Knife sharpening is a great skill to have and with time and practice we think you will be happy with the outcome of your blades when you learn how to sharpen properly. Even with consistent at home knife sharpening, we still recommend you bring your knives to a professional from time-to-time to have them tuned-up. Much like visiting the dentist, even though you brush your teeth everyday and do a good job at home, at least once or twice a year you need to see a professional to have them inspected and thoroughly taken care of.
ALL knives will benefit from regular maintenance and routine sharpening, whether you do it yourself or bring them to a knowledgeable professional. The frequency of which you need to maintenance and sharpen your knife depends on how often you use it and the knife itself. About Us. Fun fact: Whetstones aren't actually named for the fact that most are used wet—"whet" is actually just an old word for "sharpen".
If your whetstone needs to be soaked, submerge it in water until it's completely saturated and there are no bubbles coming out of it, 5 to10 minutes. To use it, hold the knife at a degree angle against the whetstone, and gently drag each side of the knife against it a few times.
Most whetstones have both a "coarse-grind side" and a "fine-grind side"—start with the coarse side if your knife is especially dull, then repeat the process on the fine-grind side. If you already sharpen your knife yearly and hone it regularly, you can go straight to the fine-grind side. If the whetstone seems to be drying out as you use it, just rub some more water on it and continue on.
This tool is a quick-fix solution for a dull knife—just press the blade of the knife into the coarse side, pull in in towards you a few times, then move on to the fine side. Learning how to use a knife sharpener may come in handy in a pinch, but it's not the best possible solution.
Flat and smooth surfaces produce less damage when cutting, they also give a more accurate cut. Flatness is a function of the sharpening process and the method used to move the edge against the abrasive, the more accurate this is the flatter the surface. The surfaces must meet at zero radius. This means that there is not the slightest rounding where the surfaces meet. Any sort of radius indicates a degree of bluntness and the larger the radius the blunter the edge is.
This is what happens as edges wear, the meeting point that was an apex becomes rounded, that is blunt. The angle and edge thickness are suitable for the intended purpose. Angle and edge thickness work together and both must be correct if the edge will perform its intended task. A very acutely angled blade will be very sharp however it will not be very strong and may chip depending on the angle and blade composition.
The ideal is to use the most acute angle that will not fail in normal use. A 40 degree included angle on a 1. However, the 1. This phenomenon is due to repeated sharpening dealing only with the cutting bevel which effectively increases edge thickness over time. Edge thinning is an important part of sharpening. Senior Editor for Make: I get ridiculously excited seeing people make things.
I just want to revel in the creativity of the masses! My favorite thing in the world is sharing the hard work of a maker. I'm a software engineer with too many hobbies and a firm believer that there's not enough hours in the day. Our websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience. Some of these are essential for the basic functionalities of our websites.
In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. It's no secret that keeping your knives in optimal condition is going to require routine maintenance.
Most people are aware that they should be sharpening their knives, but what does it actually mean to sharpen a knife? And what about honing? If you're in the majority that doesn't know the difference between these two processes, keep reading. Honing and sharpening have one major similarity: They are both ways to keep your knives sharp and effective.
But they are not the same thing, despite the fact that the terms are often conflated. To understand the difference, you first need to understand why knives get dull. In other words, a knife that needs to be sharpened is one that no longer has "teeth. Honing is just maintaining an edge that is already sharp.
A honing steel pushes the edge of the blade back into alignment.
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