Yep, in terms of practicality, I have found that using a chef's knife and doing the "stab deep then slice in a downward pivoting motion" works well on melons and squash. It means passing up an excuse to wield a cleaver, but it gets the job done.
Those electric grinding-wheel sharpeners are pretty nifty! Some of the "wet stone" ones with the horizontal wheel, a little water pump, and blade-angle guides are full-on professional sharpening systems. They're not cheap, and they run the risk of grinding away too much of the blade awfully fast if you don't have a light touch and/or you use too coarse a wheel, but they really are amazing machines.
The plain ol' whetstone is a classic for a reason. It takes a bit of practice to get the angle nice and consistent (though I'd say that's easier on a stone than it is on a steel, especially with a nice big stone that sits solidly on the table while you work) but there's no fussy setup, you can get decent quality whetstones in a variety of grits for not a lot of money, and after a very reasonable amount of practice you can use 'em to sharpen anything from a fillet knife to a log-splitting axe. Personally I would use light mineral oil if you don't want to bother with specific honing oil... 3 in 1 works, but it's not exactly food-safe (which really isn't a problem as long as you wash your kitchen knives after sharpening) and I find it has a pretty obnoxious engine-oil smell that'll continue emanating from the stone for ages. The Lansky kit I was recommending is honestly nothing more than a few different grits of whetstone that come with a clamp to hold the knife and a little guide to keep the angle just right on each stroke so as to cut down on the learning curve and make it easier to get good consistent results.
I think the only sharpeners that I would rate "No! Stay away!", particularly for a beginner, are those tungsten V-notch things where you plunk the knife in and drag it through two or three times and that's it. They peel off an alarming amount of steel with each stroke, many of them don't offer different edge-angle options for fillet knife vs chef's knife vs pocket knife, and a little wobble in your stroke instantly does a startling amount of damage to the edge. They're cheap and simple and they'll put an edge on your knife RIGHT NOW, but wow they reduce the life expectancy of a knife dramatically. (As a first step in rehabilitating a really damaged blade they can be useful, but for regular upkeep sharpening? Just no.)
I definitely feel you on the meat cleaver/June Cleaver thing! Almost every time I hear the word cleaver, my brain helpfully mashes up both of those meanings, so I get this vivid image of June Cleaver in her perfect 50's outfit and hair, with a forced plastic smile, charging out of her perfect suburban kitchen wielding a blood-spattered meat cleaver. Apparently this connection is not the obvious Photoshop-fodder I thought it would be, as an image search for +"June Cleaver" +"meat cleaver" came up with zero hits. Internet, I am disappoint.
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Date: 2018-10-02 06:37 pm (UTC)Those electric grinding-wheel sharpeners are pretty nifty! Some of the "wet stone" ones with the horizontal wheel, a little water pump, and blade-angle guides are full-on professional sharpening systems. They're not cheap, and they run the risk of grinding away too much of the blade awfully fast if you don't have a light touch and/or you use too coarse a wheel, but they really are amazing machines.
The plain ol' whetstone is a classic for a reason. It takes a bit of practice to get the angle nice and consistent (though I'd say that's easier on a stone than it is on a steel, especially with a nice big stone that sits solidly on the table while you work) but there's no fussy setup, you can get decent quality whetstones in a variety of grits for not a lot of money, and after a very reasonable amount of practice you can use 'em to sharpen anything from a fillet knife to a log-splitting axe. Personally I would use light mineral oil if you don't want to bother with specific honing oil... 3 in 1 works, but it's not exactly food-safe (which really isn't a problem as long as you wash your kitchen knives after sharpening) and I find it has a pretty obnoxious engine-oil smell that'll continue emanating from the stone for ages. The Lansky kit I was recommending is honestly nothing more than a few different grits of whetstone that come with a clamp to hold the knife and a little guide to keep the angle just right on each stroke so as to cut down on the learning curve and make it easier to get good consistent results.
I think the only sharpeners that I would rate "No! Stay away!", particularly for a beginner, are those tungsten V-notch things where you plunk the knife in and drag it through two or three times and that's it. They peel off an alarming amount of steel with each stroke, many of them don't offer different edge-angle options for fillet knife vs chef's knife vs pocket knife, and a little wobble in your stroke instantly does a startling amount of damage to the edge. They're cheap and simple and they'll put an edge on your knife RIGHT NOW, but wow they reduce the life expectancy of a knife dramatically. (As a first step in rehabilitating a really damaged blade they can be useful, but for regular upkeep sharpening? Just no.)
I definitely feel you on the meat cleaver/June Cleaver thing! Almost every time I hear the word cleaver, my brain helpfully mashes up both of those meanings, so I get this vivid image of June Cleaver in her perfect 50's outfit and hair, with a forced plastic smile, charging out of her perfect suburban kitchen wielding a blood-spattered meat cleaver. Apparently this connection is not the obvious Photoshop-fodder I thought it would be, as an image search for +"June Cleaver" +"meat cleaver" came up with zero hits. Internet, I am disappoint.