How to “sharpen” a knife ? 2/2

Different tools available for maintaining the sharpness of knife blades.

After having read our article [How to “sharpen” your knife – 1/2], you better know your knife and have identified the grinding, sharpening or honing treatment requested to perform on your blade.

Let’s now discover the different tools available on the market for the blades and cutting edge maintenance.

The sharpening steel is the most common tool because it allows immediate sharpening without preparation or installation. It can be used after each use for the regular maintenance of the cutting edge.

The sharpening steel, your ally in knife maintenance

Not all sharpening steels are good for maintaining all knives :

The rod must always be longer than the knife’s blade
The hardness of the rod must always be higher thant the one of the blade, but not too much. A blade sharpened with a too hard, or not enough hard rod, will quickly loose its cutting edge.

Then, you will have to choose between different kind of sharpening steels.

Your choice will depend on:

what you will do with (use as a novice, amateur, semi-pro, pro)
the quality of the knives you want to sharpen

Here are some details to know to help you in your choice.

couteau-de-cuisine-chef-20-cm-le-thiers-cuisine

Choose between the different rod shapes

Round rod : it is the most popular rod form because it makes the sharpening steel lighter and limits the risk of bad sharpening, the area in contact with the blade being thiner than on other forms of sharpening steel.

Oval rod : the contact area, thicker than the one of the round rod, makes the actions of the hand more efficient, and thus the sharpening is done faster, once you know how to use it.

Flat/large rod: the contact area is very large, so the sharpening is very quickly made. But a training is necessary to avoid angles and it is difficult to accustomed with its weight because it makes the sharpening steel more difficult to handle.

Square rod : rarer, it is a rod that offers 2 finishing levels (2 sides of each). The result is optimal when you know how to handle the sharpening steel and ignore the rod’s edges.

Choose between the different rod material or coating proposed

Steel rod
o Standard : very abrasive, it can sharpen blunt kniveso Thin : it can sharpen and honeo Extra-thin : it allows honing of high-end knives (“razor” sharpening)

Ceramic rod
Harder than the steel rod, it offers a fine abrasion which allows a light sharpening and especially a “razor” sharpening if the steel quality of the blade allows it.

Diamond rod
It is a standard steel rod covered with millions of industrial diamonds that make it very abrasive. It allows grinding, sharpening and honing, quickly and efficiently. For high-end knives.

Once you have buy your sharpening steel, you will have to learn how to use it. Several techniques are existing, here is ours, for beginners.

How to use a sharpening steel

To use your sharpening steel correctly and safely, we advise you to put the tip of the rod on a cutting board.
Then present your knife by placing its handle as close to the sharpener’s rod, cutting edge facing down.
Create a blade / rod angle of 20° to 30°. More your knife is qualitative, more the angle must be small.
Then slide the blade down in an arc, along the entire length of the sharpener’s rod.
Present the other side of the blade and repeat the process.
It is important to respect the angle and alternate on both sides of the blade in order to keep the edge and sharpen it properly.
Repeat the movement several times on each side, giving less and less pressure on the blade in order to remove the burr.
Wipe your knife after sharpening to remove material residue.

When you master the sharpening with this technique, you will not need the board anymore and can use your sharpening steel, tip up, as do the Chefs!

According to the grain, it allows durable grinding, sharpening and honing. It nevertheless requires a training; many tutorials exist on the net for this purpose.

The whetstone, natural, composite or ceramic

In few words :

Big grains (200/400 and 600/800), very abrasive, they can make a grinding (rework, repair the edge of the blade, remove visible defects by removing material). It is necessary to use a finer grain after, to sharpen and hone the blade.
Thinner grains (2000, 3000, 4000) allows to sharp and hone ((maintain the sharpness, create a fine edge).

So stones with grain 1000/3000 are the most multi-purpose.
Stone with grain of 5000 and more are for high-end steel blades with a hardness of over 58 HRC.

More the steel of your blade is qualitative and with a high hardness, more you will need a thin grain for sharpening and honing.

To use a thin grain on standard steel is useless; your cutting edge, too soft, will not be able to keep the fine cutting created by the stone.

The ceramic stone is faster to use as it didn’t require to be diped before use.

Arrived on the market for few years, it is easy to use, without any training. You just have to place and pass the blade in the holes meant for sharpening.