A Few Words On Knife Care, From a Guy That Sucks At Knife Care

It’s getting to be about that time, dear readers. Time to take all my good knives out of the bag and give them a good sharpening. This time will be different, though. This time they won’t be going back into the bag. Rather, they’ll be getting integrated into my home kitchen. Good knives need to be used. Why buy a knife if not to use it?

I’m procrastinating, however. I don’t particularly enjoy knife sharpening. Especially when it’s nearly every knife in my kit (and the poor, fackackta knives in the kitchen knife block) that need attention. I’m not great at it, but I can put an edge on my knives that I’m happy with.

It took me a long time to even attempt sharpening my own knives. Much longer than it probably should have. I’ve since picked up a few tips and tricks that I wanna share with you here, so maybe you won’t put off learning how to sharpen your own knives for as long as I did.

A Few Things I’ve Learnt

1) Have No Fear

The first thing to remember is that if your knife is indeed dull, there’s almost no way you can make it worse by putting it to a stone. Unless you honest-to-goodness don’t have the slightest clue what you’re doing, there’s a 99% chance that passing your knife on a stone at the very least won’t make it worse. Depending on your technique, you just might not make it any better, either. Don’t get caught up in how expensive your knives are. They’re made to be hand-sharpened. Again, you’d almost have to try intentionally to damage your knives on a stone. Be brave, watch a video or two and give it a shot.

2) Don’t Beat Yourself Up

Here’s a little truth that I think a lot of cooks will argue before actually thinking it through all the way:

“Sharpening your own knives does not automatically make you a better cook.”

Zachary Resnick, 2021

That’s right. The ability or lack thereof to sharpen your own knives has little to no bearing on how your food tastes. HOWEVER, don’t misinterpret this nugget. You still need sharp knives to make clean, safe cuts. And the act and discipline of taking care of your tools is a good habit to translate into the rest of your work. But if it’s really not for you, doing your own knife sharpening that is, then don’t sweat it. Take them to a professional. Toss a couple bucks to a co-worker who has the skills. Don’t feel pressured into having to know how, and don’t feel embarrassed if you don’t know a stone from a throne.

3) Set Up Your Station

Much like any other kitchen related task, knife sharpening is much easier when you mise your place and set up a station. This means different things for different spaces, of course. I’ll soak my stones the night before, lay out towels over my kitchen table, maybe lay a garbage bag or two on the floor to catch drips. All the knives I’ll be doing will be laid out within reach. I like to put some music on, lo-fi beats to chill/sharpen to and most important for me, I sit down. My chair is at the proper height, so all the movement comes from my shoulders, saving my back from leaning over the table while running the knives over the stone. Then, one after another, I run all my knives over the coarsest stone on both sides before moving onto the next stone. Do all your knives on one grit before changing stones. It works much better and it’s just like working assembly-line style, like you would in the kitchen.

4) Strokes and Pressure

I won’t get into angles and percentages here, there’s way too much to discuss. But I will spare a broad thought to the number of strokes and how much pressure you should use when sharpening. The coarser the stone, the lower the grit, you’ll want to use more pressure, for less strokes. Higher grit stones, your polishing stones are the opposite. The ones that put a mirror edge on your knife allowing you to cut through time itself you want low pressure and a higher number of strokes. So keep that in mind as you cycle from stone to stone during your sharpening.

Does any of that help, dear readers? Knife sharpening is a vast topic, much broader than any single blog post could do justice. But, if there’s anything I want you to take away from this, it’s don’t be afraid to try sharpening your own knives. And don’t feel like less of a cook if you can’t/don’t.

Do you have any knife sharpening tips or tricks? Shoot me an email or leave a comment down below. Until next time kiddies!