4 ms·

To anyone considering getting into knife sharpening: Usability matters more than perfection. If you're the type of person that would only sharpen knives once a

To anyone considering getting into knife sharpening: Usability matters more than perfection. If you're the type of person that would only sharpen knives once a year because it takes half hour to set up your sharpening rig and sharpen your knife, get an electric sharpener instead - takes about 15 seconds. Yes, it's not glorious or Instagram-pretty, but it gets the job done well. For hand sharpening - look up micro-bevels. They speed up sharpening time considerably (still not as fast as electric sharpeners though).

roflyear 3y ago
Maintenance is more important than sharpening - and maintenance should be done almost every time you use the knife and should just take a minute.
p1necone 3y ago
> only sharpen knives once a year If you have a decent quality knife you do only need to sharpen it once a year + give it a few swipes on a honing steel every time you use it.
- Arcanum-XIII 3y ago
  Hell no. It dépend a lot of the angle of the edge, the steel hardness and how and where you use it. I hone mine every 3 to 4 weeks, and I’m gentle with my Global chef’s knives
  - p1necone 3y ago
    I hone mine every time I use it with a steel. Honing is not the same thing as sharpening - op was talking about sharpening. (For those curious - the sharp edge on the knife tends to bend over time, which makes it worse at cutting. Running it over a honing steel helps to straighten that bend out but doesn't actually remove metal from the blade. The actual edge will stay sharp for much longer and so you only need to properly sharpen (with a whetstone or if you hate your knives one of those awful swipy wedge things) a decent knife once every 6 months - a year.
    - Arcanum-XIII 3y ago
      Sorry, I meant sharpening. Edge dull, even with a high rockwell hardness. And then you will have micro chipping and so on happening… honing every time is the foundation.
- denton-scratch 3y ago
  My chef's knife is a Elephant-brand carbon-steel sabatier. It gets five strokes each side on a steel, every few times I use it. The steel is ancient and worn; and I'm sure it's never been near carbide or diamond. Every few months it gets a few strokes on each side on a coticule. I have a coticule because I got into shaving with a straight razor. I have a leather strop for the razors (it's never seen any kind of paste!) My understanding is that stropping is to re-align the edge of the blade, which tends to 'flop over' in use. I don't strop kitchen knives; I don't think the edge is thick enough to flop over. I only strop razors. Neither stropping (on clean leather) nor steeling should be removing metal; no metal or abrasive particles should be produced, and it's perfectly safe to do it in the kitchen. Sharpening with the coticule does remove metal, but the particles are captured in the watery sludge, and don't escape as dust. [Edit] My chef's knife is not Elephant; it's Richardson Steel of Sheffield (from before they sold out). I bought an Elephant paring knife, though, and Elephant chef's knives for each of my kids.
tonyarkles 3y ago
Another side of this... if you're on a budget, you can turn a crap knife into a pretty serviceable knife with a very basic setup. I've got a pair of santokus that were about $20 each (one bigger one for meat and large veggies, smaller one for small veggies) and a set of 3 progressively finer sharpening stones from Princess Auto (the Canadian equivalent to Harbour Freight). About once a month I take the two knives and give them about 5 passes on each side, with the bevel set basically at the angle I get if I have a finger in between the spine and the stone. Takes about 45 seconds and they get sharp enough to pass the tomato test. They don't maintain their edge, but I've had fantastic slicing for a decade now for $50.
- p1necone 3y ago
  Yep, the distinction between crappy knives and good knives is generally more about how long they hold an edge for rather than how sharp that edge is. Victorinox make knives that are good and cheap though. They're the only brand I know of at that price point that I really wouldn't mind using instead of something quite a bit more expensive like Global. Assuming a certain baseline quality of steel, the most important thing in a knife is how comfortable the handle is and whether the balance/weight is right for your particular taste and grip.
  - jseutter 3y ago
    I've also found Ikea knives to hold an edge as long as my Victorinox knife. They are only stainless, but the alloy they use seems to work quite well.
daveguy 3y ago
Sticking with the usability theme -- get a leather strop and some stropping compound! It's so much easier to pass all the sharpness tests and keep an edge on a knife if you use a strop. It doesn't require as much precision due to the way the leather molds to the surface of the edge. Quick, easy, and effective assuming you already have a decently formed edge.
- hammock 3y ago
  PSA don't sharpen or strop in your kitchen- it's a dirty business. You will have invisible metal shavings (chromium, nickel) that make it into your food and strop compound is made of aluminum oxide and chromium oxide.
amluto 3y ago
> If you're the type of person that would only sharpen knives once a year because it takes half hour to set up your sharpening rig and sharpen your knife, get an electric sharpener instead This is an obsolete dichotomy. There are excellent modern low-porosity stones that you can get wet and use immediately. For example, resin bonded diamond (e.g. CGS, Venev, Naniwa Diamond), Shapton Glass (unspecified “ceramic”), or diamond-in-nickel (DMT). The idea of a long progression of expensive stones seems to be almost entirely a myth — there seems to be no actual benefit, and possibly quite a bit of wasted time and increased chance of entirely failing to get a good edge, if you use a zillion different grits. A cheap coarse stone or two and one (expensive) medium-fine stone is plenty, and you won’t touch that coarse stone if your knife is already in decent shape. Throw in a strop loaded with a decent abrasive and you can maintain your knife in a minute or two. (I use a cheap balsa wood strop loaded with 1 micron CBN suspended in water. Total setup time to strop a knife is however long it takes to get it out of a drawer. WEAR A REAL MASK and work outside while applying the CBN — I seriously doubt that inhaling a fine mist of tiny minerals is a good idea.)
silisili 3y ago
I used to spend hours with all the fancy stones and ceramics and such. Anymore I just sharpen everything on my belt sander. Takes only a few seconds, and gets you about 80-90% as sharp as the fancier methods.

roflyear 3y ago

Maintenance is more important than sharpening - and maintenance should be done almost every time you use the knife and should just take a minute.

p1necone 3y ago

> only sharpen knives once a year If you have a decent quality knife you do only need to sharpen it once a year + give it a few swipes on a honing steel every time you use it.

Arcanum-XIII 3y ago
Hell no. It dépend a lot of the angle of the edge, the steel hardness and how and where you use it. I hone mine every 3 to 4 weeks, and I’m gentle with my Global chef’s knives
- p1necone 3y ago
  I hone mine every time I use it with a steel. Honing is not the same thing as sharpening - op was talking about sharpening. (For those curious - the sharp edge on the knife tends to bend over time, which makes it worse at cutting. Running it over a honing steel helps to straighten that bend out but doesn't actually remove metal from the blade. The actual edge will stay sharp for much longer and so you only need to properly sharpen (with a whetstone or if you hate your knives one of those awful swipy wedge things) a decent knife once every 6 months - a year.
  - Arcanum-XIII 3y ago
    Sorry, I meant sharpening. Edge dull, even with a high rockwell hardness. And then you will have micro chipping and so on happening… honing every time is the foundation.
denton-scratch 3y ago
My chef's knife is a Elephant-brand carbon-steel sabatier. It gets five strokes each side on a steel, every few times I use it. The steel is ancient and worn; and I'm sure it's never been near carbide or diamond. Every few months it gets a few strokes on each side on a coticule. I have a coticule because I got into shaving with a straight razor. I have a leather strop for the razors (it's never seen any kind of paste!) My understanding is that stropping is to re-align the edge of the blade, which tends to 'flop over' in use. I don't strop kitchen knives; I don't think the edge is thick enough to flop over. I only strop razors. Neither stropping (on clean leather) nor steeling should be removing metal; no metal or abrasive particles should be produced, and it's perfectly safe to do it in the kitchen. Sharpening with the coticule does remove metal, but the particles are captured in the watery sludge, and don't escape as dust. [Edit] My chef's knife is not Elephant; it's Richardson Steel of Sheffield (from before they sold out). I bought an Elephant paring knife, though, and Elephant chef's knives for each of my kids.

tonyarkles 3y ago

Another side of this... if you're on a budget, you can turn a crap knife into a pretty serviceable knife with a very basic setup. I've got a pair of santokus that were about $20 each (one bigger one for meat and large veggies, smaller one for small veggies) and a set of 3 progressively finer sharpening stones from Princess Auto (the Canadian equivalent to Harbour Freight). About once a month I take the two knives and give them about 5 passes on each side, with the bevel set basically at the angle I get if I have a finger in between the spine and the stone. Takes about 45 seconds and they get sharp enough to pass the tomato test. They don't maintain their edge, but I've had fantastic slicing for a decade now for $50.

p1necone 3y ago
Yep, the distinction between crappy knives and good knives is generally more about how long they hold an edge for rather than how sharp that edge is. Victorinox make knives that are good and cheap though. They're the only brand I know of at that price point that I really wouldn't mind using instead of something quite a bit more expensive like Global. Assuming a certain baseline quality of steel, the most important thing in a knife is how comfortable the handle is and whether the balance/weight is right for your particular taste and grip.
- jseutter 3y ago
  I've also found Ikea knives to hold an edge as long as my Victorinox knife. They are only stainless, but the alloy they use seems to work quite well.

daveguy 3y ago

Sticking with the usability theme -- get a leather strop and some stropping compound! It's so much easier to pass all the sharpness tests and keep an edge on a knife if you use a strop. It doesn't require as much precision due to the way the leather molds to the surface of the edge. Quick, easy, and effective assuming you already have a decently formed edge.

hammock 3y ago
PSA don't sharpen or strop in your kitchen- it's a dirty business. You will have invisible metal shavings (chromium, nickel) that make it into your food and strop compound is made of aluminum oxide and chromium oxide.

amluto 3y ago

> If you're the type of person that would only sharpen knives once a year because it takes half hour to set up your sharpening rig and sharpen your knife, get an electric sharpener instead This is an obsolete dichotomy. There are excellent modern low-porosity stones that you can get wet and use immediately. For example, resin bonded diamond (e.g. CGS, Venev, Naniwa Diamond), Shapton Glass (unspecified “ceramic”), or diamond-in-nickel (DMT). The idea of a long progression of expensive stones seems to be almost entirely a myth — there seems to be no actual benefit, and possibly quite a bit of wasted time and increased chance of entirely failing to get a good edge, if you use a zillion different grits. A cheap coarse stone or two and one (expensive) medium-fine stone is plenty, and you won’t touch that coarse stone if your knife is already in decent shape. Throw in a strop loaded with a decent abrasive and you can maintain your knife in a minute or two. (I use a cheap balsa wood strop loaded with 1 micron CBN suspended in water. Total setup time to strop a knife is however long it takes to get it out of a drawer. WEAR A REAL MASK and work outside while applying the CBN — I seriously doubt that inhaling a fine mist of tiny minerals is a good idea.)

silisili 3y ago

I used to spend hours with all the fancy stones and ceramics and such. Anymore I just sharpen everything on my belt sander. Takes only a few seconds, and gets you about 80-90% as sharp as the fancier methods.