How sharp should your kitchen knives be?

It should be sharp enough to easily cut what you want without having an edge so delicate it requires frequent steeling during shift. If it is so sharp that it sticks and cuts into your wooden cutting board then you have gone too far.
 
It is interesting to see what is recommended for cutting boards. Some people won't use wood cutting boards at all because they harbor bacteria. I hate to think of what a plastic or glass cutting board does to a good blade. I was thinking I might have to sharpen our knives at a large included angle to make the edge resist rolling.
Click to expand...

in some states wood cutting boards are approved for commercial use.

it just takes some extra care to use them commercially.

regularly oiling the boards, coating them in wax once in a while, not letting them get washed overly with detergent and instead use white vinegar (not sure if this is approved by health standards, but it's been what's been taught to me for home use), and then of course don't let the boards stay wet for too long.

i know there's two factions that approve and disapprove of wood boards for commercial use and it's been a long standing debate. i like wood boards, specially when you use your $200 knives and up... it just feels right and you know it won't kill your blade's edge.

but i think we're getting off topic. lol.
 
and then there's the matter of using honing rods / steels on kitchen knives with hardness of 60 rockwell and up. it's pretty much useless since most honing rods made of steel aren't effective on them anymore. the rods have to be harder than the steel they are truing.

so if one has to really use a rod to true their knives, then it has to be something harder than that of their knives. ceramic hones are cheap and great for this. it's what i got. works well enough. but i would rather touch up my knives on stones, works in a pinch.

diamond honing rods are absolute no no for this since they actually "sharpen" and not true your knives. they will eat up too much of your steel and ruin the blade's sharp edge. you might as well go back on whetstones than use a diamond steels.

another choice would be a bosillicate rod aka known as glass hones. finished to a high 12k grit. harder than any steel out there but expensive as heck. i might wanna try it out sometime but i don't think anyone i know would wanna ever buy a used one off me if i had to sell it if i change my mind. lol. so that's not much of a choice for me.

well that's all i can share about this topic for the most part. lol.


i would rather die than use glass "cutting boards" on my knives. =D

even on my crap knives, i wouldn't wanna ruin my edges ever. waste of time i say.
 
Last edited:
You can always use an F. Dick steel. They make them properly and harden them like files, so if your knives are soft enough for a well made file to work on them then an F. Dick steel will work as well. They're also one of the only makers putting out a true mirror-polished smooth steel.
 
Matt, you are one of those guys who sharpens knives that have just been professionally sharpened and not even used yet just so you can say that it has "your" edge on it. :D
kalaeb said:
I am an obsessive sharpener. I do it to get better at holding my angles consistent through the entire edge on a 270. As a result, I now like to have all my knives stupid sharp, even my work knives keep a very keen edge.
Click to expand...
 
jdm61 said:
Matt, you are one of those guys who sharpens knives that have just been professionally sharpened and not even used yet just so you can say that it has "your" edge on it. :D
Click to expand...

Yes, although on yours I wanted to see how it would feel through a grit progression and to see how easy it was to deburr. And I might have reduced the angle a bit because w2 at 62hrc it usually pretty tough.
 
62rc might be a tad conservative for that one. Can't say for sure. I plan to try another carbon steel at around 64 here in the coming months.:D
kalaeb said:
Yes, although on yours I wanted to see how it would feel through a grit progression and to see how easy it was to deburr. And I might have reduced the angle a bit because w2 at 62hrc it usually pretty tough.
Click to expand...
 
Great discussion! I'm not a chef by any means but do all the cooking in the family. My standard kithen knives are customs made from eith 1095 or 154CM steel. In order to not have to sharpen too much I use the same edge as I do my folders which is a 30 degree inclusive on a Edge Pro with a 40 degree micro-bevel. I touch-up with a Sharpmaker at 40 degrees. Sharp enough to shave and cut most foods well. Now that I think about it though I'm probably leaving the micro-bevel too obtuse and leaving some cutting performance on the table. I use a Boos maple edge-cut board which is pretty easy on the edge. I also don't chop much and tend to use more of a rocking motion for most cuts. That is really so i don't cut a finger off more than anything else.
 
there's also a debate on which is harder on the edge, a chopping motion or a rocking motion. it really depends, in my experience. depends on how hard you chop or how much weight you put into your rocking. then of course what you're cutting into also affects the edge retention. frozen foods are the worst. it will dull any knife very easily.

=D
 
I've been sharpening for years but just got into sharpening kitchen cutlery. What I've been told (and what I've found for myself) is that a very keen edge with enough bite to slice tomatoes easily is the best choice for a kitchen knife. Therefore, it's counterproductive to go too refined (i.e., going past 6K water stones and onto sub-micron pastes and/or a lot of leather stropping). I'd say stopping at 5K water stones and a bit of light stropping on newsprint will get an ideal edge for a kitchen knife: plenty sharp and toothy enough. I currently have found that this setup works really well: 150 grit Naniwa Omura, 1k Arashiyama, 6k Arashiyama, newsprint. The Omura is just a beast, a really awesome, quick-cutting stone and sets a new bevel fast and easily reprofiles edges, fixes broken tips, etc. After my bevel is set, the 1k and 6k Arashiyama are a breeze and quickly establish their scratch patterns. Pat the 6k dry, lay some newsprint flat on top, and strop lightly, and my kitchen knife edge is done.
 
Absolutely as sharp as possible. When you cook for a living your knife can be your best friend or worst enemy. A sharp, well balanced knife makes a huge difference by the end of a shift.
 
mkjellgren said:
Absolutely as sharp as possible. When you cook for a living your knife can be your best friend or worst enemy. A sharp, well balanced knife makes a huge difference by the end of a shift.
Click to expand...

Definately, when you can get perfect 1/8 slices from an over ripe avacado, and the guy next to you only manages gaucamole.....sharp knives make all the difference in the world, greens last longer, cuts look better, and the time to do tasks is drastically decreased by using sharp knives, and not just run through a Chefs Choice, but really sharp.

You have to take as much pride in your tools as you do your food. They go hand in hand.
 
How sharp a knife should be is correlated to how much time/effort one wants to put in for maintenance/etc. An extremely acute and keen edge will only last on a good cutting board, proper care, and regular edge touch-ups. If one of those aspects is lacking, there isn't a reason to have an extremely sharp knife because it won't stay that way for long.
 
Don Nguyen said:
How sharp a knife should be is correlated to how much time/effort one wants to put in for maintenance/etc. An extremely acute and keen edge will only last on a good cutting board, proper care, and regular edge touch-ups. If one of those aspects is lacking, there isn't a reason to have an extremely sharp knife because it won't stay that way for long.
Click to expand...

Sharp does not have to mean acute. One can have a keen edge on a 30 degree inclusive angle, still shave and knock out a weeks worth of prep. Taking a knife to 10 or 12 degrees, then adding a micro bevel will do wonders and it will stay sharp. If a knife can't make it though a shift then the angle is too acute and it needs to back off. This is also varies greatly based on steels used and hardness.
 
kalaeb said:
Sharp does not have to mean acute. One can have a keen edge on a 30 degree inclusive angle, still shave and knock out a weeks worth of prep. Taking a knife to 10 or 12 degrees, then adding a micro bevel will do wonders and it will stay sharp. If a knife can't make it though a shift then the angle is too acute and it needs to back off. This is also varies greatly based on steels used and hardness.
Click to expand...

Well that all depends on your standard of sharp. If you want a truly sharp edge at all times then you need to touch it up every single day, no matter the steel, handness, or edge angle. Sure, many high end knives with high hardness exotic steels will hold a very useable working edge at 30° inclusive for quite a while provided they're not abused, but 30° is pretty obtuse for a high end knife and if you're as anal as I am about your edges then ANY use what-so-ever will dull them noticeably. They won't necessarily be TOO dull, but dull enough for there to be a performance decrease. Now obviously I understand that there comes a point when you don't have time to sharpen several times a day and you just gotta put your nose down and cook, but if you want screaming sharp edges, daily sharpening is a must.
 
IMO Touching up is different then sharpening. For me a touch up is a few edge trailing strokes on a higher grit stone and maybe some stropping. If I have to drop down to a 1 or 2 k stone to raise a burr every day, I am looking for a new knife because you should not have to.

I agree, 30 degrees is pretty obtuse when talking about the high end stuff, even so, I try to keep mine on the 12 degree range/side, anything less than 10, even on AS, and the law of diminishing returns is going to increase substiantially.
 
kalaeb said:
IMO Touching up is different then sharpening. For me a touch up is a few edge trailing strokes on a higher grit stone and maybe some stropping. If I have to drop down to a 1 or 2 k stone to raise a burr every day, I am looking for a new knife because you should not have to.

I agree, 30 degrees is pretty obtuse when talking about the high end stuff, even so, I try to keep mine on the 12 degree range/side, anything less than 10, even on AS, and the law of diminishing returns is going to increase substiantially.
Click to expand...

Good point, and definitely something I failed to clarify. My daily sharpening is not overly involved and would normally be classified as a touch-up. I definitely don't reprofile every day, but steel meets stone on a daily basis.
 
Sharp enough to push cut a ripe tomato. If you are worried about cutting yourself your technique needs work. Make sure you pinch grip the knife and grab your food with 'the claw'. Use your claw hand to guide the flat of your knife. If you do it properly you cant get cut
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top