Are you a histologist or pathologist? Interested in an unused NIB Lipshaw stropping block?
Are either of your rods polish?
Hi Vecchiouomo,
Both have ribbed and bare parts. The Shun steel has a built in angle guide for 16 degrees.
Ray
Hi Kaleo - at the time I was a regular lab tech and histopath. This was when we got paid per slide. Later regulations in most (all?) US states rightly killed the “pay per slide” histo regime.
To be clear, that was 3 gens ago from a professional standpoint. Since then I went full MT, then went back for an engineering degree which i worked for several years, then got a JD and worked the rest of my life as an IP attorney.
My BIL is a retired histologist. He’s who the bench strop came from, along with about 50 microtome blades and a big 'ol brain sectioning knife.
An interesting career you’ve had.
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LoL. The brain sectioner must be quite the conversation piece! I had to look up the Lipshaw stropping block to learn what it was.
At one point in my IP career I was getting really frustrated (mostly due to a real rip-roaring SOB of a new boss, acquired when my company was merged with another) and was ready to just throw in the towel. I had interviewed at a few other companies but it seemed more of the same stress-wise (except sans jerk boss, as near as I could tell).
I started eyeballing physical therapy programs at the local university and my wife was like “No way, you’ve had enough turns on the carousel - if either of us goes back to school again it’s MY turn!”.
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Definitely. It’s like a thin machete with metal scales, I suppose to be autoclave-able. I haven’t used it on foods, out of an abundance of caution there may be some lingering prions…
Hadn’t considered that. Physical removal works for prions (but how can you be certain you’ve gotten them all gone?), while pretty much nothing else does. I read about a professor who incinerated infected tissue to ash, then mixed the ashes in a flowerbed. Some years later he collected some of the soil and made washings from it that were still capable of infecting other cows (NB, I’m not positive “infect” is the correct word for this sort of situation, but I guess it’s close enough).
Wait…how did prions get into a discussion of knife sharpening?
LOL…talk about thread drift…
Oh…look at the pretty kitty cat…
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It started with a comment about microtome blades, and went to the discipline of histology. My B-I-L, a retired histologist, gave me a brain sectioning knife. I haven’t used it on food because I can’t be sure it was never in contact with prions., e.g., CJD.
Kaleo…I am just being kolohe and making pilikia.
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E, wabi, a’ole pilikia.
Hi Claus,
Serious home cooks learn what works for them by experience at home. The media Chefs are entertainers with something to sell. Honing skill came to me slowly–and I still do it deliberately–but I’ve made it work for my knives in my kitchen as well as Gordon could–probably better–and with more thought.
Ray
Seitan,
Over a seven year period, my sharpening approach has continued to evolve–basically from a typical American home cook user who gets by with dull knives–adding a sharp one or two to keep going–then discarding the crap and starting over.
to
maintenance that keeps all my kitchen knives “home cook sharp.”
First step–set a baseline and identify survivors
I went out and bought two Wusthof “precision” pull throughs to see which of my beleaguered knives were salvageable. Only two came out of that test sharp–the rest were discarded or went into my morgue of unusable knives.
The survivor of from my wider angle pull through was a carbon steel knife I was sure would be thrown away. It sharpened up amazingly well–and after some steel wool treatment, the blade looked great. Even it’s name that appeared was great: Sir Lawrence. A keeper for sure.
The survivor from both the wider and narrower pull through–the Seki Magoroku I had been abusing for years–was the star. After the first pull through, I noticed two microchips on the edge that disappeared after I put it through the second narrower pull through. It had a speck of rust visible on the full tang handle that came off with oil and steel wool–and never came back.
Second step–develop a batterie
I then started my batterie building with Wusthof for me, and Shun for my Japanese collaborator–and a Shun honing steel with a 16 degree angle guide.
That was my “sharpening” kit for quite awhile–with honing being almost the only thing I tried to do–until I bought a really hard steel knife that I was unwilling to put to my pull through or hone with my steel.
Third step–develop a maintenance plan.
I finally bought a ceramic honing rod–and–out of desperation–a strop that could be loaded with green compound. I even developed a stroke that worked both with the strop and honing rods. That became my new solution. I used the loaded strop exclusively with my hard steel knives after nearly every use, and on my softer steel knives that had been honed and touched up.
All my knives in the kitchen were at least “home cook” sharp and the hard ones were even refined and super sharp.
The only change, last year, was to add a second strop, primarily for polishing.
Latest: presharpening and repairs with diamond stones
The latest is that I’ve bought and tried out two diamond stones–a 400 and a 1000–complete with holder and a small leather strop at the base. I was successfully able to grind away a bit of bent tip on a hard steel knife with the 400, sharpen it with the 1000, and polish it with my strops.
I also used it, with an angle guard to pre sharpen my 3 1/2" Wusthof with the diamond 1000 (instead of a hone), and then strop with the green. I achieved the same level of sharpness as with the hone, but needed fewer stropping strokes.
Ray
The only major addition
Very slowly. No guru, no method, no teacher.
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I think there are knives we use all the dang time, and others, time to time, while others…decoration until the right time. My daily cutters are mostly Kiwi. Yeah, cheapo depot, but I love how quickly I can get them sharp. Water and soapstone. Once every three to four weeks, and I’m good. I have an old Kiwi I still beat on that has a blade roll like the cleaver in the other thread. Worked it out on the stone and it still cuts like nuts! Just ugly. Meanwhile, I have some Henkels and Wusthof decorating the drawer. Kiwi and a couple of swipes both directions and stand back.
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You (along with most professional users) haven’t gotten the memos about super steel RC >67 and 500-stroke stropping protocols.
I find it interesting that Grohman Knives resharpens its customers’ blades with ONE heavy pass/side on a large bench stone. Hard to F up the angle that way, and you can have a life and get things done…
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But part of our life is about knife sharpening. I cannot speak for others, but knife sharpening itself is fun for me. 
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To each his/her own. But the goal is sharp knives, yes? Otherwise, and beyond that, you’re whittling steel.
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