How I keep my knives sharp.

Hi,
Another quick video and this one is to show you how you can keep your knives sharp.
First of all, I sharpen knives, I don't create videos so if you are watching this video to look for mistakes, mispronunciations you are in luck, for example I say "knifes" instead of "knives". Believe it or not, you get nervous doing these things and I could do it all over again until it is perfect but I think it gets the point across.

I'm forcing you to watch it too by the way.

OK....so I have a different view on honing and here is why:

The edge of a knife is a delicate and thin strip of metal when it is freshly sharpened or new. When I sharpen a knife, I agonize over the angle, not the actual degree but the process of maintaining the chosen angle throughout the process...on both sides of the knife. This is not something that comes along the first time you sharpen a knife by hand, not for me anyway, it takes many many knives to develop the ability to hold an angle, whether it is 15 or 20 degrees.   My issue with a "Steel" is that the user is often just slapping the edge of the knife against the Steel, which is often of poor quality and done without regard to the angle the sharpener used.  It is a habit done by many who don't even know why it is being done, it's just something the individual has been told to do.

We know that a knife gets dull because the metal at the edge is fatigued, it rolls over and over time the entire edge is moved out of alignment, the knife is no longer functioning as it is meant to.  So a Steel when used meticulously will "push" that fatigued metal back into position, it realigns the edge.

HOWEVER,  that steel is still weaker than it was so what difference does it make if it is moved back to where it should be? It is very quickly going to move back and forth, the cycle of steeling in my opinion further weakens the steel and does not do a very good job in keeping the knife sharp. Now there are some good ceramic hones that will work but remember, the Steel is not a knife sharpener it is a knife edge maintainer.

How many times have you seen a cooking show where the chef very quickly steels the knife in his/her hand, unlike the picture above, how the hell does that individual hit the exact point on that knife and move that metal back into position?

Now I do believe with the right technique and the right Steel (ceramic) that the edge can be maintained to a point, but nobody can tell me that the metal being realigned is not weaker that it should be and this process is not going to be effective for very long.

( This is just my thinking, I do know that I am not alone though in this thought process)

So as I described in the video, why not use a water stone?

I'm telling you, I have been doing this for a couple of years now and it is simple and very effective process. Naturally one needs to do it properly but it is not difficult to learn. That one good stone is likely cheaper than a good Steel. It will also last an eternity if not dropped or abused.


I am not suggesting that you abandon you Steel, why not try both methods, pick up a 1200 King Stone or 4k Imanishi stone at Lee Valley and give it shot, see what you like best, the 2k Bester would be a good choice as well. I would not go lower that the 1200 though for honing.  You could also alternate what you use, use your steel or ceramic hone during the weekdays and on weekends use the stone to really touch that edge back up. I bet you will find that once you get the hang of it, you will be thrilled at how sharp the knife is after that very simple and fast trailing motion as seen in the epic video :)






Thanks so much for watching the video, I hope it was not too painful.

Peter