/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>5304521

Technically you can get by on less. I started with cheap stuff and it worked. But nicer stuff works better.

If you want to take the opposite approach, even a crappy $30 diamond steel will add an aggressive toothy edge without a whole lot of skill or effort. If you are just talking about being able to make basic cuts without frustration, that may be enough for you. But there's something very satisfying about putting a mirror polished edge on an old knife even though it takes more work and from a certain perspective is kind of unnecessary.

> i will admit though i work at vector

Subtle troll

I use weeb swords mostly. They never need sharpening due to the superior full-tang construction. Pic related, it can pass both the manila rope test and the penny sawing trick, both of which are useful traits when cooking food.

ITT everyone gives contradictory advice, confusing op even more

I doubt you fucked up your calphalon knives. You probably just made them dull.

I used japanese waterstones for several years and I got decent edges on some of my knives but not others. You probably want to start with something in the 800-1200 range and a stone flattener. You can get finer stones as you get good with the lower grits. Some people recommend dual sided stones but it seems like those are mostly lower quality stones. The annoying thing about freehanding is that one little error can force you to start all over if you roll the edge in a moment of inattention. But with small carbon steel knives this isn't much of an issue since they sharpen up so quickly and easily.

I finally broke down and bought an edgepro a couple of months ago and while it wasn't the cheapest thing, I'm glad I spent the money. My problem knives now have a perfect edge. I got the kit from ctkg that has the custom cut shapton glass stones. My easier knives aren't showing any improvement but it was my big stainless chefs knife that gave me the most trouble, and that's my most used knife.

I still use my chromium oxide charged hanging strop between stones, as I did when I was freehanding. I think something like that is a pretty good thing to have around either way. There are these felt blocks that are supposedly good for that too but I've never tried them.

There's another fancy gizmo out there called the wicked edge which is newer than the edgepro but a similar concept. I haven't tried it but some people say it's better. If you're looking to throw money at this, it's probably worth researching.

Then there's the tormek t-7.