I Wd like tips on keeping expensive knives sharp

Easy peasy lemon squeezy........

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/carforyourkn1.html

(The homeless x-Marine is farting out loud again.*)

*Not terrorist code!

Tips for keeping knives sharp: get a whetstone, medium grit (1000 grit). The catering supplies shop on Shaftesbury Avenue should do you one or Nisbet's have this one. I can't use a steel effectively, I always end up blunting the knife. A whetstone gives you much more control over the angle you sharpen at. Guide rails can help you get a perfect finish.

The quality of the steel used in making the knife affects the quality and longevity of the sharpened edge. Also too much bad sharpening in the past can destroy your knives' ability to hold and edge so choose your sharpening tool wisely.

Does anyone have any specialist tips on keeping machettes sharp?

I too would want to make sure I had sharp knives handy if N. were my flatmate. For when the Nicole Kidman discussions got out of hand.

Strangely though, I have two favourite knives, one was rather expensive but is beautifully balanced etc. while the other was a fiver, bought from Sainsbury's on the way to ATP this year, it holds a fantastic edge, has just the right amount of flexibility, and if it had a heavier handle it'd be just about perfect.

Strangely though, I have two favourite knives, one was rather expensive but is beautifully balanced etc. while the other was a fiver, bought from Sainsbury's on the way to ATP this year, it holds a fantastic edge, has just the right amount of flexibility, and if it had a heavier handle it'd be just about perfect.

Many, many years ago, like maybe 40 years ago, I found a knife while I was walking through the woods at Boy Scout camp. That's not surprising, there are a lot of knives at Boy Scout camp. But I kept this knife for the next several decades, usually in the car, sometimes in the utility room, mostly (OK, exclusively) for little jobs that called for, well, cutting. Anyway, the knife, a simple single locking blade, finally broke, or broke enough, so I decided to google something like "best budget locking blade," and go figure, knives, pocket or otherwise, are a big thing! I settled on the Columbia River Knife and Tool Drifter, which is well regarded. Came in the mail a few days ago and it's, well, a knife. But I had trouble figuring out the locking component and googled some more, and again, some people are really into knives! Especially opening and closing them quickly, or one-handed, or whatever. And the Columbia River site even divides pocket knives into several categories, from obvious or self-explanatory (hunting and fishing, say) to more ominous selections (like "tactical"), all with names that similarly range from the innocuous to the menacing ("provoke," or "redemption").

Anyway, I just needed a knife to cut things, so the one I got seems fine. But I have a hunch some people collect them like Pokemon cards.

I do have another knife to keep on the car, a Swiss Army knife, and that thing is very useful and, fittingly, not at all threatening.

I also have kitchen knives, but they're not particularly interesting. I sharpen them with a honing steel.

Many years ago I used to belong to a Big Trouble in Little China facebook group, and there was this one member who would DM me to talk about knives, a subject I didn't give a flying fuck about. He was particularly into Cold Steel brand knives, which I guess can actually be good, but have a reputation among knife guys due to their marketing:

Trigger warning for chopping up dead animals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bANlFuNOOyQ

This summer, while on a day trip to the mountains, my daughter got real excited about a knife that she saw in a gift shop, so we bought it and went home and watched a bunch of safety videos on youtube so that she doesn't slice herself or anyone else up with it.

Every time I've tried sharpening a knife, I felt like I wasn't doing it right.

A friend of mine found a Schrade "Uncle Henry" lockback while working in a client's attic and gave it to me... I like it and brandish it but I rarely use it for anything
Looks just like this, I even bought the matching sheath:

https://images.folding-knife.org/l-m/lb8-papa-bear-lockback-folding.jpg

You wave it around menacingly?

Yeah, in the mirror

It's actually different from the one pictured.. it's not a lock-BACK, the lock is a brass plate sandwich between the handles that you depress where the blade swings shut... maybe an older, less safe model

I've had the same model Victorinox swiss army knife since high school.. I think it's called the Spartan. Always in my pocket on a key ring, I feel naked without it. The corkscrew has saved the day more times than I can count

I'm going to move out of my shared house soon and finally get my own place. Nearly everything my housemate and I share in this house belongs to me except, that is, for the kitchen knives.
Therefore I've decided I'm going to gift myself a decent couple of kitchen knives for daily use in cooking. Nothing too fancy, but also not totally shit. Any tips, ILX?

I have two Henckels 4-Star knives that I really love, a 6" utility and an 8" santoku. The 6" is 25+ years old, both great workhorses, take and hold edges well, not too expensive (in the 90s they weren't anyway).

I have some older Ontario Knife Co. and Chicago Cutlery knives in my collection... American-made and pretty good quality