Shave sharp kitchen knives

**ZethLent** · 04-03-2009, 01:23 AM

I was at home yesterday with my kids who have been sick all week. And as they are being medicated and quite tired, I had a lot of free time on my hands while they were napping. I decided to take my kitchen knives to the hones, as I have been meaning to sharpen them for the last month or so. It all stared when I decided to lap my hones. I wanted to leave them perfect for my next razor so before hand I went at the kitchen knives.

Well, I stared with my paring knives and then moved on to the chefs knives. I ussually am a little reserved when sharpening them as my wife has warned me on several occasions that the 'her' knife is too sharp and it is scarry and not to do it again (we have his and hers chefs knives as I like mine very keen). But I threw caution to the wind and went at all of them on all of my hones.

I started at 400 and moved to 800 and that is ussually where I stop. Well I went from there to my Chosera 3000 and then to the 5000 and from there to my Maruichi natural.

I tried to shave a few hairs off of my arm and poof they were gone. It wasn't as sharp as a razor is, as my angle somewhat varies while sharpening a knife. Nonetheless it was sharper than it has ever been. I went through this progression all of my kitchen knives ever my wife's

.

I warned her when she got home from work of what I had done and she just said 'ok'. We will see if that sentiment contines.

In the end all of the knives could shave, and all of the hones are as flat as they'll get. A successful honing story!

Now back to razors.

**StraightRazorDave** · 04-03-2009, 02:25 AM

Great job! The last couple of days I've actually been watching a lot of youtube videos of knife sharpening. Needless to say that since I love my straight razors and hones, knife sharpening greatly interests me. Have you seen the video of Murray Carter shaving with a camping knife?
YouTube - Shaving with a camping knife!

**Slartibartfast** · 04-03-2009, 03:13 AM

Interesting....what angle do you use when sharpening your knives.. been reading everything from 20-45 degrees.

**ZethLent** · 04-03-2009, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

Interesting....what angle do you use when sharpening your knives.. been reading everything from 20-45 degrees.

I would say my angle is in that range, though probably in the lower angle area. No where near 45 though.

**Fnord5** · 04-03-2009, 05:11 AM

A western style chefs knife is anywhere from 20-25 degrees, 22 being around average, and is what most electric sharpeners are set at.

Japanese knives are anywhere from 14-20, usually around 15-16.

I prefer the sharper Japanese edge, and when honing my kitchen knives(western style) I set the bevel at around 16.

The edge wears out faster, but I use a Diamond steel, that keeps them in tip top shape.

Not to worry, I have el cheapo knives.

**Pete_S** · 04-03-2009, 06:13 AM

My kitchen knives have benefited from my straight honing stuff, too. I've honed some, but Ive also been able to get the edges of quite a few up to factory sharpness or better with just a pasted paddle strop and diamond paste, using 1 and .5 micron. I thought about getting some 3 micron for them specifically. I only use the paste every couple weeks so there shouldn't be much wear on the blades, but I do strop them on the leather pretty frequently, I've started using that in place of a steel, I like it better.

**gregs656** · 04-05-2009, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

Have you seen the video of Murray Carter shaving with a camping knife?

That's pretty incredible really, I bet that took a lot of honing.

I guess wedge razors are just knives that are honed to a very keen edge, which, ultimately isn't really practical for anything else.

Cool though.

**Slartibartfast** · 04-06-2009, 11:39 AM

so what is the process you use when sharpening? 20 strokes each way on each stone? are you visually looked for a bur to form?

**JimR** · 04-06-2009, 12:22 PM

How do you keep your angle? Do you use a shim or what? I'm trying to hone my kitchen knoves on a diamond plate I got, but I just dull them...I've got a cheap little King shim, but...

**ZethLent** · 04-06-2009, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by JimR

How do you keep your angle? Do you use a shim or what? I'm trying to hone my kitchen knoves on a diamond plate I got, but I just dull them...I've got a cheap little King shim, but...

I don't know, just practice I guess.

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