sharpening help

[guga]

Hi,
I will focus on learning how to sharp my knives and later i will get a j-knife.
I currently own a few Wusthof Ikon knives and want to learn how to sharp them properly (dont worry I also have a few $5 to practice on)

My questions are:

- which stone should I get?? I cant really spend a lot of money on this
- the stone that I buy, can be also used on my future japanese knife?
- what angle should I use on the wusthof? (I saw a video on youtube and they were using a 20 +/- angle
- where can i get a good basic sharpening tutorial?

and last

- i have notice that one of mi knives has tiny marks from getting it in and out of the "plastic knife protector", is there a product to polish this marks of?


thanks everyone who has help me on this forum.

guga

 

[foxx]

Freehand sharpening on a stone is difficult to learn. Spyderco, and others, make a sharpening system of ceramic rods. The rods can be set at different angles for various knives.
I don't own one, I sharpen with sandpaper/strop my edges. I own more convex edges than V edges.
Learn freehand sharpening if you want, more power to you. But, you may consider getting a sharpening system so you can get it right and not wear out a knife by poor sharpening technique.
I have found some cheap knives to be even harder to sharpen than your Wusthof's. Not all, but many, cheap knives seem to be quite hard, they hold an edge for a long time, but are very challenging to re-sharpen. Wusthof kitchen knives seem a bit softer, and the thin edges take an edge very quickly. I've hardly had to sharpen mine because of this.
Knives ship free has a good tutorial on sharpening. There are lots of videos on YouTube, but take many of those with a grain of salt. Keep reading about sharpening, here and elsewhere. You'll get it, and use light pressure!

 

[richard j]

if you want a cheap way to sharpen do like foxx does and use sandpaper. 3m makes a brand called wetordry and works great.
i have a buddy that owns a knife store in minnesota and he is a wusthof dealer. they used to use several machines to sharpen on but now uses the paper wheels. he told me the vice president of wusthof came by and was impressed with the edges put on by the wheels. (wusthof uses robots to sharpen at the factory). you can sharpen just about anything on them in a few minutes and you can get set up with them for around $100.