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I don't use knives in my kitchen. My romantic partner does. Yesterday I decided to cut some tomatoes only to find out that all knives are dull. She never said

I don't use knives in my kitchen. My romantic partner does. Yesterday I decided to cut some tomatoes only to find out that all knives are dull. She never said anything, I didn't know it. Why? Because she is just "used" to it and to her these knives were just fine. So she never thought about sharpening knives in the first place. I will take those knives to a pro and he will sharpen them for me, as in a rental I stay in, I don't have the tools to do that and as I said in another comment - I don't have a pain free process to do that as I don't do it often.

chneu 1y ago
You don't really need "tools" to sharpen knives. You just need a harder surface and some experience. It's one of those things that once you learn you can accomplish with a variety of "tools" because you're just trying to achieve an end goal. There's zero reason you can't sharpen a knife in a rental, lol. You don't need a belt grinder or anything. People get way too caught up in buying into systems and being told how to do things because it alleviates some anxiety of trying something new. Sharpening knives hasn't really changed much in the last few centuries. Watch a few guides and learn to do it. There's no substitute for experience here. It's also a very transferable skill so it's one that used to be taught in schools but no longer is.
- JohnMakin 1y ago
  when I was poor I used to make pricy shaving blades last for months longer than they should have by rubbing them on some old jeans. I don’t remember where I learned it but my roommates thought I was crazy til they tried it.
  - foundart 1y ago
    That’s stropping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_strop https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_strop
  - xxs 1y ago
    Nothing crazy about stropping.
- scarby2 1y ago
  > There's no substitute for experience here. It's also a very transferable skill so it's one that used to be taught in schools but no longer is. This 100% should be taught in school, it would have been one of the most useful things I could have learned.
  - obscurette 1y ago
    When I was in school (in seventies), all boys at least tried to learn how to use and take care of all sharp tools and machines with one up to wood and metal lathe. When I was in school now as a teacher, scissors were the only somewhat sharp things kids were allowed to use. Risk tolerance is so low in our society nowadays, sense of responsibility of children is nonexistent etc.
    - lazide 1y ago
      A semester of machine shop taught me an immense amount, and based on my experience with a lot of techies, 95% more about how the world (and tools) work than 95% of the population.
- coffeebeqn 1y ago
  Buy a whetstone for $10 and you’re set for life. It’s not complicated! People have been sharpening knives for millennia
  - SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
    $10 whetstones are typically far worse value than $40-$60 whetstones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5shv-7m5Ic&t=55s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5shv-7m5Ic&t=55s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHzwlGovi0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHzwlGovi0
petepete 1y ago
Were you cutting tomatoes with a serrated knife? If not, you should be - they do a far better job.
- dlcarrier 1y ago
  I cut through tomatoes with my pairing knife all the time, with no resistance, and it has a straight blade.
  - petepete 1y ago
    Yeah if it's sharp enough it'll be fine. All tomato knives are serrated though, they glide through allowing thin, delicate slices. https://sabre-paris.co.uk/collections/tomato-knife https://sabre-paris.co.uk/collections/tomato-knife
    - dlcarrier 1y ago
      I've never seen a knife like that where I live, in California. The only small serrated knifes people here have are stake knives and on rare occasions sausage knives. It's strange how two relatively similar cultures can have such oddball differences. This is while living in California's Central Valley, where a third of the world's tomatoes are grown, so it's not like tomatoes aren't a major part of the culture here. I wonder if it's because most of California's settlement was within the last 200 years, with modern metallurgy making it common for knifes to hold their edge long enough to easily cut tomatoes with only occasional sharpening, negating the need for a special knife just for tomatoes. Nationwide advertisements for knives show people using straight-bladed knives for cutting cucumbers and tomatoes, despite stated stake knives being extremely common, so tomato knives are likely rare throughout the country, not that much of the country is any older than California.
- Aardwolf 1y ago
  Can one even sharpen a serrated knife without destroying the teeth? Google search autocomplete shows I'm not the only one wondering that
UberFly 1y ago
This is all very defeatist. Learn to sharpen your knives for your own sake and your... romantic partner. It's a very basic life skill that you should know.
bryanrasmussen 1y ago
>I don't use knives in my kitchen. How do you not use knives? Do you use some other cutting instrument, that has the same problem as knives (cutting edge needs sharpening at times), do you only purchase pre-sliced food, do you only order take out, or only eat food that never needs cutting, or do you eat food that many or most people would cut in some way (oranges, apples, celery, etc.) by refusing to cut but using your teeth to separate out parts. Do you not use butter knives or have you removed those from the category knives as their purpose is not really cutting (although I use butter knives to cut cherry tomatoes and garlic as they have no problem with that task) I'm not trying to harass here, I am just incredibly interested by this statement as I don't think I've ever seen a kitchen without knives (excepting apartments that did not have any residents at the time)
- ec109685 1y ago
  Their partner does all the cooking.
  - SamBam 1y ago
    As the parter who does most of the cooking, I'd be pretty annoyed if my parter took it upon themselves to get all my knives sharpened (unless they asked me first and I enthusiastically agreed).
NonHyloMorph 1y ago
DMT Diamond Sharpeners are fun, especially the ones where you have a milled steel plate that's very flat to which the diamond abrasive is fixed via some nickelplating process. Use one thats "extracoarse" on one side and "fine" (600grit) on the other plus another onsided one with extra fine. Finish with japanese whetstone (synthetic one) and or polishing pashe on a strap of leather. Takes almost no space, can be done at the kitchen table. The equipment costs some, so its probably mostly worth it if you like doing it - sharpening has a meditative quality (wear theowaway gloves)
- lazide 1y ago
  Yes. These are awesome. They have ones that fold up inside an attached plastic cover (like leatherman) that are great for apartment living, and will sharpen pretty much anything, from filet and paring knives to axes.
literalAardvark 1y ago
If she's not used to sharp knives you're not doing her a favour by getting them crazy sharp. Just get a cheap knife sharpener (not a whetstone) with good reviews and sharpen them a bit once every few weeks, it takes a minute, gets good results, and you can work with her on how sharp they should be. Most of the time knives that are too sharp are much more dangerous than knives that are too blunt. The people worrying about your knife slipping into your finger have never actually used a knife imo. If it's dull enough to be slipping you'll get a welt before you get cut.
- emacsen 1y ago
  > Most of the time knives that are too sharp are much more dangerous than knives that are too blunt. With a sharp knife, you cut through food very easily so you use very little force. You also use techniques that prevent you from getting hurt, such as the claw ( https://www.thekitchn.com/knife-skills-the-claw-75998 https://www.thekitchn.com/knife-skills-the-claw-75998 ). But if someone has used a dull knife for most of their life, they may not have cultivated these skills and may hold their knife in an unsafe way and or use a lot of force when cutting. For someone like that, a sharp knife could be a lot more dangerous, but if they're trained/using it properly, a sharp knife is a lot more safe as it reduces effort and chance of the knife slipping.
  - literalAardvark 1y ago
    My thought process was that anyone who is trained or interested would seek to get them sharpened. I've been in this position and my partner at the time decided to use a separate set of knives from me, as my sharp knives made her focus on the danger and pulled her out of her zoned out cooking-with-a-glass-of-wine mood. Fair enough, how she approaches tools isn't my decision.
    - cactacea 1y ago
      Respectfully, proper technique is just a matter of searching and reading for 2-3 minutes followed by a bit of practice and repetition to get fast. You can skip the getting fast part if you want. Nobody needs "training" to become proficient with a kitchen knife.
YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago
>> I will take those knives to a pro and he will sharpen them for me, as in a rental I stay in, I don't have the tools to do that and as I said in another comment - I don't have a pain free process to do that as I don't do it often Do you also replace your elderly relatives' Windows XP with linux distros, because linux is a better OS? The moment you return the sharpened knives to your partner and she starts using them, she'll cut herself, with a small probability for a serious cut that will leave permanent damage to her hand. Think carefully.
- ec109685 1y ago
  Eventually they will be exposed to sharp knife’s, so probably good to ease their way into it.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago
    Do you mean the sharp knives of surgeons, or are they playing with the Hellraiser cube?

chneu 1y ago

You don't really need "tools" to sharpen knives. You just need a harder surface and some experience. It's one of those things that once you learn you can accomplish with a variety of "tools" because you're just trying to achieve an end goal. There's zero reason you can't sharpen a knife in a rental, lol. You don't need a belt grinder or anything. People get way too caught up in buying into systems and being told how to do things because it alleviates some anxiety of trying something new. Sharpening knives hasn't really changed much in the last few centuries. Watch a few guides and learn to do it. There's no substitute for experience here. It's also a very transferable skill so it's one that used to be taught in schools but no longer is.

JohnMakin 1y ago
when I was poor I used to make pricy shaving blades last for months longer than they should have by rubbing them on some old jeans. I don’t remember where I learned it but my roommates thought I was crazy til they tried it.
- foundart 1y ago
  That’s stropping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_strop https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_strop
- xxs 1y ago
  Nothing crazy about stropping.
scarby2 1y ago
> There's no substitute for experience here. It's also a very transferable skill so it's one that used to be taught in schools but no longer is. This 100% should be taught in school, it would have been one of the most useful things I could have learned.
- obscurette 1y ago
  When I was in school (in seventies), all boys at least tried to learn how to use and take care of all sharp tools and machines with one up to wood and metal lathe. When I was in school now as a teacher, scissors were the only somewhat sharp things kids were allowed to use. Risk tolerance is so low in our society nowadays, sense of responsibility of children is nonexistent etc.
  - lazide 1y ago
    A semester of machine shop taught me an immense amount, and based on my experience with a lot of techies, 95% more about how the world (and tools) work than 95% of the population.
coffeebeqn 1y ago
Buy a whetstone for $10 and you’re set for life. It’s not complicated! People have been sharpening knives for millennia
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
  $10 whetstones are typically far worse value than $40-$60 whetstones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5shv-7m5Ic&t=55s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5shv-7m5Ic&t=55s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHzwlGovi0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHzwlGovi0

petepete 1y ago

Were you cutting tomatoes with a serrated knife? If not, you should be - they do a far better job.

dlcarrier 1y ago
I cut through tomatoes with my pairing knife all the time, with no resistance, and it has a straight blade.
- petepete 1y ago
  Yeah if it's sharp enough it'll be fine. All tomato knives are serrated though, they glide through allowing thin, delicate slices. https://sabre-paris.co.uk/collections/tomato-knife https://sabre-paris.co.uk/collections/tomato-knife
  - dlcarrier 1y ago
    I've never seen a knife like that where I live, in California. The only small serrated knifes people here have are stake knives and on rare occasions sausage knives. It's strange how two relatively similar cultures can have such oddball differences. This is while living in California's Central Valley, where a third of the world's tomatoes are grown, so it's not like tomatoes aren't a major part of the culture here. I wonder if it's because most of California's settlement was within the last 200 years, with modern metallurgy making it common for knifes to hold their edge long enough to easily cut tomatoes with only occasional sharpening, negating the need for a special knife just for tomatoes. Nationwide advertisements for knives show people using straight-bladed knives for cutting cucumbers and tomatoes, despite stated stake knives being extremely common, so tomato knives are likely rare throughout the country, not that much of the country is any older than California.
Aardwolf 1y ago
Can one even sharpen a serrated knife without destroying the teeth? Google search autocomplete shows I'm not the only one wondering that

UberFly 1y ago

This is all very defeatist. Learn to sharpen your knives for your own sake and your... romantic partner. It's a very basic life skill that you should know.

bryanrasmussen 1y ago

>I don't use knives in my kitchen. How do you not use knives? Do you use some other cutting instrument, that has the same problem as knives (cutting edge needs sharpening at times), do you only purchase pre-sliced food, do you only order take out, or only eat food that never needs cutting, or do you eat food that many or most people would cut in some way (oranges, apples, celery, etc.) by refusing to cut but using your teeth to separate out parts. Do you not use butter knives or have you removed those from the category knives as their purpose is not really cutting (although I use butter knives to cut cherry tomatoes and garlic as they have no problem with that task) I'm not trying to harass here, I am just incredibly interested by this statement as I don't think I've ever seen a kitchen without knives (excepting apartments that did not have any residents at the time)

ec109685 1y ago
Their partner does all the cooking.
- SamBam 1y ago
  As the parter who does most of the cooking, I'd be pretty annoyed if my parter took it upon themselves to get all my knives sharpened (unless they asked me first and I enthusiastically agreed).

NonHyloMorph 1y ago

DMT Diamond Sharpeners are fun, especially the ones where you have a milled steel plate that's very flat to which the diamond abrasive is fixed via some nickelplating process. Use one thats "extracoarse" on one side and "fine" (600grit) on the other plus another onsided one with extra fine. Finish with japanese whetstone (synthetic one) and or polishing pashe on a strap of leather. Takes almost no space, can be done at the kitchen table. The equipment costs some, so its probably mostly worth it if you like doing it - sharpening has a meditative quality (wear theowaway gloves)

lazide 1y ago
Yes. These are awesome. They have ones that fold up inside an attached plastic cover (like leatherman) that are great for apartment living, and will sharpen pretty much anything, from filet and paring knives to axes.

literalAardvark 1y ago

If she's not used to sharp knives you're not doing her a favour by getting them crazy sharp. Just get a cheap knife sharpener (not a whetstone) with good reviews and sharpen them a bit once every few weeks, it takes a minute, gets good results, and you can work with her on how sharp they should be. Most of the time knives that are too sharp are much more dangerous than knives that are too blunt. The people worrying about your knife slipping into your finger have never actually used a knife imo. If it's dull enough to be slipping you'll get a welt before you get cut.

emacsen 1y ago
> Most of the time knives that are too sharp are much more dangerous than knives that are too blunt. With a sharp knife, you cut through food very easily so you use very little force. You also use techniques that prevent you from getting hurt, such as the claw ( https://www.thekitchn.com/knife-skills-the-claw-75998 https://www.thekitchn.com/knife-skills-the-claw-75998 ). But if someone has used a dull knife for most of their life, they may not have cultivated these skills and may hold their knife in an unsafe way and or use a lot of force when cutting. For someone like that, a sharp knife could be a lot more dangerous, but if they're trained/using it properly, a sharp knife is a lot more safe as it reduces effort and chance of the knife slipping.
- literalAardvark 1y ago
  My thought process was that anyone who is trained or interested would seek to get them sharpened. I've been in this position and my partner at the time decided to use a separate set of knives from me, as my sharp knives made her focus on the danger and pulled her out of her zoned out cooking-with-a-glass-of-wine mood. Fair enough, how she approaches tools isn't my decision.
  - cactacea 1y ago
    Respectfully, proper technique is just a matter of searching and reading for 2-3 minutes followed by a bit of practice and repetition to get fast. You can skip the getting fast part if you want. Nobody needs "training" to become proficient with a kitchen knife.

YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago

>> I will take those knives to a pro and he will sharpen them for me, as in a rental I stay in, I don't have the tools to do that and as I said in another comment - I don't have a pain free process to do that as I don't do it often Do you also replace your elderly relatives' Windows XP with linux distros, because linux is a better OS? The moment you return the sharpened knives to your partner and she starts using them, she'll cut herself, with a small probability for a serious cut that will leave permanent damage to her hand. Think carefully.

ec109685 1y ago
Eventually they will be exposed to sharp knife’s, so probably good to ease their way into it.
- YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago
  Do you mean the sharp knives of surgeons, or are they playing with the Hellraiser cube?