stoutisgoodfood wrote:We had the old guy pushing the cart down the sidewalk when I was a kid on the south side. (I hear he's still out there at times). For a housewife in the 60's he was a godsend - although my dad was really good with the stone.

I live in Wilmette and Tony with the push cart from Oak Park was here 2 weeks ago. He does a great job! He’s in Winnetka this week per Next Door.

Geo wrote:In Montréal, you hear a particular sort of bell-ringing out in the ruelle (the alley) and it's a guy in a small truck, with a big ol' round stone wheel rotating. You takes your knives out to him, he grinds them, you give him a couple of bucks, and he moves on, his bell ringing. That's how we do it there.

Geo

I was delighted to see this response in this thread. It echoes my experience living in Santiago, Chile. Once in a while you'll hear, very early in the morning as you're waking, the ringing bell of the knife sharpener going down the street on his bicycle-peddled cart. This is on streets definitely within the big city, metro stations and bus stops and supermarkets nearby, but also where you'll occasionally hear the clop-clop-clop of a horse's hooves on a cobbled street as it pulls a cart, and you'll occasionally hear a rooster crowing in someone's backyard early in the morning.

Lovely description Katie! Some cities are like that. In Montréal, you didn't hear chickens five years ago, maybe you do now, but you heard church bells, and festivals, and neighbors down the ruelles, and every single flat/apt has a clothesline that stretches out to the electric poles in the ruelle, and they all screech as you pull them to-and-fro. Wonderful sounds of a real city...

Geo

It's really cool to hear that some people are still doing this door-to-door. I had no idea!

These Takayuki VG-10 Hammered Damascus 125mm Wa Steak Knives are nice . . . a little too rich for my blood, but very nice.


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In honor of National Knife Day, here's my new Spyderco Kapara . . .


Spyderco Kapara by Alistair Phillips

Yes, it's an EDC Folder but it was designed with food prep in mind has multiple attributes that make it more food-friendly than other knives in its category, including smooth, carbon fiber scales, a 3.4" fully-flat-ground, satin-finished sheepsfoot blade that intentionally lacks jimping (where food might otherwise collect), a locking mechanism positioned on the spine (away from what's being cut) and an ergonomic build that leaves your knuckles well above the cutting edge. All in all, I'm really impressed with this knife and look forward to carrying it around for a while.

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I know nothing about Maserin but this knife, being sold at bladehq.com, looks like a beaut . . .



Maserin Gourmet Liner Lock Knife Orange Burl Wood (3.8" Satin)

At just over $100, a bit too pricey to buy it without being able to try it first.

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I love my Wusthof Classic IKONs, however for a lot less money I have a few Victorinox and they are really great.

My tastes are simple: old-fashioned wood handle, carbon-stainless to take a great edge, decent price. Since over 30 yrs my choice:

https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Cutlery-B144-1104670-Tradition/dp/B0000BYEJ4/ref=pd_sbs_79_t_0/145-1191750-6091020?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0000BYEJ4&pd_rd_r=e4bcf687-e0b0-4fec-a367-601e5c66b95f&pd_rd_w=UtAlJ&pd_rd_wg=GAqBT&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=DEH8W318XQYSMS76302C&psc=1&refRID=DEH8W318XQYSMS76302C

Geo

I agree, Geo! My Chicago Cutlery kitchen knives and steak knives are still great, reliable tools after 25 years so far.

Any knife that I had for 25 years would be unusable thin from sharpening.

You've got excess energy, lougord! I don't sharpen much, but I steel like crazy.

Geo

No disrespect meant BUT, 40 years ago we started with a set of Chicago Cutlery Steak and other knives.
They were the worst knives I have ever had. Couldn’t keep an edge, and when you did manage to get an edge, not great and impossible to sharpen.
Since then I have settled on Wusthof Classic as the steel can be sharpened, keeps an edge and the feel from knife to knife type is the same.
I do have other Brands for specialty knives but my Wusthof range up to 14” Chef which is particularly useful for splitting large squash, large cabbage heads and really big lobsters down the middle.
-Richard

budrichard wrote:No disrespect meant BUT, 40 years ago we started with a set of Chicago Cutlery Steak and other knives.
They were the worst knives I have ever had. Couldn’t keep an edge, and when you did manage to get an edge, not great and impossible to sharpen.
Since then I have settled on Wusthof Classic as the steel can be sharpened, keeps an edge and the feel from knife to knife type is the same.
I do have other Brands for specialty knives but my Wusthof range up to 14” Chef which is particularly useful for splitting large squash, large cabbage heads and really big lobsters down the middle.
-Richard

holy crap I don't know how I'd even handle a 14" Chef. I think mine is 8"

Wusthof backs their knives for life. My handles were all cracking due to some sort of atmospheric issue (never dishwasher) and they replaced 10 knives for me FOR FREE after 8 years. They are amazing with customer service.

Geo wrote:You've got excess energy, lougord! I don't sharpen much, but I steel like crazy.

I'd caution that steeling only realigns the edge of the blade and does not sharpen it. To actually sharpen, you need to put it on a stone. But in the end, if your knives are sharp enough for you, that's all that really matters.

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Ronnie--
Of course you're right. I steel before every use, and about once every two weeks I give my blades a couple of quick licks on a very nice diamond hone. The steak knives get pulled a few times through my little Accu-Sharp device, which does a wizzard job on them. Once a year the main blades go visit a pro.

I started using the big and medium Misen knives about 18 months ago and prefer them to everything--and I've tried *everything*--I've used before. Prefer them even to the Zwilling line. Sacrilegious I know, but there you have it...

Geo

Geo wrote:Ronnie--
Of course you're right. I steel before every use, and about once every two weeks I give my blades a couple of quick licks on a very nice diamond hone. The steak knives get pulled a few times through my little Accu-Sharp device, which does a wizzard job on them. Once a year the main blades go visit a pro.

I started using the big and medium Misen knives about 18 months ago and prefer them to everything--and I've tried *everything*--I've used before. Prefer them even to the Zwilling line. Sacrilegious I know, but there you have it...

You're not alone in your love of the Misen knives. Their current kickstarter (2.0?) funded weeks before the deadline, which is coming up on the 10th of the month. My SIL, who recently visited us, loved them and asked me for information about them. And if you can count G Wiv a fan, what's not to love?

But . . . as you know, no matter how much you love them, no matter how sharp they are ootb, eventually they'll need sharpening. That's just the nature of the beast. Even a good steel can only bring them back so many times before you need to remove that debris from the edge and create a new one. Having a pro is a great option. I, however, fell into a major rabbit hole on this.

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Ronnie,

I know ALL about your rabbit hole, and intimately, I might add. After reading about the needs and necessities of sharpening a few months ago, I came across your rabbit hole thread, which I followed eagerly. At the end I said "WTF, I taught myself how to hand-pull Chinese noodles, what can be so tough about learning how to use a whetstone?" Foolish thought. I really really should have taken your example seriously. Sigh. Some c. $70 and lots of effort which resulted solely in duller knives, I admitted that it took a Super Power to successfully use a set of stones, and gave up.

So now I leave the serious work to the pros. My diamond hone is a bit rough on the blades but it really does some effective minor sharpening in between steelings.

Tnx for your advice!

Geo

I'm with you on all the above, Geo. Someone once gave me a nice couple of sharpening stones and oil, but I eventually concluded that without using some guide (which I do think is a great tool) to hold the knife at the right angle, my sharpening efforts were making things no better and probably worse. I pull a knife through a handheld sharpener (braced stably on the countertop) about a dozen times whenever it seems to need it and hand the ones I use most over to a pro about once a year. I've never really used the steel that came with my knife set much---again, not sure if my lack of skill at the technique makes things any better or more likely worse.

One of these is on my short list!
Grinding wheels without water cooling, heat up the blade material and change the heat treat. There is a T-4 Chef Model without water cooling available, though and reads that it uses slow speed.
My brother-in-law has one for his woodworking tools.
In any event have to find the shelf space.
-Richard

budrichard wrote:One of these is on my short list!
Grinding wheels without water cooling, heat up the blade material and change the heat treat. There is a T-4 Chef Model without water cooling available, though and reads that it uses slow speed.
My brother-in-law has one for his woodworking tools.
In any event have to find the shelf space.
-Richard

Looks great for woodworking tools or lawnmower blades but I'd never put a kitchen knife I cared about, especially an expensive one, on a device like that. How would you even control the sharpening angle? Seems the learning curve would be steep and very long.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:You're not alone in your love of the Misen knives. Their current kickstarter (2.0?) funded weeks before the deadline, which is coming up on the 10th of the month. My SIL, who recently visited us, loved them and asked me for information about them. And if you can count G Wiv a fan, what's not to love?

Ronnie, the Misen knives are fine, get dull a shade quick but touch up on stones easily. The new/current kickstarter, use AUS-10 steel, a vague upgrade from the AUS-8 ones I own.

If it sounds as if I'm now down on Misen, not in the least, I use the paring knife often, I like the size and sturdy blade, but have not used the 8-inch chef knife in months defaulting to my well worn/loved 8-inch Misono carbon steel chef knife.

A duo of Misen Chef/Paring knives made terrific gifts, in particular to the less knife obsessed than you and I, which is most of the world.

Gary, you say "A duo of Misen Chef/Paring knives made terrific gifts, in particular to the less knife obsessed than you and I, which is most of the world" and I must say that I couldn't agree more. I've given that duo as Christmas, wedding, etc. gifts several times now, to huge bunches of gratitude.

Value for money, you simply can't beat the Misen duo.

Geo

Geo wrote:Gary, you say "A duo of Misen Chef/Paring knives made terrific gifts, in particular to the less knife obsessed than you and I, which is most of the world" and I must say that I couldn't agree more. I've given that duo as Christmas, wedding, etc. gifts several times now, to huge bunches of gratitude.

Value for money, you simply can't beat the Misen duo.

Just to connect this back to the subject of the thread, the current version of the Misen steak knives are sold out (in both straight and serrated ) and they don't appear on the roster of products that are part of the current kickstarter campaign. My guess is that they will eventually bring them back but for now, they appear to be in the wind.

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Interesting, Ronnie. I'm on their email list (I joined their initial kickstarter long long ago), and I think this most recent campaign has only lasted ten days or so. Amazing that they've sold out again, already.

Geo

Not sure of the quality of these knives, but serious eats has a promo for 20% off the Messermeister Avanti steak knife set today

https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/10/dea ... day-3.html

budrichard wrote:Grinding wheels without water cooling... My brother-in-law has one for his woodworking tools. In any event have to find the shelf space.

This brings back a fond memory for me. My dad had some old cast iron tools that belonged to his father and grandfather, and one of them was a grinding wheel that clamped onto a table in his tool room in the basement---something like this.

Of course, such grinding stones are meant for home and garden tools, not kitchen knives. Come to think of it, my parents also had a little electric knife sharpener in the kitchen, something like this, Oster or Hamilton Beach. It seemed, along with the electric can opener, like quite the luxury at the time.

Being my dad's little buddy, I learned from him lots of things that people then didn't tend to think girls were ever going to need to know how to do---how to change a tire, how to rewire a lamp, even how to chop wood. So naturally I was the one with him in that dark tool room in the basement, in charge of cranking that grinding wheel handle for all I was worth, while he held the axe blade against the wheel and orange sparks flew off from it into the darkness.

Lovely story Katie. I can just see the burning sparks cascading off the turning wheel. Great memories for you!

Geo

ronnie_suburban wrote:

budrichard wrote:One of these is on my short list!
Grinding wheels without water cooling, heat up the blade material and change the heat treat. There is a T-4 Chef Model without water cooling available, though and reads that it uses slow speed.
My brother-in-law has one for his woodworking tools.
In any event have to find the shelf space.
-Richard

Looks great for woodworking tools or lawnmower blades but I'd never put a kitchen knife I cared about, especially an expensive one, on a device like that. How would you even control the sharpening angle? Seems the learning curve would be steep and very long.

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If you wouldn't allow your kitchen knives near that device why would you think we would allow any woodworking tool we cared about near that thing.

I can't imagine who would use it for anything important.

lougord99 wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

budrichard wrote:One of these is on my short list!
Grinding wheels without water cooling, heat up the blade material and change the heat treat. There is a T-4 Chef Model without water cooling available, though and reads that it uses slow speed.
My brother-in-law has one for his woodworking tools.
In any event have to find the shelf space.
-Richard

Looks great for woodworking tools or lawnmower blades but I'd never put a kitchen knife I cared about, especially an expensive one, on a device like that. How would you even control the sharpening angle? Seems the learning curve would be steep and very long.

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If you wouldn't allow your kitchen knives near that device why would you think we would allow any woodworking tool we cared about near that thing.

I can't imagine who would use it for anything important.

Well, Lou, I'll make you a deal. If you buy one and keep it at your house, I'll come over and sharpen your knives on it!

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