Its been a few months since I sharpened my kitchen knives.
They usually only need a touch up. Ill do a few strokes on the 400, 1000, and do a few more strokes on the 3000.
These stones are cheap ones I found online and the 8000 actually feels more aggressive than the 1000 so I usually dont use it.
After the 1000 grit I will strop it a few times on a strop I made from offcuts and some thick vegtan with green compound.
#tools #kitchen #sharpening #oc
As someone who wants to learn how to sharpen knives, you got any resource that are a good beginning? Or any suggestions for a beginner's stone?
I don't need to get crazy with it, its less of a hobby and more of a utility need, all of my kitchen knives are now dangerously dull.
There are lots of good videos on YouTube which I know is not a helpful answer without some links but remember there is no one correct way to do it.
What I wanted to add was once you've watched some stuff practice on a knife you're not precious about is the best thing to do. Using one of the little plastic wedge blocks to get an ideo of what angle is in your hands is really helpful at first, then eventually you won't need it.
The good thing to remember is you basically cannot ruin the knife. The first couple times you try to sharpen you'll probably end up with a pretty dull knife, don't get discouraged. Just try again, you can always bring the edge back. You'll learn a technique that works for you and eventually you'll get it.
Outdoors55 has a YouTube channel that has a lot of advice for beginners
I just watched a lot of videos on sharpening with stones.
This stone set also came wirh a little attachment that puts the blade at roughly 20° that I used for a while until my body learned the correct angle.
I also do woodworking so sharpening things also a part of my skill set. So that helped me a lot.
Ill try and find something that resembles what I do. It takes about 2 minutes per knife.
https://youtu.be/-jb15caDe1U
Its been a few years since Ive watched his videos but I learned a lot from them. I do recommend them.
Which stones to choose is more complicated. There are cheap stones, affordable stones and very expensive stones.
I only cook at home so for me the cheap(soft, material easily abrades, needs flattening more often) ones are fine. If I had to do it again, I would probably buy the King Combination 1000/6000 stones. They have a wider surface and I believe the grit levels are good enough.
If I were some type of professional, chief or sharpener, I would probably choose Shapton stones.
Go with the Benchmade Guided Field Sharpener. It's dead simple (important to overcome the "It's fine if I don't sharpen my knife this time" feeling) and super compact, so it can easily fit in a drawer. I got one a year ago and never looked back.
https://www.benchmade.com/products/100604f