How to Sharpen a Cooking Knife

The cooking knife, or chef's knife, is still the most important piece of equipment in the kitchen (the only tool more essential to cooking is the human hand). Learning the proper technique for sharpening a knife allows you to get the best out of it by ensuring its optimal performance. A sharpened knife is also safer to use because it's easier to use without exerting pressure, which means there's less possibility that the knife will slip.A sharpening stone is the best tool to use for knife sharpening. Some expensive brands of electric sharpeners also do an excellent job, but most tend to wear away too much of the blade and shorten the lifespan of your knife, so it makes sense to learn how to use a sharpening stone.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cooking, or chef's, knife
• Sharpening stone
• Damp kitchen towel or rubber mat
• Mineral oil
• Steel

Basic Knife Sharpening Method

1. Allow yourself enough room to work. Your workspace should be cleared of all other kitchen tools and appliances.

2. Place the sharpening stone with the coarsest grit surface facing up on a damp kitchen towel or rubber mat to anchor the stone and prevent slippage.

3. Lubricate the stone by rubbing a few drops of mineral oil into the surface. This helps reduce the heat caused by friction, which can damage the blade over time.

4. Hold the knife firmly. Begin with the tip of the knife against the stone at a 20-degree angle and use the four fingers of your other hand to keep an even, light pressure on the blade.

5. Start to draw the entire blade across the surface of the stone with a smooth motion all the way to the heel of the knife.

6. Turn the knife over and repeat the process on the other side.

7. Use the same number of strokes on each side of the blade, preferably no more than eight to 10.

8. Turn the sharpening stone over and repeat Steps 2 and 3. Then finish sharpening knife on the finer grit side but using no more than five or six strokes on each blade side.

9. Finish by honing the knife with a steel, then wash and dry the knife thoroughly before using or putting away.

Tips & Warnings

• A steel always should be kept handy to true, or hone, the edge immediately after sharpening.
• Severely dulled or damaged knife edges may need to be reground in order to restore them. This should be done on a sharpening wheel, and only by skilled professionals.