Super Noob inherits a few knives

Hello!

So I'm completely new to quality kitchen knives, but we just received a bunch of hand me downs from the in-laws that included a number of knives. So I figured I would look around on the interwebs for some more info on them. I ended up here, and this seems like a nice place.

So the knives we received are Gustav Emil Ern pieces. They were probably purchased in the 1970s. I'll try to post some pictures at the end of the post, but we got blade lengths of 4, 8.5 and 10.5 inches. The largest knife is a monster and makes me feel like a superhero when I use it. So, a few questions.

How do I take care of them? Hand wash and dry, I'm assuming, but anything beyond that?

How should I sharpen them? In their past life, they had been taken to a butcher for sharpening. Wet stones are obviously preferred here, so what are the downsides of having them sharpened by someone else?

I like the knives and would like a few more, ideally similar to these three. Maybe a 6 inch utility knife and a 8 inch chef knife (my wife doesn't like the beastly 10.5 incher - evidently size does matter). Other than scouring ebay, are there any other spots I can find vintage knives? Alternately, if I can't find anything vintage, which new knives would be roughly the same in quality and construction?

Lastly, the larger two knives have some sort of script word on it that looks like GrumonunumrNur. I'm assuming it's Dwarven. Any idea what it says?

Too many questions. I'll stop now. Thanks for any info. Now to try to add some pictures...

Welcome!

I think we need Steely to weigh in on this.

Son and Gustav have had a few beers in the past....:groucho:

Well , I can solve the mystery of the scribbling on the blade. It says Germanenmesser (Germanic knife) written in script called Suetterlin http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sütterlin.

Karnstein said:

Well , I can solve the mystery of the scribbling on the blade. It says Germanenmesser (Germanic knife) written in script called Suetterlin http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sütterlin.

Click to expand...

I have a couple of Gustav knives and always wondered what it meant-now I know,thanks😊

Welcome!

Looking at the knives they look extremely similar to current Windmuehle knives - the 1922 series which are made of a carbon steel with about 1% carbon content. Yours seem to be stainless though. These should be nice thin knives. Whether yours are thin behind the edge will largely depend what kind of sharpening the have seen over the years - which does look a little "aggressive" based on the photos. The possible downside of that is that the edge geometry mich have been changed if it was sharped under too large angle what results in an edge that gets thicker quickly as you move from edge towards the spine (we call that property 'thickness behind the edge'). Such an edge would wedge or tend to get stuck in hard vegetables.

The best would be to get a few water stones (browse a bit around here - lot's of info) and learn the sharpening (that is quite a fun). For the learning part I would recommend to have a look at youtube videos by Jon from JKI (http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/) - those will show you all you need to know.

I would only add that while we advice most newbies to start with 1 or two stones only (like 1000 and 6000 grit) ß- in your case I would directly add a low grit stone (300 - 500) as if you need to thin the edge (in the case that the edge is too thick) than a 1000 grit stone would just take too long to do that. But again - browse around here and watch some videos from Jon.

The handles look like they could use a little care. If they feel rough, than try to polish them with fine grit sandpaper and then apply a few coats (over a few days) of a 'board butter' (mixture of mineral oil and bee's wax). Do that before you start sharpening so that the handles will not 'soak' that fine steel and stone mud (that is produced during sharpening).

And do not forget to have fun

pinetorum said:

Lastly, the larger two knives have some sort of script word on it that looks like GrumonunumrNur. I'm assuming it's Dwarven.

Click to expand...

Sounds Dwarven! :lol2:

Oh man thoses poor knives have really suffered from "butcher sharpening". Looks like he used a belt sander and a rough grooved steel and totally messed up the bladefaces in the process. The parer and the slicer both seem to have really bad concave spots in the blade profile. Thankfully those are the knives where that matters least, except they become a PITA to sharpen on a flat stone.

The large chef's knife still looks pretty good. Try to set the edge on a flat cutting board and move the handle up and down, that will tell you if it still rocks smoothly or whether it also has a concave spot (in the relatively flat part in front of the bolster). The edge should never "arch" above the board, it should always touch it in only one place or lie flat, at most.

regarding maintenance and sharpening: A 300-400 grit stone, a 1000-1500 stone and a little flask of linseed oil (for an occasional thorough soak of the handles) should be all you need. Sharpen at a 20-22,5° angle.

This vid shows you how to reprofile a knife (1:34 min mark onwards):

[video=youtube_share;bS40EXhQRag]http://youtu.be/bS40EXhQRag[/video]

Considering you may have to grind down a good bit of the massive bolsters, a (slow running) belt sander might be useful.

My best buddy gave me a 10-inch carbon steel Ern steaking knife (and a 10-inch carbon steel F. Dick Chef) the day after I cut and wrapped my deer for the year last week. I guess there is always next year! Looking forward to trying that classic carbon blade out.

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/3887-GUSTAV-EMIL-ERN

Here is a link to Son post.

Reading that old post, it sounds like the Ern steaking knives are one of the more common pattern. I really like the feel of the one I was given, just needs something large to cut up.

About the notion of "Germanenmesser"

http://www.messerforum.net/showthread.php?116328-Germanenmesser-von-Gustav-Emil-Ern

Thanks for all the input; it's very helpful. I'll start looking more into sharpening stones, although I don't think I'm going to buy a belt sander anytime soon. I appreciate the recommendation of the Windmuehle 1922 series. They do look very similar, but we'll need to get stainless, as my wife will be using these as well and she is not typically inclined to wash as she goes. Or even wipe stuff off. I'll hunt around some more, maybe go the Japanese route, as that seems to be the thing here (and on other sites as well).

I'm still sticking to the idea that my knife is Dwarven.

Thanks again!