I have a kitchen question.

House of Knives here will sharpen all your knives for $25 if you bring in at least 5. I do that once a year. I also have a stone and a steel (and a strop). Gordon Ramsay does a few quick passes on the steel every time he uses a knife.

Regarding your cuts - you are probably just fine in the kitchen Just not used to working with sharp knives. Nothing worse than a dull knife.

When I visit my daughter in Ontario (usually once a year), I insist on paying for her knives to be sharpened. Why? Because I usually do all the cooking when I'm out there and her knives are dull, dull, dull.

Excellent choice. Truly amazing what’s variety is available at various price points. Admittedly Heaviness is a problem for those who have arthritis and older hands. However when it comes to that, I’m still sold on AllClad and MADEIN.

The whole bothersome thing about sets is unless you are a newlywed or starting over from scratch, you don’t or can’t use a whole set. For our individual needs, we needed one long one 7-9 inch ‘chef’s knife (Santoku), then a medium sized knife (maybe 5 inch (paring or boning) knife that’ll do filets, and then however-many steak knives. Still like my Cuisinart knives as they sharpen so well an d handles are good . Chicago-cutlery is also good .

Now as for pots and pans.... I can go on... as we just bought some new ones to replace worn out ones in our northern home where we make stews and soups. Zwilling (Henkel) nonstick, AllClad (stainless) Made-In, and Swiss Diamond
(nonstick). My significant other surprised me with an online purchase Our Place (10 in with bamboo steamer basket and a strainer like fixture) and lid. Sort of a wok and ricemaker multipurpose 10 in pan.

Sharpening is a must. More than once per year, depending on how much you use them. We’re not much in the way of meat eaters, though. I never use the knife on hard surfaces unless I have no choice. It helps. I bought a marble sharpening tool. However, mostly I sent them out to a cutlery expert up here. near Poughkeepsie.

My Dad used to sharpen all my mothers knives. He had an oblong shaped stone and would sit patiently dropping a blip of some sort of oil and sliding the knives over the stone until the blades were surgical sharp.

I still use the same knife I mentioned above. I have cut myself with it four or five times, but I love it anyway.

I have a paring knife that belonged to mr. G'bag's mother, it still works beautifully and it's been sharpened so many times it's a shadow of it's former shape ...... but it still does the job.

you want to keep that!!

I love to sharpen knives. I've got quite a few knives with the old non-stainless carbon steel blades and they really sharpen up nicely and hold their edge. I'll use ceramic rods to hone them between sharpening and when it's time to re-do the edge I use diamond and Arkansas whetstones.

I use an old fashioned steel.

I probably sharpen the knife each time I use it.

That's the word I couldn't remember.......whetstone.

a steel doesnt sharpen a knife at all.

Yeah, but it does set up the teeth.

It does, the difference before and after is noticeable.

Next up izzythepronoun explains how honing is sharpening and why solvent means liquid.

Then you can deliver a lecture on anal retention.

a steel is only for removing the rolled up edge metal that sharpening leave. I always use a steel to set the blade especially my butchers knife.

It does the trick alright.

I’m not saying it’s as good as a grinder, but it does the job.

I erred. It’s a ceramic sharpening rod.