Several layers of blasphemy

True story

My wife is afraid to use my good knives, and that's fine by me, except for the fact that she tends to gravitate to serrated knives. After dulling all of our steak knives by using them on carrots, I replaced them with non-serrated that I can sharpen as needed, but now she is using the bagel knife as her primary weapon (german stainless, 5" with mild serrations) and it dulled even faster than the steak knives did.

I needed to use it on an actual bagel recently, and wanted to sharpen it, but didn't have time to get to the hardware store for dowel and sandpaper, so I did the unthinkable and steeled it, just as an experiment. To my surprise, it made a huge difference in just a few strokes. I doubt doing this is really good for the knife, but in a pinch, and with a knife that is going to be abused and misused anyway, it did the trick.

Sounds like you need to get your wife a couple of her own beater knives; maybe an inexpensive 180 or 210 gyuto and see if she can start getting used to it. It worked well with my wife, as she went from being happy with a dull, heavy, poorly-balanced 150 'chef's knife' to being someone who now complains that I've let 'her' knives go too long between sharpenings and she also covets my DT ITK 240 AEB-L gyuto :O

I have tried to get her to use a 180 santoku but she's so used to using small knives that she still finds it intimidating. With gentle pressure she might come around. Maybe I'll hide all the smaller knives.

Petty? My wife will only touch the SS 120mm and 150mm I have. A 180mm is drastic as far as she's concerned. Bought a nakiri I hoped she'd get into, but alas...

gman said:

I have tried to get her to use a 180 santoku but she's so used to using small knives that she still finds it intimidating. With gentle pressure she might come around. Maybe I'll hide all the smaller knives.

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Make sure you also hide the serrated bagel knife.

Sharpening it and continuing to make it accessible to her will just encourage her to keep using it.

(And if you do hide it, please don't tell her it was my suggestion. Especially if she will have a sharp DT ITK gyuto within reach.)

larrybard said:

Make sure you also hide the serrated bagel knife.

Sharpening it and continuing to make it accessible to her will just encourage her to keep using it.

(And if you do hide it, please don't tell her it was my suggestion. Especially if she will have a sharp DT ITK gyuto within reach.)

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lol, good point.

i might show her some stainless ko-bunkas, maybe with flowers or something else non-threatening on them.

Good luck with the misses,it can be a tricky game

My wife always reaches for the HSS ajikiri 120mm SS. Even for bigger tasks - though she actually reaches for the Shig santuko (regular 165) the ajikiri is her favorite.
She has actually learned to love (+ respect and care for) sharp quality knives and now hates using others dull (lousy) knives...
Cheers