Level of finish for your kitchen knives

[JS]

I was just curious where you all stop regarding your plain old Henckels, Cutco, Calphalon, etc knives. Nothin’ fancy :). I’ve tried some at 600-1000 and no stropping with good results…the 600 edges are starting to get pretty smooth now. What advantages of a 600 grit edge with some mild 5 micron stropping would there be say over a 1000 grit edge with no stropping? Or would there even be any advantage? I know some will probably say Choseras, but I don’t own any.

On a sadder note, I received a block of Henckels knives with the Eversharp micro serrated edge as a wedding gift a couple months ago, and to my dismay, they were taken out and the box was discarded before I even realized it so now I’m stuck with a block of knives that have almost zero chopping ability. I don’t mind the little serrations on the steak knives and the couple others that would normally be serrated anyway, but not on a nicely ground Santoku! If I had a belt grinder, I’d strongly consider grinding these off, but I don’t and am apprehensive about wasting some of the life of my 50/80 stones on them but might just have to…

[Josh]

I have a nice belt sander ;D I can fix you up if you need it… The only issue you would run into is that if you grind the serrations all the way off (perpendicular to the edge) you will have a really thick edge… which really would need to be thinned, but it doesn’t have to be.

[Mark76]

I sharpen some knives for a restaurant. When I started, I asked the chefs what sort of finish they liked. I took some knives with me that I had finished differently, so they could try.

To my surprise… everyone’s finish seems to be predominantly a matter of personal taste. You might expect that the guys who do a lot of veggie-prep would prefer a polished high-grit edge, whereas the guys that cut a lot of meat would prefer a toothy edge. But no 😆 . The only thing I did expect and that was correct is that the guy who does a lot of pastry likes a blunt edge :cheer: .

The boss chef, who is a bit into knives and has a pretty hard Japanese knife, likes his gyuto very polished. I finish his knife at 8K (Shapton) and then strop with 0.5 micron diamond spray. His knife is also the only one I strop.

So really, the only advice I can give you is just to try out the different finishes and see what you like best.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Leo Barr]

think if you went perpendicular to the edge with the 50s first (freehand) I think you would be surprised how soon you got rid of the serrations.
As razor edge points out you will need to thin the blades after before sharpening ; still whats the hurry? Do one at a time in steps.
Or get a belt sander!

[Bill]

All of my knives are Tojiro, straight out of the box I resharpen to 1000 and call it day. No stropping. Plus for my wood cutting boards I only use bamboo. These knives are used on a regular basis and my oldest is 2 years old and has never needed to be resharpened. BTW the nakari is sharpened to 12 degrees per side.

[Author]

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