Great deal on a great knife, don’t let the 10" intimidate you.
I have the 8". Can’t imagine needing the 10"
Need? No. Want? Yes. I’m so used to it that I would be annoyed losing 2" at this point, and the blade is just such a wonderful compromise between thickness and lightness, it’s a delight. Either way, you do you, I’m a pretty biggish guy and I find the 10" to be perfect. I have a 6" Wusthoff and it feels as heavy in the hand, and man I appreciate those extra inches, cue JMJ.
If I can’t entice with that deal, let me throw out another, this thing is fantasic. Less than a sawbuck, massive ceramic sharpening rod, I just put a razor edge back on my current Victorinox with it today:
Eight bucks, whaddayawant?
Edit: I went back through this entire thread, and have some funny observations. First that I started and ended (not that I intend to end here) with recommending that big ceramic stick for a quick and dirty touch up tool, it is still serving perfectly and brings my knives to razor. (They’re so cheap because they are offcuts from the power industry where ceramic rods are a thing.)
The second was that @Skipper figured out so much before I did, kudos to him. That Ken Onion Worksharp system is just incredible.
The last is just how much my impression of what sharp is has changed. It used to be shaving arm hairs, now it’s become dropping through a lime with no effort. One is fiddly, the other is super practical. Also I think I’ve learned to really appreciate the burr and understand how to use it as a guide.
I would love to take the credit but my boss had the original (just before the Ken Onion edition) and sang its praises to me. I followed suit. I went from a combination of stones, diamond plates and a fixed angle sharpener to just the belt system and I haven’t looked back. I could certainly got a glossy sharp look from some of my previous stuff but to do so takes a lot of time and effort not to mess things up. Instead I can sharpen most of the knives in my kitchen in 30 min.
I agree with you, I don’t chase super sharp for these kitchen knives anymore, rather, operationally sharp works perfectly, and I can top them all up in a month or two.
My test is being able to slice thin slices of tomatoes, because that’s the most delicate task I perform. Just a bit of top off seems to do the job. Last couple of times I sharpened I didn’t even change the belt, it was one of the finer ones (I don’t know the grade because I bought generic belts).
That’s about what my touch ups take. 2 belts total. We have 2-3 heavy use knives and I’ll use 3 belts on them sometimes but 2 on the rest. And I line the knives up and go down the line for the less fine belt, then again down the line on the fine belt.
The only work really are the knives with tall blades. I end up putting blue painters tape on them to keep the grit on the Worksharp blade guides from leaving a mark on them.
Got this little tapered diamond rod to fix up steak knives for a few bucks. Seems to work pretty well.
Those are great for serrated knives. A couple of taps through each serration and one very light run on the back … done.
oh I wasn’t sure what to do on the back. I ran the back flat against the belt / stone.
I also really like the ceramic rods Houngan recommended a while back. They break… but they are so cheap. Very nice to quickly touch up a knife into working condition.
You really only have to sharpen the concave side of the serration, where you can see the shiny metal. Just a couple of runs through each serration. But what you are doing there creates a very small burr on the back side of each serration, aka the flat side of the blade. So you very lightly run the sharpener down the back edge to remove that burr.
Bought!
Now that I’m setting up my shop in the new house the first thing I did is dedicate a space to sharpening, man my waterstones were cupped! So I bought a big Trend diamond plate, 350/1000 grit, for a flattening stone. Haven’t finished setting everything up yet but the chisels and planes are going to get to a new level of sharpness shortly.
Oh nice, a dedicated space to work with is really nice. Good lightning, flat surface, a table vise.
Update: nice little tool! I touched up a hybrid blade with it and definitely noticed an improvement.
I forget who originally recommended the ceramic super stick, but mine has been great between sharpenings, and I even got one for my brother-in-law, who uses his knives almost every day.
That said, I let myself go longer than I should have before sharpening my knives last weekend, and I’m not happy with the result. Does that indicate I should start from a coarser stone, or do I just need more time with the stones I usually use?
What are you starting with? I just do 1000. I have an 800 stone but I only ever used it the very first time I sharpened.
I wanna say I used a 1000 stone, followed by a 3000 stone for finishing? I could double check when I get home, but I got pretty good results in the past when I didn’t let them get all that dull before each sharpening.
Maybe they are all knicked and you needed a lot of work. I feel like the answer to both your questions is yes. Yes, use a coarser, and yes you didn’t grind enough.
I read you can remove more material in 5 minutes with a coarse stone than you can in 10 hours with the polishing stones. I don’t really understand polishing / high grits. I don’t need razor sharpness to cut tomatoes, which is the most delicate task I do. Maybe if I was cutting sushi or steaks in half? Once I got that in my head I realized I should spend most of my time on the 1000 stone.
Also maybe you were doing so much (4+ knives) that the stone also got bowed out?
Sometimes you get to the point that the edge is rounded such that you can sharpen it and it cuts for a day or so but then back to dull land. Resetting the blade is a thing and I should have learned it decades ago.
I suspect your blade has gone too far for the ceramic to bring it back, while the ceramic is removing material it’s very hard so it doesn’t really work on a blade past a certain point of dullness. It would eventually work, tens of hours, but the point is that it removes very small amounts of metal for a sharp to sharper touch up. A dull blade needs more aggressive attention and then you get back into the ceramics.
Gotcha. I may hire our local professional sharpeners, and then I can stay on top of it at home.
I have pretty sharp kitchen knives. Just use a serrated blade for tomatoes. One like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-5-2933-26-Konditorsäge-Fibrox/dp/B000IAZCAK
You don’t have to use that knife, just something with wider serrations. It’s a good bread/tomato/carving knife. Using that tool posted above, it’s also easy to sharpen and keep ready to go.
Tomatoes require a sharp point but also a draw across them that prevents needing to push down to cut them. A longer serrated blade works really well. But note that if you have another long blade that’s ultra sharp, it will be even better. A serrated blade is like cheating for tomatoes.