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Overall agree it seems cool, and maybe interesting. "People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives," The former, totally agree - i

Overall agree it seems cool, and maybe interesting. "People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives," The former, totally agree - i've seen people buy a tormek to do basic knife sharpening (not grinding), which is like swatting a fly with an $800 hammer. The latter, do you mean overall, or in a sitting or what? I've certainly seen people on various forums go nuts, and then you have hertzmann staring at knife edges with an SEM, but even if i did it completely by hand with shaptons, it takes like 15 minutes, max, to sharpen 10 knives, through an entire insane grit progression (which i do for plane blades when i need to cleanly slice end grain without going to a super high-angle plane or something. For knives, i was just trying to get a comparison point, i use electric sharpeners in practice). Or approximately 2 minutes with an electric knife sharpener. While sure, there is a difference when i put them under my digital inspection microscope, either can slice paper towel cleanly and easily (slicing paper is easy, slicing paper towel ends to be hard because any burr catches really easily) Are there really even semi-normal people out there spending hours to sharpen knives? If so, like, why? (Obviously, again, if they need to be reground because you knicked it really badly, sure that takes a bit, but beyond that) None of these steels are tough enough to require all that many strokes (it's pretty easy to test it with a marker and see when you remove the marking), and if you are using super custom steels (RIP Crucible :(), carbide, or ceramics, you need CBN or diamond anyway, but the same is still true - given the correct abrasive material, sharpening knives is just not that slow. I actually travel with an electric knife sharpener if we are going to be staying in an airbnb somewhere for >1 week and are cooking most nights. It's the most consistent thing about airbnb - no matter what level of luxury, etc, they always have many knives, and all of them are dangerously dull. It still doesn't take more than a few minutes to sharpen them all.

john_minsk 1y ago
I admire you. You are a minority, you know that, right? I don't have time in my schedule at the moment, which says "sharpen the knifes". So for me - it would be amazing if someone solved this problem in a radical way. Sporadically I would sharpen the knives and since I don't have it in my "skills" section of the brain, I always have to "figure out" sharpening process.
- bsder 1y ago
  > I always have to "figure out" sharpening process. Get the Worksharp fixed angle sharpener for about $70 (about the price of 2 decent stones). If you're really interested, get the leather strop add on for about $10. Get on with sharpening your kitchen knives. Put it in your closet until next year. Is it "great"? No. If you want to be a knife nerd, it's not for you. If you have a couple of kitchen knives you need to sharpen once a year, it's absolutely fine. And you don't have to "get the feel" of sharpening again before you can get sharp kinves. Even with the stones and equipment I have, it is way more mindless and a lot less messy to simply use a fixed-angle sharpener. Sure, you won't get "The Ultimate Hair Whittling Edge(tm)", but your knives will quite readily Julienne your vegetables.
  - chneu 1y ago
    Reiterating that any sharpener with the ability to set the angle is really all anyone needs if they don't want to invest in the time of learning how to sharpen. I have the ruixin version and it works fine. I like that I can use the stones without the system.
    - bsder 1y ago
      Sure. Most fixed angle sharpeners work to some degree, I just recommended one that isn't sold by "Random Letter Chinese Shop" and that I have bought and know personally works. In addition, for the moment, the stones used in the system I recommended are reliably decent and have been analyzed by a bunch of the YouTube knife nerds. The other fixed angle systems can be hit or miss with the stones. If someone is sufficiently interested that they want to use the stones without the system, they've started down the path to being a knife nerd and have outgrown my recommendation.
- xdfgh1112 1y ago
  In Japan I could just drop my knife in a nearby house's box with $6, they'd sharpen it and phone me to pick it up within a few hours. Cheap enough that I never bothered to do it myself.
- 1y ago
gommm 1y ago
Since you seem knowledgeable about knives, Do you know any great knives makers? And are those custom steels or carbide blades worth it? So far, I mostly sharpen my knives on the back of a plate. So definitely could be doing more :)
- chneu 1y ago
  Knives get stupid beyond a certain price point. I've been using the same thrift store knife I picked up 15 years ago. It gets sharpened maybe once a year, honed every so often. It was like $20 i think? Most chefs I know have a similar story with their knife/knives, something cheap that does the job. Spending more on knives is just status symbol nonsense, which unfortunately has infected absolutely everything. It's like spending $300 on a spanner wrench. Who in the hell spends that much on a wrench? Why would you spend that much on a knife? lol. It's what you do with it that matters.
  - scarby2 1y ago
    I'd take issue with your price point but agree with the sentiment I've seen victorinox fibrox knives in Michelin Star kitchens, they get the job done and are very reasonably priced ($60 for a chef's knife). Admittedly the knives I have at home are significantly more expensive largely because the knives I have at home are on display so I want something that looks good and I actually enjoy using them. On one level it's a little silly but then on another level people spend thousands on art/sculptures which has no useful purpose.
  - bigiain 1y ago
    I remember seeing a comment by a local "celebrity chef" where he said he never sharpens cleavers - he just buys a specific inexpensive brand 5 at a time for $8 each and throws them away when they become dull. While I don't agree with externalising the manufacture/disposal costs with that sort of disposable consumption, I do see the economically-rational decision making behind it. If you're running a restaurant in Australia, your lowest paid kitchen staff get $24 an hour during weekdays, 30-35 and hour on weekends, and as much as $55 an hour on public holidays. And if they work more than 8 hours in a day it's 1.5 times those rates for the first 2 hours of overtime, and double those rates for anything more than 2 hours overtime. https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/fast-food-restaurants-cafes/restaurant-cafes-industry https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/fast-food-restaura... While spending 15 or 20 seconds honing the edge with a sharpening steel during use makes sense (and I'll bet he does that just out of reflex), once the edge gets damaged enough to need more that what a steel can fix and you start needing a whetstone, it's probably not cost effective to have kitchen staff spend time doing that.
aenis 1y ago
I spend hours every 6 months or so sharpening knifes on whetstones. I like the excuse to have some me time, listen to an audiobook or just do some thinking. Akin to meditation. I also dont like the blades ruined through automatic sharpeners - the knifes are made of good quality steel, were made to order in Jp, and have sentimental value. I also sharpen the cheap knifes this way, tho - I like manual work.
- DannyBee 1y ago
  So this I understand for sure. If it is a relaxing thing for you, cool. There are plenty of things I do by hand for the same reason. The people I worry about are the ones stropping a single knife 6000 times because they think it truly matters to cutting tomatoes
- omnicognate 1y ago
  Do you not sharpen them in between? I've had to spend hours sorting out knives that have been left far too long without sharpening, but my routine is to spend about 15 minutes sharpening them every weekend. Then they're always sharp and never get into a terrible state and need remedial work. My knives get noticeably suboptimal in a couple of weeks without sharpening, so if I left it 6 months they'd be blunt pretty much all the time.
  - Jataman606 1y ago
    Usual advice is that you need to straighten your blade every week or two and then you can sharpen it every 6 months or even a year (depends on usage of course). To straighten the blade you use honing rod which many people mistake for sharpener.
    - omnicognate 1y ago
      I have a steel honing rod but it's never seemed to have much effect. Perhaps my technique isn't right. I also have a ceramic sharpening rod, which I use to sharpen my breadknife. That's very effective, but different as it actually removes steel. I give my straight-edged knives a few strokes on each side on a 3000 grit whetstone every weekend, which seems to keep them nicely sharp. That will slowly wear them down but it hasn't done so noticeably yet so I expect the knives to last many years.
marcosscriven 1y ago
What should one look for in an electric knife sharpener? It’s hard to search as there’s so much content farming. I’m UK based. Are they worth it compared to a simple “drag through” thing? I got a single decent knife: https://wusthof.com/products/wusthof-classic-8-cooks-knife-1040100120 https://wusthof.com/products/wusthof-classic-8-cooks-knife-1... But I’m worried about ruining it, and the “care instructions” seem to mention using a whetstone.
- stickfigure 1y ago
  Buy one of these: https://www.amazon.com/ChefsChoice-EdgeSelect-Professional-Sharpener-Sharpening/dp/B0018RSEMU https://www.amazon.com/ChefsChoice-EdgeSelect-Professional-S... But you have to let go of the "ruining it" fear. Sharpening a knife does ruin it, you're taking off a tiny amount of material each time. Since your knife is full bolster, you'll eventually notice a small difference in height of the blade at the bolster. Yes you will ruin the knife over decades of sharpening. In the mean time you have a wicked sharp knife that's a joy to use (not just look at). It's a tool not an art piece.

john_minsk 1y ago

I admire you. You are a minority, you know that, right? I don't have time in my schedule at the moment, which says "sharpen the knifes". So for me - it would be amazing if someone solved this problem in a radical way. Sporadically I would sharpen the knives and since I don't have it in my "skills" section of the brain, I always have to "figure out" sharpening process.

bsder 1y ago
> I always have to "figure out" sharpening process. Get the Worksharp fixed angle sharpener for about $70 (about the price of 2 decent stones). If you're really interested, get the leather strop add on for about $10. Get on with sharpening your kitchen knives. Put it in your closet until next year. Is it "great"? No. If you want to be a knife nerd, it's not for you. If you have a couple of kitchen knives you need to sharpen once a year, it's absolutely fine. And you don't have to "get the feel" of sharpening again before you can get sharp kinves. Even with the stones and equipment I have, it is way more mindless and a lot less messy to simply use a fixed-angle sharpener. Sure, you won't get "The Ultimate Hair Whittling Edge(tm)", but your knives will quite readily Julienne your vegetables.
- chneu 1y ago
  Reiterating that any sharpener with the ability to set the angle is really all anyone needs if they don't want to invest in the time of learning how to sharpen. I have the ruixin version and it works fine. I like that I can use the stones without the system.
  - bsder 1y ago
    Sure. Most fixed angle sharpeners work to some degree, I just recommended one that isn't sold by "Random Letter Chinese Shop" and that I have bought and know personally works. In addition, for the moment, the stones used in the system I recommended are reliably decent and have been analyzed by a bunch of the YouTube knife nerds. The other fixed angle systems can be hit or miss with the stones. If someone is sufficiently interested that they want to use the stones without the system, they've started down the path to being a knife nerd and have outgrown my recommendation.
xdfgh1112 1y ago
In Japan I could just drop my knife in a nearby house's box with $6, they'd sharpen it and phone me to pick it up within a few hours. Cheap enough that I never bothered to do it myself.
1y ago

gommm 1y ago

Since you seem knowledgeable about knives, Do you know any great knives makers? And are those custom steels or carbide blades worth it? So far, I mostly sharpen my knives on the back of a plate. So definitely could be doing more :)

chneu 1y ago
Knives get stupid beyond a certain price point. I've been using the same thrift store knife I picked up 15 years ago. It gets sharpened maybe once a year, honed every so often. It was like $20 i think? Most chefs I know have a similar story with their knife/knives, something cheap that does the job. Spending more on knives is just status symbol nonsense, which unfortunately has infected absolutely everything. It's like spending $300 on a spanner wrench. Who in the hell spends that much on a wrench? Why would you spend that much on a knife? lol. It's what you do with it that matters.
- scarby2 1y ago
  I'd take issue with your price point but agree with the sentiment I've seen victorinox fibrox knives in Michelin Star kitchens, they get the job done and are very reasonably priced ($60 for a chef's knife). Admittedly the knives I have at home are significantly more expensive largely because the knives I have at home are on display so I want something that looks good and I actually enjoy using them. On one level it's a little silly but then on another level people spend thousands on art/sculptures which has no useful purpose.
- bigiain 1y ago
  I remember seeing a comment by a local "celebrity chef" where he said he never sharpens cleavers - he just buys a specific inexpensive brand 5 at a time for $8 each and throws them away when they become dull. While I don't agree with externalising the manufacture/disposal costs with that sort of disposable consumption, I do see the economically-rational decision making behind it. If you're running a restaurant in Australia, your lowest paid kitchen staff get $24 an hour during weekdays, 30-35 and hour on weekends, and as much as $55 an hour on public holidays. And if they work more than 8 hours in a day it's 1.5 times those rates for the first 2 hours of overtime, and double those rates for anything more than 2 hours overtime. https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/fast-food-restaurants-cafes/restaurant-cafes-industry https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/fast-food-restaura... While spending 15 or 20 seconds honing the edge with a sharpening steel during use makes sense (and I'll bet he does that just out of reflex), once the edge gets damaged enough to need more that what a steel can fix and you start needing a whetstone, it's probably not cost effective to have kitchen staff spend time doing that.

aenis 1y ago

I spend hours every 6 months or so sharpening knifes on whetstones. I like the excuse to have some me time, listen to an audiobook or just do some thinking. Akin to meditation. I also dont like the blades ruined through automatic sharpeners - the knifes are made of good quality steel, were made to order in Jp, and have sentimental value. I also sharpen the cheap knifes this way, tho - I like manual work.

DannyBee 1y ago
So this I understand for sure. If it is a relaxing thing for you, cool. There are plenty of things I do by hand for the same reason. The people I worry about are the ones stropping a single knife 6000 times because they think it truly matters to cutting tomatoes
omnicognate 1y ago
Do you not sharpen them in between? I've had to spend hours sorting out knives that have been left far too long without sharpening, but my routine is to spend about 15 minutes sharpening them every weekend. Then they're always sharp and never get into a terrible state and need remedial work. My knives get noticeably suboptimal in a couple of weeks without sharpening, so if I left it 6 months they'd be blunt pretty much all the time.
- Jataman606 1y ago
  Usual advice is that you need to straighten your blade every week or two and then you can sharpen it every 6 months or even a year (depends on usage of course). To straighten the blade you use honing rod which many people mistake for sharpener.
  - omnicognate 1y ago
    I have a steel honing rod but it's never seemed to have much effect. Perhaps my technique isn't right. I also have a ceramic sharpening rod, which I use to sharpen my breadknife. That's very effective, but different as it actually removes steel. I give my straight-edged knives a few strokes on each side on a 3000 grit whetstone every weekend, which seems to keep them nicely sharp. That will slowly wear them down but it hasn't done so noticeably yet so I expect the knives to last many years.

marcosscriven 1y ago

What should one look for in an electric knife sharpener? It’s hard to search as there’s so much content farming. I’m UK based. Are they worth it compared to a simple “drag through” thing? I got a single decent knife: https://wusthof.com/products/wusthof-classic-8-cooks-knife-1040100120 https://wusthof.com/products/wusthof-classic-8-cooks-knife-1... But I’m worried about ruining it, and the “care instructions” seem to mention using a whetstone.

stickfigure 1y ago
Buy one of these: https://www.amazon.com/ChefsChoice-EdgeSelect-Professional-Sharpener-Sharpening/dp/B0018RSEMU https://www.amazon.com/ChefsChoice-EdgeSelect-Professional-S... But you have to let go of the "ruining it" fear. Sharpening a knife does ruin it, you're taking off a tiny amount of material each time. Since your knife is full bolster, you'll eventually notice a small difference in height of the blade at the bolster. Yes you will ruin the knife over decades of sharpening. In the mean time you have a wicked sharp knife that's a joy to use (not just look at). It's a tool not an art piece.