Sharpening for a working woman

Re: Sharpening for a working woman *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I like the little honing kit I got from LV, you could make her a little base out of something fancy; but every now and then you still need to sharpen. Maybe a ceramic stone? For years I used the Arkansas oil stone I had for woodworking tools, but today I'd use water stones. Are they Japanese knives?

Pam


LV honing kit

Re: Sharpening for a working woman

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>She doesn't want a method for sharpening knives. She wants her knives sharpened! My wife says the same things. "I need help with this" means "I want you do to this".

I've tried the rollers and I don't like the edge they produce. I've never seen any of those things that really work well. I think sharpening a set of knives is a nice Christmas present for a Sister.

Let's face it- one of the skills I think we've all learned to excel at is sharpening. Nobody can sharpen a kitchen knife like we can. Just do it for her.

Adam

Re: Sharpening for a working woman *LINK*

wilbur

>The problem with the knife sharpeners that have you pull the knife between two small ceramic wheels is that you wind up with a small hollow grind on the edge of the knife blade. This may be good for chisels or plane blades, but for a kitchen knife it can cause a point of weakness. A kitchen knife takes much more use and abuse in the kitchen than woodworking tools, so toughness is more important. A hollow grind is not desirable on a kitchen knife.

Chef's Choice makes good kitchen knife sharpeners that can be used by people with little to no experience with sharpening. They are designed to put a microbevel(!) on kitchen knives. This helps a lot with the durability of the edge.

I have one of the manual models (Model 450, about $25). Their electric ones are good, too, and start from $60 on up. They are available at most places that carry a decent collection of cookware, including Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy's, Williams-Sonoma, and so on.

On the other hand, the last time I sharpened a kitchen knife (as opposed to using a honing steel), I used a Tormek to reset the cutting edge angle as an experiment, but I don't know if your sister wants to go that route. :@)


Chef's Choice website

I know this one... *LINK*

Bruce, a MN galoot

>My brother, a professional chef of 30+ years experience, gave us a diamond steel. This is an absolutely wonderful tool, and will keep any kitchen knife in great shape, easily. An ordinary sharpening steel works like a burnisher, and just re-forms the edge. A diamond "steel" actually sharpens a knife by removing metal with its industrial diamond coated surface. Except for a rare regrinding to reestablish the edge geometry, your sister simply wouldn't need anything else. I've reground my chef's knife once in 5 years.

Mine is a Wusthof Trident, but this Henckels from Amazon.com is the same tool.

Bruce


Henckels Diamond Steel

Re: Sharpening for a working woman

Warren in Lancaster, Pa

>My first thought was the same as Pam. I think the rod sharpeners are good for a beginner. You can get a set with rods of different grits. If she is handy or more serious I would get a 1000/4000 combination waterstone- in the kitchen it is nice to just rinse everything off.

Thirty years ago my wife was working in a fancy restaurant doing prep work. She sharpened her knife on one of those pull through gizmos every day. The first time she came to visit me she wanted to cut carrots and onions and I handed her a knife with an Arkansas edge. It was fun to see her face.

Sharpening Steel

Paul in NJ

>Hi Jack,

We treated ourselves to a nice set of German (or are they Swiss) SS kitchen knives about 10 years ago. I use them quite a bit and after the initial honing I just use a sharpening steel before each use. We are careful and only use them on wooden cutting boards. The only time I had to re-hone was when someone used them to cut on a hard surface. I�m not a pro cook nor do I �Samuri� my vegetables in mid-air. My chisels and planes are much sharper than my kitchen knives. The sharpening steel gives an adequate edge to my knives for my purposes and is quick and easy. I think the steel burnishes the edge similar to how you prepare a scraper.

Paul Dzioba

Re: Sharpening for a working woman *LINK*

Markb

>Don't have any personal experience with it, but this guy recommends the Jiff-V Sharp sharpener. Cheap enough, might be worth a shot. His knives look beautiful and appear to be well made. Haven't seen them, but will be ordering some soon.


Wildfire Cutlery

KitchenAid is a good choice

Marv

>I sharpen all our knives for my wife who does most of the meals for us. We bought a set of KitchenAid knives. The set included a sharpening rod that is not round but is somewhat oval in shape but has sharp edges. It has diamond dust bonded to it. This thing is great. All you do is slide each side of the knife edge across this thing with the blade at a certain angle. You can feel the diamond dust cutting. I love it. I see chefs using these things all the time on TV. I've used the round rod type but they wear out fast. I've been using this one with the diamond dust for about 6 years. IMO, KitchenAid makes some of the best utensils around.

Marv

Re: I know this one...

paul womack

>Mine is a Wusthof Trident, but this Henckels from Amazon.com is the same tool.

Both those companies are good, but boy! do they know how to charge.

I would prefer to get a diamond steel from a diamond specialist manufacturer than a knife specialist manufacturer.

e.g. DMT or similar.

BugBear