Knife sharpening in the Kitchen

Did you know that a brand-new knife set needs to be sharpened? The better brands will say it on the packaging. The knives are only sharp enough to kind of work. But if you want to slice through an onion without crying, you need to sharpen them. I’ve been sharpening my kitchen knives for a while now; the difference is night and day. Let me tell you how I do it.

Equipment

Diamond Sharpening Stones. [Spend the money and you will have it for life]
Windex

Directions

I like to lay out my stones from left to right.

The left one is the Coarse.
Next comes the Fine.
Last, and on my right, is the Extra Fine.

This way I start on the leftmost stone (Coarse) and work my way to the right. You probably don’t need to hit the Coarse one every time, but I tend to so I can maintain a routine during my knife sharpening.

The general guideline is to put a 22-degree angle on the knife blade. I do that by standing the knife at 90 Degrees.

Then I half that so I am roughly at 45 Degrees

I half that again, and I should be close to 22 Degrees

I like to use Windex to help lubricate the stone. It is safe for stones and knives and is easy to clean up.

Now here is the trick in knife sharpening. You have to hold the blade at 22 Degrees through the entire process. And, even better, I’m not going to show you how to hold the blade. Why? Because it is a comfort and control thing. I use one hand on the back of the blade and another on the handle. I’ve seen others with both hands on the back of the blade. Use your own ingenuity to come up with a way to hold the blade at 22 Degrees while you do the next steps.

You want the entire blade to, at some point, come in contact with the stone. You aren’t trying to do it all at once. I imagine a line on the stone and drag the blade over it. My start is like this image.

And I end like this image.

Notice that I did NOT pull the knife straight back. I rotated the blade as I pulled it to follow the knife edge. It is important, when knife sharpening, to follow the curve of the knife.

You need to do this for 10 or more strokes on each side of the knife.

Then repeat the whole process on each of the remaining diamond stones.

Then you can do the fun paper cut test!

It should cut like a hot knife through butter! I love doing this part!

Make sure to sharpen your knives regularly. The more that you use them, the faster they will get dull. Make knife sharpening a routine and it will get easier and quicker.

Oh, by the way, this thing, does NOT sharpen your knife. It is called a Honing Steel, although it is commonly known as a sharpening steel, and its job is to help maintain your sharp edge between actual sharpening.

Until next time,
-Hubby

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