Kitchen knives are one of many essentials you need in your home. But when keeping your kitchen knives sharp and in good condition, you must invest in proper knife maintenance and care. With this, you’ll need to sharpen your knives periodically, store them correctly, and wash the blades by hand instead of in the dishwasher.
But when sharpening your knives, there are a few different methods to consider.
Honing Steel
A honing steel is a rod-shaped utensil that works best for relatively soft blades. It’s pretty easy to sharpen a knife with honing steel as all you will need to do is pass the edge of the knife along the honing steel rod at an angle of 15°-20°.
Sharpening Stone
Sharpening stones are also known as whetstones. These stones are a popular option for sharpening high-quality kitchen knives as the most elaborate sharpening tool around. However, this tool also requires the most skill.
You will use the stone to sharpen the blade to form a geometrically correct edge manually. This is done by starting with coarse grit and gradually sharpening with finer and finer grits to achieve a smooth finish. Finally, you can use a fine-grit stone to polish the blade.
While a sharpening stone is the best option, using it correctly will require some practice.
Knife Sharpener
A knife sharpener is a nifty tool that makes sharpening knives as simple and easy as possible. You must pull the knife blade along a slot in the sharpener. The abrasives inside the sharpener are placed at a specific angle to remove material from the blade and leave a sharper edge.
While a knife sharpener is effective, it does leave a rather sharp impression on blades as the abrasives are coarse. So, there are better knife sharpening tools than this one, although it is the easiest to use.
Knife Sharpening System
An abrasive-guided knife sharpening system is a handy kitchen tool that works similarly to a sharpening stone, although it requires less practice and skill to use. The knife blade is fixed in the tool’s holder, and the abrasive component is moved over the blade’s cutting edge.
You can learn to use a knife sharpening system without much practice, although these sharpening tools are substantially more expensive than other tools on this list.
Water-Cooled Sharpening Machine
Water-cooled knife sharpening machines are most suitable for eateries and food businesses that need to sharpen a large number of blades routinely. Some skill and practice are required to use these knife-sharpening machines, although they produce results exceptionally quickly.
The knife’s blade is held against the machine’s turning wheel, and the grit on the wheel grinds the blade’s edge to sharpen it. The blade must be held at a specific angle, and the user must be careful not to apply too much pressure to the blade to prevent removing too much material.
Even though there are a few different ways to sharpen your kitchen knives, it’s essential to choose a tool that’s comfortable to use.
