Starter sharpening question

Hi

If you were to advise a cheap throwaway knife to play with for sharpeneing technicques, what type of knife would it be ? If possible a link to say amazon would be great. Thinking of a chef knife particularly.

Im thinking like a $10 knife that would respond well to sharpeneing and polishing, I would buy a couple and try different things just for S&G's !!

Im intrigued by Chad Ward's idea of wet/dry paper and a mouse pad particularly

Alan

I can't think of anything that cheap worth bothering with.

Dave Martell said:

I can't think of anything that cheap worth bothering with.

Click to expand...

While I won't argue with that logic or experience, I would suggest finding an old carbon Chicago Cutlery knife at a garage sale or flea market.

-AJ

welshstar said:

Hi

If you were to advise a cheap throwaway knife to play with for sharpeneing technicques, what type of knife would it be ? If possible a link to say amazon would be great. Thinking of a chef knife particularly.

Im thinking like a $10 knife that would respond well to sharpeneing and polishing, I would buy a couple and try different things just for S&G's !!

Im intrigued by Chad Ward's idea of wet/dry paper and a mouse pad particularly

Alan

Click to expand...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRAMONTINA-...669?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588c77b605

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRAMONTINA-...041?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588c77c331

Here try these. they actually hold up pretty well.

You can play with sharpening anything. I am sure you have an edged object in your house, use that.

The truth is, crappy steel and good blade steel are so different, that they require being treated differently. Giving a $300 knife the same treatment as a Chicago Cutlery is not going to produce good results, and might damage the knife. Giving the full spa treatment to the same Chicago Cutlery, it will cut like total crap(ask me how I know).

The mousepad/sandpaper trick works, for what it is, though it's guaranteed to scratch up your blade face. You can also use Emery boards and those 4-in-1 buffers used for doing nails, they supply successive grits, to a VERY fine finish, and a pliable but somewhat durable backing, and some can be washed(though they are a bit small). But either way, be prepared to get carpal tunnel while watching the entire Lord of the Rings saga, because it won't be fast.

$10? Fuggedaboudit... seriously, crap steel is unrewarding as a learning experience because it demands a lot of effort and you don't really get anywhere. It's different for an experienced sharpener who knows what to do and what is achievable. But for a learner, garbage steel is often unproductive, imho.

1. Fujiwara Kanefusa FKH series is a great starter for a n00b sharpener

or

2. Tosa/Ittosai carbon ('Nipponkou') blades - these are cheaply made, rustic, black-iron cladded carbon blades with cheap Wa handles. Some of them are made with Blue#2 (not SK-4 or SK-5) cores and actually are incredible cutters. I have an ajikiri and mukimono in B#2 and they are sharp.

or

3. Tojiro Shirogami series nakiri ($40) - the nakiri is great because it has a mostly straight edge so it's more uncomplicated for a rookie since you don't have to worry about the curve.

4. or, I assume from your username that you are in the UK? Try the Kitchen Devils - they are crap steel but look fairly well made. I used them at my rels' and thought they had potential FWIMBW. Chances are though that you might not know whether you are getting it right because the burr is so hard to get rid off - cheap stainless is 'gummy' and doesn't take a crisp edge easily like carbon does.

5. Get something second-hand - if you were in Sydney, I have an old FKH that I would let you have for $10 since it has been pretty much destroyed by my learning efforts.

Old Hickory knives (Ontario Knife Company) are cheap and easy to sharpen as long as you stick to the carbon steel line. There are some available through Amazon.

And here's what I'm talking about:

upper: rustic kurouchi nakiri in SK steel
lower: my very first gyuto, a Fujiwara FKH that's been 'hosed' over by my n00b-ishness - I committed every cardinal sin of sharpening against this poor bastid LOL

For now I like bargain stones
But $10 is pushing it.
I use a generic 1k/200gt combo,(use only 1K side)
From there I use one of these
http://www.inigojones.co.uk/products/Honing-Stone.php
It makes a nice hazy finish with slurry from 1K. I really like the edge off it, probably about 5K, more on just water but the stone is hard and offers no feedback without slurry.
From there I just polish the edge on compound/leather then chrome oxide on balsa, then plain leather.

I think this is the cheapest set up you could have to get HHT results on a kitchen knife.

I have the chinese 12K on the way to see if I prefer the edge to stropping.

The mousepad/sandpaper idea can give great results, but it really isn't worth it. That is the way I started sharpening, and it took absolutely forever, like it took me a few days and I had to buy dozens and dozens of sheets of paper, it really isn't worth the hassle

It always seems to be the new people worry too much about hurting a knife while learning to sharpen. Assuming you don't put it on an electric grinder or something like that, I think it just more likely you won't be satisfied with the edge the first few tries. I probably wouldn't start with some $300+ Japanese blade but learning on a Victorinox chef sounds reasonable to me. Good knife when well sharpened and I doubt you are going to really hurt it while learning.