hello from Orlando

Hi. I am obviously new here and looking for some knife help.

I live in a small apartment with my wife. We are both disabled. Lately my health has not been so good so I wanted to upgrade my cooking beyond microwaving convenience food and rehydrating noodles, and following a diet with more fresh, stir-fried vegetables. That means investing in better knives. All I have are some hand-me-downs from my parents, Miracle brand knives, that cannot be resharpened. My parents love them but, I think they are mediocre at cutting. I did some reading and I wanted to try a Santoku style knife, as I never was very good with a chef's knife. So my dad bought me a Brazilian made Santoku style knife from Sam's Club and I also have a smaller "5 Faberware santoku I picked up from Wal-Mart. the only trouble is, I'm not sure what to sharpen them with. I have seen specialized pull-through sharpeners with angles for Asian knives, but I'm not sure how "Asian" these knives are. What angle are these western-made Santoku knives beveled at?

I know traditional santoku are sharpened on wetstones but I really just want a pull-through sharpener if possible. Years ago I could sharpen pocket knives with wetstones (it was pretty-much required being a Boy Scout) but my skills are such I'd probably ruin knives if I tried that now days. And I also don't want to spend too much money on knife sharpening gear.

I also would like to own a Chinese chef knife (the cleaver). I've always wanted to cook with one of those.

Hi, FireDragon! If what you want is just a pull-through sharpener, this brazilian-made knife is probably soft enough to be used on one of those. Is that a Tramontina, a Mundial, a Brinox? On the other hand, hand sharpening can become a happy moment if there's no pressure, and you'll find out the edge is much superior than that of the pull-through sharpener. Why don't you buy a pull-through and a whetstone too? Good luck!

Marcelo Amaral said:

Hi, FireDragon! If what you want is just a pull-through sharpener, this brazilian-made knife is probably soft enough to be used on one of those. Is that a Tramontina, a Mundial, a Brinox? On the other hand, hand sharpening can become a happy moment if there's no pressure, and you'll find out the edge is much superior than that of the pull-through sharpener. Why don't you buy a pull-through and a whetstone too? Good luck!

Click to expand...

It's a Tramontina.

I was wondering about the angle of the bevel... what type of pull-through sharpener should I buy?

This one sucks the least.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N993NM6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Its actually not bad for softer knives. If you can make it over to Tampa (Brandon) I can arrange for you to try one and one of the less expensive electric pull throughs.

daveb said:

This one sucks the least.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N993NM6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
.

Click to expand...

I was hoping to get by with a lot less investment. Also, space is an issue.

I found a pull-through sharpener at an Asian market. It is made by a company named Doweon and is called a Yo Yo. I don't know much about it as I don't speak Korean but the price was OK for an impulse buy.

I have also been using an old leather strop and some metal polish to try to keep up the edge on an old veggie chopper my dad gave me. It has a chisel grind and the angle seems tricky, I end up polishing the edge of the grind and not the blade edge itself, but it is a lot sharper now. It took about ten minutes of polishing to get to that state, however.

Welcome dragon.

Today I got a Victorinox smooth steel waiting on my doorstep when I got home. I used it this evening on my Kiwi that had an edge that was rolling over. It's back to being quite sharp, it will slice paper easily, and cutting through a half head of bok choy was no problem, with nice uniform even pieces. I was intimidated a bit by steeling after having a bad experience using rough butcher steel: it trashed the edge on the old veggier chopper even though I was using very little pressure. But the smooth steel works! The Kiwi knife is turning out to be more than just a beater to practice with.

I'm also ordering a medium sized hinoki cutting board from Japan. It should arrive in the new year. Bamboo seems way too hard- I have a Furi serrated tomato knife (it's Rachael Ray orange but I do like the knife), and it didn't feel right slicing through a tomato this morning to make a sandwich and tapping too hard on the board, even with light pressure. Far worse than the OXO polypropylene board my parents gave me a few years ago. In the meantime, I intend to use a cheap Ikea polyethylene board. I'm not sure how Hinoki will fare with softer steel (usually sushi knives are very hard... right?), but I'm going to find out.

Out of curiosity I tried a santoku I bought for two dollars at a discount store. The blade is dull compared to my kiwi knife. It also doesn't do a very good job cutting paper at all. It might be OK for chopping something like green onions, but trying to chop broccoli was no fun. It might make a good sharpening project to learn.