Honing and Sharpening Kitchen Knives
There is a difference between honing and sharpening so lets’ try to get this out of the way first.
Many refer to sharpening on knives when they are just only honing. I mentioned that I sharpen my knives and I actually use a sharpening stone to do that.
When a knife is new, it is usually sharp and the same applies to newly sharpened knife. However, it is not going to stay sharp forever and will become dull after some use.
Thus to maintian its’ sharpness, maintenance is required from time to time.
Honing Your Kitchen Knives
The sharpening rod or steel as some call them doesn’t really sharpen a knife. It’s actually doing the job of bringing the knife’s blade edge back into alignment without actually taking away much of the blades’ material.
Knives sometime become dull not because they have lost their sharp edge, it’s because the sharp edge has been pushed aside and misaligned.
It may be a little awkward to use initially but once you get the hang of it, you will be honing away like a pro, like those chefs that you see on TV or at your local butcher or fishmonger.
Sharpening Your Kitchen Knives
There will be a time when honing your kitchen knives doesn’t work anymore and they have to be sharpened. Sharpening your knife means removing some amount of metal and that can be done in a few ways.
Electric knife sharpener
An electric sharpener is easy to use. They mostly come with 2 stage and some even 3 stage. 2 slots per stage, one for each side of a blade.
The slots are guided and you just have to hold the knife in place securely at the ideal angle, draw the knife slowly towards you and let the sharpener do the rest of the work.
After sharpening is done, it’s a matter of switching over to the honing stage.
However, despite their ease of use, electric knife sharpener can and will remove quite a lot of metal from your knife’s edge. Relatively expensive and will wear down your knife’s blade at a much faster rate. If you don’t mind replacing your knives every few years, then this is an option to consider.
Manual knife sharpener
Inexpensive, similar to the electrical version with 2 or 3 stage and guided slots. Only difference is that it’s manual and you need to control the amount of downward pressure to ensure evenness
Whetstone
It takes some time to master and requires you to hold and maintain the knife at the correct angle to ensure you get the desired results.
Last but not least, if all else fail and you favour none of the above, there is always professional knives sharpening service that you can make use of.
Well, here’s the whole list. How you chose to hone or sharpen your knives is your choice. Good luck!