What Is the Best Way to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife?

Even a professional kitchen knife loses its sharpness sooner or later. The question arises: how to sharpen knives at home so the device returns to its working capacity, avoiding injury and ensuring ease of operation? There are different types of Kitchen knives set sharpeners, each of which is suitable for specific situations and has its advantages. Learn how knives are sharpened and made.

Muscat – To maintain a stable connection

This tool resembles a stick with a comfortable handle. It is a long file with oval, round or polygonal sections. The work surface can be smooth, with grain, steel, ceramic, or diamond. This tool is primarily designed to straighten the blade, not to sharpen it. Its job is to smooth out minor imperfections on the cutting edge, so the chef uses a trowel regularly to maintain sharpness. This blade processing allows you to extend the sharpening period, delaying when the knife needs to be fully sharpened.

The application process looks like this:

• With one hand, the cook holds the stick with the head at an angle of about 30 degrees to the horizontal plane.
• With the other hand, push the knife blade firmly along the handle in all directions.
• Finally, the knife is rinsed under running water and dried.

You can check that the knife is sharp enough directly while cutting the food or by doing a “paper test”. The sheet should be cut by weight: if the edges are even, the blade is sharp enough.

Water Stones – For hard blades

Inexpensive, smooth knives made of stainless steel and mild steel can be sharpened with almost any whetstone. And for Japanese knives, the blade of which is made of high hardness and high carbon steel, only hydroponic stones of a certain degree of grain are suitable. Here’s the best way to sharpen a Japanese brand knife.

How to choose a water stone

The specialty of Waterstones is that they remove minimal metal chips from the blade. Before sharpening, the surface is moistened with water (hence the name), and a loose layer forms on it, softening the abrasive effect on the edge. When choosing a product, pay attention to the following parameters:

Natural or synthetic? 

The first is very expensive, but the service life is unlimited, and the abrasive wears out very slowly. A synthetic analog may be as good as the original in terms of practicality, but it is cheaper.

Size 

The larger the blade, the larger the stone will be. The length of the tape should be slightly longer than the blade. As for the thickness, the better the thickness and the longer the product will last.

Grain 

Wheat is one of the most important indicators. To sharpen a knife, you will need at least two levels of medium and coarse for finishing and main sharpening respectively. Perfectionists also use a third option – to polish a fine-grained, sharp blade. The tapes themselves can be different grain size edges or the same edge, then the different monograms are purchased separately. Grain is measured in grains and is indicated by the # or “grain” symbol.

How and How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives: Instructions for Using Water Stones

To solve different problems, whether it is sharpening a blade that is too dull or polishing a cloth that has lost its edge a little, water stones that vary in grain size are needed. In addition to the hardness of the steel, other properties of the blade must be taken into account. Therefore, Japanese knives have a finer edge than European knives. And some eastern models are built on one side, so you only need to sharpen one side to get a messy look on the other. This incision is then removed.

Before sharpening a steel knife, you need to take into account other nuances:

• You can not try too much, it can lead to premature wear of the stone;
• It is important to follow the blade sharpening angle specified by the manufacturer.
• After use, the water stone must be washed and cleaned with foil;
• If the water stone is very thin, it is worth gluing it to a wooden base for ease of use.

The complete cycle of water stone sharpening includes the following steps:

Training

Exercise must be done in a container with water. Each copy is dipped separately so that abrasive particles do not mix. The larger the grain, the longer the soaking time (5-30 minutes). It can be said that the rock is sufficiently saturated with water due to the absence of air bubbles rising to the surface.

Consolidation

It is easy to sharpen the knife with both hands, so it is worth fixing the bar on the table. You can use special tools for this.

Primary Processing

Initial treatment. Made of raw stone (400-700 grains). A suspension is created on the surface of the tape, and first, the parts of the blade with mechanical damage (chips, scratches) are processed. The blade is then visually divided into 3-4 sections, and each section is carefully sharpened at a right angle, pressing it into the surface with a finger. To avoid deviation from the desired sharpening angle, you can use special clips and holders. The blade must be sharpened by moving it in the direction of the arrow. A ridge forms on the back; When the formed side becomes soft, it should be removed.

Main Sharpening

If the knife is not damaged or is very slow, initial treatment may not be necessary. The main sharpening is done on stones of 700-2000, often – 1000 grit. The principle of operation is the same as described in the previous paragraph. In this case, a small burr is established.

Finish sharpening. 

For this step, you will need a fine grit tape with a 2000-5000 grit scale. The purpose of processing is to make the cutting edge perfectly smooth. The steps are the same as those used in the example. In this case, no mess is created.

Polishing 

masters strive for perfect sharpening, so they also polish. A 5000 to 20000 grit stone is suitable for this. At home, it is not necessary, with too many applied movements there is a risk of spoiling the edge and canceling all the efforts made in the previous steps.

Mechanical and Electrical Accelerators

The easiest answer to this question: the best way to sharpen knives at home is to use special sharpeners. The design is a body with slots for the handle and blade. They usually have a predetermined sharpening angle. Inside the groove is an abrasive material suitable for different blade materials: steel and ceramic. When using a mechanical sharpener, the user passes the blade over the scraper several times until it is completely sharpened. Electric sharpeners do all the work for one person, but they must be used as directed to avoid damaging the tip by removing too much metal.

Therefore, a chef’s arsenal should include not only tools but also knife sharpeners to give the cutting edge a functional shape over time. For the daily version, it is worth buying a musat, high quality, and complete sharpening – Waterstones. If you don’t want to master the art of sharpening or spend time on it, you can buy a mechanical or electric sharpener.

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