Tell me how to sharpen kitchen knives and what I need

After a few years use, you need to get them professionally sharpened. I received a free offer in the mail from OSH hardware and gave them a try. I was amazed at how sharp it turned out. Rather inexpensive at $1 per inch of blade.

I agree. Keep in mind that most hardware stores, kitchen stores, and even sharpening services will have either the commercial Chef’s Choice, Work Sharp, or wheel grinders with a jig. Taking them to a professional is no guarantee because it really depends on the person doing the sharpening. If you are not happy with the job they do have them try again or get your money back.
The hardware store I went to after the kitchen job did not do a good job. None of them really cooked and I suspect they had the “manly-men” attitude about kitchen work or just didn’t get it. I endured over a year of getting bitched at because I was taking too long to do a good job before they (the cheap-ass owner) got a Work Sharp and replaced the wheel cartridge on the Chef’s Choice (the first stage was shot). After replacing the wheels the Work Sharp got relegated to the task of mainly doing the first round on blunt, hard knives to spare the first stage of the Chef’s Choice.

I miss the old Italian guy in the green truck with the bell that came around my old neighborhood. This guy knew his stuff. Hell, he’d been doing it for as long as I could remember.

I miss living in a neighborhood never having that kind of awesomeness.

So I had a chance to put my new sharpener to use today, and typical of my drunk self, it was the Ken Onion model, not the standard model. I’m not sure if I did a single thing that the standard one couldn’t do though, so at $45+ or so, it’s the better deal. I sharpened approximately 21 knives in about an hour and 30 minutes. It was even a little slow as I was learning how to use it, and watched the video that came with it. I was also changing the angle on a couple of knives, which meant a few passes at an additional belt for those knives.

I’ll take that AS A WIN! The knives included approx 7 serrated, 3 ceramics, and 11 standard knives. I was able to switch between 15 degree and 20 degree angle on the knives without issue. They are scary sharp, within range of what I like in the kitchen, and then some.

It removes some metal on the coarser settings, but nothing more so than other techniques.

Some metal removal can be seen on the towel.

Before:

After:

It’s hard to see but it is an extremely stable, straight, and sharp edge. No rolling or changing angle.

As fast as this thing is, I’m going to take it with me over Christmas and do some knives for my family. My only gripe is that I now have three old sharpening systems I need to sell to someone.

Bonus pic, a shaved part of my forearm from a chefs knife. Scary sharp.

Sweeeeeet!

Edit: Oh, and sharpening is removing metal.

Indeed. A burr on each side. Eventually down to honing on each side. Which is quite easy on this tool. With any new method though I was just worried it would remove too much.

That was a pretty awesome read, Stusser, thanks for that link.

Gotcha. I have had to correct accidentally notching a blade. Note to self: Don’t fling water off blade over quartz counter.

I have a buddy with a few Japanese knives that he has chipped pretty badly. He is pretty rough on them. I’m not sure if I want to offer to help, but I do have some pretty coarse belts, maybe when I feel more confident with the tool. In his case, I think he’s basically chopping with them on something overly hard, probably his countertop as well.

Every time I go to the Ren. Faire, I always eye the hand-made carbon steel knives and think about it. They’re beautiful pieces of craftsmanship. I’m nervous about my ability to take care of them though (read: laziness), so I’ve never pulled the trigger there.

You just need to dry after using them, not really a big deal. No seasoning so much less work than a cast-iron or black steel pan where you can’t wash the thing with soap, have to worry about scratching off the seasoning with metal utensils, etc.

High carbon steel not only gets much (much) sharper but also retains the edge longer. To compensate, the much harder steel is more difficult to sharpen, but not so that you’d notice.

For the people that enjoyed that link, I recommend all of Josh Ozersky’s work, both written and on YouTube and Vimeo. He was a legit character and a brilliant snarky voice who was just starting to find some level of mainstream success at the end. I was more upset when he died than Robin Williams.

You can do it dude! If he wants them fixed then slap on that coarse belt, set the angle, and let’er rip! If it’s hard steel you may be at it a while. Oh, and wear a dust mask. When I blew my nose after working with mine for a while the snot was, um, different. I tend to learn things the hard way.

Like Stusser said just keep them dry. The worst thing that can happen is they can rust. If they do just get a steel scrubbie and clean them up.

For some reason this exerpt came to mind when reading through this discussion…

I’m sure I’ll end up trying to help him, but his knives aren’t cheap, so a little more practice first. I think.

@stusser So I was curious and looked up the knife that Josh Ozersky was writing about. Wow, just that knife is $300! And that’s not even one Bob Kramer actually made, it’s just one that is licensed.

Here’s one prior to getting the black patina, it’s a mean looking chefs knife.

image

I wish I would have thought to post the one day sale Cook’s Illustrated had on those earlier this month. Most nice commercial level chef’s knives start at around $300. It sucks. You can get pretty darn good high-carbon steel boning knives for much less. But, I don’t use mine much.

Skipper, you may not believe me, but you are ready to handle your buddy’s knife. The jigged Work Sharp takes all of the guess work out of the angle (which is the hardest part). Put on the coarse belt, alternate sides, and work until the notch is gone. If your friend doesn’t care about the notch then get the full burr and move down the belts. They will love you for it.

I think so too, but without his knives in front of me, I’m not sure how deep the chips are. Just sharpening though, No problem at all. I have belts for this thing course enough to sharpen lawnmower blades so I’m sure it can reshape and reprofile.

As for the knife prices, I have gotten a couple of hand-me-downs that are at the upper end of the ones I own. Eventually I’d love to have a few nice ones. Certainly not a real Kramer knife, aka, the cost of a cheap car.

I saw a linked video of Kenji making a sandwich where he opens an entire drawer of knives. Pretty crazy.

Ok, so now I’ve gone from “should I get my $15 knife sharpened” to “maybe I should buy a tool that sharpens knives.” Because I have what, that 6" chef’s knife, and a Calphalon one that’s 8", and a couple 4" with wooden handles that I like, so now it’s adding up. Is this a bad idea? @Skipper, what are you using?

Probably a bad idea with just those 4. Prices around here for store sharpening run about 3-6 bucks per blade. I don’t know how much the guy is who does home visitation with his gear in a van. So figure you get them sharpened at a store and you’re in for $12-24. If that gets you by for a long while, it’s still cheaper than this, which is the less crazy version of what I just bought:
https://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-Sharpening-Repeatable-Consistent/dp/B003IT5F14

For just those 4, perhaps one of the pull through models might be good enough? If you give me a day I’ll check to see if I still have mine at the house.

This is an example of a pull through:
https://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Choice-Select-Diamond-Sharpener/dp/B008EMFQ8C

EDIT: Understand I’m a bit compulsive about having a sharp knife, so if scary sharp isn’t something you need, then going down this path might not be needed. BUT, it’s nice to be able to sharpen my knives and as mentioned, I’ll do those for my family over the holiday break as well. I also have a coworker added to the list of someone that wants me to sharpen some of his knives as well.