How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives

Steps to Sharpen Your Kitchen Knives

• Start with your knife set and your honing steel.
• Hold your honing steel firmly in one hand and place your knife at the tip of the honing steel away from the handle. Make sure the edge of the knife blade nearest the handle is touching the end of the steel.
• Hold the knife at a 20-degree angle to the steel. While you slide the knife blade down the length of the steel, it should move from the handle side to the tip, so that the entire blade of the knife draws across the surface of the steel in one sweep.
• Alternate this on each side of the knife blade 3-4 times.

Tips on Sharpening Knives

• Sharpen knives regularly for the best results. The duller a knife becomes, the harder it will be to restore a sharp edge. Pick one day each week where you’ll sharpen your set.
• Always clean your knives after sharpening. You want to remove the metal filings from around the blade so that they won’t end up in the food you cut.
• Test knives after sharpening by cutting a tomato. Tomatoes are notorious for crumbling into messy slices with knives that aren’t either very sharp, or serrated.
• Keeping your knives sharp with a steel is great, but don’t use a steel on serrated blades. These require a special sharpening routine.

Double-check the angle of your knife. Not all blades are the same. Some manufacturers (like Shun) will have a different blade angle than others (like Wusthof). Follow manufacturer recommendations.