derek have an answer that would suit your sharpening skills. I have seen Derek's Lansky and had a go. It is easy to use, repeatable, accurate, quick and clean, if that is an issue.

I too would recommend this as a foolproof method, as much as there can be such a thing, particularly if your knives are quite dull, this should do the trick.

I do my Henckels by hand with a diamond plate or diamond stick when getting a bit dull and always follow up with a good steel, I use an F. Dick 14 inch Round Fine steel or the same in a Flat Fine profile.

I would think that if you use a fine steel after the Lansky you will get a finer edge and it will last longer. Regular steel visits will also keep the edge longer, in my experience. Cheap steels will not give the same results, well not for me anyway. Just love my 14 inch F. Dick steels.

There are numerous methods and devices out there, cheap and expensive, easy and difficult to use and here are just three opinions. All the best. Let us know how you get on.

P.S. Once you have sharp knives, after using blunt ones for a while it is advised to buy some bandaids. Every time I sharpen my friend's knives I hear the 'blood in the salad' stories that followed the next day or so.

Cheers
Pops

Buy yourself one of these, ideal for some one who for what ever reason does not want to sharpen buy hand http://totalknifecare.com.au/images/...harpner-dl.pdf

Beware the 'blood in the salad' effect, a good working kitchen knife needs to be just sharp enough to slice a tomato which is nothing like as sharp as a plane blade. I once had a few spare minutes on my first day in the kitchen at the Flemington Markets Hotel so I sharpened up all the big knives on their new ceramic steel. Three of the women in the kitchen had cut their hands by lunch-time. I even cut myself before the week was out, bled for half an hour and lost two bandaids while cutting steak and preparing salad. no-one complained either.

The best way is to use Japanese waterstones and learn to sharpen freehand. It's not difficult (plenty of vids on Youtube showing how to). I use 1200 and a 6000 stones for mine.

And yes, sharper is always better and safer. If you're cutting yourself on a properly sharp knife it is your technique that is the problem, not the knife! My knives are all like scalpals and despite a great deal of natural clumsiness on my part, neither myself nor my wife ever cut ourselves.

+ 2 on the Lansky - had one for 20+ years.

Replacement stones [they don't bounce on concrete DAMHIK] are available easily and at a reasonable price - got my last one a few years ago through the local gun shop.

I'm with NZStu on waterstones as the best in the long term, but there's an investment needed of time and money well beyond what the Lansky requires.

I got the Lansky oil stone kit for knives to see whether it was a reasonable option for sharpening virgins like my partner and sons. And I think it is but in the light of this thread I gave it a more serious run last night.

With a 6" Mundial French cook's knife that's lost some width from repeated sharpenings and with a 7" Shun Santoku Classic.

With the Mundial it wasn't possible to get the most acute angle setting of 17 degrees because the guide rod fouled the clamp. So some freehanding was needed.

The clamp needed a good deal of pressure to hold it as well. Both sides of the clamp at the thumbscrew are threaded and too much pressure snapped it. Wasn't possible to ease the stub out so I drilled and tapped one side, opened out the other and substituted an Allen head screw (aka cap screw).

As to results, well both knives just passed the test of the edge catching on a fingernail. Might have improved with more work with the finest hone (rated by Lansky as 1000 extra fine, but if that's 1000 ANSI or JIS it's never going to produce a really keen edge).

And overall it's not my cup of tea.

Ceramic waterstones work better for me and it took a tutorial from NeilS to help me understand how to use them. A 17 degree bevel is in any case too obtuse for the other 3 Japanese knives in the kit.

In terms of maintaining an angle on waterstones, Leonard Lee suggests trying some of the plastic spline from stationary shops used to bind loose sheets. Comes in varying thicknesses, is kind of channel section and slipped over the knife top to hold it up while moving across the stone. Haven't tried it.

Hi Ern

My Lansky is set up with the full array (extra coarse to fine) of diamond stones plus a sapphire polishing stone (4000 or 6000?). I chose the more expensive diamond because I was not sure of the steel types we might end up with.

I also added sandpaper inside the jaws of the clamp. This makes a world of difference to the pressure needed to hold a blade.

No, I do not think it comes close to final word on a sharp edge, but it does do a good job, certainly good enough for a semi-serious would-be chef, such as my wife.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Alan S
Google "Scary Sharp"
Regards
Joe

Ah, good thinking Batman ;-}

Originally Posted by AlanS

I have 6 wonderful kitchen knives - Henckel.
They are dull. I want them to be razor sharp. What can I do to get a great edge? I am terrible at free-hand sharpening. I would love to just have a 'foolproof' method.
Any suggestions?

an option is to locate the contractor who does the knives for the local butcher or chef -- here they tend to travel around with the gear mounted on the back of a motorbike
foolproof

Another good option. However;

My experience with 'professional' knife sharpeners is the same as plumbers I am afraid, and accountants, and mechanics, and well,... every profession/worker in general I guess, and that is there are good ones and there are not so good ones. The good ones can deliver a beautiful finish, straight even polish lines that would take me hours to achieve.

If you go down this path then test their work out on just a couple of knives first. I have seen some disasters, enough to make one cry, if, like me, you really like your knives.

I prefer to mess up a good knife myself than pay somebody else to do it for me.

Cheers
Pops