WEATHER STATIONS
When you hold a new Güde knife in your hands, it is a very sharp tool. But the more you use the knife, the more it loses its sharpness. This is the case with all classic knives. That's why knives need the sharpening steel.
Faced with the choice of having a complete knife series but no sharpening steel, or a single knife with a sharpening steel, a more experienced professional will always opt for the second alternative. Because without a sharpening steel, the best knife is useless.
A sharpening steel must be long enough so that you can guide the entire blade cleanly on it. A sharpening steel should have a blade length of at least 26 cm. 32 cm is better - as with the classic Güde sharpening steel.
In addition, the oval sharpening steel is preferable to the round one because it offers a wider contact surface and thus ensures a better sharpening effect. If you try to keep your knife sharp with other sharpening steels, you may soon despair. With good sharpening steels, however, it is child's play to keep knives sharp.
Many professional and amateur chefs have made it a habit, out of love for their tools, to pull the knife over the sharpening steel before every work step and are pleased every time, even after years, when the sharp knife makes every cut seem playfully easy.
If they treat their knives just as professionally before each operation, you will be rewarded with equal pleasure.
Those who do not treat their knives so professionally must reckon with a decline in the cutting durability of their knives. Over the years, the cutting angle and thus the functionality of the knives can be impaired. If necessary, you should send your Güde knives back to where they came from after two, three or five years: To the Güde workshop. We are equipped to restore your knives to their usual cutting ability at short notice.
Many not-so-experienced cooks do not use the sharpening steel at all or not properly because they think it is a science in itself. But it really is child's play to sharpen knives - provided you know how to do it and have practised a bit.
Loosely from the elbow
The professional takes the knife in his right hand and the sharpening steel in his left and alternately pulls the knife over the steel from both sides of the blade about ten times each. It is particularly important to maintain the correct angle (15-20 degrees). To get a feel for the correct angle, every Güde professional sharpening steel comes with an attachment that makes it easy for you to see the angle at which the two knives need to be positioned in relation to each other. Make sure that both sides of the knife are drawn evenly over the entire steel from the shaft to the tip of the knife. Right-handers should hold the sharpening steel in their left hand and the knife in their right. Left-handers should simply swap the two tools.
Of course, a little practice is important. But once you have noticed how quick and easy it is to sharpen a Güde knife with a Güde sharpening steel, you will - like most professional chefs - pull the knife over the steel before each use and only need to spend a few seconds.
