The Top 5 Knife Sharpening Mistakes & How to Avoid
2009 April 22
- The biggest knife sharpening error we see is using the wrong angle to sharpen the blade. Many of Smiths products are designed with preset angles to avoid this problem. Even on our bench stones, we offer a blade guide to insure the correct edge is applied to the blade.
- Using a standard steel rod to “sharpen” a knife. Steel rods do not actually sharpen; they only reset an edge that has rolled over due to hitting a hard surface like bone, plastic, a countertop, etc. In order to actually sharpen a knife, you need to remove some of the metal using a more abrasive material.
- Sharpening a serrated knife on a sharpener designed for straight edge knives only. Also, sharpening a serrated knife on an electric sharpener will eventually grind away all of the serrations.
- Waiting until a knife is too dull makes it a lot harder to get the knife sharp without an aggressive sharpener like an electric. It is far better to use to a quick touch up on a manual sharpener each time you use your knife to keep it sharp. To re-sharpen a very dull edge requires you to remove a significant amount of material.
- Over-sharpening a knife results in excessive removal of material and a needless waste of time and energy. A few passes through one of our pull thru or electric sharpeners is enough to produce a very sharp edge on most knives.
