Sharpener Type More Important than Blade Steel?

[JohnKSa]

The tester buys a very cheap kitchen knife (less than $2) and then sharpens it using two different sharpeners, a pull-through type for one sharpener and then using stones for the second sharpener.

Questions:

• Will the cheap steel make it impossible for the knife to hold an edge?
• Will the sharpener type make a difference in the sharpness of the knife?
• Will the sharpener type make a difference in the edge holding ability of the knife?

The results may be surprising to some...

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Some thoughts.

• The guy could be a bit more rigorous in controlling his tests, but I think he's careful enough that his results are valid.
• I wish he had tested a number of different cheap knives to get more of a feel for what's on the market to see if he might have gotten different results with different types of cheap knives. That said, even without a bunch of knives tested, the outcome was pretty convincing.
• I was impressed that he did an RC hardness test on the knife--and the results provide good evidence for the cheapness of the knife and the low quality of the steel. So it wasn't that he accidentally got a good knife that just happened to be really cheap. The hardness test confirmed that the blade steel was quite soft.

 

[ilbob]

I have a cheap ss kitchen knife I got at Walmart. I run it thru one of those cheap sharpening doohickeys now and then. Sharpens it right up. At least good enough for my uses.

 

[Mk-211]

My wife bought one of those sharpening tools that looks like interlaced fingers.

What a POS design, good thing the knife was cheap. All it did was scratch up both sides of the blade.

Of course, all of this was my fault for not knowing she needed the knife sharpened! That and Amazon telling her that sharpener was highly rated.

 

[ilbob]

The one I have looks like this. I was skeptical at first but it does an adequate job.

 

[Mk-211]

That's the kind I keep in my work bag, does the job when needed.

Is it the best tool, no. Would I use it to sharpen a kitchen knife, maybe.

 

[mcb]

The better the sharpening system the less skill and time it takes to get good results. A skilled user with a quality sharpening system results is very sharp knives in very little time expended.

The quality of the blade, assuming a reasonable minimum, will have more to do with edge retention than absolute sharpness immediately after sharpening.

 

[hso]

• Will the cheap steel make it impossible for the knife to hold an edge?

Steel will impact edge holding but

• Will the sharpener type make a difference in the sharpness of the knife?
• Will the sharpener type make a difference in the edge holding ability of the knife?

Bevel and burr will make a big difference in sharpness and edge holding. The angle of sharpening and method will effect both. The manual sharpening he did reset bevel to an angle he wanted for good sharpness and edge holding. The pull through sharpener gave a different angle and produced a very poor edge quality that was clear in the photos and in the results.

So...you can sharpen a cheap steel well and get much better performance (shockingly better) than you would get right out of the box or from these garbage pull through sharpeners that actually harm the edge. Better steel will almost certainly give better edge holding, no surprise, than cheap steel when sharpened properly the same way as cheapbrown outs.

I suppose the question then becomes, will better steel properly sharpened give how much better performance than a cheap stainless steel? He'd have to do a side by side of cheap and a couple of "better" steels beveled and sharpened the same to get the answer to that.

 

[ms6852]

Check this video out from Project Farm, this guy is pretty awesome.

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