- Joined
- Oct 30, 2018
- Messages
- 219
Hi all,
Fairly new here and to sharpening really. I’ve recently been doing a lot of reading on this forum which has been a massive help - as well as watching a huge number of YouTube videos.
I currently have a coarse DMT diasharp and a 2000/6000 water stone (not sure of the exact brand) that I bought a number of years ago. It actually has a decent feel and is fairly hard - not wearing appreciably under the knife and takes a while to flatten under the dmt. It also seems to remove material fairly well. It’s blue/white similar to the bear moo ones you can pick up on amazon.
Using this setup I’ve gone through my selection of kitchen knives - 10 in total - and it’s been quite amazing just how much I’ve improved in such a short time. A lot of this has been due to the advice here and tricks such as using a sharpie and a 20x loupe.
My last 3 knives have been shaving sharp after the coarse dmt and able to reliably push cut magazine paper both with and against the grain after the 2000. I also strop for a couple of minutes on bare leather after sharpening.
I guess the main reason for this thread is that although they are more than sharp enough for the kitchen, are retaining an edge and go through a cooked beef joint like a hot knife through butter they are still nowhere near hair whittling sharp. I’m interested in getting to that next step. I don’t really see much appreciable difference between the cut after the 2000 stone and 6000 stone.
My kitchen knives are cheapish faux japense (branded tsuki) which I believe are vg-10 with questionable heat treatment. I will be investing in some higher quality knives. I have my eye on a nice gyutou but I want to be able to properly look after it prior to purchase.
I guess my real question is that by continuing to refine my technique would my current set up and current quality of steel allow me to get to that next phase of sharpness (I think the answer is probably yes) or do I need to invest in some more kit. If it is the former, is it just a question or practise makes perfect or are there additional resources that would speed up the process? I consider myself someone who understand the basic theory (although the reams of information on strops and different compounds boggles the mind) but lacks experience.
I find sharpening by hand very thereputic after hard days work and I am quite willing to get there by trial and error but the engineer in me loves a good bit of research!!
Thanks all,
Craig
Fairly new here and to sharpening really. I’ve recently been doing a lot of reading on this forum which has been a massive help - as well as watching a huge number of YouTube videos.
I currently have a coarse DMT diasharp and a 2000/6000 water stone (not sure of the exact brand) that I bought a number of years ago. It actually has a decent feel and is fairly hard - not wearing appreciably under the knife and takes a while to flatten under the dmt. It also seems to remove material fairly well. It’s blue/white similar to the bear moo ones you can pick up on amazon.
Using this setup I’ve gone through my selection of kitchen knives - 10 in total - and it’s been quite amazing just how much I’ve improved in such a short time. A lot of this has been due to the advice here and tricks such as using a sharpie and a 20x loupe.
My last 3 knives have been shaving sharp after the coarse dmt and able to reliably push cut magazine paper both with and against the grain after the 2000. I also strop for a couple of minutes on bare leather after sharpening.
I guess the main reason for this thread is that although they are more than sharp enough for the kitchen, are retaining an edge and go through a cooked beef joint like a hot knife through butter they are still nowhere near hair whittling sharp. I’m interested in getting to that next step. I don’t really see much appreciable difference between the cut after the 2000 stone and 6000 stone.
My kitchen knives are cheapish faux japense (branded tsuki) which I believe are vg-10 with questionable heat treatment. I will be investing in some higher quality knives. I have my eye on a nice gyutou but I want to be able to properly look after it prior to purchase.
I guess my real question is that by continuing to refine my technique would my current set up and current quality of steel allow me to get to that next phase of sharpness (I think the answer is probably yes) or do I need to invest in some more kit. If it is the former, is it just a question or practise makes perfect or are there additional resources that would speed up the process? I consider myself someone who understand the basic theory (although the reams of information on strops and different compounds boggles the mind) but lacks experience.
I find sharpening by hand very thereputic after hard days work and I am quite willing to get there by trial and error but the engineer in me loves a good bit of research!!
Thanks all,
Craig