Kitchen knives: three simple rules for razor sharpness
Kolya, again the knives are stupid, should I go to my neighbor to sharpen them?
I hope not all men have heard such phrases from their wives. The notorious razor sharpness, by the way, depends not only on how the knife is sharpened, but also on how it is used. I will express my vision of the triangle of discord: husband - knife - wife. Three simple rules!
To the stupid question husbands knives dedicated.
Look at the problem from the right angle
There are many indirect factors that determine the sharpness of a knife: steel grade, hardening method, blade thickness, etc. Considering all of them, you can write a book, or maybe more than one. Sharpness is directly affected by the sharpening angle.
The smaller the angle, the sharper the knife. The angle of sharpening of professional Japanese fish knives reaches 10 degrees. Sharpening of household kitchen knives can be 35-40 degrees. How to use this information in practice?
There are specialists who can quite accurately withstand the angle by eye. They achieve the desired result by meditating for hours with a blade and an abrasive stone. I will not name this process otherwise. I don’t know how, so I do it easier.
I use a Chinese household sharpener. It allows you to set the angle and make it the same along the entire length of the blade. There are many similar designs on the market.
Don't be blunt for no reason
I have watched the same picture with horror more than once. First, the woman cuts the meat with a knife, saws off the cartilage and bones. Then he tries to cut the overripe tomato. And now, when the tomato is crushed, the seeds spread over the table like a red mess, she yells at her husband because the knives are dull.
Dear ladies (and not only), the sharper the knife was, the easier it is to blunt it. This is physics, you can't get away from it. Of course, there are different steels, but we'll talk about this a little later. I have only one advice.
Divide the knives according to their purpose: one for vegetables and fruits, the second for fillets, the third for cutting, etc. Sharpen each of them to the desired sharpness (desired angle). Thanks to this approach, the knives will stay sharp longer.
Don't save - the miser pays twice
It's time to talk about steels. I will not start talking about the fact that the 95X18 brand is better than the U10A or vice versa. We do not have chemical laboratories at home to determine this. Let me give you a simple example.
To make the knife really sharp, you will have to use sharpening stones of different grit (grain size). Sequentially take the abrasive from coarse to finer. I have stones 120, 320, 600, 1200.
I noticed one peculiarity when working on mild steel. When you change the abrasive to a finer one, it starts to get greasy quickly.
When quick salting starts at 1200 grit, the knife is still suitable for cutting meat with a sharpening angle of 30-35 degrees. If the steel immediately clogs 600 abrasive, the knife is easier to throw away.
Back for a second to the sharpening corner. I think the best option is to stick to the factory angle. He was there for a reason. Sharpening in your own way does not always give a result. It's easier to make money and buy good knives.
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