Knives are the must-have tools in every kitchen from the basic ones to the heavy duty types of knives. Just imagine how a kitchen will survive without a knife to peel the vegetables, to cut the meat, and to chop the various ingredients? Try to picture out how it will all look like – surely, everything will fall into a big mess.
However, many of the people do not realize that knives also need maintenance. This kitchen tool gets dull over time and that makes it more dangerous than when it is sharp and easy to cut with. When using a dull knife, the user tends to exert more effort in it. With this action, the knife can possibly slip and the user might possibly cut herself. Thus, the sharp and well-maintained knives are far safer and efficient as long as proper caution is observed during its use.
How Knife Sharpening Works
Knife sharpeners create razor-sharp edges when you file the knife against the sharpeners rough surface like stone and sandpaper.
There are various methods to sharpen a knife and it merely depends on the type of blade and the application. Home cooks must sharpen their knives at least twice a year to make sure that the kitchen tools are in good and reliable condition. There are different ways that it can be done:
- BY USING AN ELECTRIC KNIFE SHARPENER. With an electric knife sharpener at home, you can do the knife sharpening yourself as long as you follow the tool’s manual. With an electric sharpener, getting your knife back to its good shape is easier and faster. Also, using an electric knife sharpener is more convenient that using the traditional whetstone sharpening method. Just position the knife, then switch on the sharpening tool and the grinder will already circulate on its own to file the dull edge of the blade.
- BY USING SHARPENING STONE. This is by far the best way that you can sharpen your knife. Unlike using an electric knife sharpener, using a sharpening stone will only remove least materials off the blade. When grinding the knife against a sharpening stone, you are eventually creating a strong bond with your blade which makes the knife behave much better and efficiently for its owner’s purpose. Only that with sharpening stone method, one must possess an expertise over the process. The angle of the knife when grinding it against the sharpening tool greatly influences the success of sharpening, therefore a know-how is necessary when you are manually sharpening your knife through a sharpening stone.
When sharpening a knife there are several stages from coarsest to finest which are named as:
- Sharpening – the stage of grinding wherein metals are removed to create a new sharp edge. The amount of metal removed from the blade depends on the kind of tool that is being used. Electric Sharpener tends to remove a great amount of metal off your blade, while sharpening stone and the like removes only small amount, while still leaving your knife in razor-sharp edge quality.
- Straightening. This is the stage that straightens the part of the knife that gets deformed and wavy, which are the main reasons of the blade becoming significantly dull. (It’s not necessary that a knife should go through all the stages every sharpening time.)
- Polishing. This is the stage of the sharpening process wherein the knife is polished to achieve a mirror finish without grinding the edge.
You can choose over different ways and methods to sharpen your knife but the most important are you do the sharpening process in required frequency within the year. In this way, you are prolonging the life of your knives and you are securing at the same time the safety of everyone in your household.