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Recommend me a pair of kitchen knives...and best way to keep them sharp

madmike

madmike

I feel much better now, I really do...
I splashed out on two very nice so called japanese damascus knives from the Tesco go cook range, with a 20 year guarantee but they don't do them any more so cant be replaced when the handles fall apart as they do eventually. Plus I don't think they are actually genuine damascus with a layered blade because they get blunt quite quickly.

So I need to replace with something sharp, reliable and that I can easily sharpen.

By the way, what is the forum's best view on sharpening...I have a couple of those things where you draw the blade across a wheel and I think they may not be the best way. Whetstone or sharpening steel ?
 
I have been using a set of Richardson knives for around 40 years and they do all that a home cook needs. I use a decent steel (which will cost you at least £20).

They have tropical hardwood handles - probably a mix but similar in appearance to African mahogany - and they are as new. So far as reasonably possible the handles are not left in water and the blades are cleaned as needed when the usual washing-up is done. Infrequently the handles are oiled or waxed. Oiling with any cooking oil at all is absolutely fine.

Sharpening gadgets are totally sh1t.

The only extra knives that get used, apart from cutlery, are a kitchen devil bread knife and some tiny kitchen devils for things like cheese.
 
Lion Sabatiers - I have a whole set.
I do use an electric sharpener every now and then, when they get really blunt. Between sharpens I use a honer.
 
knives are a very personal thing. I have just offloaded 4 Global knives that I never used as the grip didn't really fit my hand well.

I sharpen with some whetstones, a steel and Minosharp (google it).

Knives I bought recently are more specialist, and useful- like the F.Dick boning knife, and my filleting knife.

Some knives like the little Victorinox tomato knife only cost a few pounds and are eminently useful.

I took my advice from chefs, you really don't need to spend a fortune. In fact my Sentoku was gifted to me by a chef friend.
 
I generally use just one knife. Stone when I can be bothered, long steel normally.
longer the steel = less chance of chopping fingers.
Learn a technique you like whether it is stone or steel, practice every month. Getting a knife sharp is a good skill.

Current favourite (17+ years) is a global G-5 - does it all.

edit: we have many Sabatier and other things, but I stick with the one I know best.
 
madmike said:
I splashed out on two very nice so called japanese damascus knives from the Tesco go cook range, with a 20 year guarantee but they don't do them any more so cant be replaced when the handles fall apart as they do eventually. Plus I don't think they are actually genuine damascus with a layered blade because they get blunt quite quickly.

So I need to replace with something sharp, reliable and that I can easily sharpen.

By the way, what is the forum's best view on sharpening...I have a couple of those things where you draw the blade across a wheel and I think they may not be the best way. Whetstone or sharpening steel ?
Click to expand...

You already have a quality knife. Get a carborundum stone and learn how to use it. Get a steel, likewise. Lots of videos on YouTube. That's you.
A knife that goes blunt quickly is easier to live with than a very hard one, because this just indicates a softer steel. This is of course easy to sharpen compared to something that is hard as nails. Damascus is a type of manufacture, not a state of temper. Such blades can be hard or soft. I have restored a few blades, the worst was a very trendy Global that was just a pig to do anything with because it was so hard. You can forget a steel, you need a diamond hone, which I have, but it is so bloody hard that even that is time consuming. Globals get raved about because they are sharp as hell when new and are very hard, so in the usual light domestic situation they last for ever between sharpening sessions and everyone thinks they are wonderful. However once they actually are blunt, they are a pig. You have to really know what you are doing, I'm fairly good but I struggle with them. My other knives, in comparison, I can sharpen to the point where I can shave with them, if I can be bothered to put the time in. I generally don't, of course. I only need a razor edge for filleting fish and meat, which is a rare event. For vegetables, which is 95% of what I use it for, you are better off with a stone finished edge than a polished edge razor.

By all means buy a new knife, but in a year or two that too will be blunt. Most people don't know how to sharpen a blade, which is a shame. If you were in Leeds and we were allowed to, I'd show you.
 
Dunno your price range/expectations but I have one good Kai santuko knife I use for everything, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0000Y7KFO/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21 , had it for a few years and I didn't pay anything like this price though - think it was around £120 - holds an edge very well and is kept razor sharp and hanging on a magnetic knife block, not kept in a drawer, needless to say I treat it with care and only use an open grain cutting board.

Robert Welch knives have got a good reputation and are far cheaper although they need more regular sharpening https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A16DXOI/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

For a stone I use an older version of this one without the guides, although the guides would be very handy for someone new to a sharpening stone https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08DJ99SKL/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
 
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I have a huge Sabatier and it is good to have a huge knife. I use it for dicing ox-cheek when making daube, for cutting bacalao, for pealing celeriac, for cutting butternut squash down the middle before you get out the seeds. I just run it against a butcher's steel, and it's fine -- probably it's blunt but it's fine, so I don't care. That and little serrated knives, steak knives type of thing, tomato knives, are the only cooking knives I need.
 
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I have a collection of decent Sabatier knives and agree with steve67 above. Get a good old fashioned oil stone (carborundum) and learn to use it, it is not hard to learn and very quick to sharpen to normal levels. If you fancy being a sushi chef then by all means get into water stones and mega grit levels but for 99.9% of all prep work straight off a stone will serve you well. You don't need a guide or a jig, just a bit of practice.

Get a good steel and hone every time you use the knife and sharpen on a stone every month or so depending on use.
 
During lockdown I bought 2 dual faced water whetstones (wet stones I suppose). I use only the 400/1000 to sharpen knives. No need to fanatical about it. My test is that if they can slice a grape as thin as you want with no effort then that is sharp enough.
 
The pull through sharpener tools are brutal on blade life but they will get the job done, the Minosharps I never go on with but seemed like a good idea, never got proper sharp for me. I have tried most sharpening gadgets over the year and have lots for my woodworking tools as well but for a kitchen knife, I keep coming back to an oil stone, in fact I just did all my knives yesterday, lovely relaxing job.
 
About 40 years ago I can remember a chap that came in the road on a bike and was knocking door to door to sharpen knives.
 
I suspect that kitchen devils get a bad stick, but if they are suitable, they are excellent. I have had one long bread/carving knife over 30 years old and it now has almost no trace of serations on the bread knife edge. But both edges are still cruelly sharp with just a very few strokes on a steel, maybe not razor sharp, but sharp enough to cut clean and fast through fingers without noticing until the blood drips or the tomato juices sting.

Horses for courses. I use just two knives apart from the kitchen devils 95% of the time
 
Oilstones and whetstones are excellent if used correctly but they work by removing steel so a regular hone with a steel will save the knife wear. I've found ceramic steels very good but perhaps that means they are doing a bit more than just honing.
 
Cav said:
During lockdown I bought 2 dual faced water whetstones (wet stones I suppose).
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You'd think so, but "to whet" is a verb meaning to sharpen, so it must be a different origin. I looked it up - whet is from Old English hwettan, from Proto-Germanic "hwattjan" or "hwatjana" depending on region, reflected in modern German "wetzen", to whet, to sharpen.
Bloody Germans, coming over here, giving us the basis of an entire culture and language for the last 1500 years...
 
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I've just had a look at a knife that gets a lot of use around here, it's just a little fruit knife, only a cheap thing that was thrown out by a factory because the tip was broken off. I restored it on a stone, it's got a great edge and lives in the drawer getting knocked about with everything else. An occasional go on a steel is enough, a stone is useful when the edge gets too rounded.

I don't see the need for stunt sharp knives in the home unless you are butchering meat and fish. All this cutting tomatoes in two in mid air stuff is great fun, but that's all.
 
gintonic said:
manage quite well with them. Razor sharp for me although YMMV
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Tis possible I had a poor copy, it has been a while since I tried them. I seem to recall the coarse wheel also wore out very quickly and lost the correct angle.
 
Enfield boy said:
Oilstones and whetstones are excellent if used correctly but they work by removing steel so a regular hone with a steel will save the knife wear. I've found ceramic steels very good but perhaps that means they are doing a bit more than just honing.
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They do different jobs but you are correct, a stone will remove metal, the steel reforms the edge. If you steel every time you can keep the edge sweet for longer but at some point it will eventually dull and you need to resharpen on a stone.
 
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