If it's anything like their Sensuell range of pans they will be very good for the price!
Knife Thread
- Thread starter Glaucus
- Start date
If it's anything like their Sensuell range of pans they will be very good for the price!
yeah - I got a large pan from Ikea and it's still going strong after a number of years - tempted to give these a go at the price !
Soldato
So are the Lansky sharpeners a better buy than the EdgePro clones?
Associate
I'd be interested in knowing how good the Ikea knives are as I need to throw all our old ones away and buy a set of knives to replace them all, less space better quality.
Would there be any standout ones on the rainforest as we've £150 of vouchers for there instead of the Ikea unknown?
Would there be any standout ones on the rainforest as we've £150 of vouchers for there instead of the Ikea unknown?
Associate
To add, we raise our own chickens, and ended up with a six cocklers this Autumn ( out of 15 chicks, so rather lucky). The difference when using a semi decent boning knife was night and day compared to the old thrown in the draw came in a set one I've used the other times.
Associate
Robert Welch Signature Q Knife Block with 4 Signature Knives
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/72894/Robert-Welch-Signature-Q-Knife-Block-with-4-Signature-Knives
£75 cheaper than their own website and amazon' price.
How well is it rated?
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/72894/Robert-Welch-Signature-Q-Knife-Block-with-4-Signature-Knives
£75 cheaper than their own website and amazon' price.
How well is it rated?
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Associate
Saw enough recommendation in the history of this thread so I've ordered one!
So I picked up a CATRA Catrahone after seeing it mentioned in this thread. CATRA is an old style trade association that's now branched into industrial knife sharpeners, materials analysis, consultancy, and a lot more. The Catrahone is their domestic powered knife sharpener that claims to make a knife up to nearly 90 percent as sharp as new, and keeps that edge for 200 percent longer that other sharpeners. It's currently selling directly from CATRA for £75 including postage, which is about half the price of other brand name powered knife sharpeners.
It's basically a small 24 volt motor with a shaft containing three sets of offset diamond grinding wheels, all encased in a black plastic housing with a base and a removable magnet to catch any filings. It's right handed, but you can specify a left-handed version if you need it. There's a universal plug that you just clip the correct prongs to, and no power switch. You plug it in, turn it on, and it runs. It's actually very quiet in operation (just makes a humming noise), but gets noisy when you put a knife into it. The bigger the knife, and the coarser the grinding wheel, the noisier it gets. It's set to a permanent 34/17 degree grind, and isn't adjustable. It looks and feels like something from a company that is all about the function, and little about the form. It's not going to be advertised as a pretty kitchen lifestyle product.
Usage is pretty simple, you just slide the blade of the knife back and forth in the grinding slots. The coarse slot will reprofile an edge and grind out any chips or dinks, and is really only needed for a very blunt or damaged knife. The second set of wheels are for sharpening to a cutting edge, and the third to polish and hone the final edge. After an initial grinding on the roughest wheel and then the sharpening/honing wheels, a few strokes on the sharpening/honing wheels once or twice a month is all that's needed for normal usage.
I found that it worked really well without scuffing the sides of even coated (coloured) blades. Even some really heavy knives that the wife bought and never really liked could be reprofiled and given much better edges. Knives that I previously couldn't get good edges near the curved points were easily sharpened. The offset sharpening wheels means that you miss the points and backs of the knife where the wheels on one side don't reach all the way down the blade. This isn't a problem with the points, as you can just draw the knife all the way through the slot. On the bottom (nearest the handle) of the blade, you could do the same, but on some knives the bloster or shape of the blade/handle meant it lifted out of the slot and you'd get 5 mm (10 mm on my huge knives) where the left side of the sharpening wheel can't reach all the way down the blade. The bolster either stopped it going far enough into the slot, or made it ride up over the slot. On most of my knives, there's enough clearance to go all the way through. I found it difficult to round any points, as the sharpener actually can sharpen the end of the point too. I found the thinner knives sharpened better, but that just may have been my impatience, as our very heavy knives probably just needed more effort as there is just more metal to grind than on our normal knives.
You can pretty much sharpen any blade (not ceramics), but the likes of scissors won't fit unless you can take them apart, and serrated blades will pretty much only get the points of the teeth sharpened. As those tend to actually do most of the cutting, that may be enough for you. Being able to sharpen your other knives so well means you're more likely to start cutting soft things with straight edges. You don't need a bread knife to get a nice slice, if your normal knives are so sharp. I didn't manage to heat any of the blade edges up during sharpening, except near the point of one long knife that I worked on quite a lot, and that got slightly warm to touch, but nowhere near the heat of hot food. Sharpening with the likes of bench grinders can supposedly damage the tempering of the blade edge by overheating them, thus meaning they wear more quickly, and the Catrahone is specifically stated to avoid that, presumably by running at low speed and only working on a very small part of the blade edge at any moment.
So will you end up with a blade that can cut paper in mid-air and shave your arm with? No, but you will get nearly all the way there. A few more minutes with a fine stone or a strop will probably give you that last bit of razor's edge. For most people, that's probably not necessary, and a fine edge like that will likely be damaged as soon as you cut into a chopping board. What you will get is a good, sharp working edge that lasts a long time, that's very practical for kitchen use.
So if (like me) you're rubbish at sharpening with a stone, don't want to spend the time to learn the skills, and just want a sharp knife with minimal effort, this is a great product at a sensible price. If you're a real perfectionist but don't want to spend an hour sharpening a knife, a Catrahone will do all the heavy lifting and leave you with the last bit of stropping/polishing. If you're into the whole zen thing of hand sharpening, learning the skill of sharpening, and getting a scalpel edge, then this probably isn't for you.
To be honest, it does feel like a bench grinder that's been redesigned specifically for use with knives, and then shrunk for use in a domestic kitchen. It's got a satisfying heft to it, and feels like it's really working. The set grinding angle may be a limitation for purists, but it means you don't have to worry about getting angles or sharpening strokes perfect, or scuffing up the sides of your knife. I've had a go at it with cheap kitchen knives of every shape, heavy thick quality knives (including a cleaver), a tactical knife with half serrations, serrated bread knives, scissors (took them apart), micro serrated knives, coated knives, etc and I've been pretty happy with the results. Some knives that I don't have to test might not work because they have weirdly curved blades that I can't see how you can fit into and around the sharpener (such as kerambits or gutting knives), but that sort of exotica isn't really used in the kitchen.
So if you're looking for a powered knife sharpener for your kitchen, the Catrahone should be at the top of your list, especially for it's current price not being much more than a lot of cheap and not-very-good hand sharpeners (or less than things like the the Spyderco or Lansky hand sharpening systems), and there is a money back guarantee if you don't like it. It's a sharpener for people who like to have sharp knives, rather than for people who like to sharpen knives.
It's basically a small 24 volt motor with a shaft containing three sets of offset diamond grinding wheels, all encased in a black plastic housing with a base and a removable magnet to catch any filings. It's right handed, but you can specify a left-handed version if you need it. There's a universal plug that you just clip the correct prongs to, and no power switch. You plug it in, turn it on, and it runs. It's actually very quiet in operation (just makes a humming noise), but gets noisy when you put a knife into it. The bigger the knife, and the coarser the grinding wheel, the noisier it gets. It's set to a permanent 34/17 degree grind, and isn't adjustable. It looks and feels like something from a company that is all about the function, and little about the form. It's not going to be advertised as a pretty kitchen lifestyle product.
Usage is pretty simple, you just slide the blade of the knife back and forth in the grinding slots. The coarse slot will reprofile an edge and grind out any chips or dinks, and is really only needed for a very blunt or damaged knife. The second set of wheels are for sharpening to a cutting edge, and the third to polish and hone the final edge. After an initial grinding on the roughest wheel and then the sharpening/honing wheels, a few strokes on the sharpening/honing wheels once or twice a month is all that's needed for normal usage.
I found that it worked really well without scuffing the sides of even coated (coloured) blades. Even some really heavy knives that the wife bought and never really liked could be reprofiled and given much better edges. Knives that I previously couldn't get good edges near the curved points were easily sharpened. The offset sharpening wheels means that you miss the points and backs of the knife where the wheels on one side don't reach all the way down the blade. This isn't a problem with the points, as you can just draw the knife all the way through the slot. On the bottom (nearest the handle) of the blade, you could do the same, but on some knives the bloster or shape of the blade/handle meant it lifted out of the slot and you'd get 5 mm (10 mm on my huge knives) where the left side of the sharpening wheel can't reach all the way down the blade. The bolster either stopped it going far enough into the slot, or made it ride up over the slot. On most of my knives, there's enough clearance to go all the way through. I found it difficult to round any points, as the sharpener actually can sharpen the end of the point too. I found the thinner knives sharpened better, but that just may have been my impatience, as our very heavy knives probably just needed more effort as there is just more metal to grind than on our normal knives.
You can pretty much sharpen any blade (not ceramics), but the likes of scissors won't fit unless you can take them apart, and serrated blades will pretty much only get the points of the teeth sharpened. As those tend to actually do most of the cutting, that may be enough for you. Being able to sharpen your other knives so well means you're more likely to start cutting soft things with straight edges. You don't need a bread knife to get a nice slice, if your normal knives are so sharp. I didn't manage to heat any of the blade edges up during sharpening, except near the point of one long knife that I worked on quite a lot, and that got slightly warm to touch, but nowhere near the heat of hot food. Sharpening with the likes of bench grinders can supposedly damage the tempering of the blade edge by overheating them, thus meaning they wear more quickly, and the Catrahone is specifically stated to avoid that, presumably by running at low speed and only working on a very small part of the blade edge at any moment.
So will you end up with a blade that can cut paper in mid-air and shave your arm with? No, but you will get nearly all the way there. A few more minutes with a fine stone or a strop will probably give you that last bit of razor's edge. For most people, that's probably not necessary, and a fine edge like that will likely be damaged as soon as you cut into a chopping board. What you will get is a good, sharp working edge that lasts a long time, that's very practical for kitchen use.
So if (like me) you're rubbish at sharpening with a stone, don't want to spend the time to learn the skills, and just want a sharp knife with minimal effort, this is a great product at a sensible price. If you're a real perfectionist but don't want to spend an hour sharpening a knife, a Catrahone will do all the heavy lifting and leave you with the last bit of stropping/polishing. If you're into the whole zen thing of hand sharpening, learning the skill of sharpening, and getting a scalpel edge, then this probably isn't for you.
To be honest, it does feel like a bench grinder that's been redesigned specifically for use with knives, and then shrunk for use in a domestic kitchen. It's got a satisfying heft to it, and feels like it's really working. The set grinding angle may be a limitation for purists, but it means you don't have to worry about getting angles or sharpening strokes perfect, or scuffing up the sides of your knife. I've had a go at it with cheap kitchen knives of every shape, heavy thick quality knives (including a cleaver), a tactical knife with half serrations, serrated bread knives, scissors (took them apart), micro serrated knives, coated knives, etc and I've been pretty happy with the results. Some knives that I don't have to test might not work because they have weirdly curved blades that I can't see how you can fit into and around the sharpener (such as kerambits or gutting knives), but that sort of exotica isn't really used in the kitchen.
So if you're looking for a powered knife sharpener for your kitchen, the Catrahone should be at the top of your list, especially for it's current price not being much more than a lot of cheap and not-very-good hand sharpeners (or less than things like the the Spyderco or Lansky hand sharpening systems), and there is a money back guarantee if you don't like it. It's a sharpener for people who like to have sharp knives, rather than for people who like to sharpen knives.
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thanks for the review -
How long does it take for a knife - do you have to be careful not to overdo it ?
although their site says grinding wheels last 7-8 years, could not see any indication of price ? (since might consider having some wheels reserved for best knifes)
Reparing cut fingers superglue:
any recommendations for skin superglue to keep in the cupboard for those unfortunate incidents ?
I have used steristrips, plus keep some rubber gloves for doing washing up if you need to keep hands dry
most common seems to be "Steribond Tissue Adhesive 0.5g Skin Adhesive Wound Glue Closure"
Shaping/paring knife recommendation
one of my most used knifes for preparing vegetables (not peeling, but taking middle out of apple, cutting tomato)
is below, the sharp point and fine blade is useful (is a Gonon Grironde knofe)
Any recommendations for a new one (rivets degrading) was considering Victorinox - Shaping Knife Curved
Yes, but it depends on how much grinding you want to do. According to the instructions, on a bad knife, you might want to run through the coarse wheels up to 40 times, but then you only need three or four on the other wheels. Generally, you only need five or six runs through the coarse wheels, but it depends on the state of the knife. It takes a while to take a lot of metal off on the coarse wheels, so it's not like an Anysharp that will tear a lot of metal off quickly. Obviously reprofiling or getting chips/dinks out of the edge will involve more time and more removal of metal on the coarse wheels before you go to the sharpening/honing wheels.
It can take a few minutes on a reasonably good knife, to maybe five or six minutes on a knife that needs a lot of grinding.
Spare wheels are not available, and can't be user replaced. It's pretty much a sealed unit, so you're basically paying a tenner a year until you wear it out. As it's also listed for small restaurants/sandwich bars, etc, I think you'd have to use it a lot to wear it out in a domestic environment.
Got a https://www.robertwelch.com/kitchen...s/signature_flexible_filleting_knife_16cm.htm over Christmas, gave it a go today on a whole Salmon.
What a masterpiece of a knife, made very short work of the poor fish, held perfectly in my hand (I find a lot of filleting knifes have very dainty and light handles which dont suit me). The sharpness just allowed it to glide through with no effort and the flex is just about right when I gave it a go on the block (though obviously being salmon didnt remove any of the skin so didnt give that a proper test yet).
What a masterpiece of a knife, made very short work of the poor fish, held perfectly in my hand (I find a lot of filleting knifes have very dainty and light handles which dont suit me). The sharpness just allowed it to glide through with no effort and the flex is just about right when I gave it a go on the block (though obviously being salmon didnt remove any of the skin so didnt give that a proper test yet).
Soldato
My whetstones finally arrived from Amazon today, about a week and a half after ordering. I got a combo of 1000/3000 grit, so let's hope that'll be OK for the knives' first sharpening in about a year!
got a 1000/6000 from Amazon today as well.
Soldato
My Lansky Professional turned up yesterday. Definitely going to have to get the base for it, the knife I tested it on is much better now though.
Associate
I picked up a Ruixin Pro recently (EdgePro clone). After fiddling a little, got the technique down and it really sharpns well. Slice through paper and create a pattern easily well. A few simple mods will probably make it a bit better too, but happy as it is.
I do have whetstones too, but just cannot be bothered in grinding away (literally and figuratively) trying to master the technique. The Ruixin takes the guess work out. Recommended.
I do have whetstones too, but just cannot be bothered in grinding away (literally and figuratively) trying to master the technique. The Ruixin takes the guess work out. Recommended.
Soldato
I almost bought that myself but decided to get the Lansky after reading about longevity of the stones on the edge pro clones.
Soldato
Nice. How did it work out?
I sharpened mine yesterday - apologies for the very recently washed counter:
Knives courtesy of @hughtrimble
Not used it yet - will get some time shortly to give it a go.
Soldato
Practice on a cheap knife beforehand!
Your options are Electric, which can be quite aggressive, a system like the Lansky with guides/rods or whetstones and learn to sharpen freehand. I do have a Lansky kit, but it can be time consuming to setup, plus the replacement stones aren't *that* cheap, so I've got a 3000/8000 waterstone than I'm trying out on some cheap knives, with good results