I use my Henckels 5" santoku for just about everything in the kitchen. It is my go-to knife. Last week, while we were in Bed, Bath & Beyond we decided to pick up a knife sharpener rather than waiting for the gift certificate Mom is sure to give us at Christmas. That we will use for a new, larger food processor. When we got it home, I tried it out on some pocket knives, then sharpened the kitchen knives.
Wow. I had forgotten what a sharp knife was like. Do yourself a big favor, and sharpen all of your knives now. Even if you don’t believe they need it. The world works much better when you have sharp knives.
Oh, yeah. I asked for a little hand-held knife sharpener for my birthday, and it’s fantastic. I use it a lot more than the sharpening rod. There’s nothing better than sharp knives. I rely on a parer and a santoku, but I have a boning knife I like, too. My partner has a giant chef’s knife but I only use it for whacking at acorn squash.
What kind of sharpening apparatus did you get? I’ve never sharpened my Wustof knives, and they’re well over five years old now. I thought AB told us not to sharpen our own knives.
I take my knives to a knife store at the mall (Merlo’s Cutlery). It’s $5 per knife, but well worth it since we only need to sharpen a couple times a year. They do it while you’re shopping. They come out so much better than any home sharpener we have tried. These guys just plain know what they are doing. We’ve got these 2 knives that are well over 50 years old (having belonged to my grandmother) and they are amazing to use since we started taking them in to be sharpened.
But I do agree with the OP, the’re nothing like a sharp knife to make working in the kitchen a joy.
:rolleyes: Not only is this nonsensical, but Wusthof actually sells a wide range of sharpening steels (these are actually diamond-coated sharpening steels, not just the nearly useless aligning steels you see with some knife sets). Wusthof makes all of their knives out of a forged chrome-molybdenum steel, which means that it’s a pretty hard alloy (~57-58 Rockwell C hardness) and therefore somewhat difficult to sharpen with a natural stone. I finally broke down and bought a couple of DMT diamond flat stones for sharpening due to a handful of high hardness knives I have, and it makes all the difference.
As for keeping a knife edge sharp, I’m in complete agreement with the o.p.; a dull blade is an accident waiting to happen. However, my experience with roller-type knife sharpeners (which is I believe what the o.p. has) is that they tend to grind away at the blade in chunks. This gives an apparently sharp edge when cutting with a drawing motion, but the edge doesn’t last as long (IMO) and isn’t all that great for fine chopping or slicing. I used to use edge aligning kits like the Lansky, but decided that they’re more trouble than they’re worth for large blades, and instead just learned how to use a stone properly. For serrated or highly curved edges I use a diamond “pick” sharpener, although the Spyderco sharpener system looks good too for smaller blades.
I say, give sharpening a shot. Buy a good two sided whetstone, practice on a cheap paring knife that you aren’t too attached to, know your angle and build up a muscle memory and consistency. Sharpening isn’t mystical, it’s just a little practice.
I sharpen my set of Old Hickory / Ontario Knife Works blades with a small handheld water stone, the kind where you keep the knife stationary and move the stone along it by the sink.
People kind of suck their teeth and whistle after testing 'em.
Henckels, similar to this. My mother cut her foot badly using a rolling sharpener on the floor many years ago on Christmas Eve (my father, in the ER: “But Dr. Rosenbaum! She has to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy tonight!”). She learned to wear shoes, and I learned not to use rolling sharpeners.
ETA: (Punishment for Jews eating ham on Christmas Eve?)
I use a diamond stone/Arkansas stone duo for my super cheapo Farberware knife. My setup does pretty good, believe it or not, for what I have put into it.
I want to invest in a high quality knife, but I’m on something of a whole spice bender at the moment, which is eating away at my budget. So I just keep on top of the sharpening/honing of my cheap knife. I had a dull knife accident resulting in nerve damage in one of my fingers, so I taught myself to use the stone out of a sense of self-preservation.
If you want sharp knives get one of these Here is another sharpner by Lansky that shows how this type of sharpener is used. The knife is clamped and held, and the stone always works at the same exact angle.
I have both of these, and either one will put an edge on my Wusthof knives that is scary sharp.
**Johnny ** I can shave with my knives, that is the test I use to see if they are getting as sharp as they can.
Oh yes! Just today in fact I got a a Christmas gift shipment from from Cheez_Whia via Penzey’s, because I have the most thoughty Mom ever. I think I have something like 4 different types of cinnamon/cassia on hand right now. Sometimes I actually cook with it, instead of just opening the containers and taking deep whiffs of the stuff.
I get stuff from The Spice House as well, which is a branch off of Penzey’s. I mostly go there because I can use my AmEx and get points.
I bought Hubby a Wustof sharpener for his birthday. It’s a two-stage with one carbide blade for course, and ceramic blades for fine. We went back and got another for home. He used to spend hours honing knives on a whetstope, and this makes it so much easier. He agrees that a sharp knife is essential - even if you do cut yourself with it, it’s not as bad as with a dull knife.
That rod, it doesn’t sharpen your knives. What it can do is remove burrs from the blade in between sharpenings to keep it smoother if you’ve knicked it or dinged it but it doesn’t really make the blade any sharper.
ETA- If you really want to put a scary sharp edge on your knifes, after you give it the stone treatment hone it on a scrap of cardboard. I save the ones from under frozen pizzas and put them on a drill so that I have a spinning cardboard circle. Learned that trick from an old guy working in a Cabelas in Missouri.
I have a three-sided stone, which I’m fairly competent on, but I find it sort of a pain and don’t use it often enough.
So last year, I heard good reviews about this Furi sharpener, and I bought it. I went a little nuts sharpening everything with an edge in my house for a while, and now I find that I’m not at all tolerant of a dull blade. I use it at least weekly, and it’s great. Simple to use and puts a very nice edge on my knives, mostly Henckels.
Reminds me, I need to get the pocketknife out of the truck and touch it up too…
Now that I’ve figured it out, I use a 20degree edge on my kitchen and pocket knifes, and they are frighteningly sharp. Once you get the hang of it, and follow the instructions, the process moves along very quickly, and gives a GREAT edge.
Let me give another shout out to Penzys as well. We recently made our first order, and were very impressed with the products. We happened to be near their Arlington MA store (Mass ave, 1300 ish block), and ended up buying even more!
I think I have something like 4 different types of cinnamon/cassia on hand right now. Sometimes I actually cook with it, instead of just opening the containers and taking deep whiffs of the stuff. 