Highest grit to take kitchen knife?

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Sep 7, 2010
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Got myself an Edge Pro that I'm very happy with. Ben mentions in his video that many people bring their cutlery to the 600 stone and stop. I've also read that doing crazy levels of polishing on kitchen knives don't let them cut as well (at least waxy substances like tomato skins) due to their lack of 'teeth'. But I've seen lots of posts of people stropping their kitchen knives and using 10,000 grit stones (Chosera, Naniwa).

Anyone have any experience on how much polish to put on their cutlery? And I suppose this would be more regarding nice German/Japanese knives rather than your $10 Farberware.
 
There's not much that compares with RHC 61+ Japanese kitchen knives, which some folks do go crazy with... myself included.

Your Wustoff and Henkels stuff, down around RHC 54-56, will be best served at 220-320 EP grits.
 
I use a 6000grit on my kitchen knife with no problems. Toothier edges don't appeal to me, and I haven't found that the polished edge performs any less.
 
I use a polisehd edge as well on all of my cutlery. I have a cheap Kershaw Pur Komachi slicer that I brought up to 6000 with no issues. I think it is just a matter of preference, you could always try it and if you dont like it go back and rough up the blade a little.
 
Don't forget that EP grits aren't J-grits. 320 EP will yield a slight polish.

There's absolutely nothing that says you can't take a Henkles down to 12* with a 10k finish, but it lasts all of one tomato.
 
There's absolutely nothing that says you can't take a Henkles down to 12* with a 10k finish, but it lasts all of one tomato.

May I ask what you mean by this? My kitchen knife is at 15º with 6k, so I'm curious what you mean by the edge only lasting one tomato.
 
May I ask what you mean by this? My kitchen knife is at 15º with 6k, so I'm curious what you mean by the edge only lasting one tomato.

Henckles (and German knives in general) generally use softer metals for their knives, so they can take quite a beating in the kitchen, but have poorer edge retention. 12* would be absurdly thin for this kind of blade (even knives that have harder steels, like Shuns, only are 16*), and would get dents in the edge fairly quickly.
 
Henckles (and German knives in general) generally use softer metals for their knives, so they can take quite a beating in the kitchen, but have poorer edge retention. 12* would be absurdly thin for this kind of blade (even knives that have harder steels, like Shuns, only are 16*), and would get dents in the edge fairly quickly.

Thanks.

My knife is White Steel at hRC 61-63 so I guess that would be the attributing factor in it's performance over Henckels.
 
My understanding is that the softer steels (sub RC59) are not worth taking over 600, and in fact perform better with "teeth", but the harder ones like Sombers will perform wonders with high polish. The fineness of the edge kind of exceeds the benefit of the "teeth", even on a slicer. It all depends on the steel and also what type of cutting the particular knife is to be used for, even the way the user uses it.

It has to be a matter of trial and error and personal preference doesn't it?
 
Got myself an Edge Pro that I'm very happy with. Ben mentions in his video that many people bring their cutlery to the 600 stone and stop. I've also read that doing crazy levels of polishing on kitchen knives don't let them cut as well (at least waxy substances like tomato skins) due to their lack of 'teeth'. But I've seen lots of posts of people stropping their kitchen knives and using 10,000 grit stones (Chosera, Naniwa).

Anyone have any experience on how much polish to put on their cutlery? And I suppose this would be more regarding nice German/Japanese knives rather than your $10 Farberware.

I haven't found that a high polish makes it difficult to cut tomatoes. In this video, I cut a tomato with a cleaver polished to .25µm:
[youtube]bBCeiTmYfwc[/youtube].​
The video is 00:03:40 long and most of it may not be all that interesting, but the tomato part at around 00:02:20 shows how a polished edge can cut soft items with tough or waxy skins.
 
It really does not matter on cheap knives, polished, toothy, it makes no difference they still dull quickly.

My mom has Henkels and they get sharpened on my diamond stones up to a EEF 8000 mesh, Why? because even my non knife nut mother likes a sharp knife. They will work fine but usually need to be re-touched on the EEF after use. If left untouched for over a week I usually need to re-establish a bevel.

Sharpen to the grit/finish you like but don't try and make a cheap knife perform on the same level as a good one, its just not going to happen. No need for a full on polish of 1 micron or less.
 
I usually sharpen my good ones to 600 or 1000 grit EP stones and they last for a very long time.

I sharpened my Furi Pro's about 6 months ago and they still slice through newspaper like it's not even there.
 
Most of my kitchen knives get sharpened to about 600-800. My sushi knives are taken to 2,000 or more. I find 600 sharp enough to quickly prep foods, even tomatoes, but retain a good working edge all week just by steeling with a glass rod. After a week's use, 5-10 strokes on a Sharpmaker is all they need to bring them back. After 3-4 months of this, I find they need to go back to the EdgePro for an overhaul.


Stitchawl
 
I don't go higher than 320 grit on kitchen knives. An edge at that finish does the job very well, and most people don't really care for more.
 
I can push cut a tomato with a sledge hammer, but the results are not nearly as pretty as when I use a proper tool;)

I do have a point, and it is to say that your expectations will dictate your tools and technique. That said, if you do not alter BOTH your tools and technique your results may not meet your expectations...but altering technique usually goes farther than changing tools (unless you are using a sledge hammer).

I know this subforum is all about tinkering with knives, but it needs to be said that an unskilled user will defeat even the best edges on the best steels in short order...and a skilled user can get reasonable performance from a lesser steel.

Perhaps everyone knows this, but when I observe people banging knives through the substrate and making a loud !SNAP! every time the blade contacts the board (that I pray is not a hard material like glass, ceramic, or marble), it just makes me cringe a little.

Off my soap box now...carry on:)
 
This reply isn;t to anyone specifically, just general comments on the subject....

In the kitchen knife sharpening world there's a lot of misconceptions about what is the best edge to apply. I like to think of the intended task of the tool as being what defines the edge type that I apply. I don't see this as a one size fits all.

Take the chef's knife, a general purpose knife, that is asked to cut many different items ranging in texture and pliability. This type of knife is going to need an edge that matches it's intended tasks and that's sort of general in nature. For this type of knife a slightly toothy edge will provide good service. If it's a cheap German knife (like Henckels or Wusthof, etc) that users so so marginal steel and heat treat then it's best to go with a very rough edge because when knife's components begin to give way at least the edge can be brought back to life through realignment (steel/ceramic rod/etc) where if the knife is Japanese it is harder and made of better steel then a higher refined polish can be used but still best finished with something like diamond spray that roughs up the polished surface just slightly.

Now if we were to talk about a more specific kitchen knife like a yanagiba used to prepare sashimi then a highly refined polished edge is in order as the surface texture of the prepared (raw) food is key to taste.

All that aside the thing that I'd like to mention as being the greatest mistake made is to just polish for the sake of polishing. There's more often than not lesser edges made from this (for kitchen use) than not. The thing that most do not consider with kitchen knives is that they need to work in conjunction with a cutting board and need to be tough almost more so than they need to be refined. A highly refined edge that impresses with initial test cutting is often an edge that doesn't stand the test of time and pounding. In the kitchen there has to be a balance between sharp and functional edge longevity and each task needs it's proper knife and edge to be selected.
 
Mr. Martell's points are quite well taken. The steel, the temper and the useage are the determining factors in sharpening.

I sharpen my soft Euro-American kitchen knives to 320 grit and touch up with a serrated steel. :eek::eek:

My quality Japanese knives are generally polished to 10,000 grit with a Naniwa Chocera, and maintained with a borosilicate rod.

( And yes, I finally broke down and bought a few Japanese EP stones from Jende and CKTG. :p )
 
For me it all depends on the situation. What I do to my cheaper knives is not what I do for friends and family cheaper knives. On theirs, I tend to keep to a fairly steep angle for the edge, maybe 20-22 deg per side, or usually just a bit more acute than however it came from the factory. And for some reason I like to take them to 1200 grit on my DMT EF. Probably just that after roughly 15 mos of steady use, my EF is very nicely broken in, kind of at a sweet spot it seems like lol. With my own stuff, I have a handful of cheaper knives with fairly shallow angles, in the 15 deg per side region. I just gently touch them up after about every third use...and I'm easy on them. Works quite nicely.
 
I have a Wusthoff and a Henckels that I have sharpened both ways, and while they can take an edge, a Spyderco UF and stropped edge didn't last long at all, even though the knives are used carefully on a wooden board.

Since those are so soft, they get DMT XC, then DMT F(600), and a few strokes on a blue ceramic rod. They don't cut nearly as well, but I don't have to sharpen them bi-weekly either. This last time they have gone nearly 2 months, though I think both are now plenty dull.
 
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