How to Sharpen a Knife With Sand Paper

Sharpening your knives using a stone is not an easy task. Not only is a good stone hard to come by and expensive, they are often confusing. If you have some dull knives around the house, there is no need to worry because you can use simple everyday sandpaper to provide a razor sharp edge to any blade. Sandpaper is rough enough on the edges to get the job done.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sandpaper
• Dull knife
• Small block of wood
• Stapler

1. Create a sandpaper block for greatest ease. While it is perfectly acceptable to use loose sandpaper, this may lead to uneven finishes and even injury. By stapling different grains of sandpaper on to different blocks of wood you will keep your sharpening even and your fingers safe from cuts.

2. Inspect the angle of your blade’s sharp side before you begin. Every knife uses a different angle depending on what its uses are. Understand this angle to better keep this true while sharpening with the sandpaper.

3. Use a heavy grain of sandpaper on very dull blades. This clears the way of chips and nicks. Simply hold the knife in your hand with the blade pointing away from your body. Hold the sandpaper block along the sharp edge at a slight angle and run it from the handle to the tip several times.

4. Move to a finer grain of sandpaper to really hone the blade’s sharpness. This is also a good step to jump to if your knife is already sharp, but you want it to be at its best. Simply repeat the step from above using a sandpaper with smaller grains. This will really make the blade sharp.

5. Test the knife’s sharpness. There are many ways to do this such as slicing through a vegetable or running a hair along the blade. If you are not satisfied with the sharpness, repeat the steps and try different sandpaper.

Resources

• Forum on sharpening knives with sand paper.
• Methods of sharpening knives.