It’s really not anything advanced, you can learn whetstone sharpening with like a ten minute youtube video. Might take more research to feel confident getting started if you have lots of trepidation about it
But from there you’ll never want to bother with the time commitment and cost of having your knives professionally sharpened. Just makes no sense when you can simply take out your stone as needed
I would strongly advise against the pull through sharpeners you’re talking about, in all cases. A cheap knife doesn’t actually have any problem retaining a sharp edge. My inexpensive stainless steel chef’s knife that I abuse every day lasts months without issues.
The problem you’re experiencing is that pull through “sharpeners” do not actually sharpen the blade at all. They just create and leave you with a huge burr.
Whetstones also create a burr, but you deburr the blade with stropping passes and reveal the stable geometry you have created underneath. On pull throughs, they’re relying on you not to know any better and to simply try cutting your food with the burr. This works in the extreme short term, because the burr is “sharp” at first…. until literally the first time you use it, when it proceeds to crumble off or roll over onto itself. After which point you can once again “save time” by pulling it through the device again and again
I am concerned that people will read your comment, and end up using dangerous dull knives.
I don’t really want to get into an argument, but most people will put off doing anything even mildly complicated to the point that they never do it. If you never sharpen your knives, then you will end up with dull knives, which is the worst possible outcome.
Pull through sharpeners do actually sharpen the blade. I don’t know where you got your information from. You certainly don’t have to sharpen a knife every time, but even if you did, it would be something quick and simple that anybody could do.
There are also different levels of pull through sharpeners, some that make multiple passes for different types of blade care. But any sharpener, even the most basic pull through, is better than a dull blade.
A person who uses a pull through sharpener will generally know when they need to start looking into more advanced methods. I do not think it is safe to warn beginners off of using the tools that they are most likely to actually use.
It’s really not anything advanced, you can learn whetstone sharpening with like a ten minute youtube video. Might take more research to feel confident getting started if you have lots of trepidation about it
But from there you’ll never want to bother with the time commitment and cost of having your knives professionally sharpened. Just makes no sense when you can simply take out your stone as needed
I would strongly advise against the pull through sharpeners you’re talking about, in all cases. A cheap knife doesn’t actually have any problem retaining a sharp edge. My inexpensive stainless steel chef’s knife that I abuse every day lasts months without issues.
The problem you’re experiencing is that pull through “sharpeners” do not actually sharpen the blade at all. They just create and leave you with a huge burr.
Whetstones also create a burr, but you deburr the blade with stropping passes and reveal the stable geometry you have created underneath. On pull throughs, they’re relying on you not to know any better and to simply try cutting your food with the burr. This works in the extreme short term, because the burr is “sharp” at first…. until literally the first time you use it, when it proceeds to crumble off or roll over onto itself. After which point you can once again “save time” by pulling it through the device again and again
I am concerned that people will read your comment, and end up using dangerous dull knives.
I don’t really want to get into an argument, but most people will put off doing anything even mildly complicated to the point that they never do it. If you never sharpen your knives, then you will end up with dull knives, which is the worst possible outcome.
Pull through sharpeners do actually sharpen the blade. I don’t know where you got your information from. You certainly don’t have to sharpen a knife every time, but even if you did, it would be something quick and simple that anybody could do.
There are also different levels of pull through sharpeners, some that make multiple passes for different types of blade care. But any sharpener, even the most basic pull through, is better than a dull blade.
A person who uses a pull through sharpener will generally know when they need to start looking into more advanced methods. I do not think it is safe to warn beginners off of using the tools that they are most likely to actually use.
Most people are in fact not infants who can’t understand any “mildly complicated” concepts, nor is that audience reading this exchange
Is that confidence based off of your gut feelings? Because my statement was based off of similar research done by behavioral economists.