On Sharpening Knives
On sharpening knives
I really like cooking. I guess. It’s not the cooking that I don’t like…it’s the prep work. The chopping is tedious. And for me, dangerous. I am a noted clod and slack-ass mofo. These two traits do not go well in the kitchen. The clod part of it results in blood shed, the slack-ass part means sometimes we don’t eat until 9PM.
I enjoy cooking for me and Dan, I really do. And I do it a lot…6 days a week we eat a home-made meal, using organic ingredients if practicable and affordable. Affordable being the ruling ethos….40 years after the organic movement first told us organic foods could be cheap…some items are finally becoming comparatively priced with the normal grocery store brands. It took them long enough.
Now, when my dad died, I came into a little bit of money….I was a thousand-aire of the less than 20K variety. For me, that’s a lot of money. So, I paid off most of my bills, and bought myself a nice opal ring. Then when I sat down and thought about things that would really help me in my everyday life, I thought some good cooking equipment would do the trick.
I looked at reviews, and bought the “economy” Calphalon…a 12” skillet, a 2 quart saucepan, and this smaller pan that weighs 10 lbs. Can I just say I’m in love with the skillet? Eggs just slide out, unbidden. I don’t have to wash it…I just wipe it out. The 2 quart saucepan is the same…the food slides out, and clean up requires a swipe or two with a paper towel. Can I also say that they are delicate flowers that metal utensils must not come near? Can I just say that I live with a man who doesn’t understand delicate flowers? I am so glad he can’t be bothered to put his dirty dishes in the sink……
So now I got the pans….I need a good chef’s knife. I go to America’s Test Kitchen for product reviews. I was looking for a decent chef’s knife. For not too expensive-ish. I mean, I’m sure that $250 Wusthoff is brilliant…or that $500 Japanese Santoku…but I don’t want to spend that much money. I need a decent, serviceable chef’s knife.
I found it in the Victorinox Chef’s Knife. $30. It arrived promptly and sharply.
It was so sharp that after its first use, I got the woozies . You know what they say; a dull knife is dangerous, blah blah blah…well….so are sharp knives. Sharp knives are….sharp. Oh, the cut is prettier, and easier to stitch, but they still make me bleed. Hard.
So, in not too much time at all, my new knife lost its edge. I went from making pretty, easily stitched cuts in my fingers to making these raggedy type things that bled even more profusely, if such a thing is possible. It was time to take the knife to the local sharpener dude.
Sharpener dude works out of the local mom & pop Ace hardware store. She’s in her 40’s, and she and her parents grew up in this town. However, there is a 10 day turnaround time between the time you drop off your knife, until the time you get it back. In my frivolous youth, that was okay. As I have gotten older and more demanding and crotchety…it is not enough.
I started reading up on the local, organic, DIY lifestyle thingy and decided I wanted to grab some o’ that gusto for myself. And I would start….by sharpening my own chef’s knife. I read and read on about.com, and in other places, about how you sharpen your own knife. Quick hint…put a small binder clip over the top of your knife while you’re sharpening it, for the proper angle.
So I went to the local mom & pop Ace Hardware store, and bought a sharpening stone. Not an oilstone…no, this one you soak in water for 5 minutes before you use it. I soaked the stone. I used the prescribed angle when drawing the blade across the stone. One side of the blade, then the other. The rough side of the stone, then the smooth. Then, after that, you have to hone the blade on a honing steel. Which I didn’t have. But because I did further research, I found that one can use the bottom of a ceramic coffee cup as a honing steel!
I didn’t have too much hope, because I’m a clod…but I’ll be damned that knife cut through an onion like nobody’s business! And through potatoes like butter! And through my finger like a flippin’ cloud.
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my knives and always remember at the exact time that I actually need them. Consequently I am always putting it off until tomorrow.
I recently bought knives, something I have needed for a long, long time. I also chose Victorinix and could not be happier.
I got the chef's knife, a carving knife, a paring knife and an angled bread knife (because I make that kind of bread that has the crispy outside and very soft inside). It was a relatively big initial investment that has made cooking much easier and much more fun.
Like you, I can be a real klutz, so I pay close attention when chopping, etc. So far, no injuries (knock on wood).
I got the stone that you put oil on and watched a video on the correct angle and direction for sharpening. It amazes me how well it works and how easy it is. I also keep them in their original sleeves and wash/dry them separately. They are my treasures.
Anyway, off to sharpen! Congrats on your new knife and on your learning how to sharpen it.
are off while sharpening.
I enjoy taking care of them, but am highly unlikely to become obsessive about it, lol.
Anyway, finished up the sharpening and looking forward to using them!
We will be taking an extensive road trip this summer and will be stopping at my son's farm in Texas, which I can't wait to see.
But no plans to get up to Chicago this time.
Glad to see you back and hope you are enjoying what you are doing.
if you don't mind me asking. Those are the knives I use. My husband bought me my beginner set a few years ago and we are always adding to it. I love those knives. I would like to use the sharpener if you say it's good. Currently I use this..
you really need to grind them from time to time. i have a real motley collection of knives, and it is great to be able to really sharpen them any time i need to. i have several wustohofs, but also several "heirlooms" that i can't bear to part with.
ps- the place i snatched this pic has this for a decent price.
one. 
Using that "sharpening steel" slot before each use is so important because, as you said, it maintains the edge for much longer. I didn't use to bother doing that, and had to sharpen my knives more often. After a while, I noticed that one of my older knives wasn't chopping thoroughly (sliced green onions still attached to each other, for example) and realized that the blade had been sharpened so many times it was narrower than the "hilt" and the back of the knife wasn't even touching the cutting board. So now I buzz it once through once before every use and I haven't had to really sharpen them in forever.
As far as sharpening knives on the bottom of a mug, I saw a Jacques Pepin show where he sharpened a knife on the unglazed bottom of a ceramic dinner plate (he put water on it)... it worked really well! I like my electric sharpener, though. 
(That would be my niece, she's a professional chef so I appreciate her opinion.)
Keeping in mind that you have to watch what you're doing, she said a fine edge does the work. Let the knife do it...
If it's a struggle to slice up stuff you either have the wrong blade for the job or it's just dull. And that leads to those inadvertent accidents.
She offered this advice, along with the first knuckle down style slice since I've had a few notable cuts.
She works at a winery / resort so Sunday is probably a pretty busy day for her, but I'll let you know what feedback I eventually get.
