Honing options?

[dtro]

I'm a professional chef (20 years...) And have always just used Global knives and a global ceramic rod. I have a cheap dual sided whetstone for when the knives are blunt.

I came across Chinese cleaver 6 months ago and a while ago got a shibazi. Love cleavers, hate the edge retention. Cut to the chase, I have a custom 52100 cleaver on order that will be with me in just over a month.

My prep isn't massive at work as there are other chefs to do it but when I jump on its large quantities of veg. I'm planning on getting a full new sharpening setup that I'm reading into but I can't work out what to do for honing. I'm not sure about rods as the angle is imprecise. Maybe a loaded strop would be better or a high grit splash and go?

TL;DR What should I be stropping a 52100 knife with?

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

If you can only have one stone in a kitchen prep environment, it would be a DMT Fine bench 8”x3”. Never needs flattening, never clogs, no soaking, cleans with soap and water, cuts every kind of steel, and as a kitchen prep bonus, does a nice job sharpening soft stainless. They’re also affordable and will last a very long time if you are kind to them.

For a strop, a 2” - 3” wide by 2’ long, give or take a foot, balsa, basswood, or some flat, soft wood. Load it with some 2 to 10 micron diamond powder. 10 micron is toothy, 2 micron is more refined, 5 is about in the middle. You can mix the diamond powder into some food grade oil or wax then apply to the wood. This way you aren’t bringing non food grade chemicals into the kitchen.

 

[Benuser]

I'm a professional chef (20 years...) And have always just used Global knives and a global ceramic rod. I have a cheap dual sided whetstone for when the knives are blunt.

I came across Chinese cleaver 6 months ago and a while ago got a shibazi. Love cleavers, hate the edge retention. Cut to the chase, I have a custom 52100 cleaver on order that will be with me in just over a month.

My prep isn't massive at work as there are other chefs to do it but when I jump on its large quantities of veg. I'm planning on getting a full new sharpening setup that I'm reading into but I can't work out what to do for honing. I'm not sure about rods as the angle is imprecise. Maybe a loaded strop would be better or a high grit splash and go?

TL;DR What should I be stropping a 52100 knife with?

The Globals tend to be already quite thick behind the edge. Maintenance with a rod will only affect the very edge, and result in further thickening.

I'm aware it wasn't your question, but deburring with a ceramic rod is far from simple. But you didn't complain about the lack of edge retention with the Globals.
About the cleavers: no idea what their steel is, but a poor edge retention is very often related to incomplete deburring, or the raising of a wire edge: the accumulation of debris on top of the old edge, building a foil: crazy sharp but rapidly failing after a minimal board contact.
I'm not sure stropping on leather, charged or not, will lastingly revive an edge or remove a burr. Anyway, it requires a lot of technique and for now you better focus on stone sharpening.
Very convenient were a medium coarse and a fine stone. I have the Shapton Glass 500 and the Shapton Pro 2k in mind. With carbon blades you may want to go further and add a Shapton Glass 4k or a Naniwa Pro 3k. Their grit is similar.
As for daily maintenance a few strokes — edge leading, as when deburring — on the finest stone should work.

 

[dtro]

The Globals tend to be already quite thick behind the edge. Maintenance with a rod will only affect the very edge, and result in further thickening.
View attachment 307401
I'm aware it wasn't your question, but deburring with a ceramic rod is far from simple. But you didn't complain about the lack of edge retention with the Globals.
About the cleavers: no idea what their steel is, but a poor edge retention is very often related to incomplete deburring, or the raising of a wire edge: the accumulation of debris on top of the old edge, building a foil: crazy sharp but rapidly failing after a minimal board contact.
I'm not sure stropping on leather, charged or not, will lastingly revive an edge or remove a burr. Anyway, it requires a lot of technique and for now you better focus on stone sharpening.
Very convenient were a medium coarse and a fine stone. I have the Shapton Glass 500 and the Shapton Pro 2k in mind. With carbon blades you may want to go further and add a Shapton Glass 4k or a Naniwa Pro 3k. Their grit is similar.
As for daily maintenance a few strokes — edge leading, as when deburring — on the finest stone should work.

Thanks for the reply. I have used a rod and a cheap dual stone but I haven't thinned before.

I'll practice on my old knives more but I want to keep the new cleaver good from day one. For daily use to strop what stone would be best, say below £200.

 

[Benuser]

I'll practice on my old knives more but I want to keep the new cleaver good from day one. For daily use to strop what stone would be best, say below £200.

I would use the finest of the progression, or finer. If you ended the progression with a good 2k, it may serve you as well for daily maintenance. Or consider a finer one. I use for all my knives Belgian Blue, not so much for sharpening as well as for touching-up. Only German soft stainless crumbles, but that's a bit a special case.
Of course, you may go even finer with carbons, but it will give a diminishing improvement, while the cost raise a lot.
A full-sized Belgian Blue would cost you some £80. You may want an Atoma 140 to flatten your stones or raise mud. A loupe (10x, 13x) is very helpful to make sure you have reached the very edge and have a clean bevel, and didn't stop just behind it. I believe after that there still is budget for a red permanent marker.