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(213 votes) Published: Sep 08, 2007 3:23 a.m. In 6 Favorites Lists Viewed 1324 times
Everyone owns knives, at least a kitchen knife. Most people NEVER sharpen their knives, or use one of those plastic things with a slit that you run the knife through to sharpen it. These are not good if you want a razor sharp edge, or at least a symmetrical, consistent edge on your knife.
If you want your knife to hold an edge at all, make sure to buy stainless steel knives, preferably hollow-ground, this will increase the quality of the edge, and make it dull much, much slower.
This is the knife that I needed to sharpen-
You will also need a certain type of sharpening kit if you want to maintain a consistently sharp edge on both sides of the knife. It may look a little like this-
The metal thing is the knife vice, the colored things are the hones, and the yellow bottle is the honing oil.
Grip the knife in the vice with the smallest amount of blade in the vice as possible, but enough that it won’t move around at all.
Metal Vice
Knife in vice
Now you need to assemble the honing stone. Press the wire into the hole and lay it on a flat surface. Make sure that the wire is in line with the face of the stone.
Now it’s time for a little judgment call. How good is your knife? If you have a high quality stainless, hollow-ground knife, You can use the first hole (closest hole to the middle of the vice). If your knife is not high quality, do NOT use the first hole, it will just dull, possibly even bend. Thats bad by the way. Use the second hole on a decent knife. If your knife is a shank or a completely shit knife, use the third hole.
The holes I speak of
Put a drip of oil onto each honing stone before you start honing.
Place the wire of the hone into your desired hole. rest the face of the stone on the edge of the knife.
Now I really don’t know how to take a photo of the actual movement, so I get my old pal MS paint to help me out here. Alot of people try to file the knife, moving the stone up and down or side to side. That will fuck up the edge. You have to use fluid diagonal motions, moving up towards the tip of the blade.
Start honing with a coarse or medium stone. If the knife is very dull or not sharpened at all, use a coarse stone until it has the basic edge. The red represents movement with the stone pressed lightly against the knife, and green represents movement with the stone away from the blade.
Then move on to using a medium stone until the edge is razor sharp, this wont take long once the edge is acquired on the coarse stone. Once you’re happy with the edge, move onto the fine stone. This will polish off the little ridges left from where the coarser stones cut the steel away. If you miss this last (integral) step, the knife will not cut cleanly, and will dull faster.
Polishing action
If the knife has chips or depressions in the blade, you will need to hone them out. This can be a massive pain in the ass, so don’t try to cut anything to hard.
NOTES:
NEVER file up and down
NEVER run your finger along the blade, to see how sharp it is, run draw your finger sideways, perpendicular to the edge, the more it catches on your skin and vibrates, the sharper it is.
NEVER underestimate how sharp a knife can be, most people never touch a true razor edge, a perfect razor is technicaly one atom wide, and can slice through skin just by touching it (this of course is not physically possible, the edge would oxidize instantly and would bend if merely blown on.
ALWAYS clean the stones with a dry rag or tissue in between uses. If the stone starts gliding across the knife, then the pores are filled with metal powder, and it isn’t doing its job well. Just wipe it, and give it another drip of oil.
ALWAYS sharpen the knife the same amount on both sides. If it is inconsistent it will just bend. No buts about it.
TIPS: The edge on a razor or sharp knife will oxidize rapidly, thus losing is fine edge/sharpness. To prevent this, run the edge of the knife through some solid wax, basically, cut a candle.
If the edge gets any metal burs, it wont cut cleanly. Run the edge across a piece of plastic (edge of the sharpening kit box) gently, not to cut it, just to pull the burs off the blade.
Oh and, be careful, this knife will now cut you alot easier. Never handle it by the blade.
Sep 08, 2007 3:35 am - Big, you’d be surprised at the difference it makes, even on kitchen knives.
If you ever got one sharpened at a store, you’d know how well they cut (for a while at least)
Sep 08, 2007 3:53 am - this is good info- i already know how to use these kits etc coz my dad showed me a long while ago, but i dont own one nor use one lol i just use a grinder. but yea, like this. arent the rods better though? :S paps has one and says they’re the best thing for him.
5* jim =]
Sep 08, 2007 6:09 am - I have that knife sharpener. I found this really rusted dull knife out in the woods. I think a spoon would have a better chance at cutting something than this thing. But i did it 10-10--9-9-8-8-7-7-6-6-5- -4-4-3-3-2-2-1-1 like you are supposed to with all three of the different grit stones, and i shaved some hair off of my chin with it. That is the BEST knife sharpener out there.
Sep 08, 2007 7:59 am - hey dude you dont need a "knife kit" all you need is a wet stone and a sharpening steel this is the proffesional way and will give a much better result plus im a chef so i no this kind of shit
Sep 08, 2007 11:41 am -
Quote:
im a chef, so i know this shit
Oh really?
Quote:
About gully: yeh im 16 and a perth boy in aus i just like fucking shit up what else can i say
A chef, AND 16? No way. You are so full of shit, its coming out your ears.
And no, a sharpening steel is great, but it is most certainly NOT as good as a good kit.
Sep 08, 2007 11:58 am - Good job, but 4 those who say id never have to sharpen my knifes: you guys are very wrong, if you dont sharpen, some knifes will never get its originally sharpness back! Routinally sharpen ur knifes, not if its alredy Blunt, THEN its already too late! 5* of course
A chef, AND 16? No way. You are so full of shit, its coming out your ears.
i thought exactly the same thing. he could very possibly be a wannabe that searched for knives on google and found himself looking at a website on kitchen knives.
Sep 08, 2007 3:12 pm - High Carbon steel holds an edge pretty well. It just oxidizes a little faster.
Yes you CAN get a DECENT result with a wet stone, but it requires large amounts of skill and experiance, not practical for most people. Plus they are designed to sharpen knives quickly, not accurately, for use in say.. A cooking environment, where chefs can’t take out 20-30 minutes of time to sharpen a knife, they need it done quickly.
I think you’ll find that every now and again they will sharpen their knives with one of these kits.
The whole idea behind these is to minimize human error, to get the same angle on both sides.
Sep 09, 2007 8:14 am - plus what am i gaining by telling a bunch of people im a chef absolutly nothing and what was the point of searching knifes on the net i could tell you some now Global,victorionox and whustoff these are probably the best knifes for cooks/chef and yes the steel is not for sharpening but for keeping the blade the same angle after puting the knife over the wetstone. and a knife kit is only good if its for the same make as the knife so research your shit!!
Sep 09, 2007 1:02 pm - nice..ive been looking for a goo knife shapining kit. ill try to look for the one that you have. then i can use it on my collection of gerber knives =)
Sep 10, 2007 2:58 pm - good job on writing that all up with pics etc, but you’re telling up how to sharpen a knife with a knife sharpening kit......
4*
Sep 14, 2007 4:37 pm - I have a 6" japanese tanto, but it rusted to shitsville when I didnt oil it. It wasn’t stainless, it was blued high-carbon steel.
I’m getting an 8" tanto which I’ll be getting for Christmas, woot.
Nov 08, 2007 9:44 pm - I used to go out on a commercial fishing boat for 2 weeks at a time and we’d cut up most of out own bait...I personally know how important it is to know how to sharpen knives/ machetes.
5*s =]
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