this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
258 points (97.4% liked)
Asklemmy
43755 readers
1240 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Are whetstone any good?
It is worth learning. A single two sided whetstone and some basic skill will give you sharp knives for the rest of your life.
Bonus, keep your cheap knives. They are typically a softer metal that will require maintenance more often so you can practice.
Also learn when you need to sharpen and when you need to hone. Your knife may be sharp but the edge is out of shape (folded, bent over). A few swipes of a hone and you could be back to 80-90% sharp.
At this point I use medium value knives and sharpen them once a year. I have no regrets regarding learning to sharpen with a whetstone. I also typically don't sharpen beyond 1000 grit and it's still enough for people to remark on how sharp the knives are.
Best of luck.
Instead of a hone you could make a strop. A 2โx10โ bit of leather, buy a stick of stropping compound and you get to feel like an old timey barber.
Once a year?? I have to sharpen like every time I use my kitchen knives
That's no longer true. A dishwasher safe trend took over, most cheap knives are extremely hard now. I've a nice old set of not quite stainless that sharpen very easily and the ten thousand grit polish stone I have actually does something. Most new knives I sharpen for people I don't even go over 3000 because they are far too hard to take much effect. My personal favorites are old Wiltshire 70s wood handled inox cleavers and Opinel knives, those opinel especially turn into a razor incredibly easily.
If you know how to use it. If you do not know got to use it a kit that you just stick in the knife is going to be way better.
Or you can learn? It sounds like a skill worth learning
Yes. Best way to sharpen a knife