Such thing as too much Honing?

[dc2123]

I was curious if there was a such thing as over honing with a ceramic rod. I'm under the impression that all the rod does is realign the blade and not take off any metal.

 

[Cooking4to]

The ceramic rod still takes material away, although not much at all, the final stage that some sharpeners use called a strop {its a leather strap}, does what you are talking about, just aligns the microscopic teeth, but that is only to be used after the blade is honed very fine...
How I used to use the ceramic rod was on a jig, 20 degree angle, equal on both sides, soft pressure, it is a good final step after a courser sharpening, final step would be the leather strop, I have a ken onion blade that I can get so sharp if I drop a hair on the blade it POPS it in half, that being said, if it touches my counter, cutting board, etc. it loses the edge very fast and its not fun to accidentally run down your nail..
I wouldn't worry about over honing, 6 passes on each side is all you should need, if you need more your first stage needs to be closer...


I used to be crazy about my knives until I used my first victorinox wavy edge, lol. I have some high end knives, I received a Dai Sensai knife as a gift from my employees one year {its a $1500 single knife, lol}, and I used to be crazy about how I kept their edges, sharpening, honing, stropping, angle jigs so I could get them perfect, I have a drawer in my kitchen with thousands of dollars in knives in it. But then the wavy edge taught me something, $40 will get you one of the best knives you will ever use in your kitchen!!!

Now I have an Ergo chef GF series on the counter {mostly because I like the looks and the steak knives are awesome}, and when cooking I use my victorinox knives that I bought from amazon, they come in a plastic sleeve no fancy wooden box with velvet liner, they have a plastic handle, white or black, no fancy full tang, triple pinned, teak wood handle, lol, just fibrox molded in black or white. But once you use that blade you will never mess with another knife. I always test a new knife with a soft tomato and some white bread, the wavy edge and victorinox slicer did as well or better than any shun in my drawer!!!

Anyway, I hope I answered your question and the extra info is free


if anyone is interested in the vics here are some links
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Sw...id=1423050747&sr=8-7&keywords=victorinox+wavy

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-12...=1423050881&sr=8-6&keywords=victorinox+fibrox

or this one depending on what you use for slicing

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Gr...1423050881&sr=8-14&keywords=victorinox+fibrox

them 2 will do about anything in your kitchen, but they have tons of other styles that can suit your needs...

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-4-...=1423050840&sr=8-2&keywords=victorinox+fibrox

 

[GA Home Cook]

I took a cooking class one time and it had a section about sharpening knives. One thing the rep said was that honing cleans ups some of the "bends" that takes place at the micro level at the very cutting edge of the knife. If you can imagine the edge of a piece of paper getting bent it you thump it with a pencil. Occasionally you have to use a more aggressive removal to get out pits and small imperfections in the blade. I have a Lansky knife sharpener that I have had for 35 years and it does a great job on everything from scissors to chef knives and it "creates" a new edge.

 

[flphotog]

A steel can sometimes work wonders on a knife, but it can also destroy an edge if you aren't careful. One thing I've noticed is that many butchers have absolutely no idea how to use a steel.
Do a little research on using a steel and it can be your best friend, especially on German steel, Japanese, maybe not so much.