Last week we shared Master Bladesmith Bob Kramer's helpful advice on how to tell if your knife is sharp enough — but how do you sharpen your knife in the first place? Here are two more videos from Kramer demonstrating how to correctly hone and stone your knives, processes which take just a few minutes, but make such a difference in cooking.
Honing, done with a steel, straightens the edge of your knife after use. If even after honing your knife is not sharp enough, it is time to use a whetstone, which actually removes metal to form a sharp edge again. Kramer includes a lot of helpful tips in the videos above, such as using a matchbook to find the correct angle to hold your knife against the steel and stone, and using a kitchen scale to figure out the amount of pressure you should be exerting as you hone.
How often do you hone and stone your knives?
Related: Kitchen Safety: Why a Sharp Knife Leads to Fewer Injuries
(Image: a katz/Shutterstock)
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Thank you! I never knew how to do this, and I'm much less intimidated now.
This is a fabulous series. Thanks for posting! I have stones for shapening my speed skates, but didn't know I could use them on my kitchen knives.
Same process for serrated knives? And are "knife sharpeners" frowned upon?
as far as i know you cannot sharpen serrated knives at home...
This is wonderful! Any suggestions on what to look for when purchasing a stone and a steel? And where to find them economically? I have a steel that came with my knife block and set, but I'm wondering if it's good enough. Thank you again. So glad to watch this series.
A tip that is not included in the video for stoning is that it is important to sharpen each side of the blade (except for traditional Japanese blades) equally. I simply count the strokes for each side.
These are quick technique to sharpen a knife.There is another fastest way to sharpen a knife, that is electric knife sharpener. There are various brand knife sharpener you can check out this how to select an electric knife sharpener
http://www.knifepal.com/how-to-choose-an-electric-knife-sharpener/