>>7355243

Your knife should be sharp enough to slice a sheet of printer paper with little to no resistance.

When cutting things isn't working as well as I'd like, i.e. when I have to think about it at all.

There are all kinds of spergy tests (HHT, three finger test, thumbnail test, etc).

Those are fine for communicating a goal in an internet forum, and they are useful for learning, but for me, I already know what I needed to learn to get good at knife maintenance, the real world goal is and always was to cut stuff, not pass tests.

>>7355243
use knife often, and note when resistance increases more than normal

I check to see if they will shave my arm hair. if they do they are sharp.

>>7355258
Alright, well I'm at the point where that doesn't happen. I have roommates who use the knives also, and they say they hone them often (we have a steel rod that came with the set). Is it possible to get the sharpness back with just a steel rod or should I go out and get a wetstone (or go see a professional knife sharpener)?

>>7355271
Unless you already know what you're doing, it's going to be impossible for you to know, especially without a loupe, but I'd be willing to bet if I could see your knife, I'd tell you it's time for the stone.

>>7355277
Pretty much conforms what I already thought; had an argument with a roommate where he said it could be just recovered with the honing steel, but I doubt he knows what he's doing with steel since if he has been using it, there is no noticeable difference at all on the blade. Is there a possibility that you can screw up the knife if you use the steel wrong?

>>7355286
you'd have to work pretty hard at it but yeah it's possible

>>7355243
https://forums.egullet.org/topic/26036-knife-maintenance-and-sharpening/

>>7355286
If you're worried about messing up your knife, go to a charity store and get a second hand knife to practice on. It'll probably already be blunt.

I made a stupid mistake of cutting lemons on a metal counter because I couldn't be bothered to fetch the chopping board. Now my knife feels dull, and the sharpening steel hasn't helped. Do I need to buy a wetstone or am I using the sharpening steel wrong? I'm new to sharpening knives

>>7355290
Any easy way to tell if the knife is wrong? Right now it is noticeable that someone has been honing them but the what I want to figure out is if the edge is gone and if I need someone to correct the blade.

>>7355303
The way a person who knows what he's doing does it is to use the rod, and if the rod doesn't bring about the desired result, you use the stone.

Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely either of you knows how to use the rod. You'll need to fuck up a little before you figure this out, so the sooner you get started with the trial and error, the sooner you'll be able to keep your knives sharp.

p.s. roommates and knife maintenance are not a good combination

>>7355301
Not too worried about messing it up, I'm worried if it already is messed up. It's my set, but I have a few roommates who use it consistently, but I don't have much confidence in their abilities to use the steel rod. If they leave rice in my rice cooker after cleaning it, why should I trust them to actually treat any of my kitchenware right?

>>7355309
Yeah, roommates who think they know everything doesn't really help either. Got a buddy who sharpens his knives with a wetstone, so I'll probably try and bug him to teach me how to sharpen knives when he has some spare time.

I could honestly go on a rant about roommates and kitchen maintenance: egg left on pans from morning breakfast, not cleaning the grease in pans, etc.

Anyways, I digress: thanks for the advice!

>>7355310
doesn't really matter if it's already fucked, cause it's always fixable with time and effort