A Few Good Knives

I found my Old Hickory knife. Its in perfect condition with the help of a SOS pad and elbow grease. It has the geometric design on the blade. I dried it really good and used a drop of food grade mineral oil that I use for my cutting boards. I need a good sharpening device. I don't have a belt sander. Is the dexter diamond steel a good choice for the carbon steel knives? I'm a little confused about whether it is only for stainless or for both. The Old Hickory knife that I have is in the attached photo.

Attached Images

Old Hicory Knife.jpg (11.4 KB, 0 views)

Invest in a good work sharp knife sharpener. It makes a good edge that won't dull quickly. DMT diamond hones are what I use the most.A round sharpening steel takes alot of practice to use well.

__________________
'Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit...'--Thoreau

Seriously at $35 (on sale) that Harbor Freight belt sander is a huge bargain knife sharpener. With some practice it can outperform those automated yuppie sharpeners they want two or three hundred dollars for. You will waste more time and money on cheap gadget sharpeners and not accomplish what you want. However like I said earlier, if you are just determined to sharpen knives by hand, get a computer mouse pad and different grits of ALUMINUM OXIDE sandpaper like sold at places selling auto body finishing products. Most auto parts stores will have it, though you can probably do better pricewie online. You attach the paper to the top of the pad or if you are really good, the rubber surface will hold the paper in place. Hold knife at angle you want and pull edge first across the paper. Yes it takes lot time, but remember you thought $35 was way too much for convenience so now you pay the price in time spent doing it the slow way. You can sharpen a very dull knife on the sander in under 10 minutes. And since most of that time is just changing belts to finer and finer grits, you can do a dozen knives in about same time you need to do one. Most of the cheap (and not so cheap) gadgets dont give you choice of angle and they leave a rough unpolished edge that will cause the knife to dull quickly. The whole idea of knife sharpening is to first shape the knife edge, then continue until you draw out a wire edge where bevels meet. Once thats done, its all just polishing. As you polish, the wire edge will disappear and you will be left with a very clean sharp edge. The polishing with ever finer grit sandpaper or jewler's rouge is what makes the edge last. Remember to first shape a narrow bevel, most knives come with too wide of a bevel. Then draw out that wire edge, then polish the edge mirror smooth.

__________________
"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Your attached image isnt showing in my browser so when you say steel, assume you mean a traditional round smooth steel that comes with some sets of kitchen knives or is sold separately. A steel isnt a sharpener. Its intended to straighten the edge between sharpenings. So if thin edge of knife gets bent and out of alignment in places (say from cutting against a glass surface, you steel it so you dont have to do a resharpening. Some steels are grooved so they do bit fine honing but NOT A SHARPENER. Again they are NOT a way to actually sharpen a knife. You need to do your homework before buying anything. Lot of youtube videos though not all will show correct way of sharpening a knife. And it takes practice, practice, practice.... You want to develop real sharpening skill, buy a bushel basket of junk knives for couple bucks at some estate auction and have at it. Takes time and patience, like developing any other skill. You arent going to get real good at it just sharpening one knife once a year. There is no shortcut unless you want to settle for mediocre. Well unless you want to pay a pro knife sharpener for his services.

__________________
"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

the Diamond steel is a oval aluminum tube inpregnated with inductrial diamonds , it cuts like stone or diamond block but handles like a butcher steel , it takes off material but just a litle just where you need it

because diamnds are so hard they cut carbon steel adn stainless steel very well nand while it doesn't leave a shaving sharp edge liek a strop it makes an edge that slices though meat and most aything else very nicely

when I brought out my diamond steel at hunting all my relatives that have spent a lot of years on fish tugs cleaning probably millions of pounds of fish over their careers but the quotas and lack of fish have all but one cousin out of commercial fishing and his quota is so small he fishes part time just because he misses it his day job is driving tug pushing a fuel barge around.

back to the diamond steel everyone snatched up my steel and said how they missed not being on the tug where they had one and started touching up their pocket and hunting knives If I would have had 3 for sale they would have all been sold around the room as it was my one cousin got out his phone and ordered one for him ,his dad and Bob from amazon when I showed him

a diamond steel is a sharpener

a few swipes every time I pick up the knife to start a new meal or get ready to cut meat , or if I have been boning and dragging the edge on the bone a bunch a few swipes brings the edge right back , it is taking metal off but just a little just where you need it and if you don't apply pressure the cut is very very light apply some pressure and it cuts decent , if you have a good taper you may never need a grinder or if you do it will be years

just like on chain saw chains a grinder every time eats your cutter to soon they have their place if need to take a bunch off a heavily abused or neglected cutting edge but a file for saw chain and a diamond steel for knives will make them last a very very long time while always very sharp.


here are some of my knives diamond steel on the left
going across the middle row
a black handles mundial parring knife , not bad they are cheap at the restaurant supply house and a handy size about 4-5 dollars
Opnel #06 this is french carbon steel and a folder with a very simple but effective locking collar this makes a good travel parring knife
a Green river hunter also called camp knife I built 5 inch, I carry this in a sheath a lot it is a incredibly handy design that I have gutted ,skinned , quartered , and boned but is just as good for making a sandwich.
green river 6 inch butcher , very handy in the kitchen this one I purchased complete and it wears very basic maple scales
Green River 6 inch boning knife also from a kit
8 inch Chicago chefs knife, this is an older one , a gift from a friend at our wedding
10 inch dexter russel sanisafe , almost to big to be comfortable , anothe gift form a freind who was moving
the dexter russel sanisafe bread knife across the bottom is also a gift from the freind who was moving
just above that is a Ekco carbon steel vegetable peeler that was my go to until my wife found the yellow vegetable peeler at the top that was a Americas test kitchen top choice they are cheap and work very well and come in all sorts of colors
at the top a 5 1/2 inch boning knife with guard that is just right , I picked that up for a $0.25 at a church rummage sale about 14 years ago

Attached Images

WP_20150705_003.jpg (69.1 KB, 0 views)

part of the learning is trying different knives in different tasks and seeing what you like , and this does lead to some cost and a drawer full of knives that are put away on the far side of the kitchen that are not bad but not what I like to use

if I had to start over knowing what I know today with things that are currently available

the very fist thing I would order is a Diamond steel

then
2 green river hunter/camp blanks
2 green river 6 inch boning blanks
2 green river 6 inch butcher blanks
1 green river 3 inch parring
1 green river 4 inch ripper
1 green river 4 1/2 inch belt knife I like the blade shape in 6 inch 4 1/2 should be very handy
1 green river bear tooth parring



the chefs knife I would probably go with today is http://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Russell...ell+chef+knife
I could maybe find another that felt better but for the price I would try it I often feel that bigger isn't better and I could see 7 inch and the different blade profile being very handy when prepping for garden stir fries where I am dicing a lot

and a bread knife http://www.amazon.com/V-Lo-V163-9SC-...r+russell+v-lo

vegetable peelers http://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-Ori...getable+peeler

a more tradition chefs knife http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-2-I...Dexter-Russell


yes I just added up that list and I would have nearly $325 in knives but I would have seconds of several and really have a kitchen full of knives and a few to carry the nice part is you can buy any one of them and not have a hole lot of money invested

I love, love, love my Razor Lite knife. I butcher a lot of poultry for farm markets. I can do everything with that one knife, from chopping off the heads to poking holes in the shrink bags. I found it in Gander Mountain. I thought it looked gimmicky. Looked it up on Amazon and the positive reviews swayed me into trying it. One guy said on Amazon that he was able to butcher an entire hog on one blade

A good inexpensive knife...Mora, but being carbon steel, you have to keep it clean and oiled.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o01_s00

__________________
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
______________________________________________

Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I found a nice carbon steel cleaver on Amazon and the Dexter diamond steel. I'm going to buy a couple of kits from green river. These, along with my stone, should hold me over until I move.

I understand the economy of buying a cheap belt sander but right now I am not adding any more 'stuff'. After I'm moved and settled in, we'll probably find one. In the meanwhile, I'll check out the youtube videos for help on sharpening.

Thanks for the GREAT advice on knives.

I am not offended in the slightest by you going different way. Everybody has to find their own path. And last thing one needs is more stuff when you are moving around.

And there are many ways to accomplish anything including sharpening knives. Good diamond hone (not cheap chinese knockoff) will cost you MORE than a belt sander. I remember discovering this when I was looking for a truly effective way of sharpening knives. And it wont polish the edge nor last near as long. So you will be sharpening much more frequently if you dont find way to do that polishing. Rough edge seems sharp but it doesnt last near as long as a highly polished edge.

If you are going to use a diamond hone, afterwards, either do the mousepad/aluminum oxide sandpaper trick to polish or else get some jewlers rouge and a leather strop to polish. You can also use a cloth buffer wheel on an electric motor with some jewelers rouge applied. However you do it, really, really encourage you to polish edge however you form it.

Example, I fortunately or unfortunately have pile of old knives now from learning to sharpen properly, but mostly use one or two. I wanted to see how long an edge would last. Honestly, the properly shaped and polished edge on clunky Chinese faux forged knife will last around 9 month to one year used daily. I am careful, use maple cutting board, store knife on magnetic strip and hand wash them. I think short of some very expensive, super hard, exotic powdered steel knife, you would be hard put to beat that. And I probably could went longer if I'd wanted to do minor touch up. Instead I moved on to different knife to see how long it would hold up.

By way I have a pre-WWI French made Sabatier plain carbon steel chef knife with rat tail tang. It is very nice relic, I even custom made my own handle for it. But its not superior in its cutting abilities to plain jane Chinese faux forged knife properly sharpened. The Chinese knife maybe even has an edge on it... (pun intended) Plus the Chinese knife is stainless so despite Chinese made stainless steel not being most rust resistant, it has remained bright and shiney. You do have to oil the old plain carbon steel knives. And on your travels look out for 1950s era chromed plain carbon steel knives. Stainless very expensive back then so chromed carbon steel was a marketing end run. Alas many were abused and chrome peeled or worn off in places, but they are pretty cool, best qualities of plain carbon steel, with some of nice qualities of more modern stainless. I have such a set of chromed Ecko Arrowhead knives I got cheap.

Some previous owner had abused heck out of them trying to sharpen on some electric grinding wheel type sharpener, maybe like one of those old electric can openers had built in.... Anyway they are now razor sharp though never did get rid of all signs of the abuse by previous owner. Good quality carbon steel does take an edge with a feel to it, like no stainless steel ever can, though for practical functionally the stainless is just as sharp.

I cant find it now, somebody mentioned that a smooth round butcher's steel is hard to use. No it isnt, but then you have to know how to use it. You dont wave it around in air like some magic wand, with steel in one hand and knife in the other. And you dont just automatically steel a knife before using it. When it needs to be steeled, you plant the tip of the steel firmly down on table holding it vertically. You then bring your knife edge (at proper angle) evenly down along the side of it. Like I say a REAL smooth butcher's steel (not a round hone) is only for straightening the edge of a knife, not sharpening it.

Frankly if you do good job sharpening and polishing edge of knife and dont abuse it by cutting on glass or metal surface, you shouldnt really need to use a butcher's steel much. But accidents happen. I once lightly banged edge of knife on lip of a cast iron skillet. Instant dull knife, but in fact all I had done is bend the edge. This is where a steel is handy so no resharpening necessary.

__________________
"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman