How do I keep my knives sharp?

>is absolute garbage.
I bought a chef knife from the supermarket for 5 dollars, and it keeps it very sharp. You don't need to spend a fortune on knives and sharpeners.

The crazy looking one on far left is type of butcher's knife called a scimitar. actually one of my favorites, great for cutting large hunks of meat. I use it for slabs of bacon frequently.

Second from the left I have no idea what it is and I very rarely use it.

Middle is a cleaver, I don't really do much cleaving. But it's good for it when I do.

Second from right is a utility knife, I use it for finer work. Works well for filleting too.

On the right is a chefs knife, it's probably my most used one for basically everything not delegated to a specific knife.

Your knife is absolutely not very sharp relative to how sharp knives can be. I hope you get the chance to try out properly sharpened quality steel.

>quality steel
>favors steel which could be cut from a truck leaf spring
>advises people to get one 'with a patina'
>as if this won't dissolve and taint anything even vaguely acidic

You have no idea what you are talking about user. People have been developing specific steel for cutlery for centuries and the best of these are some variation on stainless. VG 10 is the best I have used. Relatively easy to sharpen, gets a finer edge due to the microscopic size of the grain and will hold an edge for much longer than the pot steel you are trying to pass off as 'good'.

Carbon steel is easy to sharpen, but it doesn't hold an edge, both because it is too soft to be a halfway decent knife steel.

But the main problem is with staining and tainting, as evidenced by the disgusting smeary spot on your cleaver.

If you cut a tomato, that shit will dissolve and it will taint your food. Same with most meat, due to the lactic acid build up. It is why professional butchers will use, you guessed it, the stainless you deride so much.

I don't care if you lack the patience or skill to sharpen modern cutlery grade stainless, but you really shouldn't be spewing your retardation and presenting it as sage advice.

Oh an by the way, the second from the left is a butchers knife, probably 6" by the looks of it.

I would probably recommend something like this as it is the best balance of quality and price on the market.

amazon.com/Victorinox-8-Inch-Chefs-Rosewood-Handle/dp/B0019WZEUE?th=1

To maintain a sharp knife, sharpen it, retard.

False, carbon steel holds edge much longer than VG10 stainless as well as being easier to sharpen. It's a straight up better knife in every aspect. Although stainless has a place if you slice lemons a lot. Still, the only reason I ever pull out my stainless knife from the drawer (vg10, btw) is to give guests something to use.

The only reason some many professional cooks and butchers use stainless is because the health inspectors give them unneeded shit over patina. In say Japan where that's not an issue it's largely carbon.

I am a professional chef dumbass.

I have used and owned both over long periods in professional settings.

Modern stainless is far superior to what you are pushing.

Ffs you don't even know that most of your kit is a butchers set.

>professional settings
Every single paid worker in every single kitchen on the planet is a professional. Hurr durr.

>kit
A kit? Do you have to assemble your fucking knifes? LOL!

>Every single paid worker in every single kitchen on the planet is a professional.
No shit. And they will use their knives for hours every day.

And they all tend to choose stainless.

A knife kit is a set of knives and what you use to hold them. Such as the trash in your first pic.

Replace kit with set and you won't sound like some limey brit scumbag.

>hurr durr
>LOL
>obligatory incorrect ad hom concerning nationality

Nice one.

And lots of other professional chefs agree with me that you're straight up wrong and carbon is better.

You are entitled to your incorrect opinion, as I said.

I have worked with a few who prefer carbon steel. But you are talking like four. Over a 15 year career.

As I said, I have experience using both and know what the industry standard is.

What country are you in? The us heavily favors stainless largely because of idiotic health inspectors who mistake patina for rust. In Japan you'd be in the minority by far.

Patina is oxide is rust, and it taints whatever you are cutting, especially if it is mildly acidic.

My nationality is irrelevant. I have worked in 4 different countries, including in yurope and north america.

I have never heard anything regarding health inspectors, though I have had head chefs who don't like it because it results in degrading product and putting out inferior food.

When at work my head chef bounces down the line.
Go to see what she's doing and she has a package of brand new ceramic knives.
She starts bragging about how great and clean they are and how much better they are than metal knives.
>Takes out one of those sharpeners
>Places it inside
>Zips it out like a beyblade cord
>Chunk of the ceramic blade missing.

Noone could stop laughing for at least 2 hours.
She eventually returned them and got a proper wusthof blade but fucking hell ceramic blades are shit.

Ceramic knives are great while they're sharp. But you can't sharpen them at all. Putting it in that sharpener was misuse to begin with, I'm surprised they took the return.

>But you can't sharpen them at all.

You can, it just takes different tools than a steel knife. A diamond-coated "stone" will sharpen them, as will an electric grinder fitted with a so-called "green wheel", or diamond-coated wheel/belt.

*you can't effectively sharpen them at all
Yes, you can make it less dull, but you can't bring it back to full potential like steel

cheapest, easiest, fastest, and multi-angle.

Too bad all of those benefits are irrelevant because it doesn't do a very good job.

>sharpen
>polish
>hone
>strop
>deburr
Things Veeky Forums will never understand.
If you want some good advice concerning knife care you'd be better off asking /out/.

OP, if you listen to carbon steel guy spouting his gospel, please realize that he is of a minority, albeit common opinion that a lot of other knife autists have aruged and sperged over for a few decades. I consider carbon steel knives to be like the cast iron/carbon steel pan/wok of the knife world. They can be some of the greatest tools at your disposal for specific tasks, although maintenance can sometimes be a pain unless you are extremely vigilant, and they just aren't as versatile and durable as their stainless counterparts.

They usually hand wave the important cleaning/maintaing/storage aspect of the tool as just minor things that 'of course everyone should follow' but they have a disconnect that most people buying these tools are in it for the food and convenience, and not looking to add another complicated hobbyist/enthusiast element. Not only that, but people have been fighting over sharpening methods and tools longer and much harder than those stupid pan seasoning arguments.

Some say you should buy a little pull-through like and , or buy synthetic stones, japanese stones folded 1000000 times, edge pro, you fucking name it. Some swear by steeling/honing, some say never ever run your knife over a steel, some say get a fucking leather razor strop with buffing compound.

Here's my advice. Get an inexpensive stainless chef knife, like a Victorinox or a Tojiro if you're feeling more spendy. They will both last you decades, and they should be durable enough for your learning phase. Get a cheap combo stone and watch some youtube videos about basic sharpening, that's if you are inclined to learn more about knives and have a basic DIY spirit. In time, you'll want more knives for specific tasks andyou might upgrade them and your sharpening tools if you see value in that (you might not)

\/ \/ Links below \/ \/

I own lots of knives, western and asian, stainless and carbon, and I do my best to use each one of them as much as I can in my cooking. But when I started, that stuff didn't matter to me as much as the quality of food I was cooking, and that should be your goal, too. Dont start by buying a special, expensive, or finicky tool when you are learning only to end up disenchanted with the whole thing or even worse, ruining your food or equipment.

Here's some spicy links 4 u:
>Victorinox 8 inch chef knife
amazon.com/Victorinox-Inch-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife/dp/B008M5U1C2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475517962&sr=8-1&keywords=victorinox chef knife

>Tojiro 8 inch gyuto
amazon.com/Tojiro-DP-Gyutou-8-2-21cm/dp/B000UAPQGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475518017&sr=8-1&keywords=tojiro

>Combination stone
amazon.com/King-Sided-Sharpening-Stone-Base/dp/B001DT1X9O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475518087&sr=8-1&keywords=1000 6000 whetstone

>Murray Carter sharpening example
youtube.com/watch?v=ozZF2EgnYm0

Have fun

I just use this and a steel to sharpen it before every use. Don't have any stones.
Works fine so far. Didn't want to spend too much money and 35€ ( + 15€ for the steel) seemed fine to me.

If you listen to stainless steel guy, realize he's a minority among serious knife enthusiasts. His opinion is not reflected by people who value performance of a knife above all else. The stainless is only valuable to you if you want the convenience over performance.

Convenience IS a part of performance. Also patina tainting food is a real thing, and most chefs and line cooks I know don't ever really use carbon steel knives, with the sole exception of sushi chef's yanagibas and debas.

Not all stainless steel is that gummy and soft shit from the supermarket, and most of the high end knives use stainless blends and/or cladding because that's what chefs not concerned with tradition want these days.

victorinox is great. Have had it for 1 1/2 years and only needed to sharpen once and its razor sharp again. I've got a Wusthof and it goes dull after about 5 minutes and it's really hard to hone. Sometimes it comes out sharp sometimes it comes out even duller.

While I agree with your post (and I prefer carbon knives myself), understand where you are. Most people here are casual home cooks, not "knife enthusiasts". They certainly do value convenience over performance, and I'm not sure I can fault them for that.

Oh, definitely. Stainless knives are still useful tools and a good option for lots of people. But don't go trying to claim the other options strengths are yours, I won't say carbon is best for convenience or hassle free care.

1-2 Ceramic knives (they are Ultra sharp but require special care rarely require sharpening).

A good Fillet knife and pretty much any big old stabby, U used to work as a Butcher back in my younger days and we have sharpening steel, You see 99% of the time the knife edge bends on the microscopic level and this needs to be straightened out with a sharpening steel.

Laterally I have bin seeing the Curious Ceramic sharpening sticks, Its tempting.

You sharpen them

Dexter Russell couniseuer

Victornox

200 grit and 400 grit sharpening stones, honing steel

Stainless steel is much easier to maintain than carbon.

Also, Cuisinart makes really decent knives for home cooks that are sharp as shit and easy to hone

Someone please bring up the microscopic image of different half-assed sharpening techniques.

Electric pull-through is the worst by far unless you get the $300+ America's Test Kitchen approved version (never tried it myself).

Best without effort is a double-stoned manual pull-through and a lot of honing on a steel. This always works okay, pretty good.

Third option would be a four-step block sharpener. Learn how to use it, sharpen your shit, then hone afterwards.

Lastly would be actually doing it correctly. Personally I go with the second option. At that one, angle of blade to pull-through sharpener would be something to look into. Otherwise you can feel the bite when you're using a honing steel, and work from more oblique angles to sharper.

>How do I keep my knives sharp?
By sharpening them. If it is made out of metal, you can sharpen it. Once you understand how sharpening works you can use a coffee cup to sharpen your blade.
Smarter person buys a sharpening stone, those are cheap.
There are dozens of good videos in youtube that tell you how to do it.
>What are the best knives to get for the average home cook?
Victorinox. There simply are no better knives for value, and they are more than good enough for home cooking. I assume you cook for 1-4 people once a day.
>Are carbon steel knives any good?
Very good. Also completely unnecessary outside professional kitchen.
Their usefulness comes from the fact that they keep edge like none other and they can be sharpened to a really keen edge.
The minus comes from the price and the small inconvenience to dry it every time they are used.
Serious hobbyists enjoy them, and the many here that like to think they are better cooks when they own expensive shit that they barely use.

I love a carbon steel knife. However, you shouldnt discount a cheap serrated knife. If the blade is nice and thin, it will cut beautifully for years without sharpening, and only cost a few dollars. True, not the joy to use of something realy nice, but then again you don't have to flinch every time someone else waves the edge at your sink...

So I've got this fella sitting in my drawer. Pretty darn sharp, passes the tomato/lime test just fine. But having read this thread, I'm not sure whether the blade colouring is patina, or just the blade materiel, or something else I'm unaware of. Didn't want to take a brillo pad to it in case I fucked it up somehow. Wat do?

>How do I keep my knives sharp?

Get an oval diamond sharpening rod, or a pull through sharpener (a lot of them pull chips out though).

>The 25 dollar ones from walmart aren't sharp enough.

Any distal tapered knife can be made sharp enough.

Carbon steel works okay if you have OCD and good knife skills so your blade has minimal food contact.

Be a little slow and your onions turn into a smelly pile of brown garbage if you don't immediately use them after cutting (the shit which would cause them to do so are still going into your food regardless of course).