I remember we have a knife expert here............

joe -

I admire your dedication/expertise/etc.

I expect my barber to strop the razor.
the top round roast is already dead and doesn't feel a thing.
so my emphasis is on performance in the kitchen, not whether a cherry tomato dropped from one-half inch or one half-foot cleanly cleaves.

male folks who do not shave with their 10 inch chef knife probably lack an appreciation for a 2 degree back bevel with a 20,000 grit finish on an 0.005 Angstrom edge.

me personally, I want my kitchen knives to cut cleanly and without undue pushing/effort.

that's it, that's all.
I place more value on "life of (acceptable) sharpness" than "sharpness beyond measure" - in the end it's a question of priorities and perceptions.

I've used Angstrom edged Japanese knives. marvelous devices.

quite frankly, the "I diced three apples before I had to go back to the stone" is just not my kettle of sushi. I'm looking for six months of (home) kitchen use - with regular steeling - before a knife needs "sharpening"

ChowderMan said:

joe -

I admire your dedication/expertise/etc.

I expect my barber to strop the razor.
the top round roast is already dead and doesn't feel a thing.
so my emphasis is on performance in the kitchen, not whether a cherry tomato dropped from one-half inch or one half-foot cleanly cleaves.

male folks who do not shave with their 10 inch chef knife probably lack an appreciation for a 2 degree back bevel with a 20,000 grit finish on an 0.005 Angstrom edge.

me personally, I want my kitchen knives to cut cleanly and without undue pushing/effort.

that's it, that's all.
I place more value on "life of (acceptable) sharpness" than "sharpness beyond measure" - in the end it's a question of priorities and perceptions.

I've used Angstrom edged Japanese knives. marvelous devices.

quite frankly, the "I diced three apples before I had to go back to the stone" is just not my kettle of sushi. I'm looking for six months of (home) kitchen use - with regular steeling - before a knife needs "sharpening"

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with your statement.

I saw have a demo on one of my Murray Carter videos. He has two knives both the same. One is sharpened to the max the other is to the level of a typical kitchen knife. He cuts and apple in to 3 pieces and lays it down. It took less than 2 minutes for the cut with the typical edge to start to turn brown while the other cut took about 10 minutes. That tells you there is much less bruising of foods which will effect the taste to me at least it does.

All of my knives have maximum edges on them and drop though the food with little effort on my part.

if one could put a super fine edge on a $50 knife that would last - with decent kitchen care&habits - six months, that would be something.

forget about the corrosion / staining / dishwater issues - let's just consider those folks who are willing to take 20 seconds to wipe down and dry their knives after use vs. those folks who cut up the apple leaving the stem, core and knife on the board overnight. they are on their own.

but it doesn't work that way.
a soft steel gets nicely sharp, but won't hold an edge long.
stainless and some carbon grades are tricky to get a super fine edge.

voile, enter the answer - a multi-thousand dollar knife which is hard, takes and keeps and edge. problem: not too many are willing to shell out that kinda bucks.

these blade-smiths are masters of their craft. I have zero comma zilch bad or even semi-bad to say about them. I'm dumb struck by their expertise and talents - I've done a little bit of metal working - folks, it _ain't_ as easy as they make it look.

I patronize a number of craftsman - more typically for wooden wares - but the principle is the same - costs more, but they've put their heart and soul into it and I'll support them. fortunately my wooden spoons and spatulas don't run in the multi-thousand dollar range, so my supporting them is not as painful on the wallet . . . .

somewhere I may have mentioned,,,, I got a 7" santoku - the first was a $20 grocery store item which I replaced with a Wuestie. used my edge pro to put a symmetric 15' bevel on it. 21 Aug 2011 as my notes say.

problem: it is too sharp comma still. the blade kerfs into a rock maple block way too easy. even with the gentle pressure I feel the blade 'twitch' in the edge groove it cuts.

my 8 in Wuestie chef which I finished at 17' symmetric - doesn't seem to have that issue.

both done the same day - I'd guess the santoku has 2x the use of the 8" chef - the santoku is my preferred blade for vegetable prep due to the flatter belly.

now, the $20 grocery store knife came with a single side 15' bevel. wow, yeah - really sharp. kept 'in condition' with nothing but a grooved steel. do I have to tell ....? what's your guess?

eventually that thin edge fatigued, it's missing chunks all along the edge.
needs a regrind to take about 1.2-1.5 mm off the entire edge length to get to good metal....
ps: don't do the math. two years with nuttin' but steel maintenance - for twenty bucks . . . the original definition of the disposable society . . .

Hahaha! I'm semi-pro at best! I do some work for Mark @ CKtG but right now I'm burning the candle at both ends- between work & school there aren't enough hours in the day. My brother has been coding a website for me and I have a domain name but it's hard to guestimate when I'll be in a position to try to launch a "business." At best I plan to do it as a PT deal. I've been doing that with a handful of folks online for some time, just looking to maybe expand. I now have three belt grinders for repairs and sharpening certain types of knives, so I'm able to do a lot more than I could a few years back.

Yeah, those Tojiro DPs are great knives for the money. My latest aquisition is an $800 Nubatama, but even so I still have 4 Tojiro DPs and 1 Tojiro Shirogami Wa-Gyuto in my work case. Going forward I doubt I'll add to that I don't foresee replacing them with anything else, either.