Knife Sharpening and Accessories

Every kitchen knife needs to be sharpened from time to time. Sharpening a knife at home doesn’t have to be a complicated process if you have the right equipment and a little motivation. The most important thing to remember is to maintain a constant sharp edge, so as not to let the blade get completely dull. At the same time, you can’t overdo it, as you’ll remove too much steel from the blade. Sharpening is required for every knife, regardless of its purpose and the material it was made from. A sharpened knife is also much safer for the cook.
Sharpening – why do knives get dull so quickly?
Natural dulling due to friction with a given material. Microscopic chips, which can’t be seen with the naked eye, appear in the knife’s blade. The dullness of the tool can only be determined by the fact that more pressure is required when cutting.

The blade comes into contact with dulling materials, such as grains of sand. After contact with such a material, slightly larger chips appear than during everyday, routine activities. The blade then dulls in a flash, and cutting becomes difficult.

Using the knife for purposes other than intended. When we use a knife for other tasks, e.g. scraping some material or screwing and unscrewing fasteners, the blade wears out very quickly. The knife then completely loses its cutting ability.

Every knife, even a chef’s knife, dulls very quickly under constant load. If it’s made of good quality steel, its edge will simply crumble. A soft material, on the other hand, begins to deform and curl up.
Tools for sharpening knives
Unfortunately, with the help of an ordinary field stone or a piece of marble, you won’t be able to achieve a straight and durable cutting edge, not to mention turning a very dull knife into a razor. This category contains tools that allow you to sharpen your knives, not just kitchen ones, easily and effectively. There are also accessories that can make the process much easier. They include, among others:

  a ceramic honing rod for sharpening ceramic knives
  a ceramic knife sharpener
  a whetstone
  a spring holder for whetstones
  a knife sharpening kit
  a whetstone flattening tool
  a sharpening stone
  a ceramic sharpening stone

How to sharpen knives? Proven Sharpening
How to sharpen knives – summary Regardless of whether you’re looking for ways to effectively sharpen knives at home or you’re a restaurant manager, you’ll surely appreciate knowing a few different methods for sharpening knives. In practice, it all depends on the purpose of a particular knife. It’s assumed that the ideal sharpening angle for a knife is 20 degrees, but if you have professional types of this tool, we recommend using individual parameters:

  hunting knives – to obtain maximum edge sharpness, sharpening should be done at an angle of 30-35 degrees, and if you want to get a blade that’s resistant to subsequent dulling, the angle changes to 40-45 degrees;
  regular kitchen (non-professional) – sharpened at an angle of 25-30 degrees; if the knife is Japanese, it should be 10-20 degrees;
tactical (combat) knives – sharpening should be done at an angle of 35-40 degrees;
  professional knives e.g. a chef’s knife, for separating meat from bones and cutting it into thin fillets (slicing knife) – at an angle of 25 degrees.

During sharpening, it’s necessary to maintain one chosen angle throughout the process. It’s also recommended to work with smooth movements and slightly raise the knife handle when working on the blade’s curve. The movements should be performed at a constant right angle to the blade’s cutting edge. The basic rule is to move the knife forward (i.e. “against the grain”). The grit, just like with sandpaper, gives you information about how coarse the stone is. We offer our whetstones with grits from 250 to as high as 10,000. Producers usually provide one of two methods for specifying the gradation. The first distinction is expressed in numbers, where the number means the amount of abrasive particles per square centimeter. The higher the value, the coarser the whetstone – for example, one with a 600 grit will be rougher than accessories with a 1200 grit. The second method is verbal and appeals to our intuition.
Knife Sharpening Stones
Knife sharpening stones are produced with different surfaces, depending on the number of abrasive particles per square millimeter of their surface. To sharpen a knife, at least two such stones were usually needed. One with maximum abrasion for the first stage of the process and one with minimum for the end, when the previously sharpened blade was finally polished. Currently, however, stones, e.g. whetstones, have two surfaces in one – one for polishing and the other for finishing the cutting edge.

In this category, you can also buy a whole set with a stand, so that sharpening a knife will not only be quick and effective, but also comfortable. Many stones in our store come from Japan – a country famous for sharp and precise knives. Thanks to this, our customers can be sure about the quality of our sharpening tools.

When it comes to the geometry of the stones, they are divided into: – flat stones – with a flat abrasive surface, usually rectangular in shape and suitable for sharpening almost all knives, except for those that also have a concave part (i.e. so-called “recurve”) – oval stones – created precisely because flat stones were not suitable for sharpening all types of kitchen knives.
Sharpening should be done regularly
A good sharpener smoothes the knife, making it better for cutting, but when it comes to sharpening knives, other sharpening methods may prove more appropriate and effective. You should remember that care and caution are important: sharpening can be dangerous and even experienced people should exercise caution at all times. To achieve the best sharpening, set the knife blade at a 20-degree angle to the whetstone. A sharp knife is another way of saying a sharp cutting edge. Therefore, to sharpen a knife, you need to arm yourself with patience and a sufficient amount of time for this task. So we’ll just remind you of the most important rules: we move the knife with the blade forward (“against the grain”), we sharpen both sides of the cutting edge, we try to maintain a constant sharpening angle from the heel to the tip of the blade. Remember that sharpened knives are best stored in a special case or stand. Away from children!

Read also about sharpeners on our blog: knife sharpeners and their types.
Also check out the types and kinds of Japanese knives:
Masamoto Knives Masashi Yamamoto Knives Masahiro Knives Masutani Knives Sujihiki Kiritsuke Petty/Pairing Honesuki Boning Knife Bread Knife Slicing/Sashimi Knife Fish Filleting Knife Sushi Knives Chef’s Knife Vegetable Knife