I never learned how to sharpen knives properly. A few years ago I bought a very small inexpensive knife sharpener and I use it on 2 inexpensive serrated Victoronix knives, one is a paring knife, the other a bread knife.
Does a good job, I’d be afraid to do it on an expensive knife.
My recommendation has always been to buy an inexpensive water stone (a local hardware store sells them for less than five bucks) and a crap knife from a thrift store to practice on. All it takes to build muscle memory is a few minutes a day, 2-3/week.
did free hand on tri-stone for years. semi-good results . . .
finally opted into the Edge Pro - it provides the ability to maintain a user specified angle along the entire edge. it took my tri-efforts to ueber more better results . . .
What knife sharpener is it? Do you have a photo? If it works for your inexpensive knife, then it probably can work for your expensive knife. The only thing I am a little worry is if this is one of those aggressive tungsten carbide sharpener
I hate those pull-through “sharpeners” with the heat of a thousand suns!
For someone like you to say this, I know you really hate it.
My mom ruined all her knives (except her cleavers) using a pull-through and then a grinding wheel-style. They used to be some really nice knives.
I agree.
People totally tend to overexaggerate how difficult it is to sharpen knives on whetstones.
Do you have to get the perfect edge once you’re done sharpening a knife ? No.
Just a solid sharp edge is just fine for most home cooks and pro chefs.
Also many people don’t realise that you simply can use a good quality ceramic honing rod and a good quality honing steel and you will NEVER need to sharpen your knives on whetstones to keep them super sharp. The ceramic honing rod will sharpen the edge just fine and it’s super easy to use.
I think so too. Some people are really great at knife sharpening, but most people should able to achieve a servable level, like most people should able to cook ok. The other thing is that I think a lot of people worry about damaging their knives by sharpening themselves. However, the chance to irreversibly damage a knife on a whetstone is extremelylow. To piggy-back Steve’s @ricepad point, it is easier to permanently damage a knife by those tungsten carbide pull through sharpeners or some aggressive electric sharpeners than on whetstones.
I just looked it up on Amazon … I think this is the model I bought on Amazon several years ago. I’ve only used it on inexpensive Victoronix serrated knives.
I can’t remember ever seeing my father (nor mother) sharpen a knife. He was raised on a farm in Mississippi then joined the army, moved away. I’d imagine my grandfather would have sharpened knives.
Anyway, I never learned and it’s kinda late now. I pay $8 to have my good butcher get my “good” knife sharpened by their expert.
I’m going to disagree with you there, @claus. If you give your knife a half dozen strokes on a hone every time you use it, you can preserve the edge a long time, but it’ll eventually wear to the point (ha!) where you’ll need to hit the whetstone to bring back the edge.
That’s me! I have some whetstones and a steel honing rod and can do a “serviceable” sharpening. Once every year or two I take my knives in to Bernal Cutlery for sharpening. I definitely cannot achieve the sharpness that they coax out my knives. I wish I could, but I don’t seem to be getting any better at sharpening - but I can keep them adequately sharp.
Well I’ve had my Kramer Meiji 20 cm chefs knife for 5 years now and I use it a couple of times a week.
It has never seen a whetstone, only used my ceramic honing rods and then my Dickoron honing steels on it and it’s SUPER sharp. I can cut the softest tomatoes with it and it cuts a sheet of paper like nothing.
If you have the right quality ceramic honig rods and the proper grit you can maintain a knife without using a whetstone on it. That’s my experience.
I use my whetstones for fun, I really don’t need them to be honest since I can maintain my knives edge just by honing them on the right ceramic honing rods.
Please remember that a ceramic honing rod in the right grit does not only maintain a knifes edge, it actually sharpens it and removes metal from the knifes edge thus it’s in reality sharpening it.
I own 3 ceramic honing rods, they are grit 400, grit 800 and grit 3000.
You can certainly sharpen a knife with an aggressive steel, but if you use a less aggressive or, better still, polished, steel frequently and lightly, you will certainly go a whole lot longer between sharpenings. However, some blades just do not seem to have an affinity for honing steels. For those blades, often very hard Japanese blades with very acute edges, a few swipes on a fairly fine stone like a 1000 or 3000 works wonders in keeping the edge and avoiding the need for a full sharpening. I think anyone who uses kitchen knives will benefit, as will their knives, from tinkering with a water stone or two and, if they have European style knives, a honing steel. Our senses of touch and sound are extremely fine, and the feedback we get from these tools is an education about our knives. The feedback from a pull through is like nails on a chalkboard.
I would venture a guess that quite a few home cooks are unaware of the phenomenon of rolling the edge. Put a polished steel in their hands, however, tell them butchers and cooks who cut things for a living use them all the time, and they will quickly figure out, “Wow. This looks and feels like it’s not doing anything. Have I been duped? Oh, hey. Wait a minute, for some unknown reason this makes a difference. Since my sense of touch tells me it is not grinding, what can it be doing?” And so, after not long, filling in the answer will supply itself.
Are you talking about this type of stone? (NOT a water stone!)
Perhaps, more accurately, we should be referring to these as “sharpening rods” rather than “honing rods”?
Claus is correct, ceramic will remove metal rather than realign it. The biggest drawback (to me) is that you’re sharpening the entire edge along a tiny point of contact (the straight blade against the curved rod). You just have to be careful not to use too much pressure, especially if your knife’s steel is especially brittle.
Yeah, pretty much. I realize it’s not really a water stone, but you can use it like a water stone, especially if you’re low on the learning curve, practicing on a crap knife, and just peering into the rabbit hole that is knife sharpening.
I think both you and Steve @ricepad are correct for different circumstance. Regular use a fine ceramic rod on your knives can continuously sharpening your knives. Assuming your knives only get the edge rolling and micro chips, then you may not need to dedicate sharpen your knives for a long time - like yours for 5+ years. However, once a knife get a large enough chip, then (my gut feeling) is that the ceramic rod will have a tough time remove that chip. As the rod moves across the knife edge, the rod will encounter that chip and spend more time there than the rest of the edge.
I’m having trouble deciphering the technical term “swirling”
Hold the blade at the desired angle, placing it along the length of the wet stone. Move it in an oval motion. Turn and repeat. It is extremely good on knives with any curve. Eventually, more quickly than with a traditional stroke, the stone will begin to dish. So using the flattening stone from time to time is a good idea.
