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Hi folks, Jonathan was the person who taught me how to sharpen a cooking knife, he used to work as a caterer in the army. Anyway I asked him if he could jot down some instructions about sharpening a knife and he very kindly supplied the following. This information is supplied with no warranty, if symptoms persist consult a physician, the value of your knives may stay the same or rapidly go down if you fuck them up. Hope this helps, Greg Begin forwarded message: > From: Jonathan McKeown <jonathan@______.za> > Date: 15 May 2007 11:49:47 BDT > To: Greg McCarroll <greg@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx> > Subject: Re: knife sharpening > > On Tuesday 15 May 2007 10:15, you wrote: > >> ive been watching a discussion on knife sharpening over on >> london.food and i thought of you - <snip> >> any chance of jotting down some notes or a quick diagram to >> help the others out? > > Ooer. That's like the programmer's interview question about > describing a > procedure for tying your shoelaces! OK, here's my wisdom on knives and > sharpening (gleaned from an uncle of mine who worked in catering for a > while). > > You can buy all sorts of exotic ceramic and diamond-studded > sharpening tools, > plus whetstones, oilstones, etc, and all sorts of implements with > either > little wheels or two small angled files (which tend to chew the > edge of the > blade). I haven't. > > I use heavy-bladed carbon-steel knives (at the moment a Lion > Sabatier chef's > knife, a couple of smaller Wuesthof Trident knives, and a Chinese > cleaver > branded Ken Hom, all of which I've had for fifteen years or so). I > use two > tools to sharpen them: a standard steel and another knife. > > First off, I find it easier and more effective to hold the knife > mostly still > and move the steel: being left-handed, that means I hold the knife > in my > right hand and the steel in my left, crossing the knife blade at a > right-angle with the steel always on top. > > As I stroke the length of the steel along the length of the knife > blade > (always from base to tip and making sure I cover the full length of > the > blade), I like to have the edge of the knife leading, and the steel > moving > across the knife from the edge towards the back of the knife (if > you like, > you're pushing the steel up the cutting edge into the knife rather > than > drawing it down and away). > > Bad ASCII Art: looking along the knife blade, if the knife (angled) > and steel > (flat) are moving as shown (as well as in or out of the screen), > ``up'' and > ``down'' look like this (obviously the knife is at a much shallower > angle): > > Back of blade Back of blade > \ / > \ / > \ ===> / ===> > ______\____ _______/_______ > <=== <=== > steel up blade steel down blade > > I will usually start with the tip of the steel at the base of the > blade with > the edge pointing towards me; push the steel across and along the > blade until > the base of the steel is at the tip of the knife; turn the knife so > that the > edge is away from me and the base of the steel is at the base of > the knife; > and then draw the steel back across and along the blade until the > steel's tip > reaches the tip of the knife. > > The angle between the edge and the steel should be quite shallow: > the best I > can offer is to say that with a little practice, you can feel when > it's > right; keep it fairly flat, but if it's too flat, the steel feels > as though > it's slipping rather than having a feeling of the steel slightly > ``engaging'' > with the edge. > > You shouldn't need a lot of pressure on a well-maintained knife - > you're > actually straightening a folded or rolled cutting edge rather than > grinding a > new edge - but one advantage of this method is that if the blade is > very > blunt you can apply more pressure (still at the same angle and with > the same > technique) and almost re-grind the knife edge. > > You can (carefully and gently!) test the edge of the blade with > your thumb > until you're happy with it, and you can then get an even better > finish using > a second heavy-bladed knife with no nicks or chips in the back of > the blade. > > This finishing process will only take one or two strokes, and is > going to be > done oppositely to the steel stage in two ways: the second knife > (acting as a > steel) is stationary in your ``wrong hand'', and the knife being > sharpened in > your ``working hand'', on top, and moving across and along the back > of the > second knife; also, move the sharpened knife with the back leading > so that > the back of the second knife is travelling ``down'' the cutting > edge, as > opposed to moving the steel against the knife with the edge leading > so that > the steel moved ``up'' the edge. > > HTH. <snip> > > Jonathan
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