When you have car trouble, your first reaction isn’t to run to the dealer and buy a new one, right? Similarly, when you get way behind on your yard work, you don’t up and move to a new house. That said, why, when your kitchen cutting tools start to grow dull, why would you throw them away when you could just sharpen them? To do that, you need something to sharpen them with - they are many different options available, with different costs and functionalities. This article will offer some useful tips on finding the best knife sharpeners.
People have been honing blades for thousands of years. The basic concept is really simple - all you need to do to sharpen a knife is to grind it against a rough surface, preferably some kind of whetstone. That doesn’t mean you should just run out to your driveway and start grinding at the nearest rock. You’d likely just end up damaging your knife instead of improving it. The grinding surface needs to be rough, but any big lumps in the surface will prevent effective sharpening.
The simplest way to sharpen a knife is just to grind it by hand using a whetstone. However, to get your blade back to its optimal shape, you may want to consider more involved setups. Some of these mechanisms use adjustable clamps to hold whetstones at a specific angle. The crock stick setup braces two stones against sticks to maintain the angle - all you need to do is pull the blade through the stones.
It’s important to find the right angle when you sharpen your blades. Each blade is designed with certain sharpness in mind - if you sharpen it at a different angle, you may ultimately make the blade too sharp or too dull for it’s primary function. Furthermore, if you sharpen a knife at too sharp of an angle, you risk making the blade much more likely to bend or break.
If you’re going to buy expensive, high-quality chef’s knives, such as those from J.A. Henckels or Wusthof, you’re going to want to keep those blades sharp for as long as you possibly can. When a single set of knives can approach $2,000, you should spare no expense to keep those blades in working order using a high quality knife sharpeners.
Knife sharpeners come in two broad types: electric and manual knife sharpeners. As noted above, manual sharpeners involve using a whetstone and manually scraping the knife on it. Electric knife sharpeners do the bulk of the job for you. All that’s required from you is to keep the blade straight while pulling it through the machine. Both manual and electric knife sharpeners can give you a polished, sharp edge, but electric knife sharpeners trade convenience for an increased price tag
One of the top electric knife sharpeners on the market is the Chef’s Choice 120 3 Stage Diamond Hone Knife Sharpener by Edgecraft. These versatile knife sharpeners will sharpen all of your kitchen cutting tools, even a serrated blade. It will even sharpen hunting and sporting knives for the outdoors man in your family. This sharpener also polishes and hones your blades, keeping them looking brand new for years to come. This sharpener costs around $150.00, but it’s a small price to pay to keep those high quality cutting tools in shape.
For someone looking for manual knife sharpeners, the Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker is one of the top designs. A third of the cost of the Chef’s Choice 120, this set comes with 4 whetstones of various grits. Easy to set up and effective, this is a great option for someone who wants to personally care for his or her knives in a “hands-on” manner.