Knife Sharpening Using Traditional Methods: What happened to my Edge Pro Professional ?

Hi folks, I've been down with the flu so getting to write on my Blog has been a struggle. I can remember thinking years ago when I started my Blog how difficult it would be to find things to talk about. I don't think there is end to the different topics, now that doesn't mean they are all riveting and life changing words of wisdom but so far I'm not having a problem rambling.

Knifeplanet has been very kind to me and they come up with some ideas as well and there is an article in the works now where I talk about freehand sharpening vs the Edge Pro. I am not allowed to recite here what I have already submitted but I can talk about the subject in general. And I will provide a link to the "life changing" article that has been submitted of course.

When I first started sharpening knives professionally I was sharpening by hand, so everything was done with a few water stones and my ability to achieve sharp knives with the stones and experience I had with my passion for the process pushing me along.

There was a time when ANGLES petrified me and I am guessing that it subconsciously impacts some peoples ability to sharpen a knife, i.e. the fear of not being able to sharpen a knife at the correct angle.

If you are one of those folks, I can tell you that it is absolutely not something you need to be worried about.

So a heavy hitter in the culinary industry gives me his knives to sharpen and I think: What if he notices I didn't sharpen it at the right angle? I felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders when I realized: How the hell is he going to know if I sharpened the knife at 20 deg per side or 19 deg.?

Do not worry about the actual angle, the digit (17, 20, 19), that is not your challenge. The challenge is holding the angle YOU choose and maintaining that angle as you sharpen on both sides. NOBODY has ever said to me " I was hoping you would have sharpened this at 19 deg not 21 deg" for example. You will achieve incredible results when you have the gained the ability to utilize your muscle memory in sharpening a knife and you only get that from a lot of sharpening, at least twenty or more knives.

Now I have had a chef come up to me her bunch of ridiculously dull Global knives and ask me what angle I was going to sharpen them at and I told her "16 deg per side". She looked me like I was an idiot and walked away with her knives. I can guarantee that they are still dull. ( Global recommends 10-15 deg) and in hindsight I should have said 15 deg but hey, I screwed up by a deg. It goes back to the "How would she know anyway)

You need to find a technique that enables you to sharpen you knives well, on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being just a tiny bit sharper, that should be your immediate goal, muscle memory will enable you to climb that scale.

Of course it is important to realize that not all knives should be sharpened at 20 deg per side, but until you develop muscle memory you can work on that ONE angle. You don't sharpen a Fujiwara or Masakage for example at 20 deg, those are down at the 11 or 12 deg angle. You can still make it sharp at 20 deg but you are robbing yourself of the performance potential of those knives.

Now where is my Edge Pro?

Still here and I use it every now and then. The beauty of the Edge Pro is that it removes that human inability of maintaining a precise angle while sharpening, the system forces you to do that. You'll find out in my article for Knifeplanet however that it isn't as cut and dry as that. Once you have achieved the ability to hold and angle freehand, watch out, you won't believe what we humans are capable of.

Now the EP is absolutely perfect for certain blades and also for creating mirror finishes. That precision and versatility have saved me many times.

Look at the edge profile of this knife, difficult to sharpen freehand but a breeze with the EP, in fact it was much sharper than new when I was finished.