SUGGESTIONS
1.Always clean all food, fat and foreign materials from knife before sharpening or resharpening. If soiled, wash the blade before sharpening.
2.Use only light downward pressure when sharpening - just enough to establish secure contact with the abrasive disk.
3.Always pull the blade at the recommended speed and at a constant rate over length of blade. Never interrupt or stop the motion of the blade when in contact with the abrasive disks.
4.Always alternate pulls in right and left slots (of any stage used). Specialized Japanese blades are an exception and are sharpened primarily on one side of the blade.
5.The edge of the knife blade should be maintained while sharpening at a level position relative to the top of the counter or table. To sharpen the blade near the tip of a curved blade, lift the handle up slightly as you approach the tip so that the edge, as it is being sharpened, is maintained "level" to the table.
6.There is no need to use a "sharpening steel" on knives sharpened on the Chef’sChoice® Model 120. However, if you prefer a steeled edge, the Chef’sChoice® Professional Sharpening Station™ Model 130, which incorporates a mini steel in Stage 2, and the
manual SteelPro™ Model 470 are available. Consider resharpening with the manual Chef'sChoice® sharpener Model 450 if you are using knives at a remote location away from electrical power. It is recommended that you keep the Model 120 readily accessible and resharpen often, as described in the Sections above.
7.Used correctly, you will find you can sharpen the entire blade to within 1/8" of the bolster or handle. This is a major advantage of the Chef'sChoice® Model 120 compared to other sharpening methods - especially important when sharpening chef's knives where you need to sharpen the entire blade length in order to maintain the curvature of the edge line. If your chef's knives have a heavy bolster near the handle extending to the edge, a commercial grinder can modify or remove the lower portion of the bolster so that it will not interfere with the sharpening action allowing you to sharpen the entire blade length.
8.To increase your proficiency with the Chef'sChoice® Model 120, learn how to detect a burr along the edge (as described above). While you can sharpen well without using this tech- nique, it is the best and fastest way to determine when you have sharpened sufficiently in Stages 1 and 2. This will help you avoid over sharpening and ensure incredibly sharp edges every time. Cutting a tomato or a piece of paper is a convenient method of checking for blade sharpness.
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