Messages

Thanks.This one is not a thick blade - nothing like a big Deba for example.

I would be surprised if it is not still perfectly usable.  Leather strops frequently have nicks in them and that doesn't affect performance. My limited T1 experience is a hand strop block is faster than the T1 at honing and better.  But to be fair I have had a lot of practice.   

Yes, almost all of the German knives (not the flexible slicers) have traditional bolsters and I agree from a sharpening perspective they are a pain.

I used the T1 early this morning on a Misono 10 (Japanese knife, Swedish steel) and that was sharp in two or three passes.  That knife is more of a laser.  At present I find hand stropping more effective than the T1 rotary strop. 

I have still not got my original Japanese test knife seriously sharp on the T1.  Puzzling.  Maybe it only works well with thin blades or softer steel.   

Thank you. This is pretty much the conclusion I had arrived at.  The yanigiba's are very fine (and expensive) and I will stick to the Naniwas or J naturals for them.  The various other fine J knives likewise. They are sharp anyway.

My team mainly prefer our German double bevels which don't "steer" and that is why I bought the T1 really as they dull quickly and are tedious to sharpen. 

I also have an Edge Pro belt device with a lot of grits (workshop not kitchen), but it lacks speed control and so can blue a tip in an instant,  Mainly used for chisels and plane blades.

I will stick with the T1 for a while and work through the GEU's etc and see how they do.  Otherwise it will be moved on.  T8 is much too messy for a commercial kitchen environment even though we are small.

New member here.  Adrian.  I'm a chef in our small fine dining restaurant.  Lifelong knife enthusiast: Japanese single bevel sourced direct from maker's workshops in Japan (all Carbon), several more western J knives - double bevel. mostly VG10 variants (eg Misono etc) and my much older German knives, mostly Gustav Emil Ern but a few others as well. Sharpening hitherto has been Naniwa stones up to about 20,000 grit, splash and go, impregnated leather strops. 

Bought T1 which arrived yesterday.  Disappointing.  I started off with a Japanese SS knife that was pretty blunt and I wanted to profile to about 12 degrees each side. I must have spent an hour on this and despite using marker and lens, I can't seem to get a burr. It seems very close but a burr does not form very well, and then if I use the honing wheel the knife is dulled.  It comes back a bit if I hand strop. 

T1 is MUCH slower than I expected.  Is this normal?

Second question.  I'm right handed and my best knives, especially several Yanagibas etc, are single bevel carbon - no bevel (maybe a micr bevel) on the left face.  The T1 requires me to go in from the back to rin these through and grinds a tad unevenly.  It is easy to catch the horn on the wheel. Any brilliant ideas?

I only really got the T1 to deal with the German knives and maybe a bit of angle change here and there.  The premium knives rarely see anything other than an 8000 Naniwa and the strop and they are razor sharp.

It's a bit awkward with butchery boning knives as well - hard to get to the very end closest to the handle without the grind looking a bit rough.   

Final question - is there a method for doing Chinese cleavers. 

Many thanks. Adrian