Bill, I do it by hand, so no idea what the true angles are. I take my smaller knives to a pretty fine angle, but leave my chef's knife a little shallower angle. A couple swipes every couple weeks on my finest stone is good enough to make onions a joy regardless the knife I'm using.
My chef's knife is a Forschner. Not pretty, but decent balance and holds a good edge.
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Oh I almost forgot about Global. Friend of mine got one as a graduation gift from culinary school. Nicest knife I've ever used!
I own a few chainsaws, electric and gas, a katana, machete, several authentic kelewangs, and for really difficult stuff I've spent many working days with an 8-hour hammer on an anvil in the pre-21 era.
For cooking knives, I sharpen fancy by hand. The angle depends on the width/thickness of the blade, aka type of knife.
Once every couple of years, I have them inspected and sharpened to the exact optimum degree by someone who does the tooling for pro chefs.
I have a lot of 'them', even a complete travel set in an alloy suitcase.
(somewhat bizarre, moi ?)
I've thought about electric sharpeners, but for the cost of one that is not made of cheese I could buy a better knife! Plus I like the old skool pleasure of a whetstone.
I tried doing it by hand, but over an 8" blade hard (for me) to keep a consistent angle, esp as on one I had to grind away nearly 2mm to get chips out the blade from some dreadful abuse in a past life.
Learning to hone properly was the most important skill from my experience though. And not the way my father did it, which was acting like he was practicing for an Errol Flynn movie!
I tried doing it by hand, but over an 8" blade hard (for me) to keep a consistent angle, esp as on one I had to grind away nearly 2mm to get chips out the blade from some dreadful abuse in a past life.
Learning to hone properly was the most important skill from my experience though. And not the way my father did it, which was acting like he was practicing for an Errol Flynn movie!
I do the 1000/6000 whetstone like this guy. There are a couple of professional services on the web, if say you drop the knife and damage the blade
rolleyes that will recover the blade as best as possible. Like most things the drop-off pick-up service that was wonderful in the 70's/80's now does work that looks like a 350 Grit Craftsman axe sharpener was used. Some Japanese knives are handed with a different angle on each side.I have a woodworker friend who is OC(-D) about sharpening who goes down to leather impregnated with diamond dust at >30000 grit. His jack plane will draw an unbroken ribbon from a 10' edge that you can read through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t39rhQs6Hqc
Bill - it is meditative just as grinding your own ink for sumi-e BTW this guy cheats at the end IMO by using an unripe tomato as a demo.
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I'm in luck that's my birthday. I'm in only if you can make me come out like Jack Nicholson.
Jacco - I have a friend that collects antique samurai swords (sharpening $3000 and up) and you have to provide an adequate pedigree or they won't even look at it.
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Reminds me, must read 'Reaper man' again. I have been tempted by a strop just for that final damage, but I shed enough blood with the blades I have!
You mean you want to sit around all day watching ball games on TV?
Film reference.
Dutchie un-Reformed (except in parts) dyke filler................
Me: some belly (still 36") 12.5 stone weakling.....sort of guy who gets sand kicked in his face - regularly...even by pre-school kids. And despite the heart pill regime everything works just dandy. In fact I will be testing my liquid control tonight as we are having a party for a couple of dozen friends.
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