Imagine having cut and slice meat and vegetables for dinner but your knife cannot do its work properly because it is not sharp enough. That would be frustrating. Knife sharpening is absolutely an important part, especially for home cooks, professional chefs, hunters, and more, in making food, cutting things, and among others. The process sharpening knives or the same equipment is through grinding it against rough surfaces, like stones or sand papers. However, you should be careful in order to prevent blade damage due to too much force.
What made knife sharpening more difficult is the wide array of knives present in the market. The kinds of knives vary from their blades to their functions. They have different edges and tips that may require diverse sharpening techniques. Because of that, there have been a lot of advancements made in the knife sharpening industry. Various sharpeners were developed in order to cater the needs of the consumers and give them more convenience when it comes to restoring the sharp edges of their knives. Serrated knife sharpener, electric knife sharpener, handheld sharpener, sharpening steels, and sharpening stones are the top tools that you need to know when it comes to keeping your knife at its best functional state.
In today’s day and age, learning new skills is important. With the pandemic going on, you need to do things, as much as possible, within the comforts of your home. Knife sharpening should be one of the things that you must learn how to do. That said, written below are the easy steps on sharpening your knife using the sharpening steel that you should know.
Step 1
Get the sharpening steel and hold it using the either your left or right hand. Position the sharpening steel point-down where the tip is placed securely on a sturdy and dry surface, such as a cutting board.
Step 2
Use your free hand to hold the knife diagonally against the sharpening steel. Make sure that the blade’s back is touching the sharpening steel. Afterward, pull your knife towards your direction, which is backward. Thus, you may wish to begin with almost the entire blade is facing the steel up front.
Step 3
Lean the knife to such extent that its cutting edge touches the shaft of the steel at a certain angle, which is 22 and ½ degree — almost as half of 45 degrees when you check the protractor. This is important to keep your pace and sharpen the knife better.
Step 4
Keep the 22 and ½ degree angle and slowly pull the blade backward while sliding it downward by the sharpening steel’s shaft at the same time. Moreover, you might want to cover the whole length of the knife’s blade to keep it at its set angle during the entire sharpening process. Conduct this step at least 10 times.
Step 5
For the final step, shift the blade’s position to the opposite side but maintain the angle. Do the same 10 strokes that you’ve than earlier so that each side would be even.
Essential Tips to Remember:
Ensure that the sharpening steel that you are using has the same length of the blade that you will be honing. Example, if you are about to sharpen a 4-inch paring knife — then your steel must also be 4 inches long.
If you are done honing your knife, then make sure to clean it by rinsing and wiping it with a dry towel. This is essential in order to prevent the little metal filings found on the edge of the knife to land on the meal that you are about to make.
While you are still preparing the ingredients or cooking the food, always keep the knife steel close by. This is to avoid destroying the alignment of your knife’s fragile edge after slicing or chopping. The moment that you become more familiar with the sharp knife’s feel, you will soon know the difference of whether your knife is still sharp enough or not. When that time comes, just a bunch of strokes on the sharpening still is needed to straighten it again; thus, there is no need to grind it immediately.
The Happy Hammock 