What kind of kitchen knives should I buy?

[Rob]

Couldn't agree more with Herman on all counts. I also tend to use the same three knives and of those by far the most used is the chefs knife.

I have a set of global knives and I only use the three he mentions, the others just sit there laughing at me!  I always wash and dry by hand, usually directly after use if I remember

I now use a hand steel on them every single time they come out of the knife block. About 5 strokes per side. This maintenance regimen works absolute wonders

I've only Tormek'd them once.  Then I discovered the regular steel method and I've not looked back

The steel only works on already sharp knives. I guess that Japanese steel is very hard and if they even dull a little, it can't get the edge back. But keep it up regularly and its brilliant

[Ken S]

I see that Ron, the original poster, has not been active since January.  Hopefully we helped him with his question and he and his wife are happily using their new knives.

Too bad he isn't still posting. this reminds me of the people who are looking for a home on the TV programs.  They look at three houses and decide.  Usually the production people return after a short while to see how the people are doing.  What they don't do is return a year or two later to get a more in depth picture.  (or to see if the people are still actually living in the house)

This forum would benefit from more feedback after a longer period of use.  We should all make post it notes to our selves:  After sharpening 50 or 100 drill bits with the new DBS-22, post thoughts about it.  Or, after several months of using the rotating base, post thoughts.

For those of us who are NPR Car Talk fans, we need more "Stump the Chumps" kind of posts.  How did the advice work out?

Rob started a very good post recently on his frustrations sharpening his planer blades.  He wrote in depth and had a very good reply from Jeff.  I hope you will follow through, Rob, with your thoughts on the SB wheel.

Another poster had a broken drive wheel.  Excellent post.  That's something which may happen to any of us.  I hope he will do a follow up describing the service he received with the replacement, the procedure, and how it works now.

Let's not forget the follow through.

Ken

[Rob]

I haven't forgotten that thread Ken. And I will report back after the first sharpening using the blackstone. Only reason not yet done is planar knives are still ok after last sharpening

I've even imported from Canada, the Oneway Multijig for accurate height setting of planar knives (its brilliant). So I'm all set to go, soon as they're dull again ill go back through the cycle and report here

[Rhino]

Thank you for the advice.  I placed an order for a 6 inch carbon chef's knife.  It has been many years, decades, since I used a non stainless blade in the kitchen.  I'll use it in the kitchen/lunch room where I work.  If I like it I'll get more.  Thanks.

[tb444]

Guys, let's keep it civil.  I've deleted a few posts, hopefully without actually removing anyone's opinion, but getting rid of some of the unnecessary bickering. I don't want to delete this thread, as it has some good information in it.

I haven't sharpened a lot of thousand dollar knives, I will admit. I have sharpened thousands of hundred dollar knives, and with every conceivable method available to me, I would continue to choose the Tormek.

tb444, sounds like you need to become better acquainted with your stone grader or get an SJ-250 Japanese waterstone. If you (or those you've observed) are removing material at that fast a pace, the stone is not graded properly. If you give the SJ-250 a try, I think you'll find the speed well worthwhile compared to water splashed bench stones, whether jigged or freehand.

I have the sj250 lol, i do feel i gave the tormek a good run, but this is where obsession with the geting the best out of my knives comes out, and i will admit to it

The speed of cut with the 4k stone is IMO rapid and this is no bad thing, a slow cutting stone is frustrating and is why i stopped using oilstones a long time ago. When i am block planing endgrain or abrasive woods i will mark the jig position on the blade with a Sharpie and then leave the 4k set up for really quick and frequent touch ups. With a 25 degree primary the 4k will keep going with a 30 degree secondary for quite a while before i need to redo the primary on the coarser stone. If it cut slower i'd just use the strop or a benchstone progression.

This is no criticism of the tormek, i'm a big fan and will recommend it to people looking to be able to put fast repeatable sharp edges on knives and tools. But i see a knife as being affected by more than just the edge bevel but the geometry behind the edge as well, and being able to maintain or modify this is something that i dont feel able to do on the wheel.

Saying all this i was at a camp out last weekend and must have sharpened about 30 knives for people that were all blunt to start off with and being able to reset the edges quickly on the tormek would have been a big timesaver. I would have then been able to spend more time on the geometry instead of grinding away trying to get an edge back first.

[Herman Trivilino]

Saying all this i was at a camp out last weekend and must have sharpened about 30 knives for people that were all blunt to start off with and being able to reset the edges quickly on the tormek would have been a big timesaver. I would have then been able to spend more time on the geometry instead of grinding away trying to get an edge back first.

Once you get the edge back, what do you then do?  I don't understand what you do when you spend time on the geometry.