How to sharpen a kitchen knife
by: Carl Newton / March 08, 2012
Do you have a kitchen drawer full of knives that have never been sharpened? A dull knife can be just a dangerous as a sharp knife, when trying to cut fruit, vegetables, or even meats. The blade can slip from the fruit and you could cut a finger, or worse... So taking care of your knives is very important and can save you a lot of frustrations in the kitchen.
So how do you sharpen a kitchen knife? Here are a few tips that will help you "sharpen" your skills in the kitchen.
To sharpen a kitchen knife
As a thumb rule, while using a whetstone, you should place it on a cutting board, with the coarse grit face up. Now hold your chef knives by its handle and place the edge against the whetstone, point-first, at a slight angle. Use your free hand to stabilize the blade, if required. Next, slowly slide the blade forward and across the stone, along the blade’s length, all the while maintaining the original angle. I recommend at least 10 strokes along each edge of the blade. Once you’ve used the coarse grit face of the whetstone, turn the fine grit face upward and repeat 10 strokes for each side of the blade. Once this is done, you may have to use honing steel to polish off some of the roughness from the whetstone, though I haven’t always felt the need to. If you do use honing steel, you must rinse and wipe the blade to make sure no metal grains remain.
Sharpening a serrated knife
Sharpening a serrated knife is an entirely different process. To begin with, you do not need a flat whetstone but a special, conical taper sharpener, which has been customized to sharpen inside each serration.
When sharpening a serrated knife, you must push the sharpener to the edge that needs sharpening and work inside each serration individually. But don’t apply too much pressure, because that will widen the serrations. Neither should you sharpen the back, which provides support for the serrations. You have to accept the fact that a serrated knife can almost certainly not be sharpened enough to return to its mint-fresh state. And serrated blades wear far more easily than straight blades. Even so, because of the potential for damage, a serrated knife should be sharpened only when absolutely required.
IMPORTANT:
Using a diamond knife sharpening stone
The main thing with diamond dust sharpening stones is to never let water or liquid get near them, Wash your knives before starting and make sure the blades are totally dry. Any moisture will just clog the sharpening stone and you will never get it to work right again. I let a Chef friend of mine sharpen my knives once, he took my diamond stone poured oil on it and sharpened my knives, once he had left and I finished cursing I basically had to throw the stone away. Keep dry, once you sharpen a blade blow off the steel grinds and put the stone away.
Safety First:
If you do not feel comfortable sharpening a knife, just send them to a professional. They are not very expensive and your favorite knives will come back good as new.