Ok so I get what you are saying seasonally and I totally get it.
Once BBQ season hits I am not using my knives as often.
Are all the hand held sharpeners universal?
Or is it better to buy the brand to match the knife?
As between Bob Kramer (chef and ABS Master Bladesmith) and Gordon Ramsay, I’ll take Bob 24/7/365. Ramsay’s heavy-handed slappy approach is widely derided.
I used to regularly visit Bob at his old Seattle shop to buy steel, have him heat treat my blades, pick his brain, etc. When I saw something special in his case, I’d handle it. His wares were so sharp that more than once I cut myself without noticing.
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As far as I know hand held sharpeners are not universal. The twenty degree bevel found on many knives will not work well on knives with a sharper bevel. I also find that hand held sharpeners tend to be on the aggressive side. Water stones are universal and not that difficult. Some are quite affordable, too.
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Hi Olunia,
They’re not universal, but similar. Check the angle they are set at–and see if it’s what you want. I have one from Wusthof set at 15 degrees.
Ray
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What you say about handheld sharpeners is completely true. They tend to have a single, fixed angle that may not be the same as the knife’s. Add to that the fact that many of this species utilize wheels or discs, which will impart concavity (a micro hollow grind) at the edge of blades that had flats.
That being said, however, my experience with pull-throughs is that ultimately the blade edge will conform to the sharpener. This may seem ass-backward–and it’s definitely not ideal. But neither is it ideal to have sharpener and knife moving every which way (visualize Ramsay slapping away). Frankly, with a curved blade, it’s difficult for even a skilled person with excellent hand-eye to maintain a constant attack angle on a flat stone–and even more difficult to do on both sides. Add in progressing with finer grits, and it can be a mess of varied angles.
That’s why sharpeners that include fixtures are so popular. And the simplest pull-through basically is its own fixture.
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Thanks Ray,
Off to the Shop to pick up a Wüsthof.
Thanks Tim,
I’ll take a look at the stone when I’m out this week. It looks like a stone requires less skill to use than a honing steel.
Thanks Kaleo,
Planning to practice on my inexpensive knives until I get the technique down and
do find your expressive nature entertaining.
Hi vecchiouomo,
When I bought my Wusthof Classic Ikon Chef knife, I also bought their pull through and used it as recommended–extending it to my butcher knife and a few other knives I had. It was 15 degrees, to match the bevel of my Chef Knife, and two stage: sharpen and touch up. Works fine for maintenance.
Alton’s recommendations were part of a training session geared to Shun VG 10 knives that don’t require much attention in a home kitchen due to their hardness. With softer European steel, he might well have recommended something completely different.
Ray
You may find it harder to learn on inexpensive knives, especially on a stone. I couldn’t get a wire edge (burr) as easily when I first started until I switched to my expensive knife.
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Hi bmorecupcake,
Sharpening of knives is intimately tied in with their hardness, measured in Rockwell #s. If the Rockwell is low enough, you may not even be able to raise a burr–and wouldn’t need to. You could sharpen a Kiwi style low Rockwell knife with the base of a ceramic mug!
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I use my honing steels like you see Bob Kramer does it.
This man knows something about knives.
Using it like Gordon Ramsay only leads to scratched knives and poor honing.
He may have 40+ years experience, but ask ANY knife sharpener and he/she will agree that the way you see Ramsay doing it in his videos is inefficient and more for show.
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Not me. I dilligently read every knife sharpening thread, but remain paralyzed with fear after bending a knife tip the first time I tried to use a whetstone.
It’s helping though.
Hi shrinkrap,
As I think I reminded Vecchioumo, Alton Brown’s training video was specific to the Shun Classic series of kitchen knives, and the hard Rockwell 61 steel blades encased in damascus–for the home cook.
If you owned such knives and followed Alton’s protocol, you would never have needed to use a Whetstone. Given our home cook levels of usage–Mies van der rohe is probably our best guide: less is more.
Ray
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This is silly. Of course this knife would eventually need a sharpening on a belt or stone.
bending a knife tip the first time I tried to use a whetstone.
Hi shrinkwrap,
Wow ! That’s not common ! Either you’re a member of the Avengers with superhuman strength posting anonymously here on hungryonion or the knife was a real piece of crap ! This should never happen with any reasonably decent blade as long as you don’t use it as a screwdriver !
P.S.: Shall we call you Bruce ?
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Double wow ! I’m impressed ! Those are not crappy knives ! Please do tell us which of the Avengers you are !
More seriously, you must have applied a hell of a lot of pressure there !
Did you since manage to repair the two knives tips ? I infer from one of your later post in this other long and interesting thread (sorry, I don’t know how to quote a post from another thread) that you’ve mastered your fear of the whetstone (‘I sharpened about seven of my knives, and I’m whipping up some pickled Fresno’s!’)
Did I? Hmmm. I must have had a relapse.
Also, I’m more of a D.C. comics fan, but way before there were movies.
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Bruce Wayne is D.C. comics. Avengers are Marvel comics. Sorry, like @shrinkrap, also a fan of the old comics, and had to say something about it. Carry on, please, don’t mind me.
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