Quick question from novice: knife care/maintenance advice

[van]

Hi. As mentioned above I'm a novice and, after making do with a cheap set of Richardson Sheffield (UK) knives for some time, I'm now in the process of starting to buy some 'proper' knives. Only bought one so far, a Henckels Professional S Chinese cleaver, but will soon be buying a 26cm/10inch Wusthof Classic Ikon chef's knife (read that these are better for sharpening than other Wusthofs?)

Anyway, I'd like to look after these knives properly, and so was just wondering:

1 - Which type of honing steel and whetstone would be particularly suitable for maintaining these knives?

2 - Which particular chopping board wood is recommended for use with German knives?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

van

[thombrogan]

Welcome to the forum, van!

I'm not good at the technique of steeling, so I'm hoping others will answer that, but can answer the question of whetstones and cutting boards. In the meantime, I've never heard anything bad about ceramic steels (other than they don't like being dropped).

With X50CrMoV15 type steels (such as in the Wüsthof Ikon and many other German-made and German-inspired kitchen knives), most every sort of whetstone will work from the most affordable oilstones to the most expensive waterstones and everything in between. That type of steel also responds quite well to steeling, so the edges can be maintained use after use with minimal sharpening.

For cutting boards, end-grained hardwoods such as maple, walnut, and cherry absolutely pamper the knife edges making them last even longer than with other sorts of boards. That said, a nice, tough steel, such as in your Ikon, won't fall to pieces on a rubber, polycarbonate, bamboo, or edge-grained wooden cutting board.

Good luck!

[wsf]

Idahone is often touted as a good ceramic steel. I like the Mac black ceramic myself. It's quite fine, it's unbreakable, and it's.......black.

[stevenStefano]

Idahone is often touted as a good ceramic steel. I like the Mac black ceramic myself. It's quite fine, it's unbreakable, and it's.......black.

Is this definite? I like the look of them and I have had to replace the rods in my Global a few times so an unbreakable ceramic steel would be great

[van]

Thanks for the replies, helped narrow down choices.

With X50CrMoV15 type steels (such as in the Wüsthof Ikon and many other German-made and German-inspired kitchen knives), most every sort of whetstone will work from the most affordable oilstones to the most expensive waterstones and everything in between. That type of steel also responds quite well to steeling, so the edges can be maintained use after use with minimal sharpening.

Thought that'd be the case but thought I'd check as I'd read elsewhere that it wasn't.

For cutting boards, end-grained hardwoods such as maple, walnut, and cherry absolutely pamper the knife edges making them last even longer than with other sorts of boards. That said, a nice, tough steel, such as in your Ikon, won't fall to pieces on a rubber, polycarbonate, bamboo, or edge-grained wooden cutting board.

Like the idea of a natural rubber board. They don't taint the food at all then?

[-dg]

Idahone is often touted as a good ceramic steel. I like the Mac black ceramic myself. It's quite fine, it's unbreakable, and it's.......black.

The IKEA FLAKSA is a very fine grit white ceramic steel for only $10. It is fairly thick and seems to work well. I've not tried the Idahone, but its listed at 1200 grit which is about what I'd estimate the IKEA one to be.

[Lefty]

Glad to have you Van!
I have some many German knives (Messermeister, Viking, Henckels and have sharpened (recently) my brother-in-law's Wusthof Classic).
I have a 1k king stone that works absolutey perfectly for my j knives, but to be honest, I prefer an India stone on my German knives. The combo of a slightly softer waterstone and softer metal just doesn't feel right to me. I have gotten incredible results with my India stone, some slightly soapy water instead of oil, and my German knives. The edge feels more stable and creates less burr on the India stone. It just feels right...
A ceramic 1200 grit hone, such as the idahone, or Mac white ceramic leaves a great toothy edge on a German knife. 3 strokes edge leading per side and a couple edge trailing an you're golden!
Hope that helps!

[jmbullman]

I have the messermeister ceramic rod and love it. I believe it is 12 inches long and paid about 25 dollars for it several years ago but I hardly use it I have become to love the handamerican stroping system. Peace, jmbullman