The granton edge blades like that scimi are great for breaking large cuts, also very useful for slicing beef liver where the width and length of the blade helps keep a straight even slice, and the grantons prevent binding.
It became way more of a fad, though, being applied to every blade that could take it. That garasuki I linked earlier is a prime example: A poultry boning knife has absolutely no need for that treatment!
I had one Chef make fun of my hollow ground Santoku (Wustoff) way back when I was in culinary school, but that knife (style, designed primarily for vegetables but also multipurpose) was excellent at slicing mushrooms and large squash for the same reasons I mentioned above regarding the Beef Liver.
I ended up replacing that Santoku with the same brand I use now, the Messermeister San Moritz Elite, and it has the granton edge as well.
When I started in Culinary School, they had just changed over from Wustoff kits to Chef Cutlery. Pure cr@p, soft steel. You would roll the edge on that just chiffing basil.
Arguably, these were good knives for a production establishment because they were cheap and you could quickly run them on a diamond steel to keep them sharp. But that was a trap.
Diamond steels are like crack cocaine to your knives. Once you use it, you can't put it down. I've seen a lot of knives destroyed by diamond steels. I used to do that for my poultry breaking knife... that old Chef Cutlery 8" cooks knife. Over the years I probably stripped away about 1/4" of most of that blade, to the extent it was only really usable as a club.
On the other hand, those Forschner/Victorinox/Dexter knives seem to respond well to diamonds... but these are usually relatively inexpensive knives, too.
Going back to sharpening them, I used to have a set of Global branded stones (300/1000 combo, and King 10,000). I do not know the material. This is what I used when I tried putting an edge back on some of those knives. It was way more struggle than it was worth. Where I would put a polished edge on my better knives, these things just resisted any effort, so I stopped trying. Easier by far to replace them. That's just me, perhaps.
Anyway, I met one guy in Sonoma County that used to sharpen knives. Had a mobile trailer that had two walls done with countertops mounted with a series of low RPM belt grinders, each sporting a different grit. Depending on what was required, he started at one end and worked his way along the line of machines. When finished, somehow the edges looked better still than brand new. The winery I was Exec at, the owners brought me their knives... beat to hell and beyond; not an edge to be found anywhere.
This guy set to work on them and when he was finished, I checked a few. Rarely have I seen such a perfectly keen edge put on knives. This guy was a true craftsman. He closed up shop not too long after and I have yet to find a shop that can come anywhere close to matching his work.
If you ever see a grinding wheel in a knife shop... Walk away.
Recently, I picked this up from Amazon:
...along with a stone fixer.
(I used to use a tile with sandpaper to flatten my stones.)
My other set had gotten too thin, and a friend I lent them too cracked my 10,000 grit King.
The honey-do list is long, and sharpening the household knives is on that list. I keep telling the lady that I won't sharpen them unless she starts taking better care of them. Wash and dry after use, put away in the block... Instead I find dried up garlic superglued to the edge... all manner of things... just lying on the counter (at least I got her to stop laying them in the sink!). One time I went to put dishes away and I found the 8" Chef on edge resting against the business end of a box grater!
And she wonders why I won't sharpen them. SMH.
