Yup. I'm sure. Check out some knife forums. Honing a knife on a steel rod will only true the edge and increase it's longevity. It will not bring a dull knife back to sharp. You can also read the comments under the vid if you like. You sound an awful lot like many of the posters who brought up the exact same point as you.

Slapping the blade quickly back and forth, while great for show at and 'entertainment dining experience, does nothing to true the edge as it's a delicate process intended to gently move a couple microns of material back into place.

I'm not sure why you seem to be following me from thread to thread to troll, particularly when my only aim is to share, encourage, and help where I can, but if that's how you choose to spend your time, so be it.

Watched the video. Confirmed **** way to steel a knife. There are a couple of right ways to do it. That isn't one of them.

What exactly is "truing the edge"? I've googled it and can't seem to find what the difference is between truing and sharpening?

Truing the edge is basically just straightening it out. The knife is still sharp, but the edge is just flopped over and needs to be straightened.



Sharpening a knife involves grinding the blade, removing material from the knife to create a new edge. With honing, you're not removing material (at least not very much), and you're not making a new edge, just pushing it back into position.

(I've already conceded the sharping != honing point.)

I asked because i didn't know the answer and your claim that he was wrong didn't share which part was wrong or why. And his method seems perfectly reasonable to me, hence my question.

essentially is your 'absolutely wrong' a bit of an exaggeration and really if you just slow down what he's doing, you'll be close enough to be safe and effective?

An Edge in The Kitchen is a really good book on the subject and happily, our local library had it to borrow.

Basically a knife's edge tapers down at some angle to an infinitely thin edge in theory. As the knife gets thinner, it loses structural rigidity and 'folds' over with use. This might not be the greatest analogy, but think of the whipped peaks of egg whites - when you pull them up, they're nice pointy peaks, but over time, they start to flop over.

Honing is a gentle process of running a knife along a honing 'steel' (some are steel, some ceramic) to gently massage the thin edge of the metal back into form.

Sharpening happens once honing no longer works due to chips in the metal or metal generally wearing away along the edge. When you sharpen, you remove metal from the blade much more aggressively, typically with a series of stones of varying grit. Chefs Knives to Go has some good vids as does Japanese Chef's Knives (though I may be getting the name of the latter wrong).

You can also read posts by Boar_d_laze on chefstalk as he's about as good a reference as I've come across. Really like his stuff quite a bit.

Too many people do it for show. You should steel the knife so that the travel direction of the knife is away from you. There is a reason that the end of the steel is tapered.

Get an old school ceramic sharpening steel without a guard and you will be quickly convinced to steel away from yourself.

Ramsay gonna get someone cut.

RollWave - fair enough. Perhaps I mistook your tone.

If he were to slow down significantly and could hold a good, consistent angle like that, then it would be better, but as you said, it would still only be honing.

I stick by the 'absolutely wrong' bit as not only is it not the right way to hone, but the fact that he calls it sharpening is only going to confuse and discourage people who don't know the difference (which is most of the world). I was one of those people at one point. I watched youtube vids titled 'how to sharpen a knife with a sharpening steel' and such, and I wasted plenty of time wondering why I sucked and why I wasn't getting anywhere. Finally I found some good info and started learning a bit more, but disinformation is a diservice, especially when coming from an accomplished, trusted chef like Gordon Ramsay. He really does seem to put out quite a bit of bad info, and while I like him, and don't take anything away from his incredible accomplishments, I do wish he'd be a bit more judicious with some of his endorsements from both a product and process perspective.

Avalanche's - good pic. I'd seen that one but couldn't find it. Much more effective than my merangue peaks analogy.

See, this is what I don't get. why do you say "Ramsay gonna get someone cut" when his video shows exactly what you describe, to keep your hands behind the guard and to steel in the direction away from you?

For completeness, here is good (but long) vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=8PtthbN1Adg

meh whatever. Hold the knife near the sharpening angle so the tip can actually make contact, go slow, base to tip, don't cut yourself. got it.

This seems like a weird distinction though. I have 3 different grain japanese whetstones and a diamond steel, and its pretty obvious that the stones are much more effective in getting the knife to where you want it to be (while obviously also needing much more time investment). Whats not clear from your post is the end goal of truing. You say its to restore the edge, but isn't this where the "sharpness" comes from?

Also, related but different question to this discussion. Using stones/grinder is removing metal from your knife. Are you removing buildup, or the original material of the knife? If its the latter, does this mean the shape of a knife will change over many years? I've only had really good knives for a year, which is when i started buying things to maintain them, so can't tell.

You're right. It is a bit of a semantic distinction. Steeling does make your knife sharper, but it is not the same as sharpening. Steeling will not restore a dull edge, though it will enhance a less sharp edge.

Sharpening removes the original metal from the blade. After many years of use, your knife will theoretically wear down to a worthless little nub. After significantly less years, your knife will have to be re-profiled as with each sharpening, the height of your blade from spine to edge will decrease and in turn, the width of the blade will increase since the blade gets thicker as you move from edge to spine. As that happens, more and more metal will need to be removed to return your knife to an acceptable angle (say 30 deg inclusive). Again, tough to verbalize, but something that is something that has to be understood and dealt with eventually.

If you have any interest at all, I definitely recommend checking out An Edge in the Kitchen - I thought it was pretty fascinating. He discusses this stuff far more eloquently than I, as well as cool stuff like adding secondary bevels to your edge, etc. Unfortunately all of this is also pretty difficult to do, and I've scuffed the **** out of my Victornox trying to work on my sharpening. Haven't yet worked up the courage to try to do anything more than steel my Masamoto.

Oh thats another thing I've wondered about but never spent enough time investing in it because i wasn't seeing any results with initial attempts:

I have older, cheaper knives (a henckel santoku, a generic cleaver) which I bought when i started to get into cooking/knives. The metal is very clearly of lesser quality than my MACs/Wusthof etc, so they're basically always dull as ****, as every time i try sharpen them, they improve a little but not nearly to the same level as the good ones and don't hold their edge at all. If you had the right technique and spent enough time with it, could you get the edge really sharp, or am i better off just binning them (i never use them because there's no point)? I think the edge probably won't ever hold as thats a function of how soft the metal is?

Chile-lovers,

Quick-pickled some jalapeños and serranos w/ sugar+salt. Left the seeds in for extra heat. Very tasty.

Tossed some more in a vinegar+soy sauce+sugar mixture.

Muddled a couple pieces of jalapeno and a couple pieces of serrano w/ some tequila, cointreau, lime juice, and tiny splash of agave syrup. Delicious.

Also, to go back on this, I think he just doesn't know any better. I think todays (internet facing) chef is much more scientific/technical than most old school chefs. With stuff like serious eats verifying the "locks in the juices" claim etc, I think we take a lot of facts for granted probably werent available to a lot of (high calibre) tv chefs when they were coming up. Add to that the fact that GR isn't really in commercial kitchens any more and probably isn't being exposed to much new technique (and probably somebody not as accomplished as him isn't going to stick their neck out and correct him), you're probably mostly getting what he grew up learning was "correct".

Yeah, you're probably right to some extent. I've read about and talked to line chefs, and many have never sharpened a knife in their lives. I'm sure a lot were told to 'sharpen' on steel, and when it 'stopped working for them' they just brought their knives somewhere and had them sharpened.

That really sucks for any volume prep guy though as your knife will lose significant sharpness by the end of a service depending on the type of edge you put on it and the type of blade, which brings me to your first question.

Cheaper knives are simply made of softer, more 'durable' steel intended for the masses. They are harder to sharpen, but more forgiving for people who don't appreciate and take care of their objects. They don't rust if you leave them in the sink over night. They don't chip if you bang them against a bone. They don't take or hold a sharp edge.

Even the Victornox Chef's Knife that I'd recommend to everyone as their first 'good' knife ($25 and as good as anything you'll find before moving to Japanese steel) falls into this category.

Unfortunately this has lead to me NOT using my Masamoto as much as I'd like because I'm scared to try to sharpen it and scuff it, and as I love it and don't want it to wear, I just don't use it as much as my Victornox. I really should have just bought an Edge Pro rather than these stones. I guess it's never too late.

Tonight I made an embarrassingly easy dish that always turns out great:

I give you "Sausage Pasta".

It is a variant of the Italian classic "Orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe". Back when I began to teach myself how to cook, I saw this recipe in a Giada De Laurentis book. As I was cooking it I really liked the smell of the sausage (and the fennel) and garlic. I was dismayed with the final dish because broccoli rabe (or rapini) is quite bitter, and my family wasn't impressed with it. I was disappointed, as it seemed like it was going to be really good up until when I put in the rabe. So, I improvised next time, and substituted a LOT of Italian parsley. Game changer for my family, it is now one of our faves.

Boil up a pound of pasta (orecchiette or shells work well). At the same time, brown a pound of sausage in a tablespoon or two of olive oil. I like hot Italian, wifey likes mild, so I go half and half, adding more chili flake to my plate at the end. Once browned, throw in three minced garlic cloves and a healthy pinch of chili flake (more if you are not married to Ms. Wallacengrommit). Remove from heat and add a lot of chopped parsley. Drain pasta, but reserve about 2 cups of pasta water. Deglaze the sausage pan with some of the water, and mix everything together. Add about 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan and a half teaspoon of ground black pepper. Mix, and add pasta water as needed. The 'sauce' should not be dry, but the pasta should not be swimming in water either, each of the shells should basically be glistening with the combination of olive oil, pork fat, water and parm. Plate and eat.

This is just after the parsley went in (I usually use more):



This is the final product:



Some of the pasta shells look like they are just naked pasta - this is NOT the case, they are covered with 'sauce'. I hope you like it.

holy **** the pickled jalapenos and offshoots look ****ing amazing.

Yeah I need to make one of those jalepeno margaritas. Store was out of jalepenos on Saturday, haven't been back since... Nice job El Diablo.

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon


sprouts by amoeba6, on Flickr

Roasted Rack of lamb with Cumin Chili Rub


lamb0 by amoeba6, on Flickr

roasted carrots

carrots by amoeba6, on Flickr

sliced shot

lamb1 by amoeba6, on Flickr

27: Nice.
Amoeba: Nice!
All: Quick-pickled serranos are pretty damn hot, especially if you munch on a bunch of them quickly without thinking about it.

Daaaamn!