Your Thinning Cadence?

[HumbleHomeCook]

I'm curious what you folks' general thinning habits are? I know it might vary by knife but just wondering about your general philosophy.

Also, not in the poll, when you do thin, do put in the time to keep up the aesthetics or go with a more utilitarian approach?

I'm guilty of not being a diligent maintenance-type thinner but I do want to start doing it more frequently on some of my knives.

 

[esoo]

Sell knives before they need thinning. Problem solved.

 

[MSicardCutlery]

If I think about it, all I ever do is thin knives

 

[Naftoor]

at this point I’m guilty of having enough knives that I don’t have to sharpen frequently. When I do, it’s normally an extremely brief touch up on one of my finer stones. Because it’s so little sharpening I normally just make sure to thin for twice as long as it takes to sharpen on the same stone.

Where’s the 2:1 ratio come from? I pulled it out of thin air and settled on it. Does it work? Ask me in a few years when I’ve sharpened knives enough to know

But I like the idea of thinning as I sharpen so I stick to it. Stringer had some great info in his threads on torture testing a watanabe and a Shihan, and the ideas there stuck with me.

I’m also frankly not skilled enough to do a hamaguri style sharpening job where you start at a low angle and increase it to blend the thinned area and set the edge while adding convexity. As such thinning and sharpening are two different tasks for me done sequentially.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

at this point I’m guilty of having enough knives that I don’t have to sharpen frequently. When I do, it’s normally an extremely brief touch up on one of my finer stones. Because it’s so little sharpening I normally just make sure to thin for twice as long as it takes to sharpen on the same stone.

Where’s the 2:1 ratio come from? I pulled it out of thin air and settled on it. Does it work? Ask me in a few years when I’ve sharpened knives enough to know

But I like the idea of thinning as I sharpen so I stick to it. Stringer had some great info in his threads on torture testing a watanabe and a Shihan, and the ideas there stuck with me.

I’m also frankly not skilled enough to do a hamaguri style sharpening job where you start at a low angle and increase it to blend the thinned area and set the edge while adding convexity. As such thinning and sharpening are two different tasks for me done sequentially.

@stringer my friend, can you provide a link to this testing? I'm using a Watanabe Pro gyuto a lot and am having some observations of my own and would love to read your experiences and thoughts.

 

[Pie]

I have constant thinning projects that hopefully result in an a balance between cutting feel and food release that suits me. One knife at a time, one step at a time. Steps tend to coincide with new discoveries and/or techniques. This ensures I have one project that I work on, and take the time to complete properly. It also takes forever, time frame in weeks, months these days. I should mention that height loss due to sharpening has rarely been the reason for thinning. It’s purely recreational.

Regular sharpening are basically just touch ups above 1k on natural stones. Very rarely does a knife go under 400 unless it’s the current project. I do touch up far more often than is reasonable though.

 

[M1k3]

@stringer my friend, can you provide a link to this testing? I'm using a Watanabe Pro gyuto a lot and am having some observations of my own and would love to read your experiences and thoughts.

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/durability-testing-watanabe-pro-gyuto.41263/
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/durability-testing-shi-han-aka-ginrei-240-gyuto.42530/

 

[cotedupy]

Ideally I do a tiny bit behind the edge too each time. In practice; a lot of our knives get beaten up, chipped, or left rusty on an almost daily basis (not by me!), and I tend to just remove it as quickly as possible, and then do a proper thinning session more sporadically.

When I sharpen knives for other people I invariably thin them / reset the geometry.

 

[Benuser]

At home a can maintain my knives for a very long time by only touching-up with a Belgian Blue. If it doesn't work any longer I go to a Chosera 2k. Otherwise, a full sharpening, which includes thinning behind the edge, starting with a SG320, at the lowest possible angle. The same with new knives, probably a few times, before I feel comfortable with them. For heavy thinning I use a SP120, on the long side of the stone.

 

[M1k3]

More knives is an effective way to prolong thinning.

 

[Benuser]

More knives is an effective way to prolong thinning.

Why would you? It isn't such an unpleasant job, and rather gratefull. In little time you may improve performance dramatically. Restoring the finish afterwards may be. A good reason to prefer monosteel carbons. A patina makes it much simpler.
I found Dave Martell's trick to use the long side of a stone very helpful.

 

[M1k3]

Why would you?

Because moar knives!

 

[Einco]

@Benuser, could you elaborate on using the long side of the stone?

 

[Benuser]

@Benuser, could you elaborate on using the long side of the stone?

Only a narrow part of the blade have contact with the stone. It avoids a lot of scratches. I use one — flat — side of the stone for normal sharpening, and the other one for thinning. I do this only when heavy thinning, not when thinning as a part of normal sharpening.

 

[Einco]

Interesting, thanks!

 

[Nemo]

I tend to thin whenever I need to drop down to a medium stone. Basically whenever a touchup on a fine stone doesn't produce an edge within a dozen or so strokes.