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Turning a Wusthof bread knife into a Utility knife on the WE

Recent Forums Main Forum Techniques and Sharpening Strategies Task Specific Knife Sharpening Cooking Turning a Wusthof bread knife into a Utility knife on the WE

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  • #50264
    Expidia
    Participant
    • Topics: 47
    • Replies: 339

    A fun little project for me that I just did.  I’m retiring most of my heavy German Wusthof kitchen knives that are like 40 years old in favor of the sleek, light supersharp Japanese style knives.

    When I pulled the Wusthof bread knife out of the block I rarely ever used it after I ruined all the serrations by running it through my Chef Choice sharpeneing unit.  The model I have does say it will sharpen serrated edge (I think).  But all it did was turn a sharp serrated bread knife into a long (butter knife.

    Instead of tossing it into the retired knives box I figured maybe I could bring it back to a useful knife as a utility knife on the WE.  I have a big old 75 plus year old grinder that would have made quick work of those serrations. But that would be no fun and I’d probably ruin it anyway on a grinder.

    So I first ground in a sharpening choil with my Dremel and mounted the knife at the factory 15 degrees. Using the LAA (with spacers) since this blade is so narrow.  I took all the serrations down with the 50 grit stones and then progressed on down and through to the strops.  There are still two small dimples left, one near the tip and one near the rear as these were cut deeper into the bevel and I left them so as not to waste even more blade metal.

    Came out smoking sharp . . . testing down to 150 on the Bess sharpness scale using my “Edge On Up” edge sharpness tester!  I’ve now given this bread knife a new life as a kitchen utility knife.

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    #50268
    MarcH
    Moderator
    • Topics: 74
    • Replies: 2733

    I use my 15yo Wusthof Serrated Bread Knife all the time.  It’s one of those specialty knives helpful to have in the kitchen.  IMO, your knife had clearly evident and restorable serrations all down the blade.  A few minutes of effort with a small round file or small round ceramic rod would have done wonders to renew that knife.

    Now you have another long narrow knife made from the same soft steel that rolls over, as the other 30 yo  Wusthof’s you retired for that reason.  I really think it was a shame to do that to this bread knife.  Just my opinion.

    Marc
    (MarcH's Rack-Its)

    #50270
    Expidia
    Participant
    • Topics: 47
    • Replies: 339

    Ya, I don’t see me ever spending time filing “each” serration.  Even with my many high end folders . . . none have serrated blades, because I hate serrated edges.  Just my opinion :o)

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