I'm looking to up my sharpening game...I'd like to get the best possible performance out of my knives and stones...i don't know if I'm at the level where the minutia of different steels and electron microscopy would benefit me...
So...what would you folks suggest...what resources are out there...
I am glad someone who cooks more than I do answered. I just make cookies and pancakes.
My pardoner known here as The Chef does the rest. She was a pro chef for decades and taught some community cooking classes . She also spent a brief period in Boulder, Colorado at The Cooking School Of The Rockies.
She says she only wants the knives sharp enough to do the tasks she uses them for and wishes I wouldn't bother "over sharpening them".
That said I didn't know how to respond. I have only been getting edges that blow me away sharpness wise for twenty years. That sounds like bragging but I am saying we have been making sharp edges for the same amount of time. What could I add ?.
I suppose my point is that once I learned what I had to do, and that is abrade an edge with an appropriate grit abrasive and maintain a certain angle for the duration I enlisted the best and easiest way of doing that (a guided system) and from that week on the results were very satisfying . . . I mean what part of carving little curls off a single hair while it is still in your arm do you disagree with ?
I fooled around since I was a kid with sharpening stones and honing "oil" and water stones and got varied results. The time to get real was when I took up hand tool woodworking and was having trouble getting smooth and consistent surfaces in very tough and very hard wood.
It became a game. To win I had to easily achieve the following :
- an edge that would perform for a decent period of time (for this stuff that could mean less than an hour of work)
- the edge would not deform or chip
- the surface left behind by the edge had to be finish grade; no chipping out of the surface, no chatter marks where the blade would deflect out of the cut at high frequency
- the surface had to be flat; ten thousandths of an inch flatness per foot (not scooped out) anything less shows once a semi gloss finish is applied or does not fit up well in critical joints.
Once I started using guided systems early on it was extremely easy to get fantastically sharp edges. From there I suppose it is easy enough to "ruin" them into some version of toothy if you like that. What I am saying is toothy is no big deal and can be done with a stone or two hand held so that apparently isn't satisfying you and what you are pursuing today.
minutia of different steels
I assume you mean blade material not steel rods (or ceramic) used to sharpen the edge but there is the latter, and often used here by food prep people here.
If you mean blade material from my own careful observation basic high quality Japanese kitchen knives hold an edge super well and cut brilliantly (even when polished edged) and I would say only for the fish and other abrasive materials will you gain from say S110V.
The surface being cut against is paramount in preserving edges; plastic softish cutting boards work well for me.
electron microscopy would benefit me...
You completely lost me there. Are you saying you want to send your self sharpened knife to be photographed at the edges for learning feed back or buy an electron microscope ?
Probably not right ?
Fingernail sharpness testing will tell you everything you need to know about an edge you are sharpening . . . then use it for the specific task at hand and modify the geometry as needed or replace the knife with a different blade material as needed. See Murray Carter vid bellow.
Here is one first hand experience <<< link that took a kitchen knife with medium steel to the absolute limit. There is no abrasive material being cut but the edge geometry is too thin and shallow angle for the job but the heat treat is spot on and the quality of the knife shines through.
Keeping in mind this is one of The Chef's most used home kitchen knives (she cooks more than once a day and we almost never eat out . . . she says why would I spend all that money for something that is going to piss me off?). Not the best restaurants around here I must admit. Though there certainly is a plethora . (she has retired from pro cooking and is in the legal profession . . . easier on the body).
I'm not a toothy saw edge knife dude (as he is) but I find this info in this Murray Carter video to be extremely spot on in finding the optimal edge geometry for the specific job at hand.
