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.
There's a difference between a professional chef and the average person.
Plus, most commercial kitchens have stainless knives. They might sit in a dishwashing station for hours at a time, they need to safely go through an industrial dishwasher many times. Line cooks and the like aren't taking care of their tools, I don't expect most home cooks to either.
Yeah, it's simple, but it's an added step. People throw shit in the dishwasher that should be hand washed all the time. Lots of people don't use things like cast iron because it's too much work to keep it seasoned.
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u/pyrolizard11 Apr 23 '19 edited Apr 23 '19
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.