Looking for hints from Chef's and cooks

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1

Greetings.

Just got a WE for my birthday. Yeah!

I have been sharpening things for many, many years, from my camping days as an Eagle scout, to my work in kitchens, to glassblowers knives (which are sharpened at 90 degrees-they are rectangular pieces of Tungsten Carbide).

I am a pro cook, and after sharpening my first knives to 1600, I find they are too smooth, too polished for most applications. I thought they might be, and proved myself right. Just like bread knives are serrated for a reason, I think that 1600 is too smooth for most chef knife use.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good starting (err, I mean stopping?) point for 8-10" chef knives? I may continue to 1600 for some of my knives, like paring knives, but feel that I need to stop earlier for chef knives, filet knives, etc. I have the following stones: 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1600. I am thinking that 600, 800, or maybe 1000 might be best, but was hoping someone has already done a lot of tinkering on this and has some advice! I know I sound lazy, but I do have a lot of things going at this time of year. I work for a catering company, and wedding season is soon upon us!

I am using 20 degrees as my sharpening angle. Any changes from that as well?

2

[quote quote=“cpovey” post=21879]Greetings.

Just got a WE for my birthday. Yeah!

I have been sharpening things for many, many years, from my camping days as an Eagle scout, to my work in kitchens, to glassblowers knives (which are sharpened at 90 degrees-they are rectangular pieces of Tungsten Carbide).

I am a pro cook, and after sharpening my first knives to 1600, I find they are too smooth, too polished for most applications. I thought they might be, and proved myself right. Just like bread knives are serrated for a reason, I think that 1600 is too smooth for most chef knife use.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good starting (err, I mean stopping?) point for 8-10" chef knives? I may continue to 1600 for some of my knives, like paring knives, but feel that I need to stop earlier for chef knives, filet knives, etc. I have the following stones: 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1600. I am thinking that 600, 800, or maybe 1000 might be best, but was hoping someone has already done a lot of tinkering on this and has some advice! I know I sound lazy, but I do have a lot of things going at this time of year. I work for a catering company, and wedding season is soon upon us!

I am using 20 degrees as my sharpening angle. Any changes from that as well?[/quote]

Congrats and welcome to the forum!

I’m not a chef or a cook, but I am a waiter at a high-end seafood joint called Perla’s here in Austin. Typically when I sharpen house knives for the kitchen staff I sharpen at 20dps amd stop at 1000 grit. Occasionally, I’ll polish with the 5um and 3um strops just to help minimize the burr as much as possible. When I sharpen the chef’s knives I always ask them if they have any preferences before I begin. From there I’ll go up in grit, micro bevel, convex, etc. depending on what they want.

3

I am not a pro-cook, but i butcher my own deer, 10 last year, 6 this year, goats, sheep, turkeys and birds. I do all my own sausages, pastrami, cured ducks, turkeys, hams, 12 pork bellies for bacon etc.

I am a bit different maybe. I do finish down to the 1600, and then strop it over till the bevel is as close to a mirror as i can get. I then go back over with the 1000 grit on the Micro bevel to give it some “bite”. The rest of the bevel is still smooth, yet the cutting edge has enough grip to slice through.

4

[quote quote=“cpovey” post=21879]Greetings.

Just got a WE for my birthday. Yeah!

I have been sharpening things for many, many years, from my camping days as an Eagle scout, to my work in kitchens, to glassblowers knives (which are sharpened at 90 degrees-they are rectangular pieces of Tungsten Carbide).

I am a pro cook, and after sharpening my first knives to 1600, I find they are too smooth, too polished for most applications. I thought they might be, and proved myself right. Just like bread knives are serrated for a reason, I think that 1600 is too smooth for most chef knife use.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good starting (err, I mean stopping?) point for 8-10" chef knives? I may continue to 1600 for some of my knives, like paring knives, but feel that I need to stop earlier for chef knives, filet knives, etc. I have the following stones: 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1600. I am thinking that 600, 800, or maybe 1000 might be best, but was hoping someone has already done a lot of tinkering on this and has some advice! I know I sound lazy, but I do have a lot of things going at this time of year. I work for a catering company, and wedding season is soon upon us!

I am using 20 degrees as my sharpening angle. Any changes from that as well?[/quote]

Welcome to the Wicked Edge community!

While I am not a pro chef either, I have sharpened for a few, or semi-pro at least =) A couple questions for you…

  1. what angle are you sharpening at when you went up through the 1600?
  2. how thick are your edges (do you have a caliper you can measure them on)?

If you want japanese level performance out of your knives then you need them to be very thin… on a western knife i would probably take it down to as far as .005"-.010" thick if you have the ability to thin the primary grind. Otherwise, get as low of a back bevel as you can then micro at 15 dps.

5

I used to sharpen for a local restaurant. When I started I thought that some of the things I’d read on other forums would apply. At KKF, for example, quite a few ppl go for 5K edges for the knives they use on veggies. For meat usually a more toothy edge is preferred.

But no B) . One of the chefs who cuts a lot of meat appeared to prefer even a 10K edge. And others preferred a 1K edge. The only thing I’d expected is that the pastry chef didn’t want a very sharp knife :wink: .

So I can only conclude it’s very personal.

20 degrees is a good general guideline for Western knives. Japanese knives generally can take a bit lower edges.

6

[quote quote=“KnifeKnerdAtX” post=21883]
Congrats and welcome to the forum!

I’m not a chef or a cook, but I am a waiter at a high-end seafood joint called Perla’s here in Austin. Typically when I sharpen house knives for the kitchen staff I sharpen at 20dps amd stop at 1000 grit. Occasionally, I’ll polish with the 5um and 3um strops just to help minimize the burr as much as possible. When I sharpen the chef’s knives I always ask them if they have any preferences before I begin. From there I’ll go up in grit, micro bevel, convex, etc. depending on what they want.[/quote]

+1

If we are talking about Henkels, Wusthofs and such, I stop around 1k, strop for polish.
Polish may push to 2k.
Then a few strokes on a 1200k ceramic hone just to put the bite back on the edge.

Works for me and my customers.

In the end, if you really think about it, what ever you do, ultimately will end up to be a compromise of what you give them and what they use to hone.

If you find out what hone they use, and what they use each knife for, its then a balancing act.
IMHO, and as a former chef, a chef should have a variety of hones, I’d say 3. Steel Rough, Steel Med, Ceramic Smooth.

At the very least, its an opportunity to sell a hone if you carry them.

7

Not a chef or cook, but the vast majority of chef’s knives given to me are cheaper Western knives that I never have any clue what the steel is. 18 to 20 dps is where I go with these and stop at 1k grit. My stones are really broken in, and I like to think this leaves a good combination of polish and bite.