Sharpening kitchen knives?

M

mx125

Joined
Jan 9, 2004
Messages
36
Thanks to this forum's wealth of information I have managed to get myself to the point where I can reprofe my BG42 field knife and can successfully get shaving sharp my few other knives in aus-6 and aus-8 stainless. I have found, however, that my CHEAP kithen knives by henckel and victorionox (japan and brazil respectively) just will not sharpen. At 20% per side the blade is riddled with nicks and chips. 15 deg, forget it. 30 deg. per side they are fairly clean edged but are as useless as a hatchet for cutting.

Now, the question is . . I'm about to buy some high quality kitchen knives, but just want to make sure I should get the same quality low angle edge with say henckel 4-stars as I can get with my other quality outdoor knives? It's just that I see a lot of posts with happy results with economy knives and wonder if kitchen knives don't follow the same rules. Thanks.

Rob.
 
This sounds more like a honing problem, that a fault of the steel. I have sharpened many such cheap kitchen knives and they all take a razor edge readily and I tend to use <15 degree per side angles. What you need to watch out for is that since the steel is so soft it will roll readily, so you tend to need wider hones to get crisp edges, rods and such tend to just roll the edge over unless you use very light pressure.

-Cliff
 
i hadn't thought of that. i do use a fair bit of pressure. i'll give that a try on the flat sides only of my spyderco. thanks.

is it still safe to assume, though, that the "un-named" steel in henckel 4 stars is vastly superior to the cheap variety?
 
Yes, generally you are looking at low fifties for hardness is the Henckels, the really cheap ones can be 45 HRC or lower, you can tell the difference readily when filing.

-Cliff
 
what brand should I look at for top kitchen steel? should I steer away from henckels?
 
Henckels make a solid knife if they fit your hand well and are comfortable. The next step up in steel is Global.

-Cliff
 
Master the sharpening process on your cheap knives before you work on expensive ones. I agree with Cliff that it sounds like you are using too high a pressure on the honing rod edges and breaking down your blade edge. I haven't seen that done before. I always hone left-right-left-right when using a Sharpmaker. Have you been working one side at a time? With high pressure you could not only create a burr along the edge, you might also roll some of the edge sideways, cause sideways indentions and edge rippling. You may be fatiguing the material along the blade edge. Lighten up. Hone alternate sides. DON'T USE THE WHITE RODS.

Using high pressure on the white rod edges to try and remove much material is sure to fatigue the edge. You might as well be rubbing a metal rod up and down the side of your blade. Clean your grey medium rods using water and sink cleanser. Set them to hone on the flats at 15 degrees (the 30 degree holes). Even the flats on the rods are narrow compared to a bench hone so only use moderate pressure as you hone alternating sides. This is where you will do 95% of your honing. When you feel that you have an edge move the rods to the 40 degree holes and do about 5 LIGHT strokes per side. Now do a few deburring strokes. Tilting the blade to run parallel to the left rod LIGHTLY stroke the right side of the edge down the right rod (this will be at double the normal angle, 40 degrees per side) then tilt the blade to the right and hone the left side the same way. Repeat the process about 4 times more. Then tilt the blade to the normal vertical angle and do about 5 LIGHT strokes per side. I would not expect you to create any nicks or dings using this approach and I have sharpened over a hundred brands of kitchen knives. If you want an edge for shaving rather than for optimumized for kitchen cutting switch to the white rods and do about 5 more light strokes per side at 20 degrees.

I like to use MAC kitchen knives ( http://www.macknife.com/page3.html ) or Spydercos. These are not expensive and are around 58 to 60 RC.
 
Jeff,

I do use approx. 3 stokes per side. I will switch to single alternating stokes. I probably do use to much pressure although I've tried to sharpen using a lansky with what I thought was light pressure with same micro chipping results. The edge rolling and breaking down idea, though, does sound like it makes sense. Perhaps my experience with fighting the BG42 blade taught me a bad habit (too much pressure). I will go back and sharpen as you describe and report back. Thanks very much for the pointers.

Rob.
 
you're both correct. the heavy pressure created the nicks/chips. i guess i underestimated just how soft the steel actually is. i need more practice to rebuild the edges properly, but the first quick and dirty attempt proved that it could be done with less force. thanks again.
 
Glad to hear you got it figured out. Now you know why it was profiled so steep....;)
 
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