Sharpening Kitchen knives - Sharpmaker any good?

F

Fudoshin

Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
13
Hi,

I bought a sharpmaker for myself and I showed it to my mother. She did like the efficiency of it but didn't really like the system (as she was thinking of it as a long process in itself)

As I am reading in these forums (mainly about convex sharpening) I doubt more and more the sharpmaker is best suited for this kind of task.

So I'd like to have your recommendations/suggestions as to what is the best way and tool to sharpen a Kitchen Knife in general.

Also, it's important to know my mother doesn't own any really high quality knives (the "regular" Victorinox/Henckels and stuff) and she actually like to kill them putting them in the dishwasher :yawn: ...

So Christmas is coming and I'd like to give her a good something that will help her having a better cutting experience :P

Thanks!
 
Fudoshin said:
Hi,

I bought a sharpmaker for myself and I showed it to my mother. She did like the efficiency of it but didn't really like the system (as she was thinking of it as a long process in itself)

As I am reading in these forums (mainly about convex sharpening) I doubt more and more the sharpmaker is best suited for this kind of task.

So I'd like to have your recommendations/suggestions as to what is the best way and tool to sharpen a Kitchen Knife in general.

Also, it's important to know my mother doesn't own any really high quality knives (the "regular" Victorinox/Henckels and stuff) and she actually like to kill them putting them in the dishwasher :yawn: ...

So Christmas is coming and I'd like to give her a good something that will help her having a better cutting experience :P

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The key to sharpening is probably not to ever let the blade get really dull. If the knife has good edge geometry, is made from good steel (that's been treated properly), and the cutting is done on a good board, then 2-3 passes on a steel and 2-3 passes on a strop, at the end of the day, should be sufficient to keep it sharp.
 
The Sharpmaker should work great, but that sort of knife 'care' will make resharpening a frequent occurrence.

Maybe forget you're a knife knut and get your Mom a carbide insert pull-through sharpener?
 
I've got some good kitchen knives but a lot of them are just stuff from here and there over the years. Don't know what the steel is, what its hardness may be, etc. The Sharpmaker will make it easy to maintain a wide range of knives - short, long, serrated, curved, and so on. But for getting the edge back on a really dull knife or reprofiling, I find I need more than the medium stones it comes with.
 
Sounds like she wants a quick fix, if so, just get a pull through sharperner, it's not great but works.
 
I use a Sharpmaker all the time. It work great. It is the most convenient tool around for serrated knives. The only issue is that for an extremely dull knife it will take time to set the edge for the first time. Try clipping on some 120 grit Wet-or-Dry paper and hone at 15 degrees (30-degree slots) until you get an edge. Then just switch to using the darker rods in the 30 and 40 degree slots. If you want to save work don't even bother with the white rods.

Why don't you put on the initial edge for her and let her maintain the edge. It should only take her a couple of minutes once a month or so.

PS: I see no reason to ever use convex sharpening on a kitchen knife.
 
thombrogan said:
The Sharpmaker should work great, but that sort of knife 'care' will make resharpening a frequent occurrence.
Click to expand...

I agree. If you don't take care of the blade, it doesn't matter what tool you have to sharpen it.

That said, the sharpmaker is all I need for my kitchen knives. It puts a great edge on, and with a touch up every week, keeps it scary sharp.

Phillip
 
thombrogan said:
The Sharpmaker should work great, but that sort of knife 'care' will make resharpening a frequent occurrence.

Maybe forget you're a knife knut and get your Mom a carbide insert pull-through sharpener?
Click to expand...


You will never regret taking Thom's advice. :thumbup:
 
Thanks for all these inputs guys

Considering the pull-through I don't think it's a good idea; we tried a few of them (Henckel's was the "Best" but it was doing a crappy job anyway) and decided not to buy this kind of thing anymore. Sorry Tom! ;) But thanks for the advice, it probably would have been good for someone else.

Jeff/Ben, I think I read that Kitchen knives were mostly convex grind, any thoughts on this? That's what started to make me doubt of the sharpmaker for this kind of usage

Still not sure if I should go with the sharpmaker though; the problem is that her knives probably need re-profiling but the idea is to also give her something that she'll be able to use to keep them in good shape as well... but still the main problem is the dishwasher :/

What would you think of a bench stone? I know it's way harder to use but she always seemed to sharpen her knives just like you would for a convex grind, in a fast/inaccurate way :/

Damn mothers are complicated :P

Thanks again
 
It has been my experience with mothers who know how to take good care of a knife (rare these days, mine is not one of them ;) ) That sharpening their set of knives for them is the best solution, you shouldn't have to do it more than once every month (or 6) assuming a good cutting board and no bone chopping. At the very least get them good and sharp to begin with and then give her a sharpmaker to keep them there. You could also try a large diamond coated steel, they're pretty easy to use and work great for quick fixes.
 
Many good kitchen knives have a chisel grind, or sharpened on just one side. That edge tends to slice straighter and is very easy to touch up on a piece of very fine sand paper. Most of my kitchen knives are sharpened on both edges and on those the edgemaker pro, The yellow one is so simple and effective that nothing else comes close for the Novice.

http://edgemakerpro.com/

That said, I just sharpened all of mine on the sand paper rig that I use on my conxex knives.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Ben.

Sorry my recommendation won't help you, Fudoshin. Well, since I recommended a pull-through carbide thingy, I'm also glad it won't help. :)
 
Back when I was 16 I offered to sharpen a friend's mother's knives for her. She didn't think that she needed that, but she asked if I could sharpen her sharpener for her. She had an old pull-through carbide scraper sharpener that she found adequate for her needs. She had used it for so long that the corners on the carbide scraper blocks had become rounded. I didn't think much of using that kind of tool, but I'll try and sharpen anything. I removed a couple screws to get the blocks out to work on. I thought I'd have to see if I could true the blocks up with my aluminum oxide oil stone. It turned out that I could just flip the blocks around to expose fresh scraping edges. I solved her problem in 5 minutes and she considered me a genius.

It is worth noting that all of her knives were classsic carbon steel or cheap stainless steel, both in the mid 50's RC hardness. I wouldn't push a scraper if you have extremely hard japanese stainless blades. Even with cheap knives you tend to remove a lot of edge material and develop something of an uneven edge contour with long term use.
 
I would recommend what some others have mentioned, but tailor it to your situation. Create a coupon (I think Microsoft has a templete) that she can redeem with you for a shapening. I would suggest creating a booklet of 12 coupons with expirations (1 month range of validity) and limitations for one knife sharpened per month for a year. This way, if she has a favorite knife that she uses all the time, she can decide if she wants to maintain it often or her whole collection once. And, you will not be stuck with all the dull knives at once. :)

My $ .02

Cheers.
 
Fudoshin said:
Thanks for all these inputs guys

Considering the pull-through I don't think it's a good idea; we tried a few of them (Henckel's was the "Best" but it was doing a crappy job anyway) and decided not to buy this kind of thing anymore. Sorry Tom! ;) But thanks for the advice, it probably would have been good for someone else.

Jeff/Ben, I think I read that Kitchen knives were mostly convex grind, any thoughts on this? That's what started to make me doubt of the sharpmaker for this kind of usage
Thanks again
Click to expand...

Maybe Thom can correct me if I'm mistaken, since he's a professional kitchen knife sharpener, but I've personally never seen or heard of a "convex" kitchen knife. :confused:
 
Ben Dover said:
Maybe Thom can correct me if I'm mistaken, since he's a professional kitchen knife sharpener, but I've personally never seen or heard of a "convex" kitchen knife. :confused:
Click to expand...

Hattori HD series,Kanetsugu Pro M,and Pro S series kitchen knives are convex!
 
I'm an amateur, Ben. This is an addiction, not a profession. Tons of kitchen knives have convex edges. There are the production knives karesz68 mentioned as well as several custom knives and then any kitchen knife resharpened on a belt sander (which is how one of my non-knifeknut uncles sharpens his). Convex edges are very popular on single-bevelled Japanese-style knives (though only on one side :confused:;) ).
 
Thanks for all your answers again!

dcZippo, original idea you've got there :P

I'll ponder on the matter and see what I'll do in the end with all these info

Fudoshin
 
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