How to sharpen kitchen knives with a sharpening steel. |
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All knives will need to be sharpened at some point in time. Yes, all knives dull. Even knives that are not used will dull with age - metals corrode from moisture in the air. For safety you should keep your knives at their sharpest. A sharp knife does not roll off of the surface that it is cutting. A sharp knife does not need extreme force to slice, dice, or chop through an item. Rolling edges and forcing blades has been the cause of many a kitchen accident. Cut with ease and safety - always keep your knives sharp. Using a Sharpening Steel These directions are intended for use with a plain or straight edge blade. You need a cutting board, a kitchen towel, sharpening steel and knife or knives to be sharpened. Place folded towel on cutting surface. Hold Sharpening Steel straight down. The tip will be in the towel and touching down to the cutting board. Like a pole with the handle at the top. The movement is as simple as the swing of your arm. You start by placing the heel, or back end of the cutting surface against the steel it’s width plus 1/4" down from the handle bottom. Make sure that the heel and blade are comfortably away from the hand holding the steel. Now simply pull the knife downward and toward you with the blade sliding down the sharpening steel. A knife may need only 4 to 10 of these strokes on each side of the blade. To get the best edge on your knife you need to try to match the angle of the original edge. However, unless you are protractor happy it is not quite possible. Luckily for us kitchen knives are mainly cut with the same edge bevel. So, to match as closely the industry standard we’ll use a 22 1/2 degree angle. Place the heel of the blade at the appropriate space on the steel - now hold the blade at a 90 degree angle from the steel. Okay, now eyeballing it bring the spine of the blade half way closer to the steel handle. You now have a 45 degree angle from the steel. Get that trusty eyeball ready - we are cutting the angle in half one more time. You now have a 22 1/2 degree angle. Now go ahead and pull the blade from heel to tip down the sharpening steel. After a few strokes a ‘burr’ will form. On very close inspection a burr looks like the crest of a small wave. The burr will curl away from the sharpening surface. If you stop sharpening before the burr is formed, your knife will not be as sharp as it could be. Sometimes you can’t see a burr, but you can always feel it. Check for the burr on the side opposite the edge you have been grinding. Hold the knife blade horizontally and place your fingers or thumb at a 45-degree angle to the edge and pull gently down and away. NEVER PULL TOWARD THE TIP OR HILT; YOU MAY LOP OFF A FINGER. PULL AWAY FROM THE EDGE. Remember, check the side opposite the one you've been sharpening. You're checking for a very light lip caused by the edge rolling over to the other side. Check at various points along the edge. The burr tends to form quickly at the base of the blade but takes a little longer at the tip. You must feel a burr running all the way from heel to tip to know that you have fully ground that side of the knife.
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