[kodreaming]

I am not spending any more on my headphone at this moment. It is time for a cheap/but decent set of speaker.

Honestly, I think cleaver is probably all I need as well.
So, I will be getting Dexter/vegetable cleaver.

The only reason I am thinking about chef's knife , is for aesthetic reason...

 

[Ashkii21]

I picked up a set of the JA Henckels (international) at Costco about 2 years ago. It came with a very aggressive sharpening steel, I had to replace it with a smooth one. My costco knives are nice but maybe not as nice as the ones pictures in this thread. Those Damascus blades look very nice to me.

 

[APWiseman]

Damn, people have some nice knives on these forums. Let me help prep (and eat) food in your houses please

.

As for me I just have three humble and awesome knives in my collection:
Shun Classic 7" Chinese Cleaver
Shun Elite 8" Chef's Knife
Shun Classic 4" Pairing knife

I love the company's free lifetime sharpening service. They feel great in my hands.

 

[rangen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by APWiseman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Damn, people have some nice knives on these forums. Let me help prep (and eat) food in your houses please . As for me I just have three humble and awesome knives in my collection: Shun Classic 7" Chinese Cleaver Shun Elite 8" Chef's Knife Shun Classic 4" Pairing knife I love the company's free lifetime sharpening service. They feel great in my hands.

That is hardly a humble collection. Shun is very high quality and beautiful.

If you want to increase your pleasure in your knives, I suggest getting into sharpening them yourself. Professional sharpening gives a great edge, but you can do equally well at home, and your knives will be duller after a week or two of use, so a consistently sharp edge isn't really practical with professional sharpening; it would have to be done too often. I'm a bit of a sharpening geek and would be happy to offer advice if you're interested.

 

[APWiseman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rangen /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is hardly a humble collection. Shun is very high quality and beautiful. If you want to increase your pleasure in your knives, I suggest getting into sharpening them yourself. Professional sharpening gives a great edge, but you can do equally well at home, and your knives will be duller after a week or two of use, so a consistently sharp edge isn't really practical with professional sharpening; it would have to be done too often. I'm a bit of a sharpening geek and would be happy to offer advice if you're interested.

Would a honing steel be enough? I deathly scared of using a wet stone...I ruined some knives like that back in college.

 

[rangen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by APWiseman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Would a honing steel be enough? I deathly scared of using a wet stone...I ruined some knives like that back in college.

Not really. A steel just pushes metal around, sort of like stropping. But if you're comfortable with that shape, you could try to do something like a diamond "steel." And maybe a ceramic one for finer work, though I've never gotten comfortable with ceramic hones.

I'm not sure what went wrong for you in college. I assume you're talking about waterstones. All I can say is that practise makes perfect. Use your ears, your touch, your eyes. And buy a cheap knife or cleaver to sharpen, so you can get comfortable, before you try your Shuns. But if you get the right grit stones, and if you practice, at some point, your cheap knife will become sharper than your Shuns, if they weren't professionally sharpened the week before. That moment will provide the motivation to try your skills on your good knives.

 

[APWiseman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rangen /img/forum/go_quote.gif But if you get the right grit stones, and if you practice, at some point, your cheap knife will become sharper than your Shuns, if they weren't professionally sharpened the week before. That moment will provide the motivation to try your skills on your good knives.

What stone do you use to sharpen knives, and what angle do you recommend I hold the knife at? Thanks.

 

[neezee]

you cant really ruin a knife if you sharpen it at the wrong angle can you? say less or more than 20-30 degrees?

 

[mightyacorn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by APWiseman /img/forum/go_quote.gif What stone do you use to sharpen knives, and what angle do you recommend I hold the knife at? Thanks.

Here is an article on Knife Maintenance and Sharpening.

 

[gspence2000]

You'll need several stones, of varying grit, to sharpen knives. I use a 20 degree angle for kitchen work, closer to 30 degrees for a utility knife or pocket knife. Diamond stones work faster but are much more expensive.

It is very difficult to hold the knife at the correct angle when using bench stones. Practice makes perfect. Pull out a protractor and see what 20 degrees looks like. At the end of the stroke, be sure that you don't lift up the heel of the knife--that's the common mistake.

You can buy a jig that you screw onto the knife to help you hold the angle when using bench stones.

Learn to feel the burr with your fingernail--you can also see it if you have good light. Sharpen until you raise the burr, then move to the next finer grit stone. In my experience teaching people how to sharpen knives, I've seen that people have trouble telling when to stop. Often people stop when they have not yet raised a burr. Learn to watch for the burr and don't stop until you see or feel it. Then move to the next grit stone.

If you have a bench grinder you can get paper wheels which work with white polishing compound. Check out Knife Sharpening with paper wheels - www.paperwheels.com. It is a practical way to sharpen a lot of knives to perfection quickly.

If you don't want to invest the time to become a knife sharpening expert, by all accounts the Chef's Choice M130 is your best bet for an electric knife sharpener. I would trust an expensive knife to that unit.

Can you ruin a knife by sharpening at the wrong angle? Well, no, but it might take a lot of work to re-grind a new edge--and a beginner knife sharpener probably would have a lot of trouble re-grinding the edge. It is a mistake that can be fixed but it is better to avoid it.

I finish the knife with a smooth steel (no ridges whatsoever) to straighten the edge and then a leather strop with chromium oxide to give it a fine polish. This is by no means necessary unless you want to show off by slicing paper or shaving the hairs on your arm.

 

[krmathis]

Not the clearest picture (bad lighting), but here is my gear...

 

[chaospanda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by APWiseman /img/forum/go_quote.gif What stone do you use to sharpen knives, and what angle do you recommend I hold the knife at? Thanks.

I use japanese waterstone 1000 grig on my cheap Chicago Cutlery. It works great. I can get it sharper factory sharpness. Although, when I got it, it was not that sharp to begin with.

 

[rangen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by APWiseman /img/forum/go_quote.gif What stone do you use to sharpen knives, and what angle do you recommend I hold the knife at? Thanks.

I have a bunch of different stones. Some diamond, but mostly Japanese waterstones, natural and artificial. I mostly use the diamond ones for my lesser knives (diamond is fast-cutting), and the waterstones in a 800-1200-2000-6000/8000 grit sequence, starting later in that sequence, the less work the knife needs.

If I had to be reduced to only two grits, I'd choosee one 800-grit stone, and one 2000-grit stone. I'm not sure what brands, because there has been a lot of activity in the artifical waterstone business lately, and I'm not fully up to date. Possibly Bester for the 800 grit (I have a 1200 grit Bester that is remarkably fast-cutting, though it does require soaking), and maybe a Shapton Glass Stone for the 2000. But that's really going out on a limb for the moment, because I've never tried the Shapton. I do, however, have a couple of them coming this week.

As for angle, I don't know. I don't sit there with a protractor. I sharpen where the edge is, and I do that by:

eye: you can see, as you tilt the blade, when you're not at the edge and need to tilt further.

feel: you can tell when you've gone too far with angle, and, eventually, you get to be able to tell when you're right on the edge

ear: the sounds are very instructive for telling you whether you're on the edge

I hold most knives, and all cleavers by the (back of) the blade to sharpen, though that is not practical for narrow blades like paring knives. That gives more control.

 

[APWiseman]

Thanks for the sharpening tips guys, I will definitely look into those links and products.

 

[rangen]

Update: the Shapton Glass Stones arrived, at least the 2000 and 6000 grit ones (the 1000 was back-ordered). They're great. I thought the glass thing was a metaphor for smoothness, but they're actually glass-backed, and they've printed the grit number under the glass where it can't wash away. Very cool.

They're thinner than most. And dead easy -- no soaking, no nagura stone needed for the 6000 grit, just wet them and start sharpening. Fast-cutting, too. I like them a lot. Definitely recommended.