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Comment by appcustodian2 | Hacker News Reader

just want to point out that maintaining a knife is a whole hobby that requires a time investment of learning the skill and storage of additional tools and materials. i'm surprised at all the apparent knife enthusiast posts trashing this device. I take my victorinox (which is absolutely nothing special and surprises me that it costs $60+ dollars) to the farmers market for sharpening but sharpness isn't even the problem. Potatoes in particular stick to the blade like a strong magnet and it takes me 5x longer to prep. I enjoy cooking but not chopping endless veggies and i'm hoping this thing can carry some of that weight without looking like i'm using an oversized electric toothbrush.

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> just want to point out that maintaining a knife is a whole hobby that requires a time investment of learning the skill and storage of additional tools and material.

You're right that's a hobby. But the hobby's definition of "proper maintenance" and what it "requires" is basically just people nerding out about things that don't matter the slightest in the real world.

To maintain a kitchen knife so that it cuts a tomato without squishing it, you don't need a book on knife science. Further, that nerdery is probably actively harmful, because instead of simple solutions, people are told they need an inspection microscope and a variety of jigs and other implements. So they buy an objectively bad electric sharpener and move on.

Also: use serrated knives for tomatoes. They don't squish.

> just want to point out that maintaining a knife is a whole hobby that requires a time investment of learning the skill and storage of additional tools and materials.

Properly maintaining a knife does. Most people don't need to properly maintain a knife. You can do it good enough with a honing steel and some crappy automatic sharpener.

I enjoy cooking good food for my family and myself, but cooking is not a hobby of mine. So if my knife can slice a tomato without crushing it, then that's good enough for me. I don't need to shave a tomato so thin that the slice is transparent.

Does the crappy automatic sharpener work? Well the knife cuts better after I use it, so yes, it does.

Yes as I mentioned I use often-recommended knives (victorinox, shun) and have them occasionally sharpened professionally and at least in my case the ultrasonic knife appears to solve some very real problems that knife maintenance cannot.

it takes no skill to make a blunt knife sharper. To make a sharp knife sharper, sure, but in a good vast majority of home knife situations, just doing anything with any flat sharpening surface is an improvement.

I can attest to this as I have improved knifes day one of trying despite my lack of any sort of skill

Is 10min per knife every 3-6 months a hobby?

Because that is just general maintenance to me.

If you don't put your good knives in the dishwasher and wash/dry them right after usage, they'll last a long time.

You need one diamond two-sided plate, holder for it, and a stropping leather. All of that can be bought for $60 on Amazon.

This is enough to get your knives to be sharp enough to shave hair.

Time investment is more individual. It took me about 3 hours to get good enough.

Sharpening a knife to r/sharpening standards is hard. But just honing frequently and occasionally using a cheap sharpener will get you further than 95% of home chefs.

I decided it was hard and never got very good at sharpening. Now I've got a Chef's Choice XV and my knives are sharper than they've ever been.

my new favorite kitchen gadget is small deli slicer, $75 on amazon.

minor pain to clean, but MUCH faster than a knife, totally safe (pusher keeps fingers away from the blade) and you get precise thickness cuts every time, which means they cook precisely too.

Especially good for vegetables like potatoes, onion, eggplant, etc.

Is it worth the cleaning hassle? I often avoid using a mandolin or food processor just because cleaning my knife is so much easier.

for firm things its fine, clean the moment the work is done and it shouldn't be much effort, and having nice consistent slices feels good too

For anything other than ideally firm things, the cleanup can be a nightmare

I did this too! I love being able to buy a large chunk of deli meat and slice off what I need at whatever width I want.

Home cook deli slicers are the most slept on, underrated pantry upgrade.

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