After a long time passing, I finally managed to take care of my knives. they were starting to get dull and almost “dangerous”. It was also getting frustrating as I don’t really like to let my good quality items to get neglected for too long. Not good for them.

I know I never introduced my other knives, but I basically only deal with “Global” blades. I like the design, the shape, the weight distribution, the handle and the sharpness of the blades (when properly maintained). If you want to be a good blade-owner, you need to know how to take care of them and, most especially, how to sharpen. I got a very nice tutorial from my favorite knife shop in Boston, Stoddard’s of Watertown, MA.

First fo all, you’ll need a stone. I prefer to use a wet one instead fo an oil stone. This might be a more expensive stone, but you use water instead of oil and I feel it works better. I got a double sided stone, where one side is a 1000 grit (coarse) and the other is 4000 (fine). Before using it I soak it in water for about 30 minutes. Now, and this is critical for Global knives, remember to always use the same angle when applying the blade to the stone. For normal knives, you would use a large angle, of ~ 30 degrees. Globals have a smaller angle, at about 15 degrees. Screw that and you might compromise your blade.

Well, I was about to start writing about how to do it, but I found this video that makes my life (and yours) easier! Follow the instructions for each side fo the stone, starting with the coarser side. I usually do 15-20 strokes per blade side per stone side. I finish it all with a quick shine-and-polish pass on a 18000 grit steel bar.

Enjoy.

Sharpening Global KNives

Let’s start with a description of my kicthen utensils. Any decent kitchen should have good knives. This is for a few very practical reasons:
1 – they are safer to the user: try to use a standard ikea bread knife. Then cut the same loaf with a real knife. See the difference?
2 – they live longer
3 – they keep sharp for a longer time
4 – they usually don’t rust as the crap ones do.

There are several excelent knife brands out there, all good and for all pockets and levels of expertise. The Germans and the japanese appear to be the best blade makers out there. I chose, years ago, a nice compromise between design, balance, makeshift, price and quality. I went (and still go) fro the Japanese Global.

I will start my little “blade” description with the one I prefer, form the ones I own. the Global G-3 carving knife.

This is a great 21 cm long blade, extremely sharp (cut myself a few times by just touching it). It handles great and makes any “roast-cutting” adventure easy as cutting through butter with a warm blade.