They say that the duller a knife is, the more unsafe it is. How so? Well, people tend to use more pressure when using a dull knife, and a wrong move can cause a nasty accident. In addition, a knife with a dull edge slips more easily, and who knows what it can hit if you drop it on the floor?
Check the blade
Not all blades, unfortunately, can be honed by non-pros. Your scallop-edged bread knife, for instance, can’t be sharpened with ordinary tools. And those serrated knives which “need no sharpening”? Once they become dull, you really won’t need to sharpen them because all they’re good for is for throwing away. They’re now useless – well, unless you can have them ground to factory specs.
It’s in the strokes
But if you have a decent knife with a good blade that’s served you well, you will want to sharpen it instead of throwing it away. For this reason, get yourself two sharpening stores from a hardware store. One should be coarse-grained while the other should have fine grain. It’s more advisable to buy the larger ones so you won’t have to make too many strokes to get the sharpness you want.
On the coarse-grained one, apply a few drops of kerosene, mineral, or machine oil to lubricate it. Other folks may pooh-pooh this practice, saying it clogs the pores, but not doing so can burn the steel and render the knife useless in a short time.
Make sure the stone stays firmly in place by setting it on top of a folded piece of cloth, especially if you’re working on a slippery surface such as a granite countertop.
The Steps
1. Lay the knife flat on the coarse stone at an approximately 45-degree angle. Next, raise the blade, creating a 20-degree angle with the stone surface.
2. From the blade’s hilt to its point, sweep the edge along the stone, all the while maintaining the angle. Some people sweep away from their bodies; some sweep towards their bodies. It doesn’t matter, as long as you are extra cautious while doing so.
3. Do this until the edge is sharp enough. Do the same thing for the other side.
4. Take the fine-grained stone and use it to finish the job. Lift the blade up to form a bigger 60-degree angle with the stone and perform a few light swipes to get rid of minute metal shavings that may have remained on the blade.
Remember to sharpen your knives according to what you intend to use them for. You’ll need a sharp-edged knife to clean and fillet a fish, and you can tell that it’s sharp enough for a fish if it can easily slice through a sheet of paper. On the other hand, a not-so-sharp knife is what’s needed for whittling wood because it won’t hold an edge if it’s honed too sharp.
This skill takes some practice but it should save you a lot of money, now that you don’t have to take your knives to a professional for sharpening.
