Sharpening techniques olden style?

A long time ago (30+ years ago) when I was just leaning how to cook, I used to hang out at a famous kitchen store in NYC and the owner took a liking to me and "taught" me how to freehand sharpen on the old fashioned stones then available. I never did it much but the technique he taught me is so different then what I am learning to do from Dave's videos that I thought I would ask if anyone learned this technique as well.

Basically you hold the knife at the correct angle and starting at the heel of the knife draw it across the width of a stone to the tip on a diagonal. You did this at various places on the stone obviously in order to avoid as best one could overusing one spot.

Interestingly enough I don't remember flattening ever coming up....

Did anyone else ever learn this style? Other than it is hard to wear the stone evenly. is there an other reason why this technique is bad??

(I tried it on a very hard finishing stone and it seemed to work OK BTW)

TIA

If my understanding of your technique is correct it sounds similar to what Bob Kramer was doing in a video that was linked recently here in the forum. I think the consensus is that it might not be the best technique for everyone or every purpose but it can be useful. At the end of the day if you are happy with the performance of your knives using that technique and you aren't killing your knives I think it's fine. I use it occasionally for quick touch ups. As for flattening I think you'll find that a majority of people will agree that you will be best served with a flat stone.

hello,

the move is the same used for classic stropping if i understand correctly?

if yes,

15 years ago a chef de partie in a 2* restaurant near place vendome in paris told me i needed to do this counting 15 strokes on one sides, 15 on the other, and count down to 1 . i still use the move to sharpen

Sounds like how I was taught to sharpen on my old Norton india stone by Ross Cutlery in downtown Los Angeles. I got passable but not great results using that technique for years. For me, sharpening with that technique makes it much harder to control both the angle and the pressure.

Was he using a synthetic india stone? I don't think they need much flattening.

I incorporate it, leadin up to stropping and deburring. It prettys up your bevel very well, which is a nice plus.

Stones in those days were insanely hard low grit norton stone I think. The creme de la creme was a natural black arkansas, I wish I could fine mine, it would probably be collectible!

Not quite because you draw the knife at a diagonal on the same place (length wise) on the knife. With stropping as I understand it you used the whole length of the strop.

As I recall he claimed by staying at the same place for one "draw" as opposed to using the whole length for the draw, it was easier to keep the angle consistent for beginners (which I actually agree with since one only is thinking about one dimension in your draw..)

I've used this technique with pretty good success specifically to deburr stainless and other pia knives. In the end use whatever technique you like that leaves an edge that makes you happy.

Exactly. Move metal at a uniform angle and rate and make sure your bevels meet. Take off the burr, refine a touch and you're golden.

Hey gic....was that Bridge by any chance? They used to have some interesting stuff in that place.

It was indeed Bridge, Fred Bridge took a liking to me as he must have thought it weird that a junior math prof wanted to hang out at his store. He was a character that was for sure!

It is funny, in those days the be all end all of knives were wusthofs and henkels not the now vintage sabatiers he also sold which were so cheap in those days. (This was around 1980!)

They describe a similiar technique in the CIA's book, The Professional Chef. Passes in just one direction. For the oil stone we have at school thats a good idea I guess.

CIA apparently sells their own brand of soft (56hrc) german style knives that look awfully thick to me and are certainly no great bargain at $100 for a chefs knife :- )

gic said:

CIA apparently sells their own brand of soft (56hrc) german style knives that look awfully thick to me and are certainly no great bargain at $100 for a chefs knife :- )

Click to expand...

yep