Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/16/how-to-sharpen-an-13-kitchen.html
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Two knife sharpening posts in one day… I am going to need more popcorn.
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I’ve been using a 400 grit stone for even handedness, 1000 grit stone to refine the edge, and ceramic hone to polish away knurls to restore knife edges and getting pretty good results that are perfectly workable for me as a home cook.
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The information is good, but lord save me from white bros who are trying to be YouTube cooking influencers. They’re popping up everywhere.
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white bros cook too. ain’t no crime.
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Unless one is being fallen upon by a giant spider there is no reason for a person to hold a knife up like that. I had to turn it off.
Are there even that many comparatively speaking?
Why you try sell me things?
No one is forcing you to watch.
I think that of most of the male cooking youtubers who are prominent in recipe search results, the top channels are often dominated by white males. Take away the professional outlets (Serious Eats, Tasty, Bon Appetit, etc.) and the English-speaking “amateurs” are majority white males. I will say that personally I’ve encountered a few new ones this month that are particularly “bro-ey,” which biases my impressions. But at least the majority white male part seems to hold true.
Most of the time they have cooking experience and the expertise holds true. I guess it’s a reminder that these spheres (YouTube, or perhaps even cooking production) are not immune to class or race issues, even if the information contained within is helpful. Just a personal observation.
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No one is forcing you to comment.
My offhanded remark was just meant to point out the lack of representation in these types of YouTube videos. It was just an observation–I think it does reflect disparity of representation in terms of class or race in who gets to make these types of videos and who gets to be popular on these sites and on the Internet. Again, I do feel the information is helpful.
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My comment observing that you aren’t forced to watch them was also offhand. How do you distinguish between what the totality of Youtube offers and what your personalized filter bubble serves to you?
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I suppose that’s fair. It could be that the Youtube algorithm is just serving these results closer to the top (which may indicate my own personal bias). That said, if we’re talking about videos with this same level of production value as the one above, I personally am having difficulty finding similar work that is being put out by a person of color.
I should be clear that I acknowledge that these sort of systemic issues exist and it’s not like I can propose an alternative to trying to diffuse them or put an end to them–I’m obviously not an expert or else I wouldn’t be watching this video in the first place. I guess I’m just impotently shaking my fist at the moon and hoping for better. Ah, well.
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If anyone wants to just get down to cooking and to have a decent knife for it, the Victorinox kitchen knives with one of those rotary sharpeners with a 60 degree angle will do just fine.
Also, and maybe everyone here knows this, but a lot of knives won’t take a decent edge. And some that will can’t hold the edge for more than a cut or two. And that’s why I throw in a word for the Victorinox. They’re easy-ish to find and consistent in quality and not too pricey.
I like to cook, not shop for knives and fiddle around sharpening all the time. I also don’t have a YouTube channel.
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60 degrees? Seriously? That’s about what I’d expect on a butter knife! A really sharp knife should have an edge of around 20-22 degrees.
Which is what mine are, pocket knifes and kitchen knives.
I use either the Lansky 4-rod turnbox;
https://lansky.com/index.php/products/4-rod-turn-box/
Or the Mini crock-stick, which is particularly handy for keeping a good edge on kitchen knives;
https://lansky.com/index.php/products/mini-crock-stick/
I’ve got both, but the mini crock-sticks get the most use.
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If you’re not going to talk about leather stroping, don’t even bother.
I joke. A decent video. I’m more of a Spyderco Sharpmaker kind of knife sharpener. Less concern about the angle of the blade to the sharpening rod because you can just hold the knife vertically. That said, I have a lot of respect for the whetstone process and the people who have mastered it.
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I have a WorkSharp that I use for all my knives. Gets the job done.
https://www.worksharptools.com/product/guided-sharpening-system/
Quality of steel does matter, though. I have an $8 Food Lion Santoku that I can make very sharp for a minute, but it goes dull so fast you wouldn’t believe it.
As @Supercrisp notes above, Victorinox makes some economical, reliable slicers and dicers. We have a big Wusthof that was gifted to us, and the rest we actually use are from Victorinox.
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