Kitchen steel?

A

arbee2

Joined
May 12, 2002
Messages
7
Several related questions about steels: I understand that a steel should be "smooth as glass". What kind of steels are appropriate for touching up kitchen knives. I have mostly Henkels. Is the Henkels steel best for these? A friend has a mixture of different kitchen knives. Is a Henkels okay for all of them? Are there better or less expensive alternatives?
 
Most kitchen knives such as Henckels are soft enough to be readily filed with a grooved steel and thus can be maintained in this way for months until the edge has thickened and needs to be reground. On high end cutlery a smooth steel is better as the grooved ones can't cut into the knife blade and the edge tends to catch and be torn up on the grooves. For that type of work though, a ceramic or diamond rod will give a much more long lasting edge. The downside is that it will wear the knife out sooner as compared to a smooth steel, but you are looking at lifetimes in the decades anyway. The older grooved steels were better (harder) then the newer ones, but even a cheap one works fine on Henckels and the like. Diamond and ceramic rods are all over the place, pick a one which give the edge finish you prefer. A 600 grit DMT works well on just about anything except the crustier breads for while you want more aggression, i.e. a more coarse finish.

-Cliff
 
It doesn't make much sense to me to use a grooved steel. If I'm not using a smooth steel, I see no reason to go to a grooved steel, and instead I'd go to a ceramic or diamond rod. For sources of a smooth steel, I can recommend an f.Dick steel, or go to www.razoredgesystems.com and get one of their steels. They have a handy folding steel that is very smooth.
 
Grooved steels are basically files, and filed edges, like every other finish, have advantages on certain media. There has been a lot of discussion on rec.knives on filed edges, including a recent one comparing them to diamond and ceramic rods.

Files are what I tend to prefer on the machetes usually hardened to 45-48 RC. A bastard file to set the edge and a butchers steel to maintain it. This is also the hardness of most cheap kitchen knives, and they cut very similar materials.

High end kitchen knives can take much finer bevels and thus don't need an aggressive an edge to cut very well even on skinned vegetables. It would not make a lot of sense to run a grooved steel down the edge of a Japanese kitchen knife for example, a very fine ceramic is enough for them.

-Cliff
 
Thanks everyone. Hmmm. I'm learning a few things here. I always that the German knives were high end. I have not had any complaint about them. What are high end knives these days? And what about them is superior to the German knives? What are the Japanese kitchen knives you refer to?
 
By high end I just meant those with a high hardness, 58+ RC. Most production knives like Henckels are in the high fourties to low fifties. Japanese kitchen knives like the following one from Lee Valley :

http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/gift/60w0406s1a.jpg

are often laminated construction, which means that the very edge is of a really hard steel, often 62-64 RC, and thus doesn't respond very well to modern butchers (grooved) steels.

There is nothing wrong with simply trying it and seeing what happens. The worst that it will do is break up the edge on a really fine scale and thus it will get dulled and require the edge to be reset on a stone.

-Cliff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top