My old trusty knife

[LJFATS]

I have been using the same chef knife for about 5 years now. Wustof 7" classic. It's my baby, my bitch. Only 2 things I love more, my girlfriend and my Fender Telecaster, in that perticular order.

It seems more and more I have to use a stone on it. Granted I use it about 10-12 hours a day 5 days a week, it's just the last month it just can't keep an edge like it used to. ( still sharper than any house knife though).

Question is, how long do good knives last? Can they get old? What is the longest you have ever used one for (proffesional use)? Is there any thing I can do to prolong its life (some weeks I touch it more than my girlfriend )?

[Kevin72]

Knives, particularly the high end ones like Wustoff, Henkels, etc. supposedly last indefinitely. Have you taken it to get it professionally sharpened? I do mine once or twice a year and it really helps.

Edited to add: I don't use mine professionally though.

Edited December 8, 2004 by Kevin72 (log)

[Toliver]

I have been using the same chef knife for about 5 years now. Wustof 7" classic. It's my baby, my bitch. Only 2 things I love more, my girlfriend and my Fender  Telecaster, in that perticular order.

It seems more and more I have to use a stone on it. Granted I use it about 10-12 hours a day 5 days a week, it's just the last month it just can't keep an edge like it used to. ( still sharper than any house knife though).

Question is, how long do good knives last? Can they get old? What is the longest you have ever used one for (proffesional use)? Is there any thing I can do to prolong its life (some weeks I touch it more than my girlfriend )?

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Inbetween using the stone, I hope you're using a steel everytime you go to use the knife. Steels help maintain a straight edge.

[johnnyd]

When I was promoted to Garde Manger in-training from advanced pearl-diving in 1980, they gave me a card with a number and an address. It was a restaurant supply warehouse and the card had instructions to outfit me with Wusthoffs. They got a lot of abuse and were eventually stolen, except my 8" chefs which I still have, even though I've broken the tip off twice. It is now a 7 and 1/4" chef's knife...

DO NOT FAIL to carefully read Chad Ward's Excellent Knife Maintenance Course here at eGCI. It is the final word on knife care.

[lala]

Are you using it differently? Did they change the cutting board surface? Is it being stored where the edge can't get dinged? Is someone else using your knife when you're not looking?

When I was in the kitchen, I had to really watch where my knives were when they weren't in my hand. They were so good, and sharp that everyone wanted to use them, particularly for things like opening crates and mesh bags.

[budrichard]

The problem is the length of the edge. A proper new blade has a long grind from the side of the blade to the edge. I bet if you look at your knife now, it has very wide almost blunt edge. Since thier is no edge to wear back, it dulls very quickly. you need to reform the edge or have it professionaly done for you. With a stone it is a lot of work to almost impossible. Steels do not age unless subjected to high temps or other caustic elements. -Dick

[jayt90]

Like any good knife, your Wusthof is tapered from spine to edge, as well as choyle (beginning of handle) to tip. With heavy use, the knife may be wearing further into the up/down taper (spine to edge), and the stone has to sharpen a thicker blade than before. You may benefit from a more aggressive stone, and steel, such as the DMT diamond stones and steel available at Lee Valley. The DMT stone helped me with my aging Sabatiers, but I have not yet had to use the DMT steel. DMT states that 3-5 strokes on the 1000x stone are equal to 16-20 strokes on a traditional 1000x stone.

[RETREVR]

Like any good knife, your Wusthof is tapered from spine to edge, as well as choyle (beginning of handle) to tip. With heavy use, the knife may be wearing further into the up/down taper (spine to edge), and the stone has to sharpen a thicker blade than before. You may benefit from a more aggressive stone, and steel, such as the DMT diamond stones and steel available at Lee Valley. The DMT stone helped me with my aging Sabatiers, but I have not yet had to use the DMT steel. DMT states that 3-5 strokes on the 1000x stone are equal to 16-20 strokes on a traditional 1000x stone.

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I agree. Take it to someone that can taper it down a little.

The other problem with the Wusthofs is that as you wear the blade down, the bolster becomes a real obstacle when sharpening. You might have someone grind down the bolster so that you can get an edge on the whole blade.

[robyn]

We live out at the Beaches - but we use a fellow who lives in Riverside to sharpen our knives. He has a truck (with a knife sharpening shop inside) - and most of his customers are restaurants. He makes stops at the restaurants at or near closing time - and since we have a fair number of knives to sharpen - he'll stop at our house as the last stop on a night when he's doing rounds at the Beaches. We do this about once a year - and it's usually a later night than New Year's Eve for us - but it's worth it - because he does a great job. I'm sure he wouldn't stop at a restaurant for one knife - but perhaps you could convince your employer to give him a try. If you only have a few knives - perhaps you could drop them by his house in Riverside (we've done that before - dropped the knives off on his day off - had lunch - and picked them up). If you're interested in his services - send me email and I'll give you his name/number (I'll be out of town this weekend so it might take me a while to get back to you). Robyn

P.S. The first time he did our knives - he had to recontour some of them quite a bit. If a knife can be fixed - he can fix it.

Edited December 9, 2004 by robyn (log)

[fiftydollars]

Not that I think that's what happened in this case, I agree that the changing shape of the blade is probably the culprit, but could heat affect the temper of the steel? Like if, for example, I accidentally heated my knife to a hot, but not too-hot, temperature like maybe 200 degrees, could that damage the temper?

[HKDave]

If you're talking 200 Farenheit, it should be fine. But I think some knife steels would be affected at 200 Celcius. Probably wouldn't be too good for most knife handles, either.