Should I sharpen this knife?

[Scotch]

Meatworkers earn up to $40/hour over here, more if supervising. Crappy job with crappy work conditions means that the bosses have to pay high wages to get people to work.

That's amazing! Over $80K per year. You must pay a fortune for meat.

Here the meat cutters are mostly immigrants and others on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. In the Clougherty plant I spoke of, I observed that the signs on the walls were in several languages: English, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Very few native-born Caucasians in the group.

And believe me, the working conditions are pretty crappy -- it's dirty, hard work, and a large percentage of the employees end up injured and are forced to quit.

 

[Bigjim68]

Amazon carries the Forschner knives at a good price. They also carry F. Dick sharpening steels.

Would you recommend either one for home cooks, BigJim?

I think that for most home cooks, Forschners are adequate. My newest is around 30 years old, so cannot comment on new Forschners, however, I do like wood handles. SMKW, among others, carry Rosewood handled Forschners at a good price. I only recently upgraded to Japanese knives, mostly from a desire to do something different, and an opportunityy for a very good price on some laminated knives (Kanetsune). The Dick steel resides on my kitchen counter, and does the job. The handle finally wore out, and I rehandleded it in burl Walnut Rob is right, a steel is not a sharpener. I use my Edgemaker Pro for sharpening Forschners. I'm trying to learn how to use waterstones on my Kantesunes

 

[gadzooks]

Hey, Mayor...still with us? I used my cheap knife to do breakfast for twenty, and it was fine. I only cut myself once, and the cut was so clean I didn't notice it 'til I saw the blood. That was with an inexpensive bench stone to start, medium on one side, fine on the other, then medium ceramic stick, then fine ceramic, then steel. I have some really nice, and expensive stones, but they are strictly for my razors (yes, I shave daily with a straight razor, and have for over forty years.). So sharpen up!

 

[Mayor]

Yes, I'm still here. Wow, I didn't think this thread would be going on still. But allot of very insiteful comments on knives. Very educational. I can see this is a very big and serious topic to some people. I respect that very much. I need to run now. I'll comment more later. I'd like to thank you all for responding, everyone of you, pro or con. all the coments are very helpful. Dave

 

[jim262]

I'm sure that tips on freehand sharpening using a stone have been well covered, but a search only came up with set angle sharpening systems and a few recommendations for stones.

If you want to experiment with a stone, Home Depot lists a 6" x 2" two sided Norton combination bench stone for $5. It may not be the most exotic or effective stone out there, but the it is good enough for learning with the appropriate knife, and it is always nice to keep the tuition costs low.

To to help with the appropriate grinding angle, every school kit has a protractor in it so you can cut a template out of card stock at 22º. Alternately, you can fold a square piece of paper across diagonally and then fold the diagonal down to the edge for a 22½º angle.

Raise the blade off the stone until your angle template fits into the gap. A little wood template is even more helpful if you have a saw than can cut a tiny wedge accurately. Practice until you can stroke the knife across the stone while maintaining a consistent angle and pressure.

The most difficult motion of stone sharpening is doing the "B" side of the blade where you either have to stroke with a consistent angle and pressure using your non-dominate hand or you need to stroke toward you. Like every says, there is a bit of learning curve, but after a few knives, it won't seem very difficult at all and you may be ready to invest in some Japanese water stones.

 

[compaddict]

Forget the Lansky.. I bought Lansky's diamond system thinking it was an upgrade for the like stone system I was using. Knives fell out of the holder and it sucked overall. I pulled out my old system and saw that the brand was Gatco. Went online and bought the Gatco diamond system and could not be happier. Once hand clamped, knives never fall out.

Vince

 

[jpaulg]

That's amazing! Over $80K per year. You must pay a fortune for meat.

Here the meat cutters are mostly immigrants and others on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. In the Clougherty plant I spoke of, I observed that the signs on the walls were in several languages: English, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Very few native-born Caucasians in the group.

And believe me, the working conditions are pretty crappy -- it's dirty, hard work, and a large percentage of the employees end up injured and are forced to quit.

Payment out here is based on volume processed, not hours worked, so good teams that work quickly and efficiently can earn a very good hourly rate.

Most of the abattoirs here are in rural or semi-rural regions, and the cheap unskilled migrant labour is in the cities. Because of the insurance costs associated with injuries the meat companies here prefer to hire and employ skilled labour, as they tend to suffer less injuries than noobs.

Trust me when I say I know about the conditions and injuries, in a previous career I was in Worker's Compensation and I got to find out far more about meat processing than I'd ever care to know.

 

[gadzooks]

OK, here's the knife I just ran across...F. DICK, 10" carbon (non-stainless) steel, forged chef's knife. Wooden handle. The blade is stained, but fully intact, and the handle has probably seen the inside of a dishwasher, but a short soak followed by plenty of oil should bring it back OK. Takes a sweet edge. Probably not expensive when new. I know some of you folks are pros. Thoughts?

 

[SShepherd]

OK, here's the knife I just ran across...F. DICK, 10" carbon (non-stainless) steel, forged chef's knife. Wooden handle. The blade is stained, but fully intact, and the handle has probably seen the inside of a dishwasher, but a short soak followed by plenty of oil should bring it back OK. Takes a sweet edge. Probably not expensive when new. I know some of you folks are pros. Thoughts?

why mess around, just replace the handle..it's pretty simple

 

[jpaulg]

OK, here's the knife I just ran across...F. DICK, 10" carbon (non-stainless) steel, forged chef's knife. Wooden handle. The blade is stained, but fully intact, and the handle has probably seen the inside of a dishwasher, but a short soak followed by plenty of oil should bring it back OK. Takes a sweet edge. Probably not expensive when new. I know some of you folks are pros. Thoughts?

The fully forged F Dicks are up amongst the premier German knives, they're just not terribly common as F Dick is focussing on meat trade side of things, rather than their kitchen knives. Just as a reference point the current top of the range F Dicks kitchen knives retail for approximately the same price as Wusthofs.

Without seeing it I'd say the chances are you've scored yourself a bloody good knife.

 

[Scotch]

OK, here's the knife I just ran across...F. DICK, 10" carbon (non-stainless) steel, forged chef's knife. Wooden handle. . . .Probably not expensive when new. . . .

But not inexpensive either. Amazon has it for $93.95 from a third-party seller.