How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife Easy Ways

How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife? Easy Ways

Every cook knows the frustration of cutting with a blunt or dull knife. Using a blunt or dull knife is harmful because you have to put more force and are more likely to slip and cause injury while chopping or cutting. That’s why you should keep your knives sharp.

Where a dull knife can slip and make you injure, a sharp knife actually reduces the risk of accidentally injuring your finger by providing you a better grip, it efficiently sinks exactly what you are cutting. It provides you with more control over what your blade is doing and can even improve your knife technique.

Whether you’ve invested in a premium knife set or have a few favorites that you’ve been using for years, it’s important to take care of your knives to keep them sharp. In this article, I will tell you a simple step-by-step routine to help you out to keep your knives sharp by using various methods.



How do Professional Chefs sharpen their Knives?

How do Professional Chefs sharpen their Knives

Professional chefs sharpen their knives by using several methods of sharpening knives: One way is with a whetstone that can be used to sharpen the blades, on the other hand, with an electric knife sharpener that uses rotating abrasive wheels and an oscillating motor to remove the metal particles from the Crush blade.

But most professional chefs sharpen their knives with a whetstone. They use the whetstone to remove the metal from the blade and then use sharp steel to put the edge back on the knife.

How to sharpen a Kitchen Knife?

It’s important to keep the knives sharp so they cut through food with less slipping. Your food will taste better with a sharp knife. Get the thin slices or cubes you’re looking for, not large or uneven pieces.

If you cut your food carefully, it will cook evenly and result in a much more successful dish. There are a couple of different methods that I will briefly explain that you can use to sharpen knives.



How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Stone?

Whether you buy a novaculite, alumina, or silicon carbide sharpening stone you have to follow a similar sharpening process. Be sure to check the manufacturer’s instructions for nuances. Before you sharpen your knife, you must find the right angle for your knife, you can start sharpening.

Finding Knife Sharpening Angle:

Experts recommend you sharpen your knives at an angle of 22.5 degrees. Follow these simple steps to find a 22.5-degree angle. Additionally, we’ve added an image that makes it easier for you to understand the process.

Place the Blade Down: Grip the knife with the blade down at a 90-degree angle.

Turn the blade halfway: Move the blade to a 45-degree angle and cut the distance between the 90-degree angle and the table in half.

Turn the knife halfway again: Move the knife again to half the remaining angle. You now have a good estimate of the correct sharpening angle. You can adjust the angle up or down as you need.

Finding Knife Sharpening Angle



Below are the steps you should follow to sharpen your kitchen knives With Stone:

  1. Prepare the workplace: Place your grindstone on a damp towel on a flat surface.
  2. Start with the thick side up Before you start sharpening your knives, make sure the thick side of the stone is facing up. This is the fastest way to get the knife blade into the right shape.
  3. Lubricating the Whetstone: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to properly lubricate your whetstone. Some options, like diamond stones, don’t require lubricant, so be sure to read the stone’s instructions.
  4. Start sharpening: Slowly lower the knife with the knife at an angle of 22.5 degrees and go through the stone in one smooth motion, starting at the heel and ending at the tip.
  5. Repeat: Once you’ve started sharpening, repeat this process five times. Depending on how blunt the knife is, you may need to repeat this movement several times.
  6. Change side and continue: Turn the knife over to the other side and sharpen the back with the same movement. You should sharpen this side as often as the other side to maintain consistency.
  7. Reverse Sharpening: Flip the knife back to its original side, but this time pulls the knife from tip to heel. Repeat this movement five times.
  8. Change sides again: turn over and sharpen five times from tip to heel.
  9. Sharpening the final side: Turn the sharpening stone on the fine side and repeat step 15.



How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives with Rod?

How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives with Rod

While Horning can be done in any number of positions, the steps mentioned below makes it easy for you to maintain the correct angle and is also fairly safe because the blade doesn’t move towards your hands or body, keep in mind to maintain a 15-degree angle between the blade and the steel.

Step 1:

To use a honing rod safely, hold the tip of the sharpener firmly on the counter. Place the blade heel against the top of the steel and point the knife tip up slightly. Hold the blade at a 15-degree angle /away from the steel.

Step 2:

Maintaining pressure of light and maintaining a 15-degree angle between the blade and the steel, slide the blade in a sweeping motion along the length of the steel and pull the knife toward your body so that the center of the blade touches the center of the steel.

Step 3

Finish the movement by running the tip of the blade over the bottom of the steel. Repeat this movement on the other side of the sheet. Four or five strokes on each side of the blade (eight to ten alternating passes total) should realign the edge.



How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Dremel?

How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Dremel

A Dremel rotary tool makes it easy not only to sharpen the blade but also to polish it. Below are steps to sharpen your knife with Dremel.

  • Insert the knife into the vise: You should tighten the screw so that the blade is well exposed and the knife is securely held for sharpening. Make sure the vise is also attached to your workbench so it doesn’t move while you sharpen your knife blade.
  • Start Sharpening the Blade: Make sure it is safe because the rapid rotation can fly away if it is not securely fastened. Make sure to start sharpening the blade using the correct angle.

Two options for sharpening are present. The first is to Sharpen your blade only from one side at a 24-degree angle and the second is to sharpen your blade from both sides at a 12.5-degree angle.

Take the angle which is comfortable for you. Start at the blade base which is nearest to the handle. Start moving Dremel along the Knife blade edge while holding it at the desired angle. Make sure before attempting a second pass keep the blade cool.

  • Polish the knife: By using a Polishing compound, felt pad, and mandrel to polish the blade of your knife if desired. The Dremel rotator motion tool makes this task easy for you.



How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a File?

The file is another to sharpen your kitchen knife. Remember to be careful when using it, and do not expect it will give you the best results as Whetstone and rod. If you really want to sharpen your knife with a file, there are step-by-step instructions on how to do this below. Either way, below are the steps for sharpening with a file.

  • Place the clamp on a stable surface, like a table
  • Hold the knife in the handle with the blade parallel to the ground and the sharp edge away from you. You may need to wrap a cloth around the handle for protection before holding it.
  • With your dominant hand, hold the file flat and place it against the back of the blade at a 15-20 degree angle.
  • Make gentle strokes from the heel of the blade along the cutting edge to the tip. Repeat up to 10 strokes and trace the strokes.
  • Turn the knife over and make sure the sharp edge is facing away from you. Again, hold the file against the heel of the blade at a 15-20 degree angle. Make the same number of sharpening passes on this side as the other.
  • Remove the blade from the clamp.
  • Test sharpening the blade with paper and repeat the sharpening process if necessary.
  • Wash knives by hand in warm soapy water, dry them, and store them correctly.

How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Nail Filer?

Nail files are a common household item and can be used as a tool to sharpen your knife. Nail files are rough as they cut down your nails so they have to be rough. The texture is similar to that of a knife sharpener and whetstones, so you can use them to sharpen your knives.

Insert the knife in the location shown in the picture, then rub it back and forth and keep squeezing the cutter to close or leave it open. Now I guess you’re done. It’s that easy to sharpen a knife.



How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Coffee Mug?

How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Coffee Mug

If your knife isn’t sharp and you don’t have a sharpener, you can easily get around by sharpening the blades on the bottom of a ceramic coffee mug. If a knife is too blunt and you don’t have a special sharpener at hand, all you need is a cup of coffee.

  • Hold the mug upside down with one hand, then position the base of the knife blade at a 45-degree angle against the exposed ceramic edge on the bottom.
  • Holding both the beaker and the handle of the knife firmly and at this 45-degree angle, pull the knife against the edge with even pressure, as if you were using a conventional sharpening steel. Do it three times on the first page.
  • Repeat the process on the other edge of the blade by sliding the knife against the ceramic edge three times.
  • Repeat with the first edge of the blade, but do it twice.
  • Repeat steps 4 and 5 once more, but do it one time on each side.
  • Carefully wipe the resulting carbon dust from the blade using a clean, damp dishtowel, and then slice away!

How to Sharpen a Santoku Knife?

To get the best use of a santoku knife, it is important to know how to properly sharpen it. Although many kitchen knives can be sharpened on sharpening steel, this is not ideal for Santoku knives. Instead, a whetstone should be used for sharpening the santoku knife.

As I already told you before, whetstone is a flat stone that can be used to sharpen knives and other blades. They come in varying degrees of roughness, and it’s important to find one that will best fit your blade without being too thick or too thin.

For sharpening a santoku knife, hold the knife in your dominant hand with the point forward and keep the rest of your hand and forearm as stiff as possible. If you hold the knife flat on the grindstone, use a rocking chair.

With each stroke, you should move the knife back and forth, never up and down, or even in a circular motion. If the knife is too blunt, use the sharpening steel at a 45-60 degree angle and perform it in short up and down movements or in circular movements.

For good results, the stone should have a grit size of 600 to 1000. Stones used to sharpen Santoku knives are usually around 600 grit for maintaining the edge sharpness.



How to Sharpen a Serrated Kitchen Knife?

It is important to note that serrated knives are very different from straight knives, so many of the methods for sharpening knives that you use on regular kitchen knives cannot be applied to knives.

Take a close look at your serrated knife; See how it is made up of individual curved stretch marks? Each of these beveled grooves is sharpened one at a time. For this, we need a serrated knife sharpener, the so-called ceramic rod. Below there is a step-by-step guide on how to sharpen your serrated knives with a rod.

How to Sharpen a Serrated Kitchen Knife with a Rod?

How to Sharpen a Serrated Kitchen Knife with a Rod

The best tool to sharpen your serrated knife manually is a ceramic honing rod. A ceramic honing rod is harder than a steel honing bar, so the ceramic removes some of the material from the edge of the blade, which has a sharpening effect. The shape of the rod is designed to fit into the teeth of the blade.

Step 1:

With a slant, the edge finds the side of your knife. Generally, both sides of serrated knives look different. On the one hand, the blade surface continues to the blade edge at the same angle. While from the other side the blade is inclined slightly downwards just before the serrated edge; It is known as the bevel. Just use a sharpening tool on the slant edge.

Step 2:

Place the rod in one of the serrated scallops and as compared to the blade edge choose an angle between 13 and 17 degrees, blade edge is flatter than you are used to for sharpening knives.

Step 3:

When your rod is edged, place your rod where the diameter of the rod is slightly smaller or the exact size of the gullet.

Step 4:

Run the sharpening rod in many short passes on the primary groove. Push in one direction, far from the blade edge, toward your spine.

Step 5:

Check for “burrs” or metal chips by running your finger along the back of the groove. When you feel a burr so sufficiently you have sharpened the groove. This frequently requires only some strokes.

Step 6:

If the Serration of the knife is of various sizes then set the sharpening rod position so that the rod fills the groove.

Step 7:

Remove the burs by rubbing the back of the knife against a fine-grain sandpaper sheet. Alternatively, you can slide the sharpening rod lightly against the back of each groove; make sure to not apply pressure more than necessary to remove the shavings.



How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife? – FAQs

What is the best thing to sharpen a knife with?
A whetstone is essentially a rectangular stone block, which is used to sharpen the edge of a knife or another sharp steel tool. All of the experts agreed that u whetstone is the best way to keep your knife in tip-top condition, although it takes a bit of getting used to.
Can aluminum foil sharpen knives?
Aluminum foil is very effective to sharpen a knife. It can be used to temporarily restore a slightly dull knife-edge, but cannot be used as a substitute for properly sharpening a knife. It can restore a slightly rolled edge or slightly blunt knife edge.
Why don’t my kitchen knives stay sharp?
Knives may lose their sharpness fast because of several possible reasons. They could be made from inferior steel, the angle on the edge is too thin, the knife has been sharpened incorrectly, or the knife is being used for a purpose that it was not intended for, or they are stored incorrectly.

 

Conclusion:

These methods to sharpen your knife genuinely work, and may be extraordinarily beneficial if you do have not anything else to use. It will hold your blades sharp in those determined situations, outside the field, or at home.