Reddit reviews Messermeister Ceramic Rod Knife Sharpener, 12-Inch

Yes thank you. Someone else also suggested a bread knife which seems like a good idea because he often likes to make us garlic bread from scratch. I'm thinking this one would be good and match what we already have. Does that look good to you?

And I'll definitely check out some wet stones. How difficult are they to learn to use? And what is the difference between a wet stone and one of these?

And is there anything else I can buy him to maintain his knives? Like I know he oils our cast iron skillet and stuff, but other than hand washing the knives I never really see him do anything else with them.

I'd recommend two pieces for your knife maintenance. A waterstone, for sharpening. And a ceramic honer. I also use two cheap mercer knife guards to keep the edges safe when transporting. With a bit of practice you can get scary sharp edges from a waterstone, just make sure you keep a very consistent angle.

I would spend a little more on the knives. cheap knives, imo, are a waste.

Going with something like Forschner would be good, inexpensive, and last.

Chef's

Bread

Paring

Optional - mid size Utility Knife

That's $60 - 80 for all the knives you'll need to last you a long, long time. I would add a honing "steel" for sure, and perhaps a whetshone later on to keep them in excellent shape.

i don't use honing steels so I might not be the best to suggest...maybe a Messermeister Ceramic Rod. the fibrox have fairly soft steel so what you have might be okay already.

For stones, a King 1k/6k water stone is probably the first one that most people will pick up. It's good for value and fairly easy on the pocket.

As for videos, I learned a lot of mine from ryky tran/burrfection (two channels same guy) on youtube. There are plenty of good/intensive playlists on sharpening but I find myself relating more to him. He blunts his knife on a brick and sharpens on the spot while explaining what he's doing. He's quite easy to understand and more targetted at non professionals/home cooks.

I also watch Richard Blaine, but he's much more technical (he just released a video on honing). They are fairly lengthy which is why i don't watch very often and he makes awkward dad jokes.

I'll chime in and offer that IME, a sharpening stick is a great thing to have to maintain an edge. After each use just clean the blade and run it over the stick two of three times per side at a constant angle of about 20 degrees in a motion as if you were trying to shear a thin layer of wax off the stick.

I fully understand OP's inclination to send the knives out. Get a cheap knife from the dollar store and practice with a sharpening stone or diamond hone. Youtube has good videos on this.

Ceramic hones are abrasive and will lightly grind down the edge to reveal a fresh edge. Metal hones instead straighten what edge is already on the knife. Harder steels like the one used in the Kaji will hold their shape much longer than an old school German knife, but when they give way they tend to microchip rather than roll, so they generally respond better to a ceramic hone. An Idahone or Messermeister hone is the best meeting of cost and quality. I like the ring hook on the Idahones enough to validate the extra $4.

****

Like is a strong word for the Kaji. Kitchen supply stores only offer knives from the largest kitchen knife makers like Wusthof, Henckels, and Shun, and among those the Kaji is one of the best, but there are smaller makers selling more remarkable knives for similar prices. These makers lack the capacity and in most cases desire to produce and distribute knives on a scale to stock their knives across North America, but they do produce knives efficiently enough to keep their prices competitive and they are the makers who developed the styles of kitchen knives Shun and Miyabi imitate. Shun's knives are the Thomas Kinkade prints of the knife world.

For the price of a Kaji block you can get a full set of extremely* impressive artisanal knives.

As someone who probably just wants some decent knives, I realize this might be a deeper rabbit hole than you want to explore, but it would be unfair for us to rubber stamp a Shun set and send you on your way.

Sure!
Here's a steel: https://www.amazon.com/10-inch-Knife-Sharpening-Utopia-Kitchen/dp/B019CEWA9S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480170600&sr=8-2&keywords=steel+knife+rod

And here's a ceramic one: https://www.amazon.com/Messermeister-Ceramic-Knife-Sharpener-12-Inch/dp/B002YK1RAQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1480170600&sr=8-3&keywords=steel+knife+rod

As the ceramic rods are quite hard, you could probably get by with just that, and not the steel one. It will hone the knife (which is simply aligning the metal of the knife edge), while sharpening it slightly.

You don't have to pay that much for ceramic.

I have a carbon steel knife which is harder than VG10 on the Rockwell scale and the knife maker recommended a ceramic honing rod rather than a steel one.

Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Messermeister-12-Inch-Ceramic-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B002YK1RAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406208943&sr=8-1&keywords=ceramic+honing+rod

As others have mentioned, a honing rod isn't for sharpening it is for, well, honing. You use it on a daily basis (or semi-daily) to keep the teeth aligned on the blade.

Ceramic http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002YK1RAQ?pc_redir=1406794484&robot_redir=1

I bought the exact same knife about 6 months ago, and use it almost every day. I use this Messermeister sharpener about once a week and the knife is as sharp as the first day I used it. Great knife, great sharpener.

No idea but this is what I use to DIY.

Messermeister 12-Inch Ceramic Rod Knife Sharpener

I don't recognize the brand, I'm sure I've used something of similar quality tough. I'm going to assume it's similar to the set made by Henckles International (the Chinese ripoff of the German Henckles... notice the slight difference in the logo and the price difference). The Chinese Henckles are decent knives. They sharpen alright, but take a lot more frequent maintenance than my German Henckles. They're the set that wife is allowed to use (she knows not to mess with my good knives without permission).

Your difficulty with sharpening might be due to the metal used in those knives. High quality knives typically have a higher carbon content plus other metals besides iron that help with various things. The higher carbon makes the blades harder, and easier to put a sharp edge on. Or possibly your boss was better at sharpening. The main thing is to keep your knife at a consistent angle. Once you get good, you can feel if it's at the right spot and adjust almost without thinking about it while sharpening.

Also, the more quality knives sometimes use a more effective edge shape. I know Global knives (and lots of other Japanese companies) use the convex edge shape, which is very strong and dulls slowly, but is very difficult to maintain. Most people recommend a tri-stone for sharpening, but I don't actually. Your coarse and med stones are only needed if you let your knife get extremely dull (and a kitchen knife should never actually get dull). Those stones also eat off a lot of metal, so with frequent use, your knife shape can change noticably. For an amateur that wants a decently sharp knife, but doesn't care enough to learn to sharpen one correctly this Sharpener is the only pull sharpener I've used that I like (I actually got one for my grandmother, since her knives were always dull).

But, if you want to learn to sharpen a knife, get a fine stone (type is more preference than anything else) and a honing rod (something with a diamond grit finish or ceramic, the steel rods are basically useless for anything but light honing, this is the one I use). I don't actually have a stone in my kitchen because I don't let my knives don't dull to the point I need anything besides the ceramic rod to re-sharpen/hone the knife. For the stone though, there's tons of youtube videos out there on how to sharpen a knife (plus some nifty kits that have bits that clip onto your blade to hold the angle constant). I found this video that explains things pretty well. Sticking the point of the rod on the cutting board like he does is a good, stable way to learn to use it.

Aside from the one knife I have, I don't actually use a steel. But if I had to get one with the intent of actually using it I would go with this Victorinox smooth steel.

If cost wasn't an issue I would look at ceramic hones but you have to be careful here as well because most of these have a grit to them. The MAC ceramic rod, for example, has a smooth side and a grooved side.

The Messemeister: "Ceramic is very hard and it has a slight abrasive characteristic so it can actually sharpen as it aligns the edge".

Idahone rod is "considered a fine rod and has a 1200 grit".

The Idahone might be the best option because, as u/UncannyGodot points out, most knives that people use a hone on probably aren't sharpened to a very high grit anyways.

buy this

thank me later

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002YK1RAQ/ref=s9_simh_gw_p79_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=1MPNNMFKMPENXEJMA7NB&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=1970559082&pf_rd_i=desktop