How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife and Actually Keep It Sharp

A sharp knife is safer than a blunt one, because it goes where you point it rather than skidding off a tomato skin towards your fingers.

Most people conflate two different operations. Understanding the difference solves the problem.

Honing versus sharpening

Honing realigns an edge that has rolled over to one side. It removes essentially no metal. This is what a steel rod does, and it is what most knives actually need. Weekly, or before each big prep session.

Sharpening removes metal to form a new edge. This is what a whetstone or a pull-through does. Twice a year for a home cook is plenty.

If you sharpen when you only needed to hone, you are grinding your knife away for no reason.

Honing with a steel

1. Hold the steel vertically, tip resting on a chopping board or cloth.
2. Set the blade against the top of the steel at roughly 15 to 20 degrees — about the thickness of two stacked coins under the spine.
3. Draw the blade down and towards you, heel to tip, with light pressure. The whole edge should pass over the steel.
4. Alternate sides. Five to eight strokes each side is ample.

Speed is irrelevant and dangerous. The theatrical fast steeling is showmanship; slow and consistent gives a better edge.

Sharpening on a whetstone

A combination stone with a coarse and a fine side handles everything.

1. Soak the stone if it is a water stone, usually ten minutes, until bubbles stop.
2. Set it on a damp cloth so it cannot slide.
3. Establish the angle — 15 degrees for Japanese knives, 20 for most European ones. Consistency matters far more than the exact number.
4. Push the blade away from you across the coarse side, as if slicing a thin layer off the stone, maintaining the angle throughout the stroke and sweeping to cover the curved tip.
5. Work one side until you can feel a burr along the entire opposite edge — a tiny wire of metal you can detect by dragging a fingernail down from the spine. The burr is proof you have reached the apex.
6. Repeat on the other side until the burr flips over.
7. Move to the fine side and repeat with lighter pressure, alternating sides, to remove the burr and refine the edge.
8. Strop on the back of a leather belt or a piece of cardboard to remove the last of the burr.

Keeping it sharp longer

• Cut on wood or plastic. Glass, stone and ceramic boards destroy an edge in a single use.
• Do not scrape food off the board with the edge. Turn the knife over and use the spine.
• Store in a block, on a magnetic rack, or in a sheath. Loose in a drawer, blades knock against other metal and chip.
• Do not twist or lever with the tip. It is thin and it snaps.

On pull-through sharpeners

They work, in the sense that they produce a cutting edge quickly. They also remove a lot of metal at a fixed angle and leave a coarser edge than a stone.

For a cheap knife you use daily, that is a perfectly reasonable trade. For a good knife, a stone is worth the twenty minutes twice a year.