I’m really disappointed with myself. I thought I would enjoy, and be good at, sharpening knives. I don’t and I’m not! I have two Shapton water stones and I can get a nice edge on my chisels with a jig that maintains the angle for me, but I just can’t get a good edge on a knife. I don’t know if I’m not patient enough, if I just can’t hold the angle well enough or what, but I give up.
My wife is, understandably, frustrated with a kitchen full of dull knives and bought one of those drag through carbide/ceramic sharpeners and I can’t even make that work - I drag a blade through a few times, there is a pile of swarf in the sharpener, the blade looks sharp - but it’s dull as dull, maybe even worse than before “sharpening”.
We have a range of knives from grocery store mild steel, through decent consumer Mundial and Victorinox to one low end nice Global.
Appreciate any suggestions!
Have you tried angle guides for your knives? These can be bought, or just as simple as taping some cardboard to each side.
You may enjoy it, you may not. If you don’t take your knives to be professionally sharpened, and in between, use a Steel. There are very nice and expensive ones, but you can also just go to a metal shop and ask for a steel rod. For years I used a rod I got for free, stuck in an old screwdriver handle.
Steeling your knives makes a huge difference, it’s easy and takes almost no time. I do it every time I use a knife. My knives stay sharp, and I have to sharpen them less frequently.
If you can do a nice edge on a chisel, you can do knives.
Mundial is usually Ok, Victorinox is a pain in the ass to sharpen. They go for a high chromium alloy that has great rust resistance, but makes for a shit edge.
The Thai brand Zebra is very good and inexpensive. I’m a big fan of cheap stamped stainless knives.