Mrs. Blue Sky seems to have an affinity for kitchen knives. From the tiniest “cherry tomato slicer” up the “hack your way through deepest, darkest Africa” butcher knives. One set (in the classic psuedo-butcher block stand) has one of those steel rod deals. I’ve used this to put a temporary edge of some of the knives. I would like to be able to actually sharpen the damned things so I don’t reduce an expensive vine-rippened tomato to sauce.
Tips? Equipment needed?
Honing knives properly is time intensive, and a skill that takes some work to learn.
If you have fine knives, and you want to do it right, don’t ever let your knive touch a grindstone, or let them be sharpened by someone else.
The knife sharpener in your set basically abrades the edge of the knife to give it an edge.
To hone properly you will need a set of large honing stones and some spit.
Practice on a cheap knife. Wet the honing stone with spit. Then hold the knife at an 11 degree or so angle, and with reasonable pressure attempt to cut a paper thin slice from the stone.
Repeat this five times, than flip the blade over and do it on the other side.
Repeat this process until you’ve cut a a new angle into the blade (could take hours.)
Then drop down to 3 passes than 2 than 1. Your knife should be close to razor sharp. To get that final edge you need a leather strop which basically polishes the edge.
I like to keep my pocket knife razor sharp. My kitchen knives are sharpened in this fashion once a year and maintained with the supplied sharpener in between.
It will take you a while to develop the skill, but IMO it’s rewarding to have superior cutlery with a superior edge. It’s also safer.
Or go spend about 12 bucks at a sporting goods store and get yourself an Accusharp hand-powered sharpener. This is a simple tool with tungsten carbide hones set at the proper angle for your knife.
Place the knife edge side up on a counter. Draw the tool down the blade 4 or five times and voila! Instant razor sharp knife. This is the only tool I use, and I’ve had them all. It has the added attraction of being easy to cart along in your tackle box on a fishing trip.
As portable and traditional using a whetstone is, I’ve got to second using something that will automatically set the angles for you. It’s hard to get good at using a whetstone without making a burr or otherwise screwing up your blade.
They can be pricey, but a water cooled stone is fabulous. I use it for sharpening knives, plane irons, chisels and any other tool that needs to be sharp.
This is what I use. It’s the third one pictured. It works really well. It has something in it that holds the stone at the proper angle the whole time so you don’t have to worry about messing that up. My dad taught me how to use it and it was fairly simple, plus it works really well.
~Amanda
If you are in a large city there are usually a good knife shop somewhere who does professional knife work. Chicago has Northwest Cutlery (Lake and Halsted?) and a few others.
Learn to use a stone to sharpen as Scylla has written. It can save a knife and keep an edge on it by learning to sharpen and hone. Also watch what the edge can rub against (like other metal in a drawer) and the type of cutting board. We have a glass cutting board that is cute, but seems to be disaster to knives.
I sharpen my own knives for work (cooking) and have had them professionally sharpened once. Wow, they are very good. I probably will go back in a couple of years and have them done again.
Seriously, is there anything Scylla doesn’t know?
Question, those Cheesy Ginsu 2000 blades (if you remember those) how do you sharpen them? My father bought one 10 years ago and its a bit dull. Also how do you shappred Serrated and Bread knifes? In the same manner?
I’m really rather surprised that no one has addressed the proper role of a knife steel.
Steeling realigns the edge and should be used after (“before” - if you store the knife in a drawer where it might bang around) every single use!. No excuses. If you steel your knife every time, you’ll only have to hone your knife every 6-12 months or more, and it’ll still be razor sharp every time.
There are several techniques of steeling. No matter what technique you use, the steel should be longer than the blade.
The one I think is easiest for a beginner is to place the tip of the steel on a counter , and with with the knife at a roughly 22° (your preference may vary) lightly slice the knife aling the top surface of the steel, as if you were trying to shave the most infinitesmally thin slice of the steel. You should pull the blade slightly as you steel, so that each stroke begins at the haft of the blade and ends with the steel at the tip.
After several strokes, do the same with the other side, maintaining the same force and angle. You’ll have to use a little body memory because the edge will now be the rear edge of the blade, and the stroke will in some sense be 'backwards (unless, like me, you’re ambidextrous, and can switch hands and steel from the other side)
They say you should do 10 trokes on each side, then 5 then 2-3 then 1. I’d do that during the first month or two while you’re learning, or when the knife doesn’t feel quite up to par. The rest of the time 3-4 strokes per side is plenty for routine use.
Be aware that is is a religious issue. The most I will say is that this technique is not “wrong”, though many people will insist it is utterly wrong, and may become violent if they catch you, say pulling an edge ‘backwards’ aling the steel or committing other heresies (I, myself, considered this heresy for at least 10-15 years) There are other techniques for knife steeling. Read about them. Personally, I think that you should do whatever seems most comfortable (while yielding results) for you, because otherwise you simply won’t do it regularly. Periodically, ask yourself if the knfife is truly staying sharp, and try another technique if it isn’t. Even if it is still working, you might find a more advanced technique suits you better now. Try new things and grow.
In a pinch, you can also realign the edge with several strokes on an unglazed ceramic edge, like the bottom of some dishes. If you steel regularly, then honing and sharpening may never be necessary (or so infrequently that I consider it a completely different issue)
Honing is, likewise, a religious issue, and I think Scylla’s description is as good as any. I’ve been sharpening my own knives, axes, lawn mower blades, etc. for over 20 years, and though I fancy myself fairly proficient, I definitely don’t do it the same way I did it 10 years ago - or even five - but I don’t think my current method would have suited me as well back then.
IMHO, ** true sharpening (regrinding)** is a serious business and should only be done by a professional - no more than once a year and probably not even that often (unless you absolutely wreck your knife through abuse or chip a blade edge) It’s a last resort and the few bucks you spend getting it done professionally every few years is well worth it, if only to re-establish your baseline, and remind you what the knife should feel like. Not all your knives will need resharpening at once - or even at all. having the whole set re-sharpened is a waste IMHO, and just asking for trouble in many ways (everyone has a bad day or an overeager apprentice)
Not every shop that hangs out its shingle is capable or interested in doing a good job. The guys at the knife shops at the mall (even the upscale cooking shops) often did a such sad job that I could barely delude myself that it was worth it. My current guy asked me to demonstrate my stroke (I actually bring something to slice sometimes) and discusses what he’s going to do. The results when I get them back are so superior to any pricey sharpening job I got at the fancy places that it almost inspires feelings of vengeance.
Serrated knives cant be resharpened. Ginsu? Why even bother, when you can get a new set for $1-2 plus shipping on eBay?
Writing the above made me wonder if one of my chef’s knives couldn’t stand a trip to the sharpener. (It’d been my favorite for years, until I was given a less fancy one which happened to suit me better, last Christmas. It still gets lots of use, but not as much as it once did)
I called and found out my knife guy retired 3 years ago, and his son has taken over. I was deliberately conservative about how well steeling prolongs each honing or sharpening but apparently even I hadn’t realized how long it’d been since I’d needed a sharpening.
I cook pretty much every day. It’s how I wind down after work. To me, the prep is part of the meal.
I agree with what KP said about using a steel to maintain you knives.
My grandfather was a professional butcher for nearly 50 years, and knives were the tools of his trade. Everytime he used a knive, he gave it 2 or 3 passes on the steel. And his knives were always sharp (dangerously so, if you weren’t used to that!).
Once you’ve gone to the expense & trouble of honing or regrinding a knife, a couple of passes on the steel with every use is a real simple & easy way to keep it in shape.
It took me a while but after years of practice, I’ve become very proficient at knife shapening.
“Lefty”
This is a good start:
This is rather timely, as I just got a 10-piece set of Wustoff knives for Christmas. It includes a steel. I was looking around Amazon for knife sharpeners, but I don’t want to ruin my blades. I’m thinking of just keeping them maintained w/ the steel for now and then taking them into a professional sharpener when they need it. But then I’ve also read that a “factory edge” isn’t as sharp as it could be. I’ll check that faq, but what’s the straight dope?
Not very difficult really - with the right equipment it should take anyone with average hand skills an hour or so to learn. I use two Japanese water stones, a 1000 grit and a 2500 grit, followed, if I’m feeling particularly inspired, by lapping with chromium oxide. The stones must be kept flat, i.e. the surfaces should be re-ground occasionally to remove any valleys. The trickiest part is holding the blade at a constant angle to the stone as you grind - there are relatively cheap jigs for sale that help with this, but it can be done by hand.
Here’s a plug for one of my favourite woodworking tool supply companies, Lee Valley, they ship to the U.S. as well as Canada. Their web site is: http://www.leevalley.ca
While some of the prices may seem high, remember that if you are kind to the water stones, you can still be using them 20 years from now. Plus the enjoyment of using extremely sharp knives is worth alot, since it was you that got them that way.