Timeline/flowchart for caring for an already-sharp knife?

[the_jest]

I'm not particularly handy with anything mechanical; as a result, I'm always terrified of the entire sharpening process, and despite watching all the videos and doing a fair amount of practice, I don't think I'm very good at it. But, this is a broader question.
It seems that most of the sharpening videos or tutorials assume you're starting with a dull knife, and discuss some progression of (maybe thinning it), starting on a coarse stone, moving up to finer stones, maybe stropping, and so forth. And then they show you slicing a sheet of newspaper, or a grape. But, what happens then?
Assume, for this discussion, that I own a single "good" knife, made of Japanese steel, with nothing unusual about the blade geometry. Assume that I care for it perfectly, and only cut vegetables or boneless meats/fish, using an end-grain or Hasegawa board. Assume I am a home cook, and I only use it for 5–15m several times a week, and 30m once every week or two. Assume that my goal is for it to be really sharp for my daily cooking needs, and I have no specific interest in any purely aesthetic issues. Assume I have some "good" stones and other standard sharpening supplies, but not a closetful of J-nats. And assume that right now, this knife has been really well sharpened, by someone who knew what they were doing.
What is the process now? When, and how regularly, would I strop it, and on what (leather strop, fine stone, etc.)? When, and how regularly, would I go back and do a normal sharpening process, and on what stone(s)? Etc.?
I appreciate that even with all the assumptions specified, there are still a lot of variables, but I'm just trying to get a better sense of what my regular maintenance routine should look like.

 

[tostadas]

Once it feels like it lacks the bite that you want, do a couple quick stropping style swipes on a finishing stone of your choice. Depending on your preferences, this might be anywhere from a week to several months.

When the swipes start feeling like they are ineffective, then consider a more involved sharpening. I always aim to remove the minimal amount of steel possible.

 

[M1k3]

When the knife is kinda sharp, I do what @stringer does in this video.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

It's a fair question when trying to learn but I'd prefer to back up and focus on improving your sharpening.

What makes you say you're not very good at it? By what metric? Just trying to understand how you're defining success. We'd also need to understand more about the knife, the stones, and your approach.

As to the specific question, pick a standard, let's say something rather forgiving like printer paper. If you're starting with an edge that slices cleanly, that becomes your standard. You need to check it often so that you can catch as soon as you lose that clean slicing. It should still cut but not as quiet and clean. That's touch up time. Anything beyond that is sharpening.

But, you need the skills/understanding to maintain.

 

[Nemo]

Sharpening is not a hard skill to learn the basics of, even if there are many new levels of sharpness to explore.

There are many ways to skin this cat.

If the edge loses its bite, I often strop on diamond loaded felt or balsa orsometimes on a fine stone (in which case, I usually do edge leading strokes).

BUT

I don't advocate this for a beginner sharpener:
1) It’s pretty easy to round the edge doing this.
2) It’s pretty easy to create a burr (wire edge) stropping.
3) You will learn sharpening faster if you do it regularly (I.e.: as soon as your edge loses its bite).

If you touch up on a fine stone as soon as the edge loses its bite, you will get practice sharpening (building up muscle memory as well as an appreciation for the tactile and aural feedback that your stone provides when you hit the edge) and deburring. You may end up doing this once every week or two. Without any firm evidence to say so, I get the impression that these skills build more quickly with regular practice.

A word of caution on touching up: if you find that you can't create a burr within a dozen or so strokes, it's probably best to drop back to a medium stone, especially as a beginner when your angle control is less reliable.

 

[Benuser]

Get the basics: raising a burr, chasing it, getting rid of it. Only if you understand what full sharpening is, what a burr is, how to feel it, you may consider touching up. I would suggest Chad Ward's An Edge in the Kitchen. And a sharpie and a loupe. Start with a simple but thin carbon knife. Neglected poor stainless most people start with — because they are plenty available in most households — are a sure way to bitter disappointment. They first need a lot of thinning, and the poor steel often is hard to sharpen. Highly abrasion resistant and difficult to deburr.

 

[timebard]

Not an expert, but here's how I approach it:

1. Start with sharp, thin knife.
2. Use it
3. When it starts to lose bite (tomato and pepper skins are my indicator here), strop on a high grit stone (say 3k-6k, I usually do a few edge trailing per side, then alternating single edge trailing strokes, then alternating single edge leading strokes). As others have mentioned, this can be tricky early on when you're still building the muscle memory/sensory cues for telling whether you're hitting the apex correctly or not.
4. Use more, repeat 3 as needed
5. When 3 doesn't bring the edge back to desired sharpness, drop to a medium-fine grit stone (for me Shapton 2k is often good), raise a burr on both sides, deburr completely, optionally finish on a higher grit stone. This is what your average 'how to sharpen 101' video shows.
6. If you're struggling to put a good edge on with 5 and perhaps have chips/dents in the edge that aren't easily coming out, use a medium/medium-coarse stone (1k or possibly lower) to do the same thing. You may want to set a new edge bevel angle rather than following the existing geometry if it's not working well. You could do some light maintenance thinning each time you reach this stage (7) or wait until it starts getting noticably thick.
7. When the knife starts to move through product poorly despite having a sharp edge (however you define that, e.g. shaving arm hair, push cutting paper towel, whatever), then it's time to thin. If you're doing this frequently, a medium grit stone is fine, if you let the knife start getting thick behind the edge first you'd want to go lower. See e.g.

 

[Benuser]

Not an expert, but here's how I approach it:

1. Start with sharp, thin knife.
2. Use it
3. When it starts to lose bite (tomato and pepper skins are my indicator here), strop on a high grit stone (say 3k-6k, I usually do a few edge trailing per side, then alternating single edge trailing strokes, then alternating single edge leading strokes). As others have mentioned, this can be tricky early on when you're still building the muscle memory/sensory cues for telling whether you're hitting the apex correctly or not.
4. Use more, repeat 3 as needed
5. When 3 doesn't bring the edge back to desired sharpness, drop to a medium-fine grit stone (for me Shapton 2k is often good), raise a burr on both sides, deburr completely, optionally finish on a higher grit stone. This is what your average 'how to sharpen 101' video shows.
6. If you're struggling to put a good edge on with 5 and perhaps have chips/dents in the edge that aren't easily coming out, use a medium/medium-coarse stone (1k or possibly lower) to do the same thing. You may want to set a new edge bevel angle rather than following the existing geometry if it's not working well. You could do some light maintenance thinning each time you reach this stage (7) or wait until it starts getting noticably thick.
7. When the knife starts to move through product poorly despite having a sharp edge (however you define that, e.g. shaving arm hair, push cutting paper towel, whatever), then it's time to thin. If you're doing this frequently, a medium grit stone is fine, if you let the knife start getting thick behind the edge first you'd want to go lower. See e.g.

For thinning, I wouldn't wait until the thickening has become noticeable. It's much easier to thin a bit with each full sharpening, when the area right behind the edge still has some minimal flexibility. Major thinning operations are no fun.

 

[Nemo]

For thinning, I wouldn't wait until the thickening has become noticeable. It's much easier to thin a bit with each full sharpening, when the area right behind the edge still has some minimal flexibility. Major thinning operations are no fun.

Yeah, I do a little thinning each time I need to drop down to a medium (1k-ish) stone.

Sometimes called a "maintenance thinning".

 

[Kawa]

TS's opening post is very clear.
He's not asking how to do a full trim, or what the right approach is to get good basics.
He is stating that he knows his instruction videos, but he simply isnt as skilled as he likes to be.
He is also stating that his knife is 'at 100%' now and he wants to know what to expect when you are a homecook, caring for the knife and not using it very much.

@tostadas answer in post #2 seems right for that.

TS will never wear out a knife in his life this way. He can use the finest stone for a long long time, before needing to go to a medium stone like every 2 years or so.
Thinning is not needed for this kind of use, like ever. Even though the theorie says thinning should be done every sharpening to maintain the geometry. The way TS uses his knife (a homecook with the love for 1 good knife) the knife will become sliiiiiightly fatter BTE in like 5 years or so. No need to do a full professional approach.

Unless you want to. Maybe some day you want more out of your sharpening game. Then you want to do all the professional stuff.

I guess this opinion will be very unpopular among knivenuts around here

 

[Pie]

Once my knives are sharp (to me), i take it to a random finisher every 5-6 uses. I’m addicted to that super crispy fresh off the stones feel, and I cut a ton of acidic stuff with simple carbons.

That said, there’s a couple that I haven’t touched up for months now, and get used all the time.

I suppose it all depends on how you feel about when it needs to be touched up. No need for fancy high cost stones, I feel I could get away with a decent 3k stone for touch ups in most cases.

I do encourage you to buy a nice jnat (or 3) to leave on your counter for quick refreshes. Something fun .

 

[Benuser]

A small piece of Belgian Blue is far from expensive and allows in-hand touching-up à la @stringer .

 

[Kawa]

How is that handy for a beginner in sharpening

 

[Benuser]

How is that handy for a beginner in sharpening

Not immediately. First one has to learn about burrs.

 

[Kawa]

I think you have to learn all the other aspects about sharpening first, before you go in-hand sharpening. Thats like a bonus trick which might save some time to the professional on-the-job.

If you are a home cook, like TS, you will never be in the need to learn this.

Place yourself in the mind of TS and his needs for this topic. But this is more general then towards you Benuser.

 

[Benuser]

In fact, my post was a reaction on @Pie 's about not needing fancy stones for touching up. I had a cheap small Belgian Blue in mind, and in-hand is then very practical. Isn't hard to learn, but indeed not the first thing a novice should care about.

 

[Cliff]

I keep a Belgian Blue on the counter. It's great for quick touch-ups. I think one could get away with that indefinitely. If you have a coticule on the other side, then you are really set. In that set up, you might never really need to drop down unless you chip something.

 

[Benuser]

I have a soft Coticule who starts quite coarse if you build a thick slurry without diluting it. Have used it successfully to reprofile a SAK — which is admittedly absolutely crazy.

 

[Cliff]

That would be the true one-and-done.

 

[ModRQC]

Some of the best point made to the TS from Nemo and Benuser is that stropping/touch ups are not something you should do when still learning the basics of sharpening. The techniques involved are based, so to speak, on the « absence » of feedback: you do NOT want to raise a burr, you do not want to apply pressure, you want to use as little strokes possible to achieve the desired results.

Those things, albeit the simplest measure of maintaining a good edge into that state, sadly are mastered by lots and lots of real sharpening - real feedback - and lots and lots of deburring which skills and practice thereof are the basis of a good touching up/stropping method.

 

[KenjiF]

A agree with the above that sharpening is a great skill to learn and my recommendation is to keep at it and practice as much as possible and you will get better. It takes a while for it to not feel awkward but once the muscle memory kicks in it gets much easier. Happy to suggest some resources to learn basic sharpening techniques... That being said to answer your original question...with your usage you could probably keep a very serviceable edge for up to 6 months if you did learn to strop and you didn't chip your knife. As you're using your knife the apex is bending and flattening and a strop can refresh that edge for quite a while. The edge will need to be sharpened after the metal at the edge starts to fatigue and become brittle. I sharpen my knives too often for this to happen but I have bought knives that have just been 'touched up' over their life and although the edge is sharp when it arrives it will chip very easily and won't retain an edge for any appreciable amount of time. The only way to remedy this is by removing the material.

 

[Benuser]

A lot of knives come out of the factory with poor edges of brittle, fatigued steel after excessive buffing. A good reason not to delay the first stone sharpening, making sure to remove enough material and performing some thinning to compensate.