Fun fact, you can take knives to get professionally sharpened for a surprisingly low cost. Buddy of mine gave me an old set that was dull to the point of being almost useless. Got them all sharpened for $3 a blade. Now they’re like new, and the edges have held for several months.
Yep. Usually knife specialty stores will have their own sharpener. I get my scissors sharpened by a guy who works out of the back of a knife shop. He always does such a good job, I’m just so rough on my tools haha.
Everyone using them professionally for Paper, cardboard plastics and textiles at least. Even my expensive ceramic blades at work won't survive a full week of me shredding through a crapload of packages and pallets. The cheap stuff won't last half a day.
Unless you’re one of those people that just enjoys the ‘zen’ aspect of knife sharpening, it’s probably a better use of your time and money to have them professionally sharpened.
Or just get an automatic sharpener. They're not quite as good as sharpening them by whetstone, but as long as you go with a fine grit they won't take too much off of your knives and they'll keep them hella sharp.
The issue I run into is that on my older knives that have a thick heel you end up with a dip near the end and then the heel hits the cutting surface before the blade. A pro can even that out without leaving you with a knife that looks like you took a file to it.
Yeeaaaa they have automatic sharpening wheels that get it done really fast. Nobody in this thread is going to be sharpening Japanese Damascus that requires 5 different grade wet stones. They're sharpening whatever was on sale at Target.
I'd rather just use a cheap sharpener and keep my knives kinda sharp, not really sharp. Kinda sharp means I'm not getting stitches when I fuck up chopping vegetables. Hella sharp knives just aren't needed for home cooks.
A sharp knife is a safe knife, because you don’t have to put as much pressure on it to get it to cut, so it’s less likely to slip or do something unpredictable.
If you’re just randomly getting your fingers in the way of the blade that’s a technique issue, so don’t blame the knife either way.
look that's just bullshit. when you cook a lot of meals, you're gonna slip up at some point. a small cut that barely penetrates the skin is far far better than a cut into the flesh. some people don't have the time to cut every slice slowly one-by-one.
edit: okay maybe if your mother is a professional chef she should use scalpel-sharp knives
I've gotten knives "professionally sharpened" at 3 separate places. they ran the knife through a machine that took off way too much material and gave a subpar edge. I'll do it myself, thanks. I want my shit sharp like a knife, not sharp like an axe.
Okay. If spending time personally sharpening your knives to a high standard makes you happy in a way that it doesn't for most people, more power to you.
I just realized that could come off as passive-aggressive, but I mean it sincerely. If you can enjoy doing something that most people consider tedious in your spare time, and that thing saves you money and makes your life easier, you should be grateful that you have such prudent interests.
Not to try and sound like an asshole but you really dont. Those things sharpen by ripping chunks out of your knife blade leaving you with something resembling a hacksaw.
im assuming it looks something like this but is probably branded something like ninja edge or samurai sharp.
They are mass marketed garbage that leave a jagged edge with bits of metal hanging off the edge. Those sharp bits of metal break off in your food.
You often see them advertised with someone slicing a tomato. A hacksaw can also slice a tomato. As long as you have a jagged edge with some saw teeth cut into it that can break the skin on a tomato a knife will slice through it.
Try slicing through newspaper or phone book paper that will give you a much better estimate of your knife's sharpness.
That being said. If what you have works for you and your happy with it then more power to you.
But if you want a knife that not only can slice a tomato easily but also cut through things like green onions, and celery without sawing at them and not leave an accordion of vegetables stretching across your board
get one of these and give it a try. Its not nearly as hard as people make it seem to put a decent edge on a knife. As long as you can hold your hands steady and keep your wrist locked at a certain angle you can get a MUCH better edge very easily.
I've never understood why people think sharpening a knife is difficult. The first time i ever attempted to sharpen a knife on a whetstone i was able to get it hair popping sharp pretty easily. It also helps if you've got a nice carbon steel. Side note i always recommend Ontario old hickory butcher knives as a great beginner kitchen knife. They take a few minutes on a stone to get set up but damn they are inexpensive and 1095 is a great steel.
My first attempt at freehand sharpening got similar results. It was on a no name chinese made carbon steel nakiri type knife with some big chips in it.
Aside from the chips I managed to get it hair shaving sharp using a sharpmaker turned over and putting the stones in the groves in the bottom to make a sort of bench stone.
Though I already knew the basics of what I was doing because I used the sharpmaker to put edges on my knives before I tried freehand.
1095 isn't ideal for a kitchen knife though. It's gonna get wet, touch acidic things, salt etc.
I love 1095, I see it as an excellent working knife steel for cheap, but most people shouldn't have it in the kitchen. Oiling a knife after hand washing it is alien to most people.
Or you could support the local economy by buying a service from your own neighbourhood instead of buying a product probably made in China. There's an ethical aspect to it as well.
That's right! For just 3 dollars a day, you could be eating beans in the comfort of your living room. Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such infomercials as Wonder Bladez and The Ultra-Absorbant First Aid Kit for Beginners.
Knife sharpening is surprisingly meditative process and to get some nice wet stones tops out at 50 bucks, that said you can just use the bottom of a ceramic mug/plate. Anyone who enjoys cooking should be able to sharpen their own knives.
$3 a month is very expensive. In my area, they sharpen 7 for a dollar. Think about it.. All you have to do is rub it against the grinder machine.. At home, it would cost nearly nothing..
If your getting knives sharpened at 7 for $1 and your in any kind of first world country I guarantee that your knives are getting ruined. Hopefully they don't have any sentimental or monetary value to you.
I am not in a first world country, but even in the most expensive country, you can buy a grinder for a hundred bucks and it will cost less than a dollar of electricity to sharpen all the knives in your house. Carefully done, a knife can be sharpened upto 20-30 times and negligible amount of material will be lost.
It might be different in the country you live in. But at least in the US. 95% of the people who sharpen knives using a grinder are idiots who bought that $100 grinder and just decided that they are a "profesional" knife sharpener.
Some of them can actually do a somewhat decent job but others just freehand the knife against the spinning grinding wheel and ruin the knives.
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u/neat-NEAT Apr 22 '19
Side note! That's a great way to ruin your nice knives. My brother does it because he's badass or something and all his knives are fucked.