polishing kitchen knives

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pressure cooker

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Jul 4, 2007
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I've noticed when i polish my knives on my 8000 grit stone it has an amazing edge. however when cutting tomatoes, peppers or even when trimming the fat cap on meats, my knives(japanese western style) does not want to cut after a few minutes. I' ve notice on a 3000 grit stone this does not happen.
I was wondering if 8000 is too fine or is there another problem.
Any and all advice will be welcomed.


Knife brands:
nenox,suisin, masamoto, ittosai kotetsu, togiharu.

Water stones:
King 1000, shapton1500 &5000, suehiro 3000, and kitayama 8000.
Thanks in advance
John
 
Highly polished edges do not work well on soft foods with a skin..such as you mentioned. You need to use a knife with a little tooth to it. Most people use a serrated knife for such tasks. Myself, I keep one knife with a 600 grit edge on it for tomatoes and the like. It works well.
 
On the Spyderco Sharpmaker video, Sal suggests that when sharpening kitchen knives, only the coarse ceramics need be used (first the corners, then the flats). I do ours that way and have had no complaints from either the management (mein frau) or the help (c'est moi). Only use serrations on the bread knife. YMMV.
 
The problem may be that you have a burr or wire edge going on. 8000 should still keep an edge for a long time, especially with the hard steels of the knife brands you are using.

What kind of cutting board do you use?

In any case, it's good to vary your edge grit according to the type of food you plan to cut. You can go up to 8000 (some take it as high as 12000) if you are going to cut mostly vegetables or fish. Tomatoes and peppers will require a little bit of draw to get through the skin, but the knife should fall through on its own weight after the skin is broken. For knives used on meat and poultry, I think it would be better to stop at 5000 or even 3000.
 
if it cuts good at first, then stops doing so well...probably not a burr problem (which would be the reverse).

most likely, the steel does not perform at its best at that grit finish.

Do a test at each grit level...see which gives you what you want.
 
Question. When going up in grits, do you recommend removing the burr first then proceding, or chasing the burr until it's gone?.
john
 
I only remove the burr at the end of the sharpening routine, after the last stone, with a strop. Chasing a burr after each stone .... You'll just make another burr with the next stone.
 
Nope, it seems your cutting board isn't the problem. I just had to ask.

I've found that stropping on cardboard works really well for burr removal, especially for high carbon stainless. Any piece of paper will actually do, but I prefer the cardboard backing on a legal pad.

After you finish on the 8000 stone, just lay the cardboard as FLAT as you can on a FLAT and extremely rigid surface (like a stone or glass countertop). Some kind of adhesive tape will be helpful. Then stroke the edge on the cardboard like you're spreading butter on the board. Try to get the entire edge with every stroke. Use an angle about 3-5 degrees more than you used on the stones. If, for example you feel the burr on the left side of the blade: Stroke 5 times consecutively on the left side then 5 on the right, then 4 left and 4 right, 3 left and 3 right, 2 and 2, 1 and 1, 1 and 1, 1 and 1. And you're done. All this does is bend the burr back and forth until it snaps off and leaves a really sharp edge.

If you want to take your edge up a notch while you de-burr, you can smear some Metal Glo metal polish on your cardboard and wait for it to dry before you strop on it. Metal Glo has crazy small particles at about half a micron (whereas an 8000 stone has particles at 1.2 microns). Just be careful when using a strop charged with abrasive. I just learned that if you overdo it, you'll round the edge. You should be fine if you stick to the 5-4-3-2-1-1-1 formula or something similar.
 
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