How to Use a Diamond Sharpening Stone

Sharp knives make completing any task safer and easier. Traditional knife sharpening stones are cumbersome and often frustrating to use. New diamond sharpening stones take the work out of sharpening knives. Their surfaces are impregnated with tiny bits of diamonds, which sharpen knives quickly and easily--without messy oil. Once you sharpen your knives with a diamond sharpening stone, use a knife steel regularly and they will stay sharp for months.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Double sided diamond sharpening stone with coarse and fine surfaces
• Knife steel

1. Start with coarse side of diamond sharpening stone. Hold knife blade at a 20 degree angle to the stone. Draw blade of knife over stone, from heel to tip. Maintain the 20 degree angle. Do the same number of strokes on each side of the blade: first push the knife away from you, then turn it over and pull it towards you.

2. Use the fine side of diamond sharpening stone. Again, hold knife blade at a 20 degree angle to the stone. Draw blade of knife over stone as before, from the heel end near handle to the tip of blade. Maintaining a 20 degree angle to the stone, push knife away from you, then turn it around and pull it towards you. Do the same number of strokes on each side of the knife.

3. Use a steel. Hold steel vertically in one hand and hold knife vertically in your other hand. Beginning at heel of knife, draw blade over the steel. Put the side of knife facing you on the side of steel away from you and draw knife blade down across steel from heel to tip. Then put the side of the blade facing away from you on the side of the steel facing you, and draw the knife blade across the steel. Keep switching sides, drawing the knife across the steel the same number of times on each side of the blade.

Tips & Warnings

• Diamond sharpening stones can be used either dry or dampened with water. A knife steel is a metal rod that "pushes" the molecules of metal on the edge of your knife back into alignment. By drawing the edge of your knife along the steel before each use, the knife cuts better and keeps its sharp edge longer than a knife used without a steel. Use a stiff wire brush to clean metal shavings and dust from your diamond stone.
• Do not use oil on a diamond sharpening stone; it can clog its surface and make it ineffective at sharpening.

[mknyman]

on 10/17/2009 Holding the knife at a twenty degree angle while sharpening results in a fourty-degree bevel angle (20+20=40). Woodworking tools, for instance, most commonly have a bevel angle somewhere between twenty and thirty degrees. 35 degrees is fine for a cleaver, but common chef's knives should rather be sharpened to a bevel angle of around twenty degrees, which means you should hold the knife in a ten-degree angle while sharpening.