What is the correct way to sharpen a kitchen knife

The kitchen knives at home will become dull after being used for a long time, which will affect whether you are cutting vegetables or other ingredients. If you want your kitchen knife to be sharp and shiny again, you have to sharpen it. Therefore, the kitchen knife needs to be sharpened after using it for a period of time. Not sharpening the kitchen knife for a long time will not only affect its use, but also cause the knife to be damaged or even deformed. Now let's learn the correct way to sharpen a kitchen knife.

Cutting tools can be roughly divided into three types according to their functions:

1. Cutting knife: vegetable cutting knife, slicing knife

2. Chopping knife: a knife for both chopping and cutting

3. Machete: Boning knife.

No matter how good the knife sharpening method is, the most important thing is that the knife you use should be easy to sharpen. Otherwise, the knife itself will not sharpen and will be useless after a few uses. Therefore, when purchasing a kitchen knife, you must buy one that is easy to wear, wear-resistant and durable, such as the old-fashioned forged iron kitchen knife, which is forged using traditional quenching and has a high blade hardness, good toughness, is very sharp, easy to grind and durable. On the contrary, stainless steel knives are usually punched out by machines. If they are not forged in a furnace, the blade will become dull and cannot be sharpened no matter how hard you grind it.

The methods for sharpening these three knives are basically the same, but there are slight differences in the sharpening techniques and strength.

1. Before sharpening the knife, wet both the kitchen knife and the whetstone with clean water first, so that the edge will not be damaged during sharpening.

2. Sharpening kitchen knives

Keep the angle between the knife blade and the whetstone at about 15-20 degrees. Grind the front side from left to right first and then the back side. Pull the knife back and forth horizontally, and grind it in a cross-circular manner. Be careful not to use too much force. The blades of kitchen knives and slicing knives are generally thin, so do not use too much force, otherwise the blade will be worn off. Grind the knife from left to right, front and back, 2-3 times, then moisten it with some water and repeat once. When the edge looks white and shiny, the kitchen knife is sharpened. At this point the knife is extremely sharp. Be careful not to use it to test the edge, as you may hurt your hand if you are not careful.

3. Sharpening the cutting knife

When sharpening a cutting knife, keep the blade and the whetstone at an angle of 25-35 degrees. If the blade is very blunt or damaged, you can first use the coarse grinding surface of the whetstone to grind it roughly, and then finely grind it. The sharpening method is the same, and the force can be slightly greater than that of sharpening a kitchen knife. It is fine when the blade turns white after sharpening. You have to master the specific skills yourself.

4. Sharpening machetes and bone-chopping knives

Generally, bone-cutting knives are mainly used to chop bone foods. The blade for chopping bones is generally thicker. If the blade is too thin, it cannot withstand the force when chopping bones. Therefore, no matter which factory makes the bone-cutting knife, the blade will generally be thicker and heavier. When grinding, first use coarse grinding to slightly coarser the texture, then use fine grinding to slowly finely grind. Grind the boning knife with a little more force, and grind at an angle of 40-50 degrees to the whetstone. The blade of the boning knife is thicker, so you can grind it more crosswise. The sharpening method is the same as that of a kitchen knife. The general standard for sharpening a knife is that when the edge of the knife becomes shiny white, it means that the knife is at its sharpest.