[Syrah]

Gregscc,

As you can see, you've struck gold here.  These guys (lookin' at you Rob and others) seriously know their knives.  I'm a solid amateur chef.  The one thing that always gets me are these people who get expensive knives on their wedding lists etc. and abuse them.  I've cooked in many a friend's kitchen like that.  They come to my house and pick out a basic Henkels that I picked up at Goodwill for $10 and can't believe how well it cuts.

I like that your question was half about sharpening.  I'm a bit of the Jacques Pepin school of knives - give me a garden variety ok quality knife well sharpened and honed, it will beat that $300 Japanese knife stuck in a guy's drawer jangling around with his other metal objects.

I mean, give me a great knife that's also well sharpened, obviously.

I really like my Shun Classic.  I bought a Kohetsu HAP-40 chef's knife.  It is super sharp, but strangely is developing tons of little nicks on the blade.

I sharpen with a Edge Select, not that often, and hone with a very fine ceramic steel.  Any idea why these nicks are developing?  My Shuns and Globals don't do this with the same sharpening procedures.

[Rob Babcock]

How many times have you sharpened the Kohetsu?  HAP40 usually isn't chippy but often you need to sharpen a knife a few times before micro-chipping stops.  I'm not sure why but my theory is that perhaps when the factory edge is applied the very edge is getting overheated.

[Syrah]

Thanks Rob.  My Edge Select is being serviced now, but I'll try another sharpen when it gets back.  I've honed it many times but only sharpened it two or three times.  I'll see if that fixes it.

[S Clark]

Just out of curiosity I put my HAP40 150mm petty under a microscope to look for nicks, but found none.  This gets used mostly to slice tomatoes and peppers.  I've had it a bit more than a year, been sharpened probably 4-5 times, and stays in a block.  Years back I stopped using a steel as I suspected that it caused fine chipping on some blue #2 blades... now I only touch up with grandad's razor stone and finish with leather. 

[gregcss]

The edge pro works great and got a very sharp edge. However, I have decided to go free hand and I am selling my lightly used edge pro with upgraded shapton glass stones and other accessories. Ping me if interested.