Sharpening

[steellover]

I find just about any knife steel works fine for most work if I give it a few licks with a decent rod-type sharpener after each use. Even crummy steels will work fine. They will simply wear out faster though.

A friend of mine at the Hidden Springs Cafe does this too. He has this cheapie butcher knife that has cut food for his busy restaurant for about 10 years. The blade is just about worn away, and it looks like a car antenna from afar but it still cuts. He sharpens it daily with a old piece of high=voltage electrical insulator---and that thing is a good sharpener.

Your thoughts?

 

[m_calingo]

Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook once showed on his TV show how his turns a ceramic bowl upside down to sharpen his Chinese cleaver.

The circular portion at the base of the bowl is unglazed and provides enough "bite" to sharpen the edge of his knife. I'm sure the electrical insulator works the same way.

 

[topher]

I frequently do this for friends with *seriously* dull knives, using the bottom of a ceramic coffee mug. You aren't going to get a shaving sharp edge that way, but it seems like a lot of casual pocket knife carriers have amazingly dull edges because they don't know how or don't bother to sharpen them.

One guy at work was blown away when he was having trouble cutting some cardboard with his old (dull) knife, and I gave it a quick touch up on my coffee mug. He couldn't believe that it worked, or the difference it made. ;-)

 

[Crayola]

I agree that frequent edge maintenance is best. It is also much easier to use a ceramic stone to touch up an edge (only takes a few strokes) often, rather than letting an edge degrade a lot and having to go to medium and then fine stones. I have read stories (second hand and first hand) of Japanese chefs and other craftsmen that sharpen their blades daily, to keep them in tip-top shape all the time.

I don't always keep up on things, but generally I'll grab my Sharpmaker every few weeks and grab my blades and touch 'em up in front of the tv.

One thing that should be noted, though, is that frequent touching up of an edge will wear it out kinda fast, but it isn't really a big deal. It takes a lot of strokes from a fine ceramic rod to wear out an edge, but if you leave an edge to degrade and have to go to coarser stones, you'll have to "sharpen out" a lot of steel anyways!

Good post, and a good reminder to keep things sharp!

 

[Cougar Allen]

We started a new forum!

 

[Smegmalicious]

I just can't get the hang of sharpening my hand. I was thining of getting that spyderco dohicky to sharpen my stuff with, what do you guys think of it?

 

[tim8557]

I just can't get the hang of sharpening my hand. I was thining of getting that spyderco dohicky to sharpen my stuff with, what do you guys think of it?

Works great if your edge is either 30 degrees or 40 degrees and is still relatively sharp. If you need to reprofile or recut an edge, it can be pretty tedious with the Sharpmaker unless you purchase the extra, expensive diamond rods.

Personally, I'd save up a little longer and purchase the Edge Pro Apex and you'll have a very versatile sytem, flexibility on edge angles and the ability to cut hard steels, like my Calypso Jr in ZDP-189 Steel.

I purchased my system through www.bronksknifeworks.com