Bobby2shots
Senior Member
When thinning, it seems to me we might need three descriptors; primary bevel, apex (or micro) bevel, and shoulder bevel.
I've never tried a pesto with walnuts or pecans, I've always used pignoli nuts. How does it impact the flavor of the pesto?So, I cut a half container up of grape tomatoes in quarters last night to add to the pesto we made. We pulled a couple of basil plants up and made lots of pesto. We invited neighbors over so we kind of had a wine party.
I used my Wusthof Classic 9-inch carving knife since I have not used it in a while. I was kind of checking it out for thanksgiving. It went right through those tomatoes without mashing any. I guess the knife is in good shape for Thanksgiving.
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I've never tried a pesto with walnuts or pecans, I've always used pignoli nuts. How does it impact the flavor of the pesto?
should i not use the honing rod ? because it does it everytime i use itRough steel rods certainly do create a burr, or even a wire edge exactly on top of the edge. Abrade it gently with a stone or a fine ceramic rod, don't push it back. It's weakened steel.
I would avoid any other steel rod than an extremely fine or a polished one.should i not use the honing rod ? because it does it everytime i use it
even though the knife is something like 58 rockwell as one of the forum members stated ?I would avoid any other steel rod than an extremely fine or a polished one.
A very smooth rod like a Dickoron Micro. A bit of overkill in a home setting. Or maintaining on a medium-fine stone, just as you deburr: a few very light edge leading strokes, ending with a few along the edge.even though the knife is something like 58 rockwell as one of the forum members stated ?
it gets dull preety fast
any alternatives to the rod ?
that was the exact problems i finished at the 800gritstone deburred on it and stropped on leather for 3 times each side58rockwell I would say around 1k grit and stropping should give a good bite. Going much further will only loose the bite and beeing softer steel, it won't hold the edge very long so I wouldn't personally go much higher than 1k
any alternatives to the rod ?
hahahah so funny amazingA Concrete curb or cinder block and a raw piece of cardboard to strop on.
Edge trailing strokes only on both should make that steel-with-paper-clip-like-strength sharper than any rod.
And you won't have to worry about not raising a burr or knocking the burr off!
ahhahah benuser how is it i asked about a knife at the same hardness as the cleaver and you said that touchup can be done using a stoneA very smooth rod like a Dickoron Micro. A bit of overkill in a home setting. Or maintaining on a medium-fine stone, just as you deburr: a few very light edge leading strokes, ending with a few along the edge.
That’s all supposing a decent edge to start with, thin enough behind the edge, and not overly polished, as soft stainless won't hold.
I know three reasons for soft stainless not to hold: incomplete deburring; thickness behind the edge making you to use too much pressure, resulting in a hard board contact, especially on poly or bamboo boards; too high a finishing grit, making carbides breaking out of the already soft matrix who got further weakened by the polishing while the carbides remain intact.
i dont have a 2k stone i used the 800 stone to do it and it worked fineAround the 2000 gritt range. Some may say 1658 gritt, others will say 2769
And now, go to the stones and start sharpening.
I'm getting the feeling you want to theorize way too much, but you just need a lot more practise.
Use the tips that were given in some of your topics and start experiencing it.
You won't be able to use them all at once to full succes anyway, and you might even forget some since you asked and received a lot of tips.
Put on your Nike sweater and 'just do it'
that was an amazing explanation IMHOI did a couple of slightly exaggerated drawings to help anyone new understand this phenomenon...
If you cut down on a tomato at 90 degrees and perfectly straight; you will cut through it, no matter how overly refined your edge is. Like this:
View attachment 145710
But the majority of the time you're not neatly bisecting a tomato; you're cutting it at an angle, because a tomato is round. And to compound matters you might be using a push or pull cut, rather than chopping straight down. It looks more like this:
View attachment 145711
Where 'b' is the angle of your edge (sharpening angle). 'a' is 90 degrees minus 'b'. And 'c' is 90 degrees minus the angle you're cutting the tomato at. As soon as 'c' starts getting close to the same as 'a' - that's when you run into problems. And if 'c' is larger than 'a' - you’re really going to struggle if your edge is super slick.
Pretty much all cutting of stuff is the result of friction. If you don't have friction you can't cut anything. A tomato skin is fairly smooth, and if you combine that with a very refined edge you have quite a low coefficient of friction between the two. But that isn't the real kicker here... the really important thing is the 'normal force' exerted by the tomato upwards against your knife.
The normal force is obviously considerably reduced when you're cutting the curved surface of a tomato at an acute angle. And it's also reduced because the pulp is soft. The reason tomatoes are brought up again and again in this test isn't necessarily because the skin is unreasonably tough - the skin of a capsicum or bell pepper is probably tougher, and equally smooth. It's the combination of soft flesh, with skin that is both tough-ish, and smooth, that all together kill the friction generated when cutting it. Try cutting a wet tomato vs a dry one and you'll see the importance of friction.
But unfortunately, apart from making sure it's dry, you can't really change your tomato, so you have to change your knife. You could do this by lowering your sharpening angle, but that might make the edge less durable, and annoying to maintain. So you do it by finishing at a lower grit, with more teeth, and a higher coefficient of friction...
And now at last you can truly hope to achieve the bruschetta of your dreams, and know the panzanella in the mind of god!
[I think I've got most of that physics right anyway, and hopefully explained in a semi-understandable way.]
Simple answer is that it isn’t as sharp as you think it is.
Super polish done well will fall through tomato skins. Look at a couple of Salty’s videos (the OG of the tomato slice vid)
Just leave it at 800grit if it’s working well off that stone.
interesting so basically you describe it as more of a rough where the burr is vs smooth on the side you were grinding and not like most folks say you feel a "catch"To feel a burr, you need to gently rub the side of the blade right over the edge with a down motion so that your finger crosses the apex, not going under it obviously. This is done perpendicularly, never rub along the edge.
Now if you had a metal ruler under hand, and would imagine it's your blade, and would reproduce that motion, you wouldn't feel a thing as your finger rubs at the very edge: it would be smooth. A knife without a burr feels just like that.
A burr feels like not so freshly shaven beard. We all have different strength of beard, but let's suppose in my case a burr out of a 5K would feel like almost nothing: really freshly shaven, but detectable depending on finger sensitivity. From a coarse stone, it would feel like a two days shave with the same amount of strokes, and from mid stone, like a one day shave.
Hence why people when sharpening soft dull SS will take a coarse stone and say they sharpen until getting a real "hairy" burr. Perhaps a three days shave to me.
i do know how a burr feels like i raised many and felt many by nowDear mr r0bz,
Have you allready sharpenend a knive at the angle of 50 degrees or so, like suggested a while ago? There will be a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge burr, not possible to miss.
Searching for a nuance on how people describe or name the feeling of a burr, will not make you feel a burr any better.
I admire your questioning and thoroughness, but beware you don't make quantum mechanics out of peanuts.
Go sharpen at 50 degrees angle! Now! and celebreate the feeling of a burr with us!
I wasn’t aware so much of talking about a catch although I do understand. I’m aware of a lot of talking about a burr as « hairy ». Of course up to the finest grit if you reduced and deburred, more like catch perhaps. That would be someplace along the edge improperly deburred in my book, not the « burr » as a result of primary sharpening. Cutting paper a small section improperly deburred does « catch » against an otherwise smooth experience.interesting so basically you describe it as more of a rough where the burr is vs smooth on the side you were grinding and not like most folks say you feel a "catch"
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