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Believe it or not it’s raining in San Diego. Supposed to rain for most of the next week and we may get double our annual rainfall for the year in one week. Can’t wait to see fat it does to my plants that being said I moved my cook indoors so it’s a non KK cook, but good old fashioned roasted chicken. Rubbed with melted butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic & rosemary cooked over red, yellow & purple potatoes with carrots and sweet onions. Dusted with truffle salt, pepper, thyme, garlic and rosemary started it off at 425 for 30 minutes then brought it down to 350 for 60 minutes. Looks great, house s sells great. I’ll use one of the extra chickens to make some chicken soup tomorrow to eat during the rainstorms this week

Our food discovery of 2020 was just how much we like duck breast. While I was KK-less over the summer I found that cooking duck breast over my Solo Bonfire stove worked very well. There was limited smoke and what smoke there was stayed outdoors. The fat collecting channel also felt like a great innovation. It was so good that I thought this would be my go to method for all time. Then my 16" KK arrived and I tried the duck breast out in there with good results. This week I thought I would look up alternative recipes for duck breasts and, alongside a great recipe for blueberry mostarda, I found a great method for cooking duck breasts. It was in the book "Root to Leaf" https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0062283693/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_bi-cGbYZTK42X. Super simple. Put your duck breast skin side down in a cold pan. Cook on a medium-low heat for about 12-14 minutes, I did 15. Then turn over and cook flesh side down in the rendered fat for 2 minutes, I did 3. Rest for 5 minutes. So simple. No smoke. Indoors and warm. Done. My new go to method.

Gonna try to reverse sear a tomahawk ribeye tonight! Currently lightly glazed with olive oil and a decent dusting of Himalayan salt. I’m a little nervous and excited, fingers crossed!

@tekobo’s husband here. I’m getting to grips with the K03. I think I’ve done about 10 knives now, from a 10” flexible fish filleting knife (12 degrees sharpening angle) to a heavy, thick meat hatchet (27 degrees). The system makes it much easier to achieve a consistent, predictable, razor-sharp edge along the whole cutting edge. This will bring some expensive and much loved knives back to life for us, as well as making them safer to use. I have tried both the diamond matrix and smaller boride stones, both work well. The main difference I noticed was that the diamond stones worked faster on the coarser re-profiling cuts. Both were easy to wet by keeping the not-in-use ones in a tray of water and dipping a finger into the tray to re-wet every few minutes. I can see what @Syzygiesmeans about choosing how you want to miss, but when the stones get worn enough to make a difference, I reckon the angle adjustment (aided by the included digital protractor) is simple enough and fine enough to compensate very easily. Also, once I have the knives “dialled in” and have a note of their bevel angles, I won’t need to use the coarse stones for routine maintenance. There is also an adaptor to allow grinding of a convex edge which I have not yet investigated. So far very happy, and the paper-thin test cuts on a soft tomato, plus a couple of perfect fillets taken from a Brill this evening are making me smile. 😀

Looks delicious Troble even if you did cook indoors lol

My husband, also known as @Sharky, is in the middle learning his way around this piece of kit as I type. The whetstones are sitting in a bowl of water and he also moistens the whetstone that is in use at intervals. I read your post out to him @Syzygies. He has some thoughts and says he will post later. I think he is having too much fun to stop now. I started this journey because @5698k's post about the TSPROF was the next one up when I logged back on to the forum that day. It caught my imagination and I passed the details on to The Husband who dived head first into the rabbit hole. It also helped that @Braai-Q said he had been considering TSPROF as his next choice. Choices. We looked at the cheaper Blitz model first. It had some limitations but was initially The Husband's preferred choice. When he provided a position report I really liked the idea of being able to sharpen other tools, using an adaptor, on the K03. He totted up the cost of buying the specific options that we wanted and found a) that it was quite high and b) that a number of the options were not immediately available. We had originally laughed at the sales blurb that read: "Cannot choose between all TSPROF K03 sharpening systems, but still looking for the best expansions, sharpening stones and accessories? If so the K03 Expert Complete Kit is the best choice for you!" Ridiculous! We thought. The fact is, the complete kit wasn't much more expensive than assembling the options that we wanted and all the parts we wanted were available as part of the complete kit. So we bought it from these guys in the Netherlands: https://www.knivesandtools.co.uk/en/pt/-tsprof-k03-expert-complete-kit-sharpening-system-ts-k03200410.htm Yes, Mark did hear about the Kadet but it not available yet and we were happy with our choice. As I said to @Braai-Q yesterday, our problem is that we have no adult supervision in our house. All good.

Wow, that looks deeelicious.

Hahaha! Well said. Sent from my SM-G973W using Tapatalk

It's like Norad's Santa tracker. But for adults. And better.

Yes, thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely get a flattening stone to maintain the whetstones - it’s a bit weird that the “comes with everything” K03 package doesn’t include that. The convex adapter (I assume) will cut a curved edge profile on a knife - probably more for hunting type knives which we don’t use too much in the urban part of Southern England where we live. 🤣. I think some Japanese knives have a widening angle towards the edge too but I realise now (thanks to the new toolkit) that I have a LOT to learn about knives. The instructions with the system are woeful but I have found some useful YouTube channels - KnifeKrazy has been the most helpful but I’d welcome any other suggestions...

As your stones wear, they typically do so concave, which is where inconsistencies come into play. There are several methods of flattening, a common one is simply a diamond flattening stone. Get one of these, and you’ll extend the useful life of your stones dramatically. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Returned to the scene of the crime today for the release of the next beer in the series. Lunch was Vladimir Poutine (beef stroganoff with cheese curds on house made french fries) and Green Dragon (New Zealand Pilsner). Followed by "dessert" - Double Maple Coffee Gazprom on the left and Caramel Pecan Gazprom on the right. The Gazprom is a maple syrup infused Russian Imperial Stout finished in Bourbon barrels that the brewery has been doing for a number of years now and it's always released in January. These 2 beers are "one-offs" of the base with the addition of extra maple syrup and cold brewed coffee in the one, and; caramel and pecan additions to the other (first year for this one and it's amazing!) It's all part of Barrel-aged January at the brewery. The last one in the series is being released this Wednesday - Percussive Maintenance - Gazprom with shaved and toasted coconut (like a macaroon.) You KNOW that I'll be there!

ETA of Matt Black is Wednesday !!

Now, I thought that picture looked a bit familiar Tony ......

Love the colour on those chickens.

Yeah what Mac said!

That's a beautiful kit. I'm into water stones (and their feel just after "cleaning" by flattening with a diamond stone). I'd be seriously interested if the TSPROF was compatible with keeping a water stone wet. There's a logical trap you can easily avoid, by tweaking the angle control as you work. The assumption is that knives need to be sharpened at a fixed angle, and that people are no good at keeping a fixed angle without a guide. The risk here is that the guide is too good at keeping a fixed angle. A standard question in virtually all situations is "which way do you want to miss?" I learned this as a kid: One bushwhacks towards a camp on a stream by aiming to one side, so when you reach the stream, you know which way to turn. Here, on the finer stones, you don't want to roll away from the edge of the blade, polishing the shoulder rather than refining the edge. It is however ok to roll a tiny bit forward onto the edge. For a high end wood plane like a Lie-Nielsen, one sharpens so frequently that people favor two angle steps as a matter of efficiency. The idea of a primary bevel and a secondary bevel is explained in their Sharpening Instructions PDF. Woodworking is more demanding than cooking; it's always interesting to learn from communities where the ideas really matter. When people sharpen free-hand, we do it by feel, a multi-sensory version of listening. We have no idea what's really happening to our angle control, but chasing the proper feel as one progresses through finer stones works in practice. We're all riding a bit up onto the edge, rather than polishing the shoulder. This is the real reason I like to flatten my stones so often: a ridiculously clean stone has a feel that provides better feedback. Ok, so what happens using a TSPROF, if you're not tweaking angles like a guitar player bending notes? At first, you're not riding up onto the edge at all. This is more work, but the TSPROF is so good at work that you won't notice. But over time, the coarser stones wear more quickly than the finer stones. They'll look the same thickness but they're not! Geometry question: Which way does this miss? Will you tend to ride up onto the shoulder or the edge as you move to finer stones? This becomes clear if you imagine exaggerating the effect. What happens to angle as the stone gets thicker? One can offset this by tweaking the angles as one works. There doesn't have to be a 5 degree difference in bevels, like for wood planes. A small fraction of a degree makes a big difference.

I am very pleased to have benefitted from your collective experience on this thread. After a couple of days of research and debate here we dived in and bought the TSPROF K03 sharpening system. The constraints on length of blade with the cheaper options and the fact that this system can also be used to sharpen our secateurs, chisels and my sewing scissors clinched it for us. The kit arrived in a neat box yesterday and The Husband got it out to use immediately. My crude assessment is that "all" that this does is a) helps you to choose the angle at which you will sharpen your knife and b) locks your knife into position so that you are able to apply the whetsone across your blade at that consistent angle. I think this means that you don't develop the skill and feel required to sharpen a knife by hand on a whetstone without any assistance but it does free you up to focus on your knife, the specific results you want and how to achieve them with the various stones and angles available to you. The Husband practised on an old Kasumi knife that we had consigned to our knife drawer in the basement. It came out beautifully. I used it to cut up a pile of post juicing orange shells for the compost heap. The ease with which the blade glided through the rubbery skin and thick shells was just amazing. Very little pressure. It made me realise how much effort I had previously been using to cut things up in the kitchen, even with my regular use of the steel. Do we really need this piece of kit? Probably not. We could have achieved something that was close enough if we had only used the whetstones that we already had more often. Am I pleased that we bought this piece of kit? Absolutely. The absence of effort when it came to cutting stuff up felt life changing. Not planning to buy any new knives here. Will be looking to get to know the ones that we have better. And yes, I am scared of my now very sharp knife. I need to relearn how to handle it in use and when washing. Super happy.

This paragraph wins the thread for me. I've seen charts but this is an opinionated but probably right analysis of what the charts are trying to say.

Just keep bumping up my content scores! 😛😛😛😛😛😛😘😘😘😘😘😘😘 this is all great info and why I love this board. So much knowledge by this collective group. @5698k no need to apologize I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this education on knives. Thank you for your contributions

It was actually said tongue in cheek, I didn't mean for it to be taken literally. 🙂

All forum posts on all forums are for the future benefit of others; this isn't a private help desk. I've talked before over a thousand people multiple times, and given advice to others on doing so: It isn't about you! In pre-pandemic times, people would gather together like wolves in a hole, and have someone stand in front. It's a role. It's easier to play this role if one sees it as such. The OP is the conversation starter, that's all. Thank you! Others will find this great thread, and learn what they need from it.

Great to have your knowledge and passion here Robert. I wouldn't apologise for knowing your subject. Hope I don't annoy you with stupid questions!

Spun some chook legs Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

Wustof knives are excellent knives as far as German knives go. German steel is softer, which makes them easier to maintain, and sharpen. You’ll never get a German steel knife as sharp as a Japanese knife, but it’s much easier to sharpen to get back to its best. They’re better for hard jobs that are more of a hacking motion. There’s been posts about Japanese steel, white and blue are the most prevalent in the carbon steel world, the difference is basically hardness. Blue and white are different..no one is “better”than the other. Blue is harder, holds its edge longer, assuming everything is equal, it’s also more brittle, making it a bit more fragile. White steel is a bit softer, less brittle, but also easier to sharpen to a screaming edge, to the point that there are plenty of forgers that will only use white steel. I must apologize, I’m more into knives that many would never care to have, so often I comment on things that many don’t care to venture towards, but I do have thoughts if anyone cares to go down this rabbit hole. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Although you can spend £400- 500 on a Japanese knife, you don’t have to. I just paid £75 for this petty Tanaka knife. https://www.knivesandstones.com.au/products/tanaka-ginsan-nashiji-petty-120mm-with-ebony-handle If you look around you can buy good Japanese knives made from top steel ( blue super) for £100. UK, USA, Canada, Australia. Dive into the rabbit hole mate, you will love it. I maintain that all sharp knives are good knives, the question is how long do they stay satisfactorily sharp? I don’t mind drawing along a steel mid preparation, I don’t want to have to sharpen mid prep. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think like most things with a following, this a rabbit hole topic! A bug? No, that's an Easter Egg. Well done for finding it, just don't tell anyone else and spoil the surprise. At what point does patina add value to a knife? Or does it ever? In classic cars, original paint and patina are authenticity and are sought after. Same applies to guitars. The concept of 'relicing' a guitar is something that I just don't understand. Well, I do but I don't and wouldn't pay for it. Maybe there is an opportunity to sell authentic patina - I'm happy to offer my services free of charge. It'll take about 2-5 years per knife but I can guarantee the authentic signs of use when returned...