How do You sharpen your cooking knifes

[ScoopKona]

I am not surprised. Hopefully you still have them. Did you buy them from a traveling salesmen?

Of course I still have them. My knives are razors. A few of them are used every single day. Others only come out for sushi days, or for massive prep days.

The best knives were purchased directly from the smith. (The yanagibas, debas, nakiri, a couple of gyutos and similar.) I have some Mac knives that get the job done and don't cost a fortune. (They sell single bevel, which isn't common for mass produced knives.) And then an assortment of sturdy "beaters" for breaking down shellfish and similar.

 

[andre10056]

I have some decent cooking knifes
They have become dull with use
I have looked on Amazon for devices to sharpen these knifes

Which devices have you found to be the best for this task

The best way to have your knives sharpened is to find a person who knows what they're doing rather than buying a "device" that may not get your knives sharp or may actually ruin your knives.

How to find such person? I go to a place that sharpens knives for restaurants that has rows of people (mostly speakers of foreign languages) sitting at workbenches sharpening knives using what appears to be expensive equipment, The foreman or owner will take a few bucks per knife and take you over to a workbench to have one of his employees do the sharpening. The difference in performance thereafter is incredible.

Someone's mentioned Ace Hardware above. I'd prefer someone who does knife sharpening all the time rather than only on occasion who may or may not know what they're doing.

 

[Big Matt]

Chef'sChoice has a wide range of sharpeners on the market.

I have the same one as you also. I also have Henckel knives. I sharpen the ones that I use most about once a year and that's enough. I do true the blade with a steel every time I use them. I use the knives daily as I am the cook in my house.

 

[ScoopKona]

How to find such person? I go to a place that sharpens knives for restaurants that has rows of people (mostly speakers of foreign languages) sitting at workbenches sharpening knives using what appears to be expensive equipment, The foreman or owner will take a few bucks per knife and take you over to a workbench to have one of his employees do the sharpening. The difference in performance thereafter is incredible.

The casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip offered this service weekly. The mobile knife-ruining service would show up. And most of the cooks would drop their knives into a hotel pan. One hour later, the knives were returned.

Since the mobile knife-ruining service used a high-speed grinder, it took a very aggressive amount of steel off every time. That was no problems when the knives cost less than $20.

Here's the most-used knife in the industry. Restaurants buy them by the dozen: https://shopusars.com/products/dexter-russell-31601b-basics-chef-s-knife

 

[am1]

The casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip offered this service weekly. The mobile knife-ruining service would show up. And most of the cooks would drop their knives into a hotel pan. One hour later, the knives were returned.

Since the mobile knife-ruining service used a high-speed grinder, it took a very aggressive amount of steel off every time. That was no problems when the knives cost less than $20.

Here's the most-used knife in the industry. Restaurants buy them by the dozen: https://shopusars.com/products/dexter-russell-31601b-basics-chef-s-knife

At what price point do you think it is just a measuring contest?

 

[ScoopKona]

At what price point do you think it is just a measuring contest?

It's like guitars. Is a $20,000 Stratocaster going to make any difference at all for a new player? Of course not. Might even be detrimental.

Any knife that can save me a minute or even a few seconds per task adds up fast when I have several hundred tasks per night. Every action needs to be as efficient as possible when making 5 tables worth of food every fifteen minutes or so.

I have an inexpensive oyster shucking knife that was given to me on a big order. It may be inexpensive, but it's thick as my pinky and yet has a scary sharp edge on it. I won't use it without chainmail gloves. Even regular cut gloves aren't enough protection. When I opened a popular sushi restaurant (I was called in to open the restaurant), they had a daily contest. A case of oysters. Me against every other cook on the line. I didn't have "mad skillz" compared to the others, just a knife that opened oyster shells like they were made of butter.

That knife wouldn't even fit in an electric knife ruiner. And it's one of my favorites of all. The smith who made it died. And nobody is making them like that anymore. So I baby that knife knowing it's probably the last one I'm ever going to be able to get.

 

[DrQ]

I sharpen the ones that I use most about once a year and that's enough

The nice thing about the ChefsChoice 15XV is that you can use Stage III or Stage II to "hone" the knife for maintenance. Stage I is just needed to address nicks in the blade.

 

[andre10056]

The casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip offered this service weekly. The mobile knife-ruining service would show up. And most of the cooks would drop their knives into a hotel pan. One hour later, the knives were returned.

Since the mobile knife-ruining service used a high-speed grinder, it took a very aggressive amount of steel off every time. That was no problems when the knives cost less than $20.

Here's the most-used knife in the industry. Restaurants buy them by the dozen: https://shopusars.com/products/dexter-russell-31601b-basics-chef-s-knife

The nice thing about being taken over to the person who will be sharpening your knife/knives is that you can say, "I want it to be sharp but I don't want a lot taken off". Which I said because I saw the potential that that would happen. And the guy said in accented English, "Don't worry. I take good care of you like you family". And he did. And I ask for him every time I go back, although I'm sad that he's still there after multiple years.

I'm a big "taking a course" guy. That's why I take college courses at BU under the "Evergreen" program for 58 year olds and over. And I've searched for knife sharpening classes as they sometimes have them in the Boston area but I have yet to be able to attend. As well as numerous blacksmithing classes in which you make your own knives. Back some years ago, I took classes in Plumbing and Heating, electrical wiring, masonry, auto mechanics, auto body, etc., etc., etc. But it seems that, in recent years, schools that offered night and weekend courses in such things no longer offer such classes.

Don't know why but I assume there's relatively little demand for classes that at one time filled up quickly.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

I have had a favorite pocket knife for 20 or 30 years that I bought at Harbor Fright As @ScoopKona said, cheap knives sharpen easily (meaning that they dull quickly). I use a diamond file typically. I've bought some on-line and some from places like Grizzly. It sharpens more quickly than a stone. But I will sometimes use a stone. It'll get the knife sharp enough to shave hair off my arm. I typically don't do that though.

Sometimes when we're traveling and I need a sharper knife, I pick up a plate or coffee cup and use the unglazed bottom to touch up. I'm traveling now and a few days ago I wanted a sharp knife to trim a steak and remove some silver skin. So, I found a plate with an unglazed bottom. Of course, it isn't as good as a diamond file or real stone but it'll do in a pinch for a light touch-up.

I check the sharpness of the knife one of two ways - - by visually holding it at a certain angle in bright sunshine and look along the edge of the knife to see any spot that might show a "glint". That means that microscopically there is a flat spot reflecting the sunshine. What I was looking for is if there was a small area that I missed that didn't get sharpened as well as the rest of the knife. Another way I check for sharpness is I tap the knife edge at an angle on my finger nail. If it "skitters" it is quite dull. If it kind of digs in without using force it is sharp enough.

I prefer a diamond file or stone because I can control it and I'm not removing as much material as I would with a grinder.

My Dad was a cook and did butchering at work. He would use some fancy stones before he started cutting. IIRC he followed that up using a "steel" - - perhaps to burnish or perhaps to remove any wire edge. @ScoopKona would probably know why he did that. After several years of sharpening his large French Knives shrunk and looked like thin boning knives. Ha ha

 

[DrQ]

My dad loved fishing and had filleting knives that were sharp as a razor but flexible.

My relatives worked the boning lines for Hormel's in Austin MN and they knew their knives too. Also, a lot a of arthritis in the hand from repetitive stress injury.

 

[DrQ]

Sometimes when we're traveling and I need a sharper knife, I pick up a plate or coffee cup and use the unglazed bottom to touch up.

That's a neat trick I learned many years ago.

 

[ScoopKona]

perhaps to burnish or perhaps to remove any wire edge. After several years of sharpening his large French Knives shrunk and looked like thin boning knives.

As the knife is used, the very edge will curl (and typically opposite of the hand using the knife. There are left and right handed knives when you get to the high end. (Well, even medium end -- Mac make outstanding single-bevel knives at attractive prices.) The ability to hit the cutting floor at a right angle is nigh-on impossible to achieve. So knives will tend to burr in one direction or the other.

When performing fast, repetitive tasks like mincing chives, the burr will form quicker. I've seen people steel a knife half-way through a case of chives -- because it makes a difference. Knives in need of a touch-up will fail to cut all the way through the chive/green-onion, leaving a ribbon of mostly-cut veg. Good technique makes a big difference here as well (as it does with most kitchen tasks).

Because of my former job, I get invited to a great many dinner parties. Maybe one house in 50 has properly-sharp knives. And maybe one in 100 has a knife block full of razors.

It's also my experience that copper pans in most households are to be looked at, not used. And people select cookware based on weight more than anything. (They want light as a feather. I usually want "weighs more than a stack of bricks And when I don't want that, I want carbon steel.)

 

[easyrider]

A Ginsu knife doesn't need to be sharpened said the guy on the late night tv infomercial .

Bill

 

[PigsDad]

A Ginsu knife doesn't need to be sharpened said the guy on the late night tv infomercial .

Bill

Slices tomatoes so thin your mother-in-law never comes back!

Kurt

 

[Brett]

Slices tomatoes so thin your mother-in-law never comes back!

Kurt

But wait, there's more !
"It slices onions so fast you don't have time to cry"

 

[Big Matt]

The nice thing about the ChefsChoice 15XV is that you can use Stage III or Stage II to "hone" the knife for maintenance. Stage I is just needed to address nicks in the blade.

Yes. I actually hone them, not sharpen them. I don't believe that I've ever used Stage 1.

 

[normab]

I have a used chefs choice sharpener I picked up at a thrift shop. Works great on my German knives. I used to take to Ace hardware, but using the chefs choice is much cheaper and and I don’t have to wait.