A conversation my wife had with a lady has sparked this one.
The person went out and bought a new set of knives when her older set became too dull to use.
This is a pretty easy solution to dull knives, in fact, why not just buy a one new 10 dollar knife and use it for a few months and then chuck it away and buy another new one, would you not always have a sharp knife to use?
I"ll tell you why that in my opinion that is a ridiculous plan:
Because that is the lazy way out and it's wasteful and indicative of a "Just throw it away and get a new one" attitude that some of us have.
That 10 dollar new knife is not actually sharp in the first place, if you think it is sharp, then you have not experienced a knife sharpened on Japanese Water Stones and I'm not saying it has to be sharpened by me, you could do that. In fact, that 100 dollar knife you buy new is often not that sharp, yes of course it will do the trick but please remember that it was likely mass produced and sharpened by a machine on a machine. You can do better than that folks, seriously. (Yes there are some really out of the box sharp knives available, like MAC....those are nice)
Now the knife in the picture above has a wonderful edge out of the box and it's expensive, about $300.00 or you could get the $3,500 knife in this picture below:
The problem with these knives, although very beautiful and an absolute thrill to use when sharpened; is that they get dull. They actually dull more quickly than less expensive knives and how the hell does that happen you ask?
If you had a set of knives in a block and then picked up one of these beauties, which knife do you think you would grab when you need to cut some food up. In fact, I guarantee that when you first got one of these knives you would be looking for anything to slice up because it just feels so cool to cut when them. So it would get dull more quickly because it would be used more. Yes it can hold it's edge longer but "longer" is is not really a definitive period of time is it? Basically you would end up with very expensive dull knives. You think you get frustrated when your 10 dollar knife is dull, imagine a 500 dollar knife dull, one that you drove your wife nuts over to purchase and she finally gave in believing your line: "The days of using a dull knife will be over honey.....I'm doing this for you"
This brings up another irritating point....the person who sold the knife should have said:
"Congratulations on your purchase, do you have a sharpening plan, if not I can help you with that?"
Now having said that, I have witnessed an individual who purchased such a knife and who was asked this question and that individual walked out of the store thinking the salesperson was an idiot, why the f--ck do I need a sharpening plan when I just purchased the best knife in your store is what that poor man was thinking.
Knives get dull, regardless of the cost, some just get dull more quickly than others, it depends on so many things:
*Steel;
*What is being cut;
* Cutting Board;
* How is it stored (Magnetic strip on the wall is best);
* Where is it being used, at home or a professional kitchen.
Look at the ridiculously fine and razor sharp edge on the knife in the picture, how long do you think that edge will hold in a kitchen? Yes it is freaking sharp but the edge will fail. Now that edge is very fine but believe me, all edges fail and the problem I have is that people are reluctant to learn how to re-establish that non-elusive edge that thrills them. The cool thing about edges is that you get it back over and over again for many many years.
People world wide are robbing themselves of the joy of knife sharpening and it really just blows me away because everyone loves a sharp knife. However, we are always looking for the easy way out. If a 16 year old salesperson (no offence to teens by the way) tells you that the Gadget hanging up on the hook by the knives for sale is guaranteed to work, why do we believe that, is that individual a knife sharpener, has he used that gadget, does he have a freaking clue what he is talking about? Did the Manager of the store take that young person aside and say:
"Ok, now I've done a lot of research on this gadget, I want you to become familiar with it, become comfortable with using it and if you think it does a good job of sharpening a knife then you can feel confident in telling people so"
Or do you think the Manager said something along these lines: " We need to get these things off the shelves, they are not selling well, so try to push them to folks who buy knives"?
So whose fault is it if you purchase a gadget (one of about 1,000) because it was recommended?
IT IS YOUR FAULT......because you/me (People as a whole) are too lazy to do the research and discover the best way to sharpen a knife and talk to someone you trust about it. I believe that most folks know that the worlds finest knives and sharpeners are Japanese ( This is generally speaking, there are some equally good knives made in the US by geniuses like Bob Kramer, Murray Carter and Jay Fisher) (Mr. Carter became brilliant at is his trade in Japan by the way :) )
So if you can picture a little old Japanese man, hunched over his prize water stones sharpening a knife and repeating a process that his father taught him 40 years ago...can you imagine that individual using a gadget or anything you plug in to a socket to do the job?
This is a picture of a dream knife hand made in Japan and owned by a brilliant Chef, Chef Dewar who was kind enough to allow me to sharpen it, a privilege that believe me, I did not take for granted. Now can you imagine running that through a gadget?.....geebus.
Now here is the other piece of the pie that folks are not enjoying and it is equally as big as the waste of money portion the slice of: "Just buy a new one".
Folks are missing out on the joy, the achievement of Zen by not learning to sharpen a knife. I have sharpened a few thousand knives in the past few years and I am not exaggerating when I say that I get an amazing sense of peace and satisfaction with each and every knife I sharpen.
Recently I got a call from a nice man named Doug who took the time out of his busy day to tell me how pleased he was with the five knives that I sharpened for him. DOUG, I need to thank you for giving me those five knives to sharpen, seriously.
So what about the folks who just don't have an interest in sharpening their own knives? That is extremely common and perfectly OK. What I am suggesting is not to take the easy road, buy the knife and upon purchase learn how to get it sharpened. If the salesperson tries to sell you a sharpener other than a water stone, remind him/her that you are interested in a quality sharpening, not the steel eating machines and gadgets......tell em Peter Nowlan told you you want them hand sharpened.
1. "Certainly, I agree, there is nothing better than whetstones used by a skilled sharpener to achieve a truly sharp edge, let me point you in the right direction" (this is the dream response)
2. " This knife won't get dull for about a year or two, I wouldn't worry about it now, you can always bring it back then and pick up this "V-Sharpener with Micro Abrasive Wheels" when it goes on sale.
3. I'll get the Manager, I don't know what you mean?
(Now there are some Managers who know their stuff, I know one in particular, Malcolm, that man knows knives, believe what he tells you)
So before you buy the knife, just Google "Knife Sharpening in Halifax" for example and see what pops up, give the place a call and ask them how they sharpen knives. In my area, there are only a couple, literally two, places that sharpen knives on water stones, but easy to find.
OH about the title, yes it has nothing to do with the post does it?
It's still true though, I have seen the faces of many many ladies that got to use a sharp knife for the first time in a very long time, I see this a lot.
I will continue to repeat this: if you can learn to sharpen a knife, that is, you live in an area where this is possible, I encourage you to seek me out. For an absolutely ridiculously low fee, of about 75 dollars, you will walk away with a skill that will not only ease stress by having sharp knives, it is a skill that can be passed down to others. If it takes 50 minutes to get that skill across that's cool, if it takes 2 hours that is fine too. At the worst, you will learn to keep your knives sharp just by honing them on a whetstone, if the sharpening thing just doesn't grab you. (After 10 min if you know it is not something you will grasp, then no problem, at least you tried and all it would cost you is the gas money to get to the studio). Basically, for less than the cost of a knife or block of knives I can change your life and upon doing so, you will look at food in a different way, you'll live longer because you won't be stressed out about having to use a dull knife all the time ( you already know that a dull knife can alter the flavour of food).
The key to sharp knife happiness is at your fingertips.
Imagine how cool that dream knife will be if you know you can keep it sharp.......imagine how much easier it would be to talk your wife into buying that dream knife with her knowing you can sharpen it.......you will be king, believe me.
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| Twin Cermax......OhYeah.
Now I will warn you that if you follow my advice and become skilled at keeping your knives sharp, sharper than when purchased and you talk about sharpening and water stones at parties.....other people may not share your enthusiasm, you're going to find yourself in a world of your own.....basically where I am right now.
It's so cool that you read this and yes that is one truly sharp edge on the exquisite knife in the picture above.
Respectfully
Peter Nowlan
sharpenerpeter@gmail.com
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