Good advice Esther.

I use a fairly smooth steel to reshape my kitchen knife blades without
abrasives.  Once in a while i run them through a “V” shaped set of coarse rods,
then a “V” shaped set of smooth ceramic rods put a fresh grind on it.  For shop
knives, my scary sharp sandpaper-on-glass helps - I run through the grits up to
about 600 unless I am doing something that needs 2000 emory paper.

Ed Minch




On Apr 17, 2015, at 5:42 PM, galoot@l... wrote:

> In the kitchen I use a 2-sided synthetic stone from the hardware store a
number of years ago.  I suspect oil was intended but I usually use a bit of dish
soap with a bit of water.  It is possible to go nuts with scary sharp and fine
sandpaper, but in the kitchen I see it as more like turning tools; get them
sharp enough quickly and keep on chopping.  The test is not forearm hair (I have
wimpy delicate hair that ducks instead of cutting) but what it feels like going
through the meat or the carrot.  When you have cut either with a sharp knife you
will know when it's sharp again.
> 
> Esther
> (you are using good carbon steel blades?  Don't waste you time with the shiny
non-rusting "never needs sharpening" stuff...)