There are four basic types of knife sharpeners, and it might not be clear which one is ideal for you right now. Until you read our advice, that is. We examine the many types of knife sharpeners that are available. The use of whetstone, guided system, electric, manual, and even honing steel.
A knife works best when it is carefully maintained, much like your car. This calls for regular knife sharpening, therefore you’ll also require the best sharpener for your particular type of knife. This will help you choose the type of knife sharpener ideal for you and the specific knives in your collection and a suitable knife-sharpening technique.
Are Sharp Knives Really Mandatory?
If you must ask that question, perhaps you have never felt the agony of slicing up exquisite food with a dull knife.
Therefore, the answer is yes — a sharp knife is necessary if you want to appreciate every part of cooking meals. However, it is up to you how sharp you choose to maintain your knives.
Different Types of Knife Sharpeners
Knife sharpeners can be classified into five categories: electric, manual, sharpening systems, stones, and steel. Let’s examine each, their advantages and disadvantages, and the knives and chefs they are most suited for.
Electric Knife Sharpeners
The most convenient and user-friendly knife sharpeners are the electric ones. With one of these tools, sharpening a knife is really easy, and there isn’t much of a learning curve.
Just slide the knife blade through one of their two or more slots. As the blades move through the rotating sharpening stones, they are ground and sharpened. You may place the knife at the proper angle with the help of instructions included on a modern electric sharpener. Angles are crucial for properly sharpening a knife, but they can be challenging to master.
With an electric sharpener, you have less control, but it will still do the job. However, be aware that by removing more metal than is necessary, you risk reducing the blade’s lifespan. Compared to other types, electric sharpeners remove a lot more of the blade each time they are used.
Pull-through Manual Knife Sharpeners
A handheld knife sharpener contains a gap through which you slide the knife, similar to electrics. However, because there is no rotating action, the process takes longer. There are also handheld sharpeners where you slide the sharpener over the blade as opposed to pulling the blade through.
While a handheld still offers the ease of fixed angles, it also enables more precise control of the sharpening technique than an electric can. From a “knowing how to do it” perspective, they aren’t challenging to use, but they do take greater physical effort. In comparison to an electric, a handheld sharpener will provide a good, clean edge and provide you more control. The angle instructions keep everything straightforward and simple to understand.
Knife Sharpening Systems
A knife sharpening system sits somewhere in the middle of the precise control of a sharpening stone and the user-friendliness of an electric sharpener. However, the knife is stationary, and the person slides the stones over the blade rather than sliding the knife through or over a sharpening surface.
The fundamentals of each method are the same: the user sharpens the knife edge using a whetstone connected to the system on an arm to keep a constant angle while the knife is held in position. The arm’s angle may be changed to accommodate the recommended angle for different knives. It just takes a few passes of the stone along the blade once you’ve determined the proper angle.
A system has a degree of difficulty, and it’s slower and requires more work than an electric sharpener or even a manual pull-through. But just like everything else, practice will make perfect.
Whetstones for Sharpening Stones
For the greatest control, you’ll need a set of whetstones for sharpening stones. Basically, they all function in the same manner.
To make the stone sharp, you attach it to a surface and move the knife back and forth over it. For sharpening the edge, certain stones have a rough side and a finer side. In other instances, you’ll need to buy many stones with different grit levels to do the task completely.
It’s the classic method to sharpen knives, and many believe it produces the greatest results. But the learning curve is high, you should practice with inexpensive knives before moving on to your best knives! Learning how much pressure to use and how to hold the knife at the proper angle requires some practice.
Sharpening Steel
This tool goes by many names, including knife hone, honer, sharpening steel, and many more. They may be most frequently called “sharpening steel,” although that is a misnomer. Don’t expect to repair a severely worn or broken knife with a few sweeps along the hone because it does not sharpen a blade.
A knife is honed by realigning the blade’s cutting edge after it has been twisted out of shape. Yes, with repeated usage, a sharpened edge becomes completely deformed and loses its sharpness. The edge isn’t technically much sharper after honing, but because the operation restores the edge to straight, it cuts as it was sharpened.
A bent blade edge may be straightened by passing it along the hone at the right angle. This is an excellent method for maintaining your blades between sharpening. If you hone, you’ll need to sharpen less frequently because if you don’t, you’ll feel the edge has to be sharpened when it only needs to be realigned.
It will require some time to get the idea of it, much as with a whetstone. You must master how to hold the blade at the proper angle and how much force to apply.
