A life of a blade

This thread will be about my workhorses - which basically means all of my knives. To be precise: how hard is the life of a blade and what, and how often it takes, to maintain that sweet performance.

You own 20 Shigs and none of them ever see use? Click "go back" please. This thread is mainly about the pros who smash through food every day, and I dont even talk about some sugary dogs, I say people who are happy to start their career as a kitchen porters, then jump to some staff food, sleep on the street, cook their arse off, start their shift with peeling 100 kgs of onions and then chopping up half of it just to begin the day nicely. I talk cooks, not stars that talk much rubbish but cannot wash the station properly after "creating".
If you, like me, started your day getting told off for everyone in the kitchen and was pushing alone on a veg that usually houses two or three, then this is for you.

If you are like that, then you will feel me.
The rest of you guys, please take it with a grain of salt and remember - I dont preach. I dont get to think about it cause I read some stuff on the forums. All this is coming purely from me using lots and lots of time and steel and grinder belts to keep my knives on the top of their game.

Why do I want to talk about it, and why would you like to read about it? Simply cause it can give you a perspective, cause I get the feeling that forums preserve the thinking "I touch up every week and my blade just flies through universe by itself"

So, I give you this, the prime example of hardcore:



This is mine, two year old, itiniminniemanniemoemon.

For those who bought the first ones Maxim sold, they were crazy huge and tall. Also had some big arse bellies.
Mine was 54 mm tall or something. Now, it is somwhere between 46 and 47mm. So what has happened?

Well usually this blade required sharpening two times a week. After about 10 sessions you get the feeling that some of the performance is lost. Even if you never thinned a knife you can get the idea of the blade being clunkey or something similar. You might not even associate that with the thickness, for the start.
I did.

About every tenth session you have to thin your blade - or send it to someone who does that for you - theres no other way around it. If you neglect the knife badly - and say do the thinning after 30 sessions - you will spend much more time doing the thinning itself.
That being said, when I did my trials at the best-in-town - I would wake up half an hour earlier - which means at 05:30 and spend some small minutes sharpening the knife so its perfect and ready for my day which involved slicing 3-4kgs of banana shallots as finely as I could.
Which is very personal - this for me means its between me and the shallot. I do that with passion cause I want to cut them really thinly, layer after layer. Not to post pictures on facebook. Not to have "i chop shallots" tatooes. To think I did what I could.

But lets get back to the sharpening. So after a week sharpening every day, I would have to thin. And so I did. And I would continue if I had to. Which would mean that this knife would loose about a centimeter a year. Which in turn means you get 4 years of service max outta it. Not too bad at 50 dollars a year.
As to the cost of the time involved - if you keep your discipline and routines, it would mean about 70 minutes a week x48 [theres some holiday in a year] gives you 56 hours a year. If youre on the line 16 years, you will max needs 4 knives which cost a total of 800 dollars.

However, if you do that every fifth week, sharpening twice a week, you can really extend the life of your knife, and this mean more money again in your pocket. And the skill is an investment in itself, truth?
Im not sure how would that work with a more resistant steel, as it would keep longer, but also require more time in thinning and day to day life.
Is it really worth it, Im not sure.

So to summarise, please, cooks, if you buy a knife, think thinning. Think maintenance. I love to meet people who take care of their tools. Needless to say, I know a handful of those in person. I started to think that in some extent what you are using is not that important - its how you are, and what can you get out of it.



Look at that. It tells a story. And keeps on delivering. I love it. Of course now this one is retired and sits at home. Which means it doesnt get very old. Its conserved, like a veteran haha but it still know how to bite.

So, what im saying is, buy better food not better knives!

 

Knives are part of makin' the bread and butter for me as well.
Do prep 20k+ stuff on an average day + other bits of work, but i keep rotating my knives, so none of them get utterly worn.
Tend to use Hiromoto AS gyuto on harder veg and my Tojiro DP gyuto on more reactive veg/fruit and raw meat.
Got other ones to put in the rotation just because "Varietas Delectat", as the ancient romans would have said.
Do the full sharpening usually on my days off. By the end of the day i grab the 8k white Naniwa if needed, but otherwise just a bit of touch up on the leather strop.
Don't really take pictures of my used knives, i bet you all can imagine some patina and light scratches.

 

Here's my Misono that was a 240 Gyuto but has been around the block and then some. Still love it and use it as a line knife now (read doesn't see a ton of use). Cuts like a champ.