Chef's knives - My pot of gold

We all admire the Executive Chef, shows on TV like Hell's Kitchen have educated me, I have a  better appreciation of what they need to be able to accomplish in order to be successful. I'm sure that for many, the cooking part  is perhaps the easiest because it is in their blood. Organizing, time management, forward thinking and leadership are all key elements no doubt and don't come easily for all.



For me, when I think of an Executive Chef I think of two things right away:

• How great it must be to have the knowledge of food and food preparation that they do; and
• What type of knives do they own and how do I get hold of them.

       My greatest challenge thus far has been convincing a Chef to allow me to handle/sharpen their precious tools. I completely understand this and admire them for it to be quite honest. "Who the heck is Pete Nowlan and until I get proof, see some credentials, he isn't going near my Globals or MAC's".   I will get this out of the right now, I did not attend knife sharpening college, I have no degree on my wall that describes what I have accomplished in this art.  There is a very old man in Japan who has polished swords for 50 years and is famous among those who work in the field. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he has no formal education.
     I don't think that this is reason that I have yet to get hold of as many Chef's knives as I have, i.e. lack of a qualification.  Part of it is the fact that they are taught to sharpen knives in culinary school and it becomes a part of their routine. I'm not saying that I can sharpen a knife as well as an Executive Chef. What I am saying is:
 I can sharpen a knife as well as an Executive Chef. :)  A chefs priority is cooking preceded by food preparation plus a million other things, over time he or she perhaps is just too busy to spend the time on a knife that they would like. I believe the ability is there but it's just not that easy to find the time. Chefs are quite educated when it comes to knives and maintaining them with steel is something they no doubt excel at.  I on the other hand obsess with taking the edge of a knife to a level of sharpness that is well beyond what is actually required to cut food. I am focused on only one thing, sharpening , I'm not distracted by the cooking part. I spend hours watching videos, talking to other sharpeners in places like South Africa and I purchase products that have greatly enhanced the entire process of sharpening a knife. Now it is just a matter of gaining trust and that is something I absolutely, 100% understand. A person who owns a Lexus isn't going to take to someone that he doesn't know to work on it.  Also, another factor is cost, why pay someone if I can do it myself?
Good question eh. The answer is simple though, because you want that knife to be screaming sharp and if there is a chance that some old bald guy who peers into a 20X loupe looking  for scratch patterns on bevels in between grits, someone who has purchased exquisite diamond sprays with particles measured in fractions of microns. If there a chance that this man can get that knife sharper than it has ever been, and it will make my cooking experience more enjoyable and easier, and save time,  than maybe I should check it out.  If cost is a factor, than fear not, my prices are low, too low in fact for the amount of time I spend on a knife.
The bottom line is that Executive Chef's have very special talents and are learned in the art of food preparation and everything associated with that, I can't begin to imagine the myriad of skills they possess.
All I need to know however is how to sharpen a knife and Chefs are among the few who realize that it isn't like putting something in a toaster.  I will finish by saying this "I am one heck of a toaster folks, in fact,  I live and breathe toasters :)
(The picture has nothing to do of course with sharpening, it is just a unique item, like great chefs and sharpeners like me,  thirsty for steel to quench their hunger for perfection.)
I would like to take the biggest, dullest knife a chef owns home and work on it at absolutely no cost to anyone but me and my time. If the finished product is something that is impressive..cool, if not, what's the harm? I would not make this statement however if I was not convinced that anyone would be anything less that 100 percent satisfied. The stones I own and covet have magical properties that produced an edge many have never seen. I'm just the old fella that is on the other end of those stones.

 Did I mention that I polish knives too and we haven't even reached the stropping stage yet, you gotta hear about the leather and balsa strops folk..gees:)

(Oh by the way, I picked up the little blue teapot in Japan when I was there searching for that old fella that polishes swords)