Being able to sharpen your knives yourself is a big advantage when it comes to owning German knives because they require frequent sharpening for best experience. But for someone like me, who has yet to learn to sharpen, edge retention is something worth taking into consideration. That's why most of my kitchen knives are now in the 63-65 HRC range. But I am slowly learning to sharpen them myself at a steady rate ... at a slow and steady rate of a comatose snail overdosed on Valium.
The first step of my methodology to learning to master the art of sharpening knives is to watch a lot of YouTube videos in order to mentally prepare myself for the traumatizing endeavor where a slightest mistake could possibly render my expensive knives a heap of worthless metallic junk. And I must do this all the while ascertaining the expertise and knowledge level of the YouTuber by performing extensive background checks, reading through long list of viewer comments, etc.
After I've logged about 1000 hours-worth of viewing various videos on How-To and reading through countless forums on relevant topics, I will be then ready for the 2nd step of my methodology: my first foray into The Art of Sharpening Knives. This is the part where I actually attempt to sharpen something, anything, with my own hands. Preferably Japanese knives. REAL learning happens by doing, not watching. But of course, I will be first practicing with a dirt-cheap knife such as
this one with
an equally cheap waterstones until I've gained enough confidence and rudimentary skills before moving onto something more serious. And I would do this as I continually and exhaustively exchange multitudes of emails with various vendors and established experts in the field with barrages of questions on sharpening techniques and such. I'll know I've done my job properly once they start placing my email address on their IGNORE list.
The 3rd and the final step of my mythology to becoming a master knife sharpener is to log in close to a thousand hours of actual hands-on sharpening using real waterstones to sharpen real knives. Here I am referring to traditional sharpening by hand, of course. Pull-through V-grooved sharpeners are NOT CONSIDERED real sharpening tools. Rather, they are tools for removing excess amount of metal to render the knives dull to facilitate accelerated wear and tear. Nor am I talking about guided sharpening systems as those are considered 'training wheels for kiddies' by professionals. After I've worn out and replaced about $1000-worth of waterstones, and another $1000-worth of knives (because mistakes WILL happen, and knives WILL be ruined along the process), then and only then will I be able to sharpen the most difficult and toughest of knives with the fine precision of the smoothest Swiss watch that's been run over repeatedly by a coal train.
Yes, the road to becoming a master sharpener will be long and arduous.
But I will persevere. I will not falter.
And I will not be dissuaded by nay sayers nor skeptics.
Quitters never win, and winners never quit.
Upon becoming a master sharpener, I will look back and see all those years of sacrifice was well worth it.
... or I could just save myself the time and effort by mailing in my knives to the professional sharpeners.
