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Sharpening Serrated Blades
Although your serrated knives will still cut as they grow dull, you will begin to notice a tearing or shredding action rather than smooth cuts. If this is happening, then it is time to sharpen your knife. Sharpening dull serrated blades can be a bit more difficult than sharpening plain blades. Maintaining serrations is important if you want your knife to cut well, but they do require a bit more experience to sharpen. Serrated blades can also take longer to sharpen than a similarly sized plain...
Choosing an Industrial or Professional Knife Sharpener
For most home cooks or occasional users of tools with blades, a simple pull-through knife sharpener, sharpening stone, or sharpening steel should be sufficient. After all, this occasional task takes just a little elbow grease, and your knives will be back in top condition in no time. On the other hand, if you use your tools frequently, often find yourself chipping them or otherwise wearing them down, or are a professional chef or anyone else who uses an assortment of kitchen knives on a daily...
Electric Sharpeners
Electric sharpeners are one of the easiest ways to sharpen your knives. Electric knife sharpeners work the same as a sharpening stone, except that the machine does all of the work. Particularly useful if you do a lot of sharpening or have to remove a lot of material to expose a sharp edge on your knives, an electric sharpener is a good choice to make the job go much faster.
Most electric sharpeners have an adjustable angle guide, with removable sharpening stones or ceramic plates to polish the...
How Ceramic Sharpeners Work
A ceramic sharpener, like other knife sharpeners, work by removing a very thin layer of metal from the blade of your knife. Ceramic sharpeners are made from dense ceramic material instead of stone. They are especially recommended for sharpening very hard knives. The ceramic material used is harder than other sharpening stones, and will not wear out as quickly. Softer sharpening stones can get worn down in the middle if you do a lot of sharpening, forcing you to re=surface and flatten your...
Honing a Knife Blade
For those who are new to the world of knife sharpening, often the most challenging part is knowing when to stop. How do you know when the knife is sharp enough? How do you get it to that point?
When sharpening a knife, sharpen until you see burrs. Then, turn the knife over, and sharpen the other side. The honing process will remove these burs, but they are important. Burrs are the only way to know that you have removed enough of the metal to sharpen the blade.
Once the blade has been...
How to Choose a Knife Sharpener
Knife sharpeners are very important if you want to keep your knives in top condition. There is a wide range of sharpeners available, including small hand-held blocks to large electric sharpeners. All knife sharpeners are designed to restore the blade of a knife to its original sharpness. Since most people are not professional chefs with a lot of experience sharpening knives, they do not know what to look for when purchasing a knife sharpener. However, a knife sharpener is a very useful tool to...
Using a Strop
If you are considering sharpening your own knives, you may have heard about a strop. A strop is a strip of leather that is used to hone the blade of a knife, straight razor, or other blade. Although usually made of cowhide leather, there are certainly other types available. It is an optional step at the end of the sharpening process, usually used for fine knives and straight razors.
After youve sharpened the blade using a sharpening stone or other sharpening device, you should still fine-tune...
Using Oil or Other Lubricants With a Sharpening Stone
When learning how to sharpen knives, often one of the fist things to confuse people is whether oil or water are needed on sharpening stones. A sharpening stone is one of the easiest way to sharpen your blades, whether you want to restore the sharp edge on your kitchen cutlery or need to sharpen some woodworking tools. There are many varieties made of stone or any number of manufactured materials, and they are usually found in the form of a block. With these and other types of knife sharpeners,...
Sharpening Gardening Tools
Sharpening serrated or straight blade kitchen knives is relatively easy. Gardening or woodworking tools, on the other hand, can look a bit more challenging to sharpen, especially if you are not an experienced knife sharpener. Still, with a bit of experience and the right sharpener, it is possible to sharpen your own tools, including axes, shears, pruners, and chain saw blades.
When these blades start working poorly, you know its time to sharpen them. Instead of taking them to a professional...
Knife Sharpening Angles
Today, more and more people are sharpening their knives themselves to save money and avoid the hassle of sending the blades out for sharpening. If you have recently started sharpening knives and other household blades, you need to know about sharpening angles. Too many people ignore the angle they are creating on the blade, believing that it doesn't matter as long as the knife is sharp.
When sharpening your knives, the angle is actually among the most important considerations, as it determines...
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