KISS of Sharpening your blades?

Ive got one of the stones in today and should be getting the next one later today. A few quick questions:

1. Any specific youtubes you guys recommend for me to watch that explains the exact process of what to do to sharpen a knife with these. I'm not looking for a history lesson or an in depth analysis. But literally a how to.

2. Any way to see if a stone has been used? I bought it off Amazon (fulfilled by Amazon). The packaging is worn and the stone itself doesn't exact in perfect condition. It doesn't look like there are any directional marks, but just small marks and scratches. May just be par for the course for a "tool" like this, but I would have no experience to know.

3. Is there some kind of steel or cutting utensil (axe?) that I SHOULDN'T use these stone to sharpen (for fear of damaging or disproportionally wearing them)?

Thanks!
 
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OK, so I sharpened my first knife! I took my Wusthof Chef Knife from OK to wow. It took about 1.5 hours of trial and error though. The first go around I think I didn't have enough passes on the course stone and it was probably more dull than I began. I figure part of that is that I had to reset the edge angle from whatever the Edgemaker pro system dulled it to. So I started with the extra course the second time around and this was alot more effective. It's crazy, but even after just the extra course, it was very rough, but already sharper than before based on my paper slicing test.

A few things though:

1. I ended up finding that the only way I could sharpen the knife consistently was by breaking it up into 3 parts (top, middle, bottom). I could probably get the middle and bottom in one go , but the top absolutely had to be separated as I couldn't spin the knife the way I needed to because of the angle guide. But even if I was able to, it seems like the motion I would have to do would also change the knife angle.

2.While one side of the knife made the typical slurry sound, the other side of the knife frequently made a squeaking/resonating sound. In all directions and on all the stones. Does that mean anything?

3. From my understanding, I now just need to steele the blade every few uses. The only steele I have is some cheap one that came with an old knife set. Should I get a high quality steele, or is this less important?
 
First of all congratulations!

A few things spring to mind. Regarding the guide, appreciate it can be difficult to sharpen the blade in one continuous pass, you just need to be careful to not preferentially sharpen localised sections potentially ruining the lovely lines of your Wüsthof over time. Eventually you will be able to hold a decent angle along the length of the blade without the guide. That should be a goal in the not too distant future.

Regarding the strange sound, there should really be little difference from side to side, are you catching the choil maybe?

Your steel may be fine, just give it a go and see what happens, try to hit the same angle as when on the plate. I personally use a steel infrequently and prefer a strop but I have used one before with good effect. You can get rods made of steel, ceramic, diamond etc. All do pretty much the same job of realigning a rolled edge but with varying amounts of metal abrasion. All will only be good for so long until the edge becomes fatigued and the knife must revisit the stone.

One final thought. Your x coarse stone is great for learning and initially setting the edge as it removes metal fast and creates a large burr which is easier for a beginner to feel. It will remove more metal than necessary however. Future sharpening on the same blade should be possible using just the fine and above.

Good luck
 
Craig James said:
First of all congratulations!

A few things spring to mind. Regarding the guide, appreciate it can be difficult to sharpen the blade in one continuous pass, you just need to be careful to not preferentially sharpen localised sections potentially ruining the lovely lines of your Wüsthof over time. Eventually you will be able to hold a decent angle along the length of the blade without the guide. That should be a goal in the not too distant future.

Regarding the strange sound, there should really be little difference from side to side, are you catching the choil maybe?

Your steel may be fine, just give it a go and see what happens, try to hit the same angle as when on the plate. I personally use a steel infrequently and prefer a strop but I have used one before with good effect. You can get rods made of steel, ceramic, diamond etc. All do pretty much the same job of realigning a rolled edge but with varying amounts of metal abrasion. All will only be good for so long until the edge becomes fatigued and the knife must revisit the stone.

One final thought. Your x coarse stone is great for learning and initially setting the edge as it removes metal fast and creates a large burr which is easier for a beginner to feel. It will remove more metal than necessary however. Future sharpening on the same blade should be possible using just the fine and above.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I will look out for the choil next time and see if that was the problem!

Do diamond stones cut alot faster? I ended up doing 30-40 passes at each grit for each top/middle/bottom for each side (10 at a time). Some videos I watched showed people doing 100 passes easily on each side. I didn't use the guidance of a burr however as I'm not sure how to do that.
 
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