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Following up

post #1 of 8
2/5/12 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 

The house sale closed, we did in fact manage to move everything out in time, and I'm back down to only one mortgage. Hallelujah, praise Jesus, pass the bacon. *exhausted*

 peace.gif

 

After the other threads, I have in fact ordered my upcoming darlings, a 240mm Konosuke HD wa gyuto and an 8" K-Sabatier au carbone. (Plus, a 10" Idahone fine honing rod for good measure. Needed to upgrade from the Chicago Cutlery that came with my first knife set 15 years ago.)

 

I've also been reading up like a madman on freehand water stone sharpening. Currently, I own a DMT DuoSharp diamond stone (red/green - F/EF, I believe, or 600/1200 on whatever scale they use). It's been good for the knives I own, and it's given me something to rub steel against for practice.

 

I'm betting that it's time to switch out for a set of water stones for sharpening. Diamond plates don't seem to be getting much love from the cutlerati, and while I'm not sure I understand why, I'm happy to acknowledge that there are plenty of people who know more than me. I figure that the new Sab is rugged and durable, and won't be harmed by whatever I sharpen it with. On the other hand, I'm fully expecting the HD to be a prima donna and really require better stones (or at the very least a higher grit stone for polishing).

 

I'm trying to sift through the threads and keep up with who uses what, why, and how, and it's starting to sink in. Still, I wanted to open (yet another) thread to ask about stone schemes for sharpening in particular the HD. Whatever I use for that, I can use for everything else. I'm not as interested in some of the rigs out there - I can hold an angle of a knife well enough, as long as I slow down and be careful, so it really is freehand.

 

Help me, Obi-wan.

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post #2 of 8
2/5/12 at 8:34am

So young padwan, for the new thread do we wait or in this one make you more meshuggeh?  Hmmm? 

 

First must you face your beers.

 

BDL

 

 

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post #3 of 8
2/5/12 at 10:49am
Thread Starter 

Bring it. :) This grasshopper has much to learn.

 

EDIT: Meshuggah? I spent two hours last night reading up on Gray Kunz spoons vs. Michael Ruhlman's offset spoons. I'm already well off my rocker.

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post #4 of 8
2/5/12 at 11:00am

Spoons?!?   You're researching spoons!?!

 

I think you may be headed for the "Group "W"" bench. 

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post #5 of 8
2/5/12 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 

IceMan - Hah! Okay, I had to look that one up. Nice. Funny enough, I have a copy of the Alice's Restaurant cookbook on the shelf - Mom used to read from it to us after dinner.

 

Maybe I should just go by "Klinger" from now on...

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post #6 of 8
2/8/12 at 11:00pm
Thread Starter 

The HD came today. (240mm gyuto).

 

Oh.

 

My.

 

God.

 

Truly effortless cutting. I minced things tonight just for the hell of it, to get the feel of the blade. I found I was thinking a lot less than normal about the cutting action and, consequently, a lot more about my claw grip to keep fingertips *really* tucked in.

 

Awesome knife.

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post #7 of 8
2/8/12 at 11:58pm

Just wait until you manage to get a proper sharp edge on that HD :)

 

Yes there really is plenty of room for improvement, and yes it is pretty sharp OOTB, but no ware near its potential!

 

After putting a little effort into sharpening mine I now find that most all cutting is nearly effortless (the insanely light weight that I am still getting used to multiplies that feeling too) and the only time I have found it has not felt that way was when the blade would stick while cutting. Cheese, and a few other wetter items had me thinking I might have screwed up something sharpening, but after wiping it off and hitting some onions etc it was right back to effortless.

 

Not sure about "Obi-wan" but Yoda would have tough time with this one as it is as good in reverse as forwards :D

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post #8 of 8
2/10/12 at 11:04am
Thread Starter 

Astonishingly, my K-Sab came in record time yesterday. (I'll end up having a second one - the inscription on the blade is slightly misspelled, so they're sending a replacement. Awesome customer service.)

 

I haven't cut with it, in case it needed to get shipped back, but I now get why BDL keeps recommending 10" knives. While the blade length is the same as the other 8" chefs that I own, give or take a bit, it feels surprisingly smaller. The blade is narrower - I'll send pictures of this if my words aren't making sense - and the smaller handle makes the knife feel smaller than I'm using.

 

Can't wait to start cutting with this bad boy.

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