# Kitchen Knife Maintenance **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2020, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-knife-maintenance/915174 "2020-07-13T04:33:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-knife-maintenance/915174/1 "2020-07-13T04:33:05Z")
Whilst cutting up some veggies for a meal today, I noticed that my knife was a bit dull. Having started cooking more fresh foods lately, rather than frozen or boxed stuff, I’ve been paying attention more to my knives. Now, I don’t have any high end expensive knives, a (what I think of as crap) cutco chef’s knife, a better (for my style) cheapo but solid and decently built chef’s knife, bread knife, paring knife and a couple steak knives. Before, I never really gave much thought to sharpening, I just gave them to my brother who works at a knife factory to sharpen for me, now and then. But now I find myself needing them sharpened more often, since I’m using them more, so I bought a knife sharpener with 2 coarse and 2 fine stones set at an angle and a set up for sharpening shears. Plus a honing steel. Thinking about it, how many strokes per set of stones, how many strokes on the honing steel? Is there a recommended number? I typically do 10, 10, and 10. Not because of any knowledge about sharpening, but because it’s easy and it seems to work. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-knife-maintenance/915174/2 "2020-07-13T06:49:54Z")
I think you are not supposed to use the steel immediately after sharpening or honing. If you think about it, steeling is supposed to re-align or straighten a curled edge, so nothing good will come of trying to steel a fresh razor edge. However, steeling 5–10 strokes before use will mean you will not need to hone the knife that frequently. The recommended number of strokes on a stone required to hone a dull blade may depend on how hard the alloy is, at least according to one instruction sheet I saw, but your 10 strokes at each grit level sounds reasonable, especially since you can look at the edge and you say it gets nice and sharp that way. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-knife-maintenance/915174/3 "2020-07-13T14:31:14Z")
Most people tend to be too gentle when using a steel. A few firm strokes, followed by a few light strokes will give the best results. Full-on sharpening (re-edging) doesn’t need to be done each time. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-knife-maintenance/915174/4 "2020-07-14T00:17:35Z")
Yeah, I try to give any knife a honing on the steel before I use it to help keep the edge, but lately GFVader and I have been making and eating many meals together and having such a good time that I’ve been rather neglectful about it.