Global Knife - Sharpening?

[21TonyK]

just go for it. I have a whole drawer of knife sharpening tools and gadgets.

[S6PNJ]

21TonyK said:

just go for it. I have a whole drawer of knife sharpening tools and gadgets.

Too late, already pressed the button! (about 30 seconds after my last post!).

[uncinqsix]

thebraketester said:

Ive got a 1000/6000 wetstone to sharpen my knives. Takes a bit of practice but makes for a really sharp knife.

Only way to do it IMO. I also have a multitude of chisels and plane blades to keep (very) sharp, so my stones get a fair bit of use.

[21TonyK]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Not a Global user but i my Man Skill Defecit drawer is ....





Knife Sharpening.


I have a steel. I just can't get away with putting an edge on.
I wish I could

Put a cloth on the worktop and the tip of the steel on the cloth. Raise the handle and hold at 45 degrees. hold the knife so the blade is upright, as you would for cutting. Slide the knife down the steel several (say 10 times) reverse the angle and same on the other side.

Do this enough and you will end up with a crudely sharpend knife.

[Zod]

I use a Minosharp wet stone. Watch the videos. It's not difficult.

[Foliage]

Firstly do you have a steel? if not buy one.

After that id buy a simple whetstone, and then use that, watch some youtube videos on how to use it.

[Alex]

I sharpen my Global knives with a King whetstone, but I do find that they do not keep their edge for long these days.

[Fastchas]

I'm an ex-butcher. Any good butcher's steel needs rubbing down first. Some wet & dry for a few minutes does the job. The new steel is too coarse and a good knife responds better to a 'finer' steel to be honed on. After a few passes you can hear the crystals on the edge almost sing to you as the steel turns them around.

Edited by Fastchas on Monday 13th February 14:48

[battered]

Global knives are hard work and very good at blunting steels. They are not a good place to start. They use very hard steel so they hold an edge for a while but a normal steel won't touch them. You need a diamond steel or a diamond hone.

A softer blade is easier to sharpen, though it won't hold an edge for as long.

[Foliage]

battered said:

Global knives are hard work and very good at blunting steels. They are not a good place to start. They use very hard steel so they hold an edge for a while but a normal steel won't touch them. You need a diamond steel or a diamond hone.

A softer blade is easier to sharpen, though it won't hold an edge for as long.

Blunt a steel? are you sure that's a thing. You do know what a steel does right? A steel dresses the fine edge of the knife. I cant imagine a home cook ever wearing out a steel.

The steel in global knives actually has poor edge retention, they've tried to address this with a hardening process but its still poor, the steel is designed to be abused, with very good stain and corrosion resistance, perfect for a domestic kitchen knife.

OP here is how to sharpen your global knives, http://globalknives.uk/knife-care/#sharpening

[battered]

Foliage said:

Blunt a steel? are you sure that's a thing. You do know what a steel does right? A steel dresses the fine edge of the knife. I cant imagine a home cook ever wearing out a steel.

The steel in global knives actually has poor edge retention, they've tried to address this with a hardening process but its still poor, the steel is designed to be abused, with very good stain and corrosion resistance, perfect for a domestic kitchen knife.

OP here is how to sharpen your global knives, http://globalknives.uk/knife-care/#sharpening

Yes I know. A steel is a (very) fine file. If the blade is harder than the steel then the steel will get blunted and the knife not sharpened. I have an old steel at home, it belonged to my gran, and after many years of use it has gained a polish and doesn't remove metal very well from knives any more.

In the food factories where I work we generally use softer blades, surgical steel grade, as they are easier to maintain.

[Foliage]

battered said:

Foliage said:

Blunt a steel? are you sure that's a thing. You do know what a steel does right? A steel dresses the fine edge of the knife. I cant imagine a home cook ever wearing out a steel.

The steel in global knives actually has poor edge retention, they've tried to address this with a hardening process but its still poor, the steel is designed to be abused, with very good stain and corrosion resistance, perfect for a domestic kitchen knife.

OP here is how to sharpen your global knives, http://globalknives.uk/knife-care/#sharpening

Yes I know. A steel is a (very) fine file. If the blade is harder than the steel then the steel will get blunted and the knife not sharpened. I have an old steel at home, it belonged to my gran, and after many years of use it has gained a polish and doesn't remove metal very well from knives any more.

In the food factories where I work we generally use softer blades, surgical steel grade, as they are easier to maintain.

A steel doesn't remove metal

[Fastchas]

Foliage said:

battered said:

Foliage said:

Blunt a steel? are you sure that's a thing. You do know what a steel does right? A steel dresses the fine edge of the knife. I cant imagine a home cook ever wearing out a steel.

The steel in global knives actually has poor edge retention, they've tried to address this with a hardening process but its still poor, the steel is designed to be abused, with very good stain and corrosion resistance, perfect for a domestic kitchen knife.

OP here is how to sharpen your global knives, http://globalknives.uk/knife-care/#sharpening

Yes I know. A steel is a (very) fine file. If the blade is harder than the steel then the steel will get blunted and the knife not sharpened. I have an old steel at home, it belonged to my gran, and after many years of use it has gained a polish and doesn't remove metal very well from knives any more.

In the food factories where I work we generally use softer blades, surgical steel grade, as they are easier to maintain.

A steel doesn't remove metal

Have you seen the new types of sharpening devices in cutting plants? They don't use steels anymore but stroke the blade through two thin pieces of plain steel arranged in a 'X', hinged at the top of the X so that the X opens up into a 'V'. There is no grain on the steel rods and the knife is sharpened very frequently on a machine when needed. Two strokes down the steel pieces are all that's needed to keep an edge. This is the item, the trick is to draw the knife down and out before the rods lock at the bottom.

Edited by Fastchas on Monday 13th February 15:53

Edited by Fastchas on Monday 13th February 15:54

[battered]

Foliage said:

A steel doesn't remove metal

Yes it does. Not very much, but it removes it. Witness the old knives worn to a curve by steel use. You are generating a polished edge. You can't polish anything without removing material, however microscopically you do this.

As for the sprung polishers, these are called a "clic-clac" and as you say they are universal in cutting plants and filleting factories. They aren't especially cheap (think £35-40 a go) but they are very good at maintaining an edge on a normal blade. I can get a Swiss Army knife sharp enough to shave with.

[Fastchas]

I have seen really old steels where the grain has been worn down through use, the middle of it looks polished. Usually the property of some old boy who had it from his first butchers job, "'B'for't war".
They still are able to sharpen a knife though.

[uncinqsix]

battered said:

Foliage said:

A steel doesn't remove metal

Yes it does. Not very much, but it removes it. Witness the old knives worn to a curve by steel use. You are generating a polished edge. You can't polish anything without removing material, however microscopically you do this.
.

The thing with steels is that their main purpose is to dress/maintain an edge that is already moderately sharp. Once a blade reaches a certain level of bluntness, a steel stops being effective as it can't remove enough material to restore the edge.

With Japanese knives, the normal recommendation is not to use a steel at all because the steel in the knife itself is quite hard (HRC58-62 vs 50-54 in most western knives).

[battered]

uncinqsix said:

The thing with steels is that their main purpose is to dress/maintain an edge that is already moderately sharp. Once a blade reaches a certain level of bluntness, a steel stops being effective as it can't remove enough material to restore the edge.

With Japanese knives, the normal recommendation is not to use a steel at all because the steel in the knife itself is quite hard (HRC58-62 vs 50-54 in most western knives).

Absolutely right. In cutting plants the operators know when the steel isn't working any more and they send the knife to be stone sharpened. This restores the shape and the sharpening angle and allows a steel to do its job. TBH a stone sharpened edge is more effective on fibrous material than a polished edge, the micro-serrations make it better at cutting the fibres. IMO outside a butchers shop you never need a blade to be *that* sharp, I'd take a stone-edge veg knife over a polished butchery knife all day to slice veg.

Edited by battered on Monday 13th February 17:51

[21TonyK]

battered said:

I'd take a stone-edge veg knife over a polished butchery knife all day to slice veg.

And this is a very good point often ignored or misunderstood. A microscopically sharp polished blade is not what you need in a kitchen. My old man took great pride in sharpening one of my knives (he used to be an engineer and make lathe tools etc) so it was like a stupidly sharp thing. Bloody useless slicing onions though.

[uncinqsix]

21TonyK said:

battered said:

I'd take a stone-edge veg knife over a polished butchery knife all day to slice veg.

And this is a very good point often ignored or misunderstood. A microscopically sharp polished blade is not what you need in a kitchen. My old man took great pride in sharpening one of my knives (he used to be an engineer and make lathe tools etc) so it was like a stupidly sharp thing. Bloody useless slicing onions though.

IMO, sharp is sharp. Our knives have stone-polished edges (to 6000 grit, nice and shiny), and they perform extremely well on veges: Clean cuts, minimal effort and pressure required.

[ChilliWhizz]

Great thread
After seven years of them living in the case they came in, I finally (last year) put them somewhere easier to get to