hwt@bwdlh490.bnr.ca (Henry Troup) (08/29/90)
In article <1990Aug24.171924@ldyday.enet.dec.com> ritz@ldyday.enet.dec.com writes: >Kitchen knife sharpening is not the arcane art some would make it out to be. ... >to get the 35-degree edge back into shape with a sharpening. You *can* sharpen >stainless knives, but they take a lot longer to do. Don't let the blade get hot I must say that both as a woodworker and a cook, I'm a little obsessive about sharpness. I've just been through sharpening (stoning) my wife's big German stainless carving knife. It was slow work but a good edge in the end. Then I tried a set of 'Vanadium Steel' knife my mother bought once. Those things can't be sharpened... by me, anyway. I use 1000 and 4000 grit Japanese waterstones for sharpening. The edge is equal to hard black Arkansas, and I prefer water as a lubricant. I guess diamond grit would sharpen the vanadium steel blades, but I'm not about to invest in it. -- Henry Troup - BNR owns but does not share my opinions | Standards conforming uunet!bnrgate!hwt%bwdlh490 HWT@BNR.CA +1 613-765-2337 | .signature...
jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) (08/29/90)
From article <4022@bwdls58.UUCP>, by hwt@bwdlh490.bnr.ca (Henry Troup):
>Kitchen knife sharpening is not the arcane art some would make it out to be.
This is an odd cross posting, but why not? Here's my 2 cents worth:
I've always liked the old-fashioned sharpening steels, the kind made of
steel, not the newfangled cylindrical stones with handles. They really
do work, and despite what some detractors say, they're quite safe.
For some reason that escapes me, there's a tradition in some circles of
using a steel from knife tip to handle, with the blade of the knife
facing the hand holding the steel. This is, indeed, a possible safety
problem, but if you reverse the direction of the stroke, working from
hilt to tip with the edge being sharpened pointing away from you, it
seems to sharpen just as well, and it's safe (unless someone's standing
too close in front of you).
Doug
jones@herky.cs.uiowa.edu