I have a couple of questions

Are the other knives made of Forged Steel? I have found Forged takes longer to sharpen compared to Stamped knives even using a belt sander.

 

You may need to just go longer to go to a lower grit.

OnePiece -- There's not much you can do with Farberware knives. It has to do with the alloy used (420J), how its hardened, and how its profiled. Most Chicago Cutlery knives have the same limitations for exactly the same reasons. Your best strategy is probably throwing out the Farberware and CC knives, and replacing them with something better. In the alternative, you can buy an inexpensive "carbide" sharpener of the type suggested for tool-boxes. or something similar which is very aggressive and will leave a very aggressive edge. Unfortunately, the Farberware and CCs will remain marginal at best.

Finally, there are some very definite limits to what good you can do with any "steel," and it seems as if yours might be inappropriate for the Farberware and CC knives.

John -- It would be interesting to read about your experiences sharpening forged and stamped knives. Are there any other factors you find important?

BDL

I think it may be the thickness of the forged knives I have worked on. I just did a set of 20 yr Henkels for a friend that said they have never been sharpened. The thick Henkels Chef's knife took quite a bit of time to raise burrs while the thinner slicer was much faster.

 

In general though it sure "seems" harder to raise a burr as compared to a stamped (Forschner) knife of the same size however that may be related to the blade thickness.

 

Started on stones (Juranich's stones and techniques) way back but after a week on the line I have little time or interest to spend my precious off days sharpening. I still use the basic principals but different tools.

 

Depending on how much use my Chef's knife gets, about once a week or two I use a 1x30 belt sander with 120 grit on the secondary and a fine stone on the primary. followed by a pass through a cork and then a fine steel to finish ... about a 15 minute process.

 

Thought about using a leather belt but the finish I get easily pops off arm hairs which is good enough (probably too good) for the prep work I do.

 

OnePiece.. if you have a Chef's knife there's little need for a Santoku. With cutting an onion I find the pointy end of a Chef's to be superior to the blunt end of a Santoku to make the first vertical or radial cuts on the onion. Although you can keep a Santoku to do some dirty work like prepping a whole chicken, etc.

 

Although in my house my wife uses a Santoku, mostly because she's a little intimitated by a 10 in Chef's knife that one can shave with.and she has little interest in how to properly use a knife.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by JohnR - 8/31/11 at 7:55pm

I guess I just don't know. Now whereas BDL is considered as top-line a knife person as we have here, and I am just am amoeba, I'm going out on that branch again with a differing opinion. I can sharpen a very good edge on my Chicago Cutlery knives. I'm no Samurai swordsman, just an old Boy Scout. I will however, give you my address if you're going to throw them away.