A few weeks ago some of the cooks and I made a trip to San Francisco to take a sharpening class at The Town Cutler. Galen Garretson owns the small shop at 1005 Bush St. and his passion for knives and cooking is evident the moment you walk in the door. Behind a retractable glass wall are dozens of hand-made knives, ranging for a hundred dollars to several thousand. On the other side of the room are custom made leather honing straps, hand-made knife rolls and sharpening stones. A few times a month he leads a class on sharpening with Japanese water stones. While I have been sharpening knives for years, it was really useful to hear his explanation and see his techniques in person. At one point during the class he hooked a USB microscope up to his computer to analyze the edge on a blade and show us exactly what he was looking for. We walked out of the class with several sharpening stones and a leather strop for the kitchen. The three cooks enjoyed it so much I hope to make a repeat trip later this summer.
A good leather knife roll is the best practice to use when you are out for long journey. It helps as a lot manner as this knife roll contain various pock-ate to carry different size knife's.
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