Sharpening options

[Anonymous No.6631874]

So, I have a set of Henckels Professional S knives - a couple santoku and some chef's knives. I hone them occasionally, and I've used one of those crappy Ikea sharpeners, but I feel like they need some TLC. I've got a little bit more money than time these days, so I'm thinking about taking them to Williams Sonoma for sharpeneing (1st blade free, $5 for each additional).

Any thoughts on this? Other suggestions?

INB4 Just do it yourself, you lazy fagget.

[Anonymous No.6631879]

>>6631874
Also I'm not claiming these are the BEST KNIVES EVER AND I'M SUCH A GOOD CHEF BECUASE I HAVE THESE AND YOUR KNIVES ARE SHITE are anything - just looking for advice on what to do with what I've got beyoned "THROW THOSE OUT AND GET WUSTHOFS!!!"

[Anonymous No.6631890]

>>6631874
>more money than time
If you had modern knives, I'd say an Edgepro, or a Wicked Edge. Also a good variety of aftermarket stones, and a hanging strop, and a ceramic rod such as the Idahone.

Although all of this is overkill for Henckels, they can't really hold an edge for shit, so just get a pull through electric sharpener, and a grooved steel to bash some microserrations back into the "edge" (such that it is). Keep in mind you can get much better steel for well under $100 a knife, if you're not bent on using the same kind of steel your grandma got for her wedding present in 1954.

[Anonymous No.6631898]

>>6631890
Yeah. they don't really seem to hold edges very well. I really like the knives, but they seem too... delicate?

Funny enough, all our Henckels were wedding gifts for us... They're my first "good" knives.

What do you mean by "modern" knives?

[Anonymous No.6631933]

>>6631898
Knives that are primarily meant for cutting food. As opposed to splitting frozen blocks of sausages, or being used as a screwdriver, or a hammer, or a pry bar, or a can opener, and whatever other things the average kitchen knife gets put through in the average home over the course of decades.

German knives are designed to avoid getting a bad reputation for breaking or chipping or otherwise misbehaving when abused by children and careless adults. To achieve this, they give up a lot in terms of performance as a food cutting device.

You know those new cigarette lighters that barely work due to all the child-safety shit they had to add to avoid lawsuits? A Henckels is basically the knife equivalent of one of those.

[Anonymous No.6631953]

>>6631933
>>6631898
Oh and by "modern" I mean the style of knife that has gotten popular since the mid 2000s when the internet made basic knife care easily accessible (prior to that people had to rely on the cutlery department at macys, where all people knew was useless nonsense like "ice forged" and "full tang")

This change of attitude is mainly associated with Japanese brands, but it is by no means exclusive to Japan. Even the German brands have caught on and are now selling German-branded knives made of decent quality (generally non-German) steel. But they are somewhat overpriced compared to their Japanese counterparts.

[Anonymous No.6631956]

>>6631874
Your best option is to get some stones and learn to sharpen. It really doesn't take very long to sharpen a knife once you learn how.

If you don't want to learn, then get a rail/guide based sharpening system like an edgepro or something.

[Anonymous No.6632405]

>>6631953
stop shitting up this board

[syn !!5auGoPfbzhy No.6634263]

>>6631874
>>6631898

- Not holding edge. What kind of cutting surface are you using them on? What

- Do they need sharpening? What's your method for knowing that they are sharp? I use the wet fingernail test. Can you get them back to 'sharp' with just a honing steel? That's often enough to bring them back. See a few YT vids on how to do it. Gordon Ramsay's is pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBn1i9YqN1k

Inb4 yeah, he calls this 'sharpening' rather than honing, etc. I'm not getting into the honing versus sharpening.

- If honing doesn't bring it back, I can't recommend using a chef's choice three stage sharpener enough. It doesn't cause the heat damage of other electric sharpeners because of the diamond stones and a kid can do it. Get the one that can do both western and asian knives, and read the manual.

I actually did teach my seven-year-old nephew to sharpen knives using it and how to test for sharpness, and he's starting a little business sharpening the knives of his neighbors. for $3 a blade, four for $10.

I think I've cooked in a dozen different home kitchens in the last year, and unless it was a knife I recently gifted them, every goddamn knife they had was dull as fuck. When I did give them a knife as a gift, they were always shocked by how extremely sharp it was - but that's how sharp kitchen knives are supposed to be.

[Anonymous No.6634312]

>I've used one of those crappy Ikea sharpeners

RIP in peacce OP's knives ;~;7

[Anonymous No.6634326]

>>6631874
Here, and don`t moan bout both left hands that grow from your ass - http://www.wickededgeusa.com/product/pro-pack-ii/

[Anonymous No.6634361]

>>6631874
get proper knives not consumerfag crap!
http://www.fallkniven.com/en/shop/category/11/chef/'s-knives

[Anonymous No.6635884]

>>6631890
>muh chipped blades that I don't even have enough sharpening skill to take advantage of
>muh shitty powder steel with no grain
>but it's modurn, it's got electrolytes!
You faggots are worse than those trying to make cat iron cookware into Teflon pans with
>muh 400 duhgree smowk point oils
Soft steels work better than hard one in many cases and hard steels tend have more edge retention. Just stop.
also
>deleting one shitpost that is correctly identifying another post as a shitpost
/ck/ brings it on itself.

[Anonymous No.6636348]

>>6635884
What are you so mad about? Because you got hoodwinked by a Macy's salesman?
>muh ice forged
You don't even know what that means, and yet you go around acting like Mr. Henckels deserves a nobel prize for making child-safe knives that don't cut and won't break when you hammer on them.

Good thing your set came with a serrated bread knife so you can actually cut tomatoes :)

[Anonymous No.6636548]

>>6634312
Holy shit anon does that bottom knife even have a bevel?

[Anonymous No.6636575]

>>6634361
>tfw no qt3.14 squeezing out a deuce in front of me
why even live?

[Anonymous No.6636598]

>>6631879
I have the same knives. stop being a spergy cunt please

[Anonymous No.6636816]

In all seriousness, I'm a poor graduate student and my kitchen knives consist of a henckels pro chefs knife, a utility knife, and some bread knives from 100 years ago.

If I wanted a 'good' knife that held an edge of a long time, what am I looking for?

Any reputable sites I can visit for reviews?

Always buy japanese?

I have stones and know how to sharpen, fuck pull through.

[Anonymous No.6636826]

>>6636816
Depends on your budget. If you know how to sharpen then you can get some decent japanese knives on ebay for fairly cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/tadafusa

[Anonymous No.6636831]

>>6636826

thanks, i'm always a bit suspicious about buying equipment that I need to 'perform' well on ebay though, who knows how some fuck treated his knife / mp3 player / whatever before he sends it off to me

[Anonymous No.6636835]

Concerning carbon steel knives,

Will they really discolor if say, I cut something and go to eat dinner without wiping it down, but then wash it right after dinner?

Or do I really need to wipe right after using it (within a few minutes)?

[Anonymous No.6636855]

>>6636835
You should wash and dry a carbon steel knife as soon as possible. It'll discolour no matter what you do, but if you leave it too long it'll rust. However long it takes to rust depends on the steel.

[Anonymous No.6636857]

>>6636855

Fuck, that makes me sad.

I hate seeing brand new equipment get 'damaged.' A nice knife is a work of art, I feel like I would get extremely butthurt if my knives started looking like your pic, even though they were destined to end up like that.

[Anonymous No.6636870]

>>6636857
I wouldn't worry too much about discolouration. The formation of a patina is just a part of using carbon steel. The colours are the result of a thin film of oxides on the surface of the knife, and help protect the underlying metal against rust and pitting. If you don't like patina you can always polish it away every once in a while.

[Anonymous No.6636892]

>>6636870

Perhaps I could.

Regarding steel hardness, assuming that I'm not a retard who mistreats my knife by dropping it / putting it in the dishwasher, do I have to worry about breaking a carbon-steel knife during normal use?

I read on amazon that shun knives can chip if you move the blade laterally across the cutting board, for example when chopping.

Is this just a general feature of hard steels that I can't get around if I want an edge that will last a long time, or specific to the steel that shun uses?

I'm also looking at something like this that people seem to like.

http://korin.com/Suisin-High-Carbon-Steel-Gyutou?sc=27&category=8549827

[Anonymous No.6637015]

>>6636892

If Shun is that crystalline, you can never use a honing steel on it, you'll turn the edge into a bandsaw blade. I dragged a steel across a blade hardened like that and it ended up looking like shark teeth.

[Anonymous No.6637083]

Get yourself a 1000 grit stone, a 6000 grit stone, and a piece of cardboard or leather strop. You'll be able to shave your face and balls with the edge you get from that.

Then just watch a dozen videos on youtube and practice for 10-20 hours on a few shitty knives. It's not that much of an investment in time or money.

If that's not your thing, just look up a local sharpener on craigslist, it's usually like 3-5 bucks a knife.

[Anonymous No.6637101]

>>6637083

way too high a grit. should be 400 to 600 to ultra fine.

[Anonymous No.6637121]

>>6636892
At 60-61 HRC, neither shun nor suisin are as prone to chipping as many other gyutos, though plenty still seem to manage it.

It is most likely the case with
>>6631890
>>6631933
>>6631953
>>6636348
and hence the assblasted need to purport their erroneous statements with as much arrogant falsehood as possible.

>>6637015
I use a glass rod on my hard blades, but not the same way as I do on my softer ones. Bear in mind, we're talking an HRC difference of 58+2 to 64+2, in addition to different grinds and steel composition, so it's a pretty big jump. If my hard blades need some rod love before a shift is up, it's generally because I was lazy in sharpening and didn't take it to the 5k stone and I was very busy in prep in which I used one blade almost exclusively, which is rare, but does happen. Removing the bur via rod is difficult to do on a hard blade without making it feel dull as shit and you do risk minor chips if you press too hard. Well, perhaps difficult is the wrong word. It took me a while to experiment and practice angles and pressures that work for me without having to gingerly use the rod for 15 minutes before something good comes of it. So yeah, it's a last resort thing. A back up knife and touching up on stones later is the easier and more efficient way to go, IMO. If I know I'm working with a lot of hard stuff in a shift, I'll bring several softer blades out and reserve my hard blades with steeper grinds for slicing work that their performance makes at least somewhat of a difference on.
That's just my experience.

[Anonymous No.6637526]

>>6636892
I can't speak to suisin as I don't have any but remember the child safety logic. Shun is by far the most popular Japanese knife brand which means lots of people buy them, abuse them, and are too ignorant to know how to fix them. A friend of mine, a professional cook, swears by his shuns, so there's that. But for people who are going to try to chop pennies with their knives because they got trolled by a cutco salesman, just stick with henckels because at least the set comes with a bread knife.
>>6637015
Stop saying "honing steel" and be more specific, I use my idahone (google it before shitposting please) on my japanese knives and it keeps me from having to go to the stones for a while. Obviously (well maybe not obvious to you), don't use a grooved steel.

[Anonymous No.6639527]

>>6637526
>child safety logic
>too ignorant
>A friend of mine, a professional cook
and damn near everything you write is so full of ass pain and most of it it flat out wrong or exaggerated
also, your friend who is a professional cook spent way more than he should have for knives of that quality
What japanese knives do you have that a hone works on, and how are you sharpening them? Because unless you're talking about dealing with a bur, that is one point that is completely full of shit.
Bottom line, anyone claiming that softer steel blades are only for those who do not know what they're doing is a complete moron who knows very little about any cuisine that is not designed around those sorts of knives.

Seriously, just stop posting about that which you have no fucking clue.

[Anonymous No.6639564]

>>6639527
You know just going LOL U MAD LOOK AT THIS ASSPAIN doesn't make it so.

Anyway I've got a couple of Mac, a couple of Tojiro, and a Sabatier nogent in my regular rotation. The sab has the most personality but, objectively speaking, the Japanese knives are the best.

I'm using a variety of water stones, a leather strop, and the ceramic rod.

Also it's called a "burr", for future reference.

[Anonymous No.6640638]

>>6639564
>doesn't make it so
and neither does your exaggeration
>objectively speaking
no, that would be your opinion, and is circumstantial to how you use your knives
>Also it's called a "burr", for future reference.
In most cases it is spelled with one r, although both are used, and neither is considered incorrect.
It is sometimes also seen as buhr, though I have not seen it often in 21st century context, and is generally used to name the leftover "flash" in brick firing. Flash being in quotations because it is not entirely correct in the modern usage either, but it is more correct in this context than how bur or burr is typically used.

[Anonymous No.6640849]

>>6640638
It's not an exaggeration to say that henckels
knives are designed with child safety logic in mind.

How I use my knives is I cut food with them. As opposed to, say, opening cans of tomatoes with them. Obviously, if your circumstances are different, a child-safe knife could make sense.

[Anonymous No.6640857]

>>6640638
You know absolutely fuck all about knives.