I was ready to kill someone at work last week......

I was doing my normal, helping one of the other cooks prep his station. I usually sliced the tomatoes, which required a honing from a steel, but the tomatoes would slice quickly and cleanly. This particular day, I noticed that the tomatoes were not slicing very well. I didn't think to much about it.

Later that day, I was cleaning my knife, when something caught my eye. I took a quick look at the bevel. I had caught, glinting in the light, the striations imparted by one of those cheap, carbide cutter-type pull-through knife sharpeners.

SOMEBODY FRAKKING WELL TRIED TO SHARPEN MY KNIFE, AND ENDED UP DULLING IT!!!

I don't know who did it, exactly. I have my suspicions. I even mentioned it to the person that I think might have done it (my Sous), and he immediately offered to sharpen it for me, pulled out his stone, and tried.

In watching him, I quickly realized that he doesn't have a clue what he's doing.

What really peeves me, is that whoever did it, had to do it WHILE I WAS THERE, as I take my blades home every day.

I took it home on the weekend, pulled out my stones, and sharpened not only that blade, but my home chef's knife as well. Both knives will now shave; I'm missing a patch of arm hair on my left arm.

Now, I'm just waiting for PeppA to call me, crying her eyes out, bawling about how she sliced a finger with my "razor blade".

Oh Man! I don't blame you. I have Henckles and Messerstahl knives. I have one of those sharpening gizzmos ( Chef's Pride) and also Arkansas stones and a sharpening steel. I've had it for over a year and used it just once. What angle do you use to sharpen using the stone? I've heard that 15 degrees is correct.

My work chef's knife is a 10" stamped "Black Diamond", made by F. Dick. German.

I'm not exactly sure what my bevel is set at, as I'm doing this freehand. However, it is an angle that's a little to shallow for German steel. I do, however, put a micro-bevel on the main bevel that's more in keeping with German steel.

I've got a cheap, tri-stone type setup that I got at Wally World about 17 years ago. The "coarse" stone is aluminum oxide, not sure what exact grit. That stone popped off the cedar block over a year ago. The other two stones, "medium" and "fine", are Arkansas whetstones. I also use a steel, both at work, and at home, to maintain my edges.

I might be in the market to get a replacement "coarse" stone to cutting the primary edge on my knives. I haven't really looked around, though.

AllenOK said:

Later that day, I was cleaning my knife, when something caught my eye. I took a quick look at the bevel. I had caught, glinting in the light, the striations imparted by one of those cheap, carbide cutter-type pull-through knife sharpeners.

SOMEBODY FRAKKING WELL TRIED TO SHARPEN MY KNIFE, AND ENDED UP DULLING IT!!!

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Temper, temper! Take deep breaths.

Agreed but it is his work tool. No one else should touch it without permission.

Most of the cooks know it's my knife, and that it's a 10" razor blade. You all should see the scar on my right hand that I gave myself last August..........

The other cooks know to always ask before using my tools. What gets me all riled up is that someone came in behind my back, did something sordid to my blade, and managed to do that while I was there, without me catching them.

If I could get some better stones, I'm pretty sure I could get a small side-business going sharpening knives. Unfortunately, most of the other knives are work belong to the kitchen; nobody respects them; they get abused, etc.

no one unskilled goes near your Chef's tools. end of story.

Did you ever figure out who did it? I would imagine if they heard you when you figured out that someone messed with it they probably won't do it again

DH does all of my knife sharpening. I don't know how good the quality is but he uses this one from Williams Sonoma. He seems to like it:

I have my suspicions, but no proof. Yes, I was rather upset. But, my blade is sharp now, so since I can't really pursue it further, I'm going to let it go.

Good idea.

>> they get abused, etc.

you have not lived an experience until you find the village idiot opening #10 cans with your #10 inch chef knife.

ChowderMan said:

>> they get abused, etc.

you have not lived an experience until you find the village idiot opening #10 cans with your #10 inch chef knife.

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=:-o

So, you're not a murderer after that, right? Criminy.

hahahaha! you 2 make me laugh

No one I work with would dare do that to one of my knives. On the other hand, I keep mine sharp enough most of the guys are afraid to touch them! It sucks that someone would do that to your knives!

Considering how sharp Allen keeps his knife it's a wonder that anyone would find a reason to try and improve the edge.

Leni said:

What angle do you use to sharpen using the stone? I've heard that 15 degrees is correct.

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It depends. "Most" German knives for "most" use are best sharpened at 20 to 25 degrees per side as they are relatively soft and these angles will help make the edge last longer. With certain Japanese and Swedish steels it is possible to sharpen down to insane levels (5-7 degrees) for those who will take extreme caution protecting the edge. Point of reference, most razor blades are 7 degrees per side. Another reference, Shun knives are factory sharpened at 16 degrees per side.

There are two main reasons for the limitation on "most" German steel. The first is the softness itself which makes it too easy to deform the edge under use. More importantly, the size of the carbide particles is much larger than quality Japanese or Swedish blade steels and they will literally fall out when low sharpening angles are attempted and result in a jagged edge.