How do you sharpen your knives?

[smack]

smack said:

Does the job for me, and have re ground many knives with excellent results, including a friends Global with a bend and 3 mm chips out of the edge (act of stupid housemate). She says it cuts better than new, which I re ground it with the same angle, but that took many hours.

Knife after idiot used it as a cleaver, trying to hack chicken bones. Nice big chip out of the edge, a bent further down the blade. The tip was also bent thanks to the same idiot using it as an ice pick.
How my friend didn't murder the said idiot, I don't know....



I gound it back about 4mm keeping the profile, and re edged it.

[havoc]

With regard to using a steel, I'm confused - how does running it 'blade-first' down the steel sharpen the knife - I'd have thought that would blunt the edge, and you should do it the other way?!?

[grumbledoak]

havoc said:

With regard to using a steel, I'm confused - how does running it 'blade-first' down the steel sharpen the knife - I'd have thought that would blunt the edge, and you should do it the other way?!?

Both ways work.

Barbers used to 'strop' their cut-throat razors this way, and this guy recommends it for knives: http://www.hub-uk.com/cooking/tipsknives.htm

But, and there is always a 'but', knives aren't necessarily best when they are that ultra-sharp, as they'll lose the edge very quickly. The 'cutting in' (i.e. edge first) method gives a very effective edge that lasts longer. Some even recommend not using the finest grade whetstones for this reason.

If this sounds a bit garbled, and it does to me on re-reading, try here: http://www.wikihow.com/Sharpen-a-Knife

[uncinqsix]

I've never found knives that I've sharpened on a fine stone lose their edge more quickly - as long as it's been well sharpened on a medium stone (1000 or 1200) first, the polished edge I get from the 6000 lasts perfectly well. The fine stone also does a great job of removing the burr from the coarser stones.

[s3fella]

I got one of the Minosharp plus wheel water sharpeners for my globals, and I stuck some other Kithen Devils and various clevers through it too. They all came up real nice.