Knives

Regarding cheap knives: I too bet that a good lady sharpener could fix up your decrepit knife. Forschner/Victorinox seems to be talked about as the Best Cheap Knife but I have no experience with them. These Tojiros were also recommended to me recently as great knives for the price.

I think I'll wait for the line with adjustable angles. I just got the Kyocera vegetable peeler whose head rotates from harp-style to straight-style.

Also, I was reading on those Sani-tuff boards - you can sand them to resurface! I'm going to order one after the holidays.

This might be a stupid question, but where would would I find a place like this?

I picture you in Michigan, but is that a true recollection or just a subconscious inference from your Michigany attitude?

And what's the name of the place? They're all within a couple of blocks here -- I can go round and demand an apology for the mixup on your behalf.

The place is Bakedeco.com, but that's okay - I'm happy now it's here.

Did you get to try out that knife sharpening thing? I'm still debating if I want to get that into it, or just continue to pay the pros.

You have to think a bit about angles and bevels when you use it, and take into consideration the bevel your knife already has, and it definitely takes an hour's commitment on a dull knife, but the instructions are helpful. It seems like using it without making the initial effort to understand the why of what you're doing might be frustrating or unsatisfying, but if you do that, home sharpening does seem to give a lot of control beyond what taking a knife to a sharpening service offers.

I don't think I want to get that technical with the knives. But I would like to see the video of the guy slicing paper the thin way!

I've decided to take the plunge and start sharpening my knives myself. I just ordered this system + special c-clamp - the reviews make it sound straightforward to use and that it gives a good edge.

Today, my knives are SHARP!

Nothing like a sharp knife. My steel and sharpener are perpetually at work so my home knives are in a terrible state. I am a poor show.

Just like the poor cobbler's kids never having any shoes :) Now that all mine are sharp, I'm starting to solicit them from family and friends, so I'm not tempted to just keep sharpening my own into nothing. Next you know, I'll have a stand set up down on the sidewalk, like my shoeshine guys.

i need to learn how to sharpen. we've got a water sharpener and a crazy expensive, apparently difficult to use japanese sharpening system, neither of which i can use. i'm taking a knife skills class in a couple of weeks, and i hope this is covered!

I'd be surprised if it wasn't. In fact I'd be bloody outraged.

i assure you that i'll cause a scene if it's not!

http://www.altonbrown.com/shun/gfx_shun/bandaids_lg.gif

I'm coveting knives. I have one great knife and it's great. I love you so much, Only Good Knife I Own.

Happiness is not having what you want, it's wanting what you have.

lauren how did the knife skills class go? i really need to learn how to sharpen, too.

I gave up trying to sharpen the old-school way--broke down and bought a chef's choice dealie. It's pretty awesome, but not as awesome as sharpening on a stone like a true knife badass.

My dad stood around in the kitchen sharpening knives bcz he loved his wetstone so much. It was his dad's, though, so he wouldn't let us touch it, ever.

http://home.woot.com/ has a really good deal on a knife dock today. I've been wanting one of these for awhile - a better way to corral the steak knives in the cutlery drawer as we don't have quite enough counter space for knife blocks.

Magnetic knife holder on a spare bit of wall space was one of my best investments.

If we are ever in a permanent space...

I've been thinking - even if I did have the wall space, I don't think I'd stick a dozen steak knives up on a magnetic strip. Chef knife, slicing knife, cleaver - yes. Do you keep your paring knife on it?

Yeah -- serrated bread knife, 3 chefs knives, 3 paring knives, no steak knives. I need a cleaver.

Jaq, you can get those magnetic holders with magnets on BOTH sides, they're just hard to find!! I have the wall screw-in kind now but I did find a link from the manufacturer at one point and emailed them asking why I couldn't find the double magnet ones--which affix v solidly to the side of a fridge, for instance. I think iirc they emailed me back and offered to take my order and then I never did anything about it.

I sort of love that the official description of this cleaver on Amazon includes "great for Halloween haunted houses".

Laurel, that sounds like a good idea - in our current kitchen though, I do all the knife work at a freestanding central butcher block. If we ever move again, etc etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FntD3KgIaY

http://home.woot.com/ has a great deal on an 8" cleaver right now, $25+$5 shipping

It's a woot-off though, so probably only there for 10 minutes.

knifebrag: i've only ever owned a single truly awesome knife in my life. a friend from school had a buddy that won the show forged and fired. this is the first kitchen knife he ever made and it was more or less to my specs. i got to watch him finish it, even after all the forging it was a pretty insane process that took a lot of skill and precision. think it's 7.5". the handle is made from Australian snakewood fwiw that has some beautiful detail.
https://i.imgur.com/MribaRM.jpg

bonus: it'll get you high

oh, and aforementioned friend recommended using oil and not water or dry

I care for my knives with this guy; probably not going to spend the time learning to use stones in this lifetime

https://brodandtaylor.com/knife-sharpener/

Yeah, I was watching a ton of videos on different sharpening stones, grits, methods. Some need to be water soaked, perma soaked, oiled, or splash and go. It's a whole thing.

'burrfection' was the youtube channel I was watching where he has tons of videos of different sharpening stones/methods, stropping methods and how to sharpen different types of knives. He's not a professional chef, I think he just became ocd about knives. But I like how he wings it a bit.

I have a diamond coated steel from ikea for day to day and a global 1000 grit stone for more serious sharpening. I can get a fierce edge with these, I’ve taken my knives in for sharpeneing I once or twice along the way.

i like 'burrfection,' he's got a lot of enthusiasm and his sang froid about destroying extremely nice knives is...bracing

i use a wusthof 800/2000 and it's fine, but i'd really like some proper japanese waterstones and a sink bridge

I was going to get something to hold the stone then realized that I could just use the sanituff board with towels and maybe a brick on top.

I am very into sharpening knives on the whetstone now. I think I have the touch.

I did a knife sharpening class yesterday and it was somewhat revelatory. I didn’t think I was that bad at it but I got so much better at in a few hours.

Biggest revelation, which I feel dumb for not knowing about, is that your whetstone becomes less than flat very easily. We were to to bring our stones to the class we went over them with a flattener and the difference is remarkable.

I guess I should watch more sharpening stuff on YouTube or whatever.

oh yeah, did they make you do the sharpie grid on top to see how not flat it is? I haven't flattened mine yet. I have just been trying to be good about using the entire thing.

my newest knife is an Enso Bunka.

It was a 6B pencil but the effect is much the same.

Interesting how much work it took to sharpen my 15+ year old global vs my kamata (basic stainless one). Both professionally done not so long ago but the softer global took a lot more work than the harder kamata.

I suspect I’m going to get very nerdy about this. Sharpening knives is very relaxing.

Only available till the end of today (Sunday) but this documentary about master knife sharpener, Katsunobu Sakashita is fantastic. Some next level techniques on display here and his arch shaped stone is really interesting.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4003127/

oh yeah pencil not sharpie. I don't know if I find sharpening relaxing yet. The time does fly by though and I am shocked that I spend an hour on a couple of knives. I am thinking of getting a splash and go whetstone because having to soak is something that I sometimes don't want to prepare just for 1 or 2 knives. I have only been honing on cardboard and want to try something else.

oh wow his fingers!

ugh stropping on cardboard I mean, not honing.

It’s kangaroo leather down here or nothing.

But yes, his fingers! I am astounded he can still hold chopsticks or do anything that isn’t sharpen knives

You both will enjoy this:

https://youtu.be/_jb1jNDQ-Bw

Oh wait that’s the kimono episode even though it’s titled as the Sumurai sword episode. Very weird.

all i can find to view are these clips:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p055p54d

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p055p54d

although i did obtain a torrent of the episode.