Presto Chango; Knife Sharpened?

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
Messages
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It appears Grandma must belong to a Cooking club, and as an extra, decided to send her daughter a knife sharpener. Oops- I mean me, a knife sharpener. It's probably her daughter who complained about dull knives, or else Mother in law noticed dull knives when she was here last.

Her solution when she visited was to fix upon my 80 dollar Messermeister Meridian Elite as her constant companion. She took a lesser knife, a stamped steel Messermeister, and actually bent it while deboning a roast. Bent it.

It's kinda funny- all knives are the same to many people, but I noticed she sure had the best Messermeister in her hand whenever possible.

I've always wondered about electric knife sharpeners. Top end has diamond wheels, don't they? Saphire here in the Presto unit. That's OK. I figured all the Chicago Cutlery knives around here deserved that. And away I went. Guurrrrrrr. Yep, they were sharper, and I didn't really care what the profile looked like. It wouldn't last long anyway- I know, I've tried. (that's why my kitchen knives are dull- I don't wish to sharpen them 3 times weekly.)

The Messermeister Santuko did need sharpening, and like a fool, I put her in. The instructions clearly warned me hard steels may take a little longer- as much as ten times. But I had no patience to see what else the little black machine would do to my prized baby. I groaned looking at the edge. Lots of little zigs, zags and ripples. Well, a few minutes with the diamond hones straightened out some of it, and use and gradual sharpening will do the rest. The original factory edge was so fine you could not see it.

I considered putting the "little" butcher cleaver Yvsa gave me through the machine, but looking at the nice Convex edge he'd taken the time to install dissauded me of that.

This Presto Unit is not "Yvsa in a box". It does a acceptable job with low end kitchen knives, which is really a life saver around my home.

When Yvsa In A Box is available I'll get one, but in the meantime, when a blade I care about needs sharpening, I'll have to do it myself.


munk
 
I'd hate to see what a nice convex would come out looking like...

:(

.
 
Hell, Munk, even the blade in my Leatherman doesn't get treated like that. :)

I keep promising myself a set of proper kitchen knives. The money always seems to get spent on something else - ammunition, khukuris, swords, beer, etc. (I have my priorities in order, you see.) If and when I ever figure out exactly what I'm looking for, I'll probably buy a few. An 8" chef's knife alone would handle 90% of my chores anyway. One day I'll run out of excuses.

Right now I'm saddled with a set of metal objects that I hesitate to call knives. They're unmarked, which makes sense - if I'd made these, I certainly wouldn't want my name on them. They're some kind of low grade stainless that refuses to take an edge on anything short of a belt grinder but they load up the belts so fast that I refuse to sharpen them like this anymore. If I can't fix it with a steel, it doesn't get fixed anymore. I'm actually ashamed to have them in my kitchen.

They were abandoned in a vacated apartment and eventually made their way to me. I tried explaining to the individual who salvaged them (my room mate) that people who're moving tend not to abandon stuff that's useful but these lessons can be hard to learn sometimes - hence, a large amount of semifunctional electronics, cracked drinking glasses, damaged hand tools and these abominations in my knife block.

But good knives? They certainly deserve a proper hand sharpening if you ask me.
 
Sharpmaker...good for kitchen knives all right...

.
 
I don't know why this negative take on my Presto. It seeems to be an appropriate tool for an Age which includes telescoping hiking ski poles with shock absorbers.


munk
 
Nasty said:
I'd hate to see what a nice convex would come out looking like...

:(

.
Click to expand...
So would I! BTW, it's described as looking like a f'd up convex when it comes out of the sharper-o-rator thingy.

stevo
 
Hey, Satori, get yourself one or more kitchen knife blanks (blades only) and put your own exotic or native wood handles on them. I got some from Texas Knife Supply. They have several very nice ones, cryogenically hardened (if that really means anything. they're slightly more expensive than the non-. I've had a lot of fun putting various handles on them: ironwood, hard maple, granadillo.

I especially like the 8 1/4" competition cookoff chef's blade. It's stainless, but heck, for $18 (plus a couple of bucks for pins/screws, wood, and glue [we won't say ANYTHING about the amount of time it takes me]), I've got a really great kitchen knife. Fun to make, too.
 
Aardvark said:
Hey, Satori, get yourself one or more kitchen knife blanks (blades only) and put your own exotic or native wood handles on them. I got some from Texas Knife Supply. They have several very nice ones, cryogenically hardened (if that really means anything. they're slightly more expensive than the non-. I've had a lot of fun putting various handles on them: ironwood, hard maple, granadillo.

I especially like the 8 1/4" competition cookoff chef's blade. It's stainless, but heck, for $18 (plus a couple of bucks for pins/screws, wood, and glue [we won't say ANYTHING about the amount of time it takes me]), I've got a really great kitchen knife. Fun to make, too.
Click to expand...

A good suggestion, but I'm utterly inept when it comes to woodworking.

It's kind of embarrassing actually. I do a lot of minor woodworking on the job. I don't have a problem with it. The moment I'm called upon to make something look nice it goes downhill in a hurry. Staining and coating is about the extent of my abilities.
 
You can use a belt sander, right? That's about all the skill you need. The shape of the handle is already fixed, because the knives will be full tang. Just sand away the parts that stick out beyond the steel, and round off the corners a little.

I don't know what I'm doing, either, but the people to whom I've given the knives don't know that.
 
munk said:
I don't know why this negative take on my Presto. It seeems to be an appropriate tool for an Age which includes telescoping hiking ski poles with shock absorbers.


munk
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm an avid hiker, and shamefully I use old technology, it's called "a stick" :)
 
cliff355 said:
Personally, I have to keep a ceramic-wheel hand sharpener in the kitchen, because the members of my crew use ceramic plates for cutting boards, so the knife that is Yvsa-sharp right now probably won't be when you pick it up again.
Click to expand...


Hanging might not be a bad thing for them...

Geesh
 
Hanging might not be a bad thing for them...

This weekend we had a wave of rightieous cleaners around the house. My wife, steady at the helm, tirelessly and ceaselessly cleaning while Blobo the Clown absorbs sunlight and moisture passively, like a house plant....

A great show was made of vacuming. Vacuming high, vacuming low, vacuming all the wood chips off the carpet you know. "Better sweep that first..." I tell them. I do get up briefly and sweep and pick up the worst. I mop a floor, do a sink, pots, pans, under the fridge- all the jobs no one will touch.

Monday arrives. A carpenter is coming over next day so I'd better get the old dead flies off the stove. I don't want him to call Child Protective Services on me. Well, they'd been under a defunct burner for awhile....
Vacumn doesn't work. I take it apart and it's jammed with paper and wood chips- outragiously large stuff someone was too oblivious to remove from the floor before using. I can't clear the hose. So I go get another vacumn. I pop it open to make sure there's a bag and there isn't; someone has used this machine without and it's jammed to the gills with debris. I'm carrying it down the hallway, it flops open and spills it's guts all over the 'vacumned floor'.

Now I still got dead flies, and a hallway to clean. I get another vacumn. We have a lot of vacumns. An old junk man liked to give them to us the same way many old men give away flashlights.... Anyway, I turn this machine on, and it isn't picking up right. Lifting it, I realize it weighs 10 pounds more than it should. Yep. Vacumn bag full to the neck. Right up to the gullet.

None of these vacumns accomplished a darn thing over the weekend except adding to the percieved virtue of their operators. They managed to gulp a few large chips but spewed fine dust in their wakes.

It's ten O'Clock at night. I'm covered with dust. I need a shower. I put a bag into the upright and vacumn the livingroom and hallway.

Next day I take the other vacumn apart and clear the hose. Still wont work, and the dried bodies of the flies stuck to the metal pan beneath the dead burner of the stove sneer at me. Outside I examine the problem. A Pine branch rammed down the hose doesn't work. There still isn't air pressure. This thing is called a 'shark', it's little but vicious. I discover the filter is completely clogged. I bang it out, scrape it out, poke it, throw it, wipe and coddle it until it's clear. What do you know? The flies are dead meat.

"My allergies are bad," She said. "It's the dryer; all that moisture, we must have mold."

"You had the walls dripping with water when you used to use the shower downstairs, where was all this 'mold' then?" I asked her.

"That's true," She said, wondering aloud: another mystery for the Ages, where, and why OH LORD, does this torment come from?

I leave a fat note on her purse. I could leave a severed head and she wouldn't find it until later when she searched the Abyss for a mint. YOUR ALLERGIES BOTHER YOU BECAUSE YOU SPREAD DUST ALL OVER THE HOUSE WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE VACUMMING

No worries, Mate; all taken care of when she returns home. It's fixed. It won't stay fixed, but it's fixed.

If she were rich I'd be her man Pedro- the Gardner, Butler, Custodian, floor wipe and... Oh, we don't knowingly and willingly do this to ourselves- it's learned behavior. She was raised by Orphans. Might as well be Martians. And her old man is an A--hole- yes I am.

Hope is the new generation. "See this dish?" I ask my five year old. "When you are through with this dish, carry it over here, to the sink, see?"

"Uh huh."

"Then turn on this shiny thing, called a faucet; see?"

"Uh huh."

"It's called, 'rinsing the dish when you're done with it."

"OH."

Darn little guy actually buses his dishes too. You know- like a real human being?

I figure he has to grow up and live in the real world. Might come in handy.
He'll learn machines aren't inexhaustable magic, that when you leave a mess behind someone has to clean it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I wouldn't know where to start the hanging, boys.

Well, the Carpenter came. For all our efforts, the place still looks like Mr Toad's Wild Ride. I needn't have bothered. He was a kind old man. Worked hard all his life, seen the Elephant and an empty belly on a few occasions, snow 7 feet high and babies with typhoid. But these new kind of folks? Aint natural. Where do they come from? California? I think maybe we should have a bare earth floor. Our feet could pack it down, and anything fallen would soon become part of the superstructure. What we eat is what we live in. Naked Lunch.

"Why don't we just get it over with and recarpet the whole house?" She asked.

I'm guessing that costs a little more than vacumning....


munk
 
I was always a big fan of German "French Chef " knives. Wustoff, Boker, and the like. I recently had the pleasure of watching a professional Italian chef at work, and noticed that he was using a slimmer, more triangular shaped knife. I later discovered it was the Sabatier French pattern. Got one in carbon steel from Chef Catalog, or Knives Direct. Subtle differences. You hold the Wustoff like a saber, you hold the Sabatier like a musical instrument. If that makes sense...It is now my very favorite, and it's getting a nice patina...like a fine khukri. :D
 
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