Does anyone use a whetstone to sharpen their knives? I'm considering ordering this one.

J

joe

Well-known member
It's much cheaper than others online, and I'm not sure if it is important to buy an expensive one.

Is it difficult to learn? I'm really tired of looking for businesses that will sharpen my knives properly. The last one I frequented closed. I tried another and they did a terrible job at about $5.00 per blade. I could buy this stone for that.

I figure if I make my own bread and pastry the old-fashioned way I can probably learn to sharpen my own knives. I'd appreciate any input that anyone has.

http://www.hayneedle.com/product/whetstonecutlerytwosidedwhetstonesharpeningstone.cfm?source=pla&kwid=Camping%20High&tid=ASR7243&adtype=pla&kw=&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=ASR7243&gclid=CMrL5PHjsLoCFaY9QgodfD4AUQ

 
Joe, DH used to sharpen all my knives with a stone.

For some reason he seems to have stopped. He used a little olive oil, and used the rough side of the stone first. You stroke gently at a very low angle, maybe 10 degrees. (He says, the same angle as the edge on the knife.) Finish on the fine side of the stone. He says you should be able to shave the hairs on your arm when you have finished. If you want visuals, I can make a little video.

I must say, looking it up on-line makes it look rather complicated, but he says it isn't. I have sharpened my pocket knife myself, and I didn't ruin it, but that wasn't one of your expensive cooking knives.

 
Thanks, Lana, and don't worry, my knives are not all that expensive.

I have some cheapos I can practice on.

 
my take having done A LOT of sharpening.

First I know the common lingo is "sharpening" but actually this is not accurate the way that it is commonly used. Sharpening is something that you should do infrequently. Honing is what you do frequently. Sharpening involves actually shaping the blade. Shaping the edge of the steel. So every time you sharpen, you are losing steel. Sharpening also does not get you to your sharpest or best edge. Instead it leaves the edge in a very rough state. Honing is where you refine the established edge. It is where your sharpest and actually most durable edge is achieved. When I was learning how to sharpen, I saw pictures of this under a microscope which really helped me to understand what was going on. The difference between what you can see with your eyes as to what is actually going on between sharpening and honing is dramatic. Definitely one of those "details" that make all the difference.

There is a lot of strong opinion on what the best methods for sharpening/honing but in my humble opinion:
1) a waterstone is better than an oil stone. In either case though, you will need more than one grit to do it properly.
2) if you use an electric wheel such as a grinder, slow is superior to fast for many reasons. One being that depending upon what type of steel you are grinding, a fast wheel can ruin the entire blade not just by grinding incorrectly but because they quickly generate heat which can ruin the temper.
3) if you do sharpen, use a jig. The jig is what will provide consistency. Without it, you will make a lot of mistakes and your knives won't last as long. They have jigs made for waterstones like the one you linked to. It's basically a little brass device with a wheel that rides the surface of the stone. The blade is held at an angle so that it is sharpened consistently.

You can use a varying degree of sandpaper "grit" to get ultra sharp knives. I have seen sharpening stations made with a sheet of safety glass (because it is perfectly flat) with degrees of sandpaper glued in order. The idea being that you start with a low grit and work your way up. The increasingly finer grit gives you an increasingly finer finish. I have used this method for other purposes getting a mirror finish on both steel and wood. You can get steel about as sharp as possible doing this and it is relatively inexpensive but obviously won't last as long as a wetstone. In ultra fine grits, the sandpaper is equivalent to honing. These ultra fine grits are used for glass and even plastic. The windows on commercial airplanes for example. This is also the idea behind a leather strop as for example used with straight razors.

Is it difficult to learn? Not really but there are nuances and skills that will affect results even dramatically. This wiki article might be useful. The picture there also shows jigs used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

 
Joe, CI did a very nice article on honing/sharpening (two step method) that I can send you

It made me buy a version of the one you show....grittty side, smooth side.

The trick is getting a 20-degree angle. Since I was a draftsman for years, I can visualize the angle.

Let me know if you want me to send a copy of the article.

 
Check out this DYI video by knife making guru, Bob Kramer.

He's a legend in the business. This video made me confident enough to try sharpening my own knives.

 
Thanks Traca, my 'puter is without sound at the moment but I will definitely check it out.

when everything is up and running. (I recently had a nasty virus and had to have it scrubbed. I'm still restoring files and programs. Thank heaven for Carbonite!

 
Any Louise Erdrich fans out there? I want someone to write this about me someday

" Fidelis was not a religious man, except when it came to his knives. First thing every morning, after he'd taken his strong coffee from Eva's hand and eaten his breakfast of cheese and bread and stewed prunes, he visited the slotted wooden block where his knives were kept. He took them out and laid them in strict order on a flannel cloth. These were the same knives he'd brought in the suitcase with the sausages, from Germany, and they were of the finest quality--forged from the blade to the tang in a mold and then worked from spine to cutting edge to create a perfectly balanced tool. Fidelis kept them ferociously clean. He examined each for any minute sign of rust. Then he made what for him were the day's most important decisions: which blades needed only to visit the sharpening steel, and which, if any, were in need of the graver attention of the stones. Most often, knives required only the steel.

"Fidelis's long sharpening steel, now kept on an iron wall hook, was the same one that hung from his belt in the portrait that his parents had paid the finest photographer in Ludwigsruhe to take when he mastered the family trade. With a musical alacrity, he swiped across the steel the knives whose edges needed minimal attention, and then he set them back into the block. Fidelis was conservative. He never oversharpened, never wasted good steel by grinding it away. But a dull blade would mash the fibers of the meat and slip dangerously in the hand, so when a knife needed a fresh edge, he was ready. He removed the set of stones from a drawer beneath the wooden block, and then he arranged them in order next to the knife that waited on the flannel. The coarse black stone was first, to set the cut right, and then the stones became finer. There were six in all. The last was fine as paper. By the time Fidelis finished, the blade could split an eyelash."

from The Master Butchers Singing Club

 
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