How to Learn Knife Sharpening Tricks

You must keep your knives sharp, whether you use them in the kitchen, for hunting or for repairs. Keep all your blades ready by learning how to use sharpening stones.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Sharpening stones

1. Use a stone to sharpen your knife freehand. You can buy a sharpening stone at any retail store. Start slow when using a stone to sharpen your knives. Once you get the hang of it, you can increase your speed.
2. Select a coarse grain stone for a knife that is very dull. This is also the right advice if you have nicked a small chunk from the blade. You can repair a very small area as if it was never there.
3. Follow up with a fine grain stone after using the coarse stone. This produces the same effect in sharpening knives that you find when sanding wood.
4. Make quick work of a minor dullness problem with a fine to medium stone. Start with a fine stone and move through medium to coarse. Go over each side several times. Check for burrs on the blade.
5. Check the manufacturer's instructions that came with your stone to see if it needs water or oil to help the process. Either way, the wetness helps you to achieve the sharp edge you are looking for.
6. Visit the Sharpening Stones website to discover which stones to match with particular knives (see Resources below). Buy a sharpening guide to walk you through the different knife sharpening techniques. Any guide will tell you to keep the blade steady and the bevel angle constant. 20 degrees is a good angle for knife sharpening.

Tips & Warnings

• A well-sharpened blade makes slicing and dicing in the kitchen much easier.
• Knife sharpening stones achieve an extremely sharp blade, so you must be careful when handling.