Author Topic: First Kitchen Knife Sharpening  (Read 2846 times)

hans

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First Kitchen Knife Sharpening
« on: November 27, 2016, 06:03:09 PM »
So I took my first attempt at sharpening my OXO Pro knives today. I have a couple of Shun ones that will need to eventually be done but didn't want to mess those up so I thought practicing on the cheaper knives a bit early will help when it comes time to do touch ups later.

I have a set of diamond stones for my hand tools but after watching quite a few videos I decided to get a combination whetstone 1k/6k since it seems "feel" is a big part of sharpening kitchen knives. I went with the cheaper King KW-65 stone ($25 or so on amazon) and gave that a shot today. I probably should have gone with the KDS but didn't know the difference at the time. I have 6.5" and 4.5" Santokus that I've had for a bit and while they were sharp enough I figured I'd try and get them a bit sharper if I could.

It's a bit trickier than I thought it would be. I didn't find it hard to do the sharpening, the stone worked OK for the most part. The 1K side builds up slurry pretty quick and seem to build a burr pretty quickly, the 6K side seemed to build up a bit quickly though so I'll probably get a nagura stone or something. The 6K did put a decent polish on the edge though. The 1K side was pretty flat out of the box but the 6K side needed a bit more work to start with. I used my X-Coarse DMT plate to flatten both sided before I started. I do need to work a bit on my technique though and I'm still trying to figure out if I prefer Japanese vs Western style. I think I'm preferring the Western style as I find it a bit easier to maintain my angle even though it seems a bit slower.

Finding the right angle seemed to be my biggest difficulty. I guessed at the right height but turned out to be quite low at around 10-12 degrees I figure. I adjusted a bit and I think I'm closer to about 13-15 deg now but I think that's still a bit steeper than whatever was originally on there since the edge is a bit wider, and probably was sharper than I need to go with these blades. We'll see if they can maintain the edge after some use.

I went on Google to figure out some angles and I'm actually kind of surprised just how high you can angle the blade and still get a fairly low edge angle. I probably should have done that before hand and made a coin stack or something but I thought I could get away just by feel, I was wrong. I used a marker to make my adjustments to get the desired width after my initial failure.

I'm glad I practiced first though and I'm sure it'll take a bit longer before I feel like attempting it with my "nicer" knives. I did a comparison against my wife's knife and mine and it's definitely sharper. She's told me to stay away from her knives since the really sharp knives scare her for some reason.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: First Kitchen Knife Sharpening
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2016, 05:57:57 AM »
It takes time and practice alright!  I typically aim for just under 19 degrees.  Don't be afraid to go slow and be sure to use plenty of force.  I keep running water on my stones during use.  Set the geometry with your rough stone and the rest is essentially polishing.  How do you gauge your angle?

hans

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Re: First Kitchen Knife Sharpening
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2016, 12:33:29 PM »
At first I tried the angle your blade until it bites and then back off method but that's what left me much too severe of an angle. I was a bit hesitant on the "bite" part. Then I used marker on the edge and lifted a bit and watched the wear. I think that got me a bit closer but I'm still pretty sure I'm too low after comparing it to other edge widths. Then I went to Google and did the math and went back to the knives to feel about where I was and realized I was indeed quite a bit lower. I plan on making a couple angle jigs just to be able to get a better idea of where I should be for the different angles.

I picked up a cheap Wasabi Black Santoku that I'm going to probably play around with and also look into getting a different polishing stone for more regular maintenance. I'm thinking of maybe some splash and go 5K one for weekly/monthly touch ups.

I never really used to be a big knife kind of person but after I bought and used my Shun for the first time, how nice it felt to use and easily it cut through stuff, I'm totally hooked now. I actually kind of enjoy prep work now.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: First Kitchen Knife Sharpening
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2016, 05:59:19 PM »
I think I posted this before and you may already be using the advice within. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFhMGJYhYpU&ab_channel=SurLaTableCorp

I use this method.