Stone Pie Chart

This picture represents not only how important coarse stones are to me but also demonstrates in a graphical sense how much time I spend with coarse stones on  a knife compared to the medium and finer stones.

Pictured are Naniwa Chosera 400, Shapton Glass 500 extra thick, Nubatama 150, Naniwa Professional 600 and a standard SG 500.
That's the highest pile.



When I sharpen I just don't raise the burr on the coarse stone and stop, I do a little refinement with that same stone by varying pressure. It's really cool the way you can make that coarse stone work with different applications of pressure.

In my process, on the first stone there are 4 levels of pressure, and I will demonstrate this on a new video shortly that I am putting together for Knifeplanet.

P4 (Pressure 4) is the most amount of pressure on a scale from 1-5 with 5 being the most force you could apply to a knife against a stone, you never use that. So P4 pressure is just turning that down a full turn so it is a good deal of pressure but obviously not enough to damage anything.

People have a lot of common sense, I don't think anyone is going to press down hard enough to snap the blade, you just have to make sure that you and the stone are teaming up, pressure conducive to metal removal and burr formation

After that it is easing up and again, I will do my utmost best to demonstrate it in my video, I plan to have that up this week.

Peter

The Riddle of Edge Retention

Hi folks,

       Before I get started I wanted you to see this Shun and the severe, catastrophic damage to the edge. I don't know what happened but it could be a simple twist of the blade while it was embedded in something semi frozen or a squash or something. Not always a sign of abuse, usually,  but not always. I will have the after shot later in this post.

       Professional sharpeners and likely all folks serious about the process very likely think about edge retention, how to get your knife/knives to stay sharp as long as possible. It is something I have  agonised over for years and worked very hard at. I sincerely put all my efforts into creating edges on kitchen knives used in professional kitchens that would retain a good working edge for as long as possible.  In almost every case it ended up in frustration for me until I learned a few things and I have since come to an important realisation.

       Here is what happened: I would do my due diligence and create an edge taking into account the steel in the knife I was given to sharpen, the work environment and with hope that if I did my part, the owner of the knife would do his. In my opinion, Edge Retention is a team effort, my responsibility lies in thinking ahead and building a strong edge, sharp of course but also strong. In other words, if I just wanted to impress the hell out of someone I could take their 40 dollar chef knife and sharpen it at 15 deg or less and make it truly razor sharp. However, the edge would fail very fast, on day one perhaps (I have tested this of course) and this serves no purpose.  So I would sharpen it at an angle as close to 20 deg per side as possible and make it as sharp as I possibly could.  This went on for a number of years and in one particular case, "the eye opener" I heard that the knives were not staying sharp for more than a week. So I went through the trouble of making test knives, similar knives sharpened/finished at different grits but the angles were pretty much the same.

      Then I realized that this was a waste of time, the people using the knives in some cases didn't really care too much about them, they were not their knives so they didn't make much of an effort to protect the edges, and worst of all, they would steel them very roughly and knock the edge off immediately. This went on for a bit, any attempts at enlightening them were fruitless, it was my fault in their eyes. (I no longer sharpen for them). This was never the case for an entire kitchen staff, but in my business it just takes one individual to form an unfounded and inaccurate opinion to set the stage for future issues.  Also, folks are terribly busy in kitchens, and despite their good intentions, edges slip away so to speak, it doesn't take long and we are not talking about cutting up 5 onions and 5 potatoes, it's 50 of those.


       Here is the deal and again, this is just my opinion. A lot of effort has been made by talented people to test knives and examine edge retention in attempts to squeeze the last piece of sharpness out of the knife. HOWEVER, these tests are done in controlled environments, the knives I sharpen, your knives, do not operate in a controlled environment where someone is cutting something the exact same way over and over. In the real world, many of knives I sharpen, especially in busy kitchens are used by different people, they cut a variety of different things and are placed into a dishwasher. In the meantime they are subjected to steel abuse by a user attempting to "sharpen" the knife with that ridiculously poor poor process that we often see on TV. How can that possibly re-align and edge, the entire edge from heel to tip?

Picture placed to add a little something other than just text. These are nice knives that belong to an extremely talented Chef.

          Here is how I deal with edge retention now:

      I don't deal with it, I do my best to build a "smart edge" one conducive to the environment it will live in and I leave it to it's owner to do his/her part in protecting the edge as much as possible. That is simply being aware that the Cutting Edge of a knife, the Primary Edge is a microscopically thin piece of steel that is constantly under pressure, so what can that person do:

* Know that it is going to get dull, the dulling cycle has been set in motion so despite my best efforts and the person who sharpened it best efforts, the edge is failing as we speak;
* Use the right cutting board and don't treat the knife like it is  hammer and unbreakable;
* Be vigilant despite the hectic pace and mindful of the edge, place it facing away from you when not in use
* Do not steel it if you are not going to do it properly, with focus and knowledge of what it is that you are trying to do. Forget what you see them do on TV.

      The best solution is to make Edge Retention a moot point by either having it sharpened once a month or using a better maintenance program. The best to way to maintain an edge is to use a medium to fine grit water stone, think of it as a rectangular hone and use trailing strokes and light to medium pressure. Allow the abrasive properties of the 2,000 grit stone for example to gently remove the fatigued metal that is hindering the knifes performance.  (A steel, even when used properly is merely pushing fatigued metal back and forth).


    If I was a chef, I would hope that I would have a nice 2-5k stone right there at my work space and out in the open, a constant reminder of what it's purpose is. Every day before I went to work I would take every knife I plan to use and with gently trailing strokes and at the same angle the knife was sharpened at I would hone those knives to sharpening perfection. My thoughts of edge retention would fade away in the knowledge I was doing wall I could to ensure that every cut I made that day was with a razor sharp knife.

     Now I completely understand that chefs are busy folks, hectic work, long hours, brutally busy but I don't believe there is an excuse for a chef to use a dull knife. I don't meant it has to be beyond razor sharp, it has to be at the level where everything being prepared is done so effortlessly in terms of the knife.

   My role in Edge Retention is now to educate folks on how best THEY can keep their knife sharp, I will do my part but the rest is on you folks.  I can tell you that in every case, for the restaurants that I sharpen for that did NOT steel their knives but called me in every 4-6 weeks, their knives are sharper, in every case.

Fujuwara and Ikebana

Here is the Shun after I repaired it. It was a lot of work, the New Edge is now up into the thicker part of the blade so I had to really thin it out, knock metal off of the secondary bevel to leave the knife with it's correct cutting performance in tact.


I know that some folks enjoy my Blog,  that really means a lot to me, keeps me inspired.


Peter

Coarse Stone Courage

Hi,
      As I work on my article and video on the importance of coarse stones I found myself realizing some things that I was just taking for granted or just assuming it was common knowledge.

     The picture above has 3 of my favourite coarse stones, the Naniwa Chosera (Naniwa Professional is similar, just as good), the Shapton Pro 320 and Shapton Glass 500. I have tried many other coarse stones, as some of my readers have but I now rely solely on these products.
Another great one is the Naniwa 220 but for the purpose of the article for Knifeplanet and the accompanying video, I will keep it at 320-600 grit range to illustrate my point. (I go through three coarse stones a year but for the majority of sharpeners, folks who mostly sharpen their own knives and some friends knives, one of these will last a few years at least).

     (Keep in mind the coarse stones dish more quickly than medium and fine stones, so keep up with the flattening work, don't let them get too dished or your work will be cut out for you when it comes to flattening. It is important to keep your stones flat, it enhances consistency to bevels during sharpening). 

     When I started teaching sharpening,  I used to encourage folks to shy away from using a coarse stone until they were more comfortable with sharpening. I think I did that  because I heard it from a lot of other people, I didn't think through it enough to form an accurate opinon and express that opinion, I now disagree with myself :)  I fully encourage the use of a coarse stone, even from day one.

     I won't copy everything I am going to write about in the Knifeplanet article but suffice it to say that taking a knife from a state of dullness to sharpness and believe me, most knives are dull, that process needs to be done efficiently. We don't want to linger on the stones, we want the abrasive powers of the stones to work quickly and react appropriately to the movement of our hands, to the pressure we apply. That pressure is key, we are not going to ruin a knife on a coarse stone with the correct and appropriate application of pressure. People are smart enough to realize that too much pressure is not conducive to desired results, this goes for anything. How would you ruin a knife on a coarse stone if you are careful with pressure? If you have respect for the stones abrasive properties and the knowledge that "If I push down as hard as I possibly can I am going to make a mistake" If you know this, and you do, than you are going to love what a coarse stone will do. It will set the stage for success and you'll wonder why the hell you listened to me in the first place when I told you to start with a 1, 000 grit
stone :)

This is not a coarse stone by the way:)

   There are several reasons why a coarse stone is crucial to your sharpening success, you will read about them soon, I don't want to steal my own thunder in the Knifeplanet article. Trust me please, the Pro's of having the courage to start sharpening with a coarse stone are truly remarkable.

    I will say this: As I have always stated, there is so much more to knife sharpening than just making knives sharp.  There is much that the process has to offer, don't go to the last page in a good book to read the ending and miss everything the author of that book gave you to enjoy.

   If the only thing I got from sharpening knives was a sharp knife, I would have given up a long time ago, that is just one of the benefits, it is the peak of the mountain but what about all the cool stuff I got to experience on the way up.

( What if you don't have a good coarse stone and just can't find one but you do have a 1k stone, is that still good. Absolutely, you can still create awesome edges without a coarse stone)


I'll talk about those in my article. 

My Fujiwara on our new board

Just a typical day of sharpening, all very cool. 

I always wrap up the knives for my customers.

Peter

New Stuff

Hi folks,
I am going to make a two part video and I hope to have them both done in the next week.

I write for Knifeplanet but it's not easy finding new material and even then, making the material interesting and more importantly useful to people.

I'm going to talk about the importance of coarse water stones and exactly how I use them and rely on them so heavily. A lot of new sharpeners are warned away from using coarse stones because they may damage their knife. I don't agree with that, even though in the past I did but at that time I hadn't really thought the process through. People are not stupid, they (you) will get it and learn their importance.

So the first video will just be a quick theory part and I will talk about edge retention as well, another sore spot for me.

Basically the two videos will describe exactly how I sharpen knives in detail for the purpose of motivating folks to learn to sharpen and see that it can be done with practice and some simple steps.

Yes I do realize there are a ton of videos out there, I will do my best to make mine one of the good ones.

Peter