Good way to sharpen kitchen knives

[gary jp4]

Thanks, gary. I was kind of hoping for something where I could cobble together a V-type sharpener with two of 'em, and use it for applying a very high polish finish. At $108 a piece, that would be an expensive experiment.

In my own searching, I found this:

http://www.sundanceglass.com/pyrex-glass-r.htm

so thinking I may be able to scare something up on the cheap.

I don't think that would work. Those are smooth clear glass tubes. I don't think they would have the same, or any, abrasive effect. Borosilicate glass is not normally rough. It (including your referenced tubing) is usually very smooth as exemplified by its use in sex toys or the saying "smooth as glass". Borosilicate glass is one of the two main forms of Pyrex, as used in kitchen ware, and in laboratory glass so you know it is usually (naturally) very smooth and shinny. Most pie-plates, test tubes and beakers are borosililcate glass.

It is called a hard glass and is more resistant to breaking form heat shock and impact then soft glass. I think the terms hard and soft glass have more to do with their melting temperatures and characteristics when melting and bending like in glass blowing then actual cold state hardness.

The Borosilicate rod used in the JKS sharpening steel is first a rod and second is scratched or etched to a dull luster appearing to have very fine linear scratches along its length giving it its slight abrasiveness. I would guess the finish is about like what would come from 400# sand paper on a fairly soft material. I don't know if you could duplicate this or how it is made. Maybe you could try sanding a piece with some fine silicon carbide, aluminum oxide sand paper or Scotch Brite and see what happens. I still don't think the tubing would be strong enough and you would want to use solid rod. Let us know if you try making one. It would be interesting.

The JKS borosilicate rod is about 1/2" thick. It seems to be hard enough that the scratches don't wear off and it stays about the same texture after use. In use the knife slides over the rod with little drag, maybe slightly more then a smooth butchers steel, but not as much as a ceramic steel. It is enough to give tactile feed back or "a good feel" though. Comparisons of the noise/vibration made by sliding the edge along steel/glass/ceramic are also in line with the above drag / feel statements.

Gary

 

[Dog of War]

Thanks for the detailed information, Gary. I in fact researched Borosilicate glass some before asking for a possible source. When I mentioned I wanted a "very high polish" I meant that in a rather extreme sense: I'm looking for something that might put that final, gilt-edged edge on steels like ZDP-189 or even S110V. But without knowing the exact composition of Borosilicate glass, of course I can only speculate that it might contain particular oxides of boron or other compounds hard enough to be effective on high alloy stainless steels.

myright didn't mention if what he was using was the JKS sharpening rod you linked to -- a number times I've seen people mention using halide lighting tubes, welding rods, and similar non-sharpening items on their knives, and thought that could be the case here. Now what's interesting to me is that with JKS selling the item you've pointed out, I think there's a good chance that this stuff is hard enough to work on some fairly high hardness, high wear resistance steels. Unfortunately the grooving of the JKS rod would seem to defeat my purpose, and for $108 a pop, well, that's just too much for this little experiment I have in mind.

But again the very existence of the JKS product tells me this is worth a shot, and I really appreciate that.