Keeping A Sharp Edge on Your Knife

A high quality fully forged kitchen knife (see Kitchen Knives) can be sharpened again and again but there are many different options for sharpening your knives, some good and some not so good.

• Sharpening Steels are the traditional and most common means of keeping a knife sharp. They aren’t always made of steel and can be found in ceramic or diamond coated materials. You can pay anything from £10 to £100 for a steel but generally the higher priced steels will be of higher quality and last much longer.

 But for most of us, using a steel can be a rather dangerous activity in which we wave the steel around in a vaguely swashbuckling manner trying to remember which way round our fathers pointed the blade. For better results follow these simple rules:

1. Hold the steel vertically on a chopping board with the handle at the top. This allows for good control of the sharpening angle and keeps the wrist away from the knife.

2. Put the edge of the knife blade directly against the steel to form a right angle.

3. Tilt the blade upwards to halve the angle to 45 degrees and then halve it again. At 22 to 25 degrees, is a good angle for almost all non-Japanese knives. A Japanese knife with an angle of 15 degrees should be tilted upwards about another one-third.

4. The knife should be drawn at this angle from its heel to its tip from the top to the bottom of the steel.

5. Repeat this action on the other side of the blade and steel and keep alternating. If this process is done frequently, it should only need half a dozen strokes per side. Little and often is the key to sharpening.

• Whetstones are used by professional or serious cooks. For achieving very fine edges, they are difficult to beat but practice is required to maintain consistent angles. You can get round this by using metal angle guides that clip onto the back of your knife.

There are two types of whetstone. Traditionally, they are made of alumina oxides or similar materials that offer good value-for-money but need 30 minutes soaking before you can use them. The newer types have ceramic surfaces that can be used as soon as they are wet but these are much more expensive.

Generally, whetstones have different grades – one for sharpening and one for finishing. These grades have grit numbers, like sandpaper, for defining the coarseness or fineness of the finish;

• Automated Sharpeners are a popular choice for many. There are many different types to choose from, a simple V-shaped miniature steel to large electric machines with diamond coated wheels. The obvious reason for choosing one of these is that they are easy to use and you don’t have to worry about angles!

Regardless of the type of automated sharpener you consider, the costlier models of each type will tend to perform much better than the cheaper ones. You should buy the best that you can afford because this makes sense after the investment in good quality knives.

Which Sharpener to use?

• At any given price, a manual sharpener such as a steel, will usually give better results than an electric one, as the manufacturer has not had to include a motor in the product costs.
• Sharpeners using tungsten carbide should be avoided as this material is very abrasive and simply strips steel from the blade.
• Make sure you buy a sharpener that is right for your knife. Some are designed for Japanese knife angles.
• Some electric knife sharpeners and old-fashioned wall-mounted kitchen sharpeners use hollow grinding and shouldn’t be used for taper or double-taper blades.
• Avoid grinding unless your knives are seriously damaged – and if so, use a professional to do it for you. This is a last resort to save a high-quality knife as the heat generated in grinding often damages the temper of the blade and removes a significant amount of blade material.