Victorinox chef knife tips

L

loninappleton

Joined
Mar 30, 2019
Messages
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I have seen your Bess edge guide. What I need to know as a noob I think is something
about steel hardness. My Victorinox 10 inch doesn't seem to take an edge.

The story on this is the knife is old and rarely cared for. A belly developed and I
removed quite a bit of materila to go back to flat. Since then my very simple commercial
products or homebrews do not restore the edge well

Perhaps I got excited about Ryky Tran's burrfection videos found on youtube.

Just looking for any tips using simple product. I'm even lower on the food chain
with the man who was given a Tool Sharp.

In just trying again to start over today I was able to establish some rough edge
with an Accushart hand flint tool I can see a jagged edge up close.

Is there a way, since I am not going to buy anything, to clean up the edge with
a sandaper series? I think my problem is getting control of the process not achieved yet.
Please, no youtubes. I've had all the paper cutting I take. The goal is to cut red peppers not sushi.

cheers.
 
loninappleton said:
I have seen your Bess edge guide. What I need to know as a noob I think is something
about steel hardness. My Victorinox 10 inch doesn't seem to take an edge.

The story on this is the knife is old and rarely cared for. A belly developed and I
removed quite a bit of materila to go back to flat. Since then my very simple commercial
products or homebrews do not restore the edge well

Perhaps I got excited about Ryky Tran's burrfection videos found on youtube.

Just looking for any tips using simple product. I'm even lower on the food chain
with the man who was given a Tool Sharp.

In just trying again to start over today I was able to establish some rough edge
with an Accushart hand flint tool I can see a jagged edge up close.

Is there a way, since I am not going to buy anything, to clean up the edge with
a sandaper series? I think my problem is getting control of the process not achieved yet.
Please, no youtubes. I've had all the paper cutting I take. The goal is to cut red peppers not sushi.

cheers.
Click to expand...
You may have a large burr on the edge, After you have acheved what you thinks is a suitable edge, cut a 8” wide strip of cardbox .. place it on the edge of a table and Strop it with trailing strokes for a good 10 minutes per side.
 
Outstanding I will try the cardboard method. Still not sure how to control the angle.

I've seen many devices. Some the youtubes might as well be more subtle versions
of a K-Tel ad. No one seems to call the posters on it or remark on it. I got rid
tv in 1991. But it's achieving ad creep. At some tubes like CPU mods they are getting more
agressive. I just mention this because it's disappoiting.

Thanks for the tip.
 
First off, you will have to practice controlling your angle astutely with the sharpening gear you have, or you won't get a usable edge on the thing to begin with. I find stropping can be a make-or-break process if you're inexperienced when it comes to holding a steady angle with continuous passes. Mind the pressure you're placing against the strop as well. On a positive note, Victorinox is very easy to sharpen, so controlling your angles will be your biggest feat by far. Once you get that down you will be rewarded immensely with your newfound skills when it comes time to sharpen any tool.

To answer your question regarding steel hardness, Victorinox hardens their knives quite low in order to retain toughness and honing throughout your work-day. They use a fairly "cheap" steel (as most knuts would probably claim), which I believe is known to be X50CrMoV15, at probably a hardness range of ~55-57. The steel is quite basic and excels at its resistance to corrosion. I agree that they have pretty disappointing edge holding, even after a proper sharpening, but these were made to handle heavy abuse without the fear of catastrophic edge damage and the ability to get that edge back without much effort. I process meat for work and Victorinox is a no nonsense workhorse that you can abuse and neglect and she's always there smiling at you every step of the way; toothless and all :D
 
Thanks for the reply and especially that Victorinox is considered something the home
kitchen cook can use and get an edge eventually.

I couldn't resist. I had a tube on last night with a Tibetan master going through
his day. The thread is mismarked as Japanese. Someone noted that Japanese don't
tatoo and he'd have to be a Yakuza. It eventually came out that he's Tibetan
and is a chef in Philadelphia. No paper shearing in it and it is to marvel at the size
of his tools and dexterity with them. I can post the link if interested.

Are there any "on edge" videos showing the strokes at surface level? Or even
an animation? What I see when watching and often too fast in tutorials I
led me to I think doing it backwards. I'm not going to give up the Accusharp yet.
Will maybe get a fresh one since buying blades online is nearly as much.

And I'll practice first on some old Chicago Cutery product from my tool box (used as
froes when needed.)

thanks and cheers
 
The AccuSharp website seems to have a video that's pretty straight-forward. Honestly, I would choose to free-hand sharpen on stones vs. any guided or mechanical system, which will allow a much more precise edge for your tools. Many sharpeners consider the paper-cut test to indicate a certain objective and tangible level of sharpness achieved; though this certainly can be more novel if you're not looking for the sharpest edge possible. Practice makes perfect regardless of which way you choose to sharpen your tools; just be aware of the limitations in your methods of doing so :thumbsup:. Good luck and happy sharpening! Cheers!
 
I've heard contradictory things about the paper shearing. One source said the paper test is to deburr.

Can't find it again but I'll take the word of the experts here.
 
Not really for deburring, it just shows it's somewhat sharp.

OP head over to the Mainence Tinkering & Embellishment part of the forum that's where the OCD knife sharpeners hang out. We will get your sorted out in no time, hardest part is practice and skills which takes time.

For now I would ditch the accusharp though, the carbide pull through sharpener litterally rips apart the edge. It's not pretty, causes a lot of damage, premature wear and tear, and to top it off you get a crappy edge from it that's not that sharp and unable to hold an edge.
 
Maintenance and tinkering, ok.

Another question on crappy edges. I have used the Accusharp off and on for years.
Cooks Illustrated said in their test about 25 strokes and going lighter.

My question is that using the device I will have got to a point where it just slides through
with no bite and I figure I'm done.

I think Ryobi has a set of stropping compounds. That's a way off.

Thanks for staying with this and I'll move over to maintenannce and tinkering. May let it go for a few days to sort things but will come back.
 
weeping minora said:
To answer your question regarding steel hardness, Victorinox hardens their knives quite low in order to retain toughness and honing throughout your work-day. They use a fairly "cheap" steel (as most knuts would probably claim), which I believe is known to be X50CrMoV15, at probably a hardness range of ~55-57. The steel is quite basic and excels at its resistance to corrosion. I agree that they have pretty disappointing edge holding, even after a proper sharpening, but these were made to handle heavy abuse without the fear of catastrophic edge damage and the ability to get that edge back without much effort. I process meat for work and Victorinox is a no nonsense workhorse that you can abuse and neglect and she's always there smiling at you every step of the way; toothless and all :D
Click to expand...

Well written and I agree, the stamped Victorinox steel is in the ~55-56 HRC range
 
loninappleton said:
Maintenance and tinkering, ok.

Another question on crappy edges. I have used the Accusharp off and on for years.
Cooks Illustrated said in their test about 25 strokes and going lighter.

My question is that using the device I will have got to a point where it just slides through
with no bite and I figure I'm done.

I think Ryobi has a set of stropping compounds. That's a way off.

Thanks for staying with this and I'll move over to maintenannce and tinkering. May let it go for a few days to sort things but will come back.
Click to expand...

Truth be told a lot of website and even magazines the author really doesn't know a thing about sharpening a knife properly nor is an expert in the subject it seems. Quite a few times it feels like their commissioned to write an article and spend a few hours of research and writing it feels like. It's particular bad for kitchen knives and sharpening the amount of misinformation out there.

The real trick is to find where the OCD people online on the subject you want to learn about are and learn from them. While keeping in mind their going way overboard and staying in moderation instead of blindly following. Most of the time after some research it seems like your able to achieve 90% of the result their talking about for very little expense/effort, it's the last bit that always get you.

If you search for it you can probably find microscopesd pictures on here of a knife sharpened with a carbide scrapper like an accusharp. From there they discuss the damage done, wear and tear, edge retention, sharpness and other things. Than there are pictures of it properly sharpened and a discussion on that. It was quite informative and was posted on here at least a few years ago. I don't have a link handy but it shouldn't be too difficult to find.

I've used a carbide scrapper quite a bit on a box cutter blade at a previous job. I did so because if I sharpened it properly it would effortlessly glide through boxes with no resistance and risk damaging the product so I usually had to glide it across the stone after sharpening to dull it. The pull through sharpener never achieved anywhere near that level of sharpness even if I tried my best and just used the ceramic side and not the carbide side. The device physically wasn't able to. The result after a few months I was missing 1/8in of the blade. Had I just used my stones and properly sharpened I would be shocked if I removed 5% of that amount.
 
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One thought on softer stainless steel is that you don't want to try and sharpen at too acute an angle. It doesn't hold up well because it's not hard enough. I noticed a couple of times on commercial soft stainless steel knives that the edge was "crumbly" and seemed to easily get microchips if sharpened at a low/small angle.
 
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