Sharpening knives: recommendations from experts. Sharpening stone - an age-old companion of knives Diamond sharpening stones

It is simply impossible to describe all the nuances of how to sharpen knives correctly in one article, but this is not always necessary. Especially if an ordinary kitchen knife needs sharpening or you are just a beginner who needs to start somewhere.

In fact, at home, sharpening a kitchen knife to sharpness can be done quickly and easily. But the difficulty lies in the fact that this must be done in such a way that the sharpness of the blade is preserved for a long time, and at the same time too much steel has not been removed from the blade.

In this material, we will try to simply and clearly talk about how to properly sharpen a knife with a bar. After all, this method is not only basic and accessible to everyone, but also the most effective. Except step by step instructions on sharpening and finishing, here you will find a selection of training videos and an overview alternative methods– starting from sharpening systems and ending with the bottom of a ceramic plate.

A little about the choice of stones

Grinding bars are of the following types:

Ceramic;
Diamond;
natural;
Japanese water stones.

If you wish, once you gain experience, you can buy some solid and expensive diamond stones or Japanese water ones. However, it is better to start with ordinary ceramic bars (such as "Boats"), which are sold in every hardware store. They are durable, durable and affordable. Of the shortcomings, only their uneven abrasion can be called.

Here are some tips to help you find the right partner:

What size should the bar be? Ideally, it is 1.5-2 times longer, or at least not shorter than the knife blade. The width and shape of the bar is not critical.
When buying a bar, make sure it is flat and not chipped.
To get started, you can buy one general-purpose medium-hard whetstone. But if you want, buy one bar with two sides of different grain sizes or two stones with a large and a half grain size. In the future, a couple more stones may replenish your collection.
It is best to try to get a couple of Soviet-made whetstones, say, at flea markets or from your grandfather. Bars marked "Made in the USSR" have one-size grains and high-quality binding material.

To bring the knife to razor sharpness, in addition to grindstones, you can also buy GOI abrasive paste, which we will also talk about working with.

7-step guide to sharpening and finishing a kitchen knife

So, in sharpening a knife, one goal is to grind enough metal from the blade so that the cutting edge becomes sharp again. You need to start work with a coarse-grained abrasive and finish with a fine-grained one.

It is important to remember the following principles for sharpening knives:

The most important thing is to choose optimal angle sharpening and hold it on the entire cutting edge while sliding along the bar.
Movements should be smooth, without pressure.
All bars should be moistened with water, and preferably with soapy water: before sharpening (so that the blade slides better and metal dust does not clog pores), in the process (to remove the emerging suspension) and at the end to clean the bar.

And one more important advice- the first time it is better to practice on a knife that you do not mind spoiling. Especially if your main knife is too solid and expensive. Well, let's get down to practice.

Step 1. Rinse the stone with water, and then run it over it, say, with a sponge with a drop of dishwashing liquid.

Step 2. Next, sit down at the table and set the stone on wooden board, for example, cutting. You can put under a stone and a towel. It is more convenient for someone to put the bar perpendicular to themselves, and for someone at an angle of about 45 degrees. Over time, you will understand how it is more convenient for you to work.

Step 3. Now you need to decide on the angle of sharpening and fix the position of the knife. What should be the angle? General principle- the smaller it is, the sharper the blade is, and the larger it is, the longer the blade retains its sharpness.

Ordinary kitchen knives are sharpened at an angle of 40-45 degrees. If you are sharpening a fillet knife (designed for cutting thin pieces of fish, poultry and meat), then it should be sharpened sharper - at an angle of 30-40 degrees. The selected value must be divided by 2, and then we will get the angle that should be between the blade and the surface of the bar. That is, to sharpen the blade at 45 degrees, you need to sharpen each side of it at 22.5 degrees to the grinding surface.

A simple technique shown in the photo below will help you fix the knife at an angle of 22.5 degrees.

Remember, you should try to stick to the chosen angle during the whole work.

Step 4. We put the knife across the bar so that the upper edge of the handle is above the lower edge of the stone. Holding the handle with one hand and the blade with the other, we begin to slide along the bar away from us along the trajectory shown in the picture below.

Watch this short and descriptive video:

The bottom line is that the cutting edge sliding on the stone should always be perpendicular to the direction of movement.
At the bend of the blade, the handle of the knife needs to be slightly raised to maintain the selected angle.
Remember also that you can not put pressure on the blade, but you should not give slack either.

Thus, it is necessary to pass the blade along the stone about 40-50 times, namely, until a “burr” (burr, microsaws) appears along the entire length of the RK (cutting edge). Its appearance will tell you that the excess metal has worn out and there is no point in grinding further. Then you need to turn the blade over and repeat the same steps. Visually in the video:

A burr is a small roughness that is difficult to see, but can be felt by gently running your finger along the edge of the blade (but not along the edge, so as not to cut yourself).

During operation, a suspension will appear on the blade - metal dust, which must be periodically washed off with water.

Step 5. So, the burrs have appeared, now we proceed to fine-tuning. To do this, we repeat the same manipulations on a stone with half the grain size. Alternative way fine-tuning - with the help of musat.

Musat is a steel rod of oval or round section with longitudinal notches. It is suitable only for editing and maintaining sharpness, but not for sharpening a knife. Musat is recommended to edit the knife every time before and after work.

How to edit a kitchen knife with a musat can be seen in the following video master class from the respected cutler Gennady Prokopenkov, who, by the way, specializes in the manufacture of kitchen knives.

Step 6. If desired, you can bring your knife to razor sharpness. To do this, take any leather or leather belt, treat it with GOI, Dialux or any other abrasive paste, and then do all the same steps, but only in the direction from the cutting edge.

Step 7. And finally, we check the quality of sharpening. This is done very simply. It is enough to cut a tomato or cut paper. If you wanted to achieve razor sharpness, then you need to try to shave off the hair on your arm. Most sharp knives they can even cut their hair, as shown in the photo below, however, in the kitchen for the most ordinary knife, such sharpness is not required.

Alternative sharpening methods

If your kitchen knife is a simple and inexpensive “hard worker” and / or you just don’t want to delve into the “knife culture”, then we recommend using an electric sharpener, roller knife sharpener or sharpening system for sharpening at home. What are their pros and cons?

An electric sharpener sharpens knives perfectly and quickly, but even the highest quality models remove too much material from the blades, thereby reducing its life. Another disadvantage of an electric sharpener is good device costs over $200.
The roller cutter is inexpensive and easy to use. With it, you can quickly sharpen a kitchen knife, but, unfortunately, the sharpness of the blade will not last long and the knife will deteriorate over time. The tool from Fiskaris (pictured) is the most trusted among roller cutlers. Do not confuse a roller cutter with a V-shaped cutter. The latter is an option for the most careless.

Grinding systems are good because they allow you to more accurately set and maintain the angle. Such sharpeners are different - with blade fixation (manufacturers DMT and Lanski) and with fixation of the stones themselves at a certain angle (Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker). Separately, you can highlight the sharpening system in which you can choose the desired angle and control the position of the knife - this is the Edge Pro Apex Knife Sharpening System. Each system has its pros and cons. So, for example, on sharpeners with blade fixation, it is inconvenient to sharpen wide chef's knives, and on Spyderco's triangle, knives are more likely to be corrected than sharpened, and the angle can only be selected 30 or 40 degrees. However, for kitchen knives, just these angles are needed, and using the triangle is very simple. Detailed overview and instruction manual sharpener from Spyderco can be seen in the following video.

What are the disadvantages of Apex Edge Pro? Perhaps this is only a high price - $ 245. However, for sharpening kitchen knives, you can buy a Chinese copy of this sharpener (for example, on Aliexpress).

There is another tricky way to sharpen a knife at home - using a rough risk at the bottom of a ceramic mug or plate. The principle of operation is still the same - maintaining the angle, smooth movements, maintaining the RK (cutting edge) perpendicular to the direction.

A bar manually (with a video without SMS and registration) and understand why do it at all. Professionals, of course, are aware of this topic, but for them, there may be useful information. Or it will be an occasion to update your knowledge in order to "keep in good shape."

If you have to put in more and more effort to cut, then this is an occasion to think about sharpening your knife. Because using a blunt weapon is dangerous. It can slip off at any moment, and believe that the sharpness of the blade will be enough to inflict a serious wound on you or a person standing next to you.

Preparing for sharpening. What needs to be done before then?

The blade of a knife, upon closer inspection, looks like a saw, and the more often the teeth are located in it and the smoother the transition between them, the easier it is to use the tool. A dull knife loses these teeth, they wear out, bend and crumble.
There are many ways to sharpen a knife using mechanical and electric sharpeners, as well as special machines with grinding wheels. But sharpeners do not give an ideal result, and easel sharpening requires considerable knowledge and skills. Therefore, we will look at how to properly sharpen knives with a block in a step-by-step guide for independent work in at home. This method will give you two main advantages: considerable money savings and excellent results.

The first thing to do is to determine the degree of damage to the blade. It is very easy to do this. Place it at an angle to a beam of bright light. This method instantly reveals all the chips and bumps that you need to eliminate. They will look like dots or lines on the blade. If the boundary between the planes is uniform, sharply defined, without transitions, then the instrument is in excellent condition.
After that, the knife should be washed in water with the addition of soap. This is done to facilitate subsequent work. The knife will become easier to slide on the whetstone, and it will be easier for you to maintain the required angle between the planes of the blade and the blade.

Choosing the right bar

The main tool in the future work will be whetstone. To obtain perfect result, you will need several stones of different grain sizes. The minimum number is two, but if you need a razor sharpness of the blade, brought to perfection, then you can use up to five whetstones.

There are two types of bars. The first ones are artificial, used for primary metal processing, made of the following materials.

Synthetic gemstones (diamond, sapphire, etc.):

borazone;
silicon carbide;
elbor;
and others.

The second is natural. They are used for finishing knife sharpening:

diamond;
pomegranate;
corundum;
Japanese water stones

It is clear that natural whetstones cost decent money, but if you want to get a really good result, you will have to fork out a little.
An important parameter is the choice of the size suitable for the work of the bar. At a minimum, it should be the same length as the knife with which you will have to work. And ideally - one and a half to two times more. At the same time, the width of the stone does not matter and is selected based on personal preferences. Although if you take a wider donkey, then even an inexperienced beginner will find it easier to work on it.
Before starting, it is necessary to soak the bar in water (artificial) or oil (natural). The liquid will nourish, close the pores in it, reduce subsequent pollution and make your work easier.

Correct sharpening angle

How to sharpen a kitchen knife with a bar? Keep it at the right angle. It is this parameter that will subsequently determine the length of the blade's service life and the frequency of its sharpening. The larger the angle you get, the higher the resistance of the metal to external influences, which means that you need to update its sharpness less often. Sharp corner gives ease of cutting, but due to the thinness of the metal obtained in this place, it is erased faster.

The determining factor will be the purpose of the knife:

japanese cooking blades sharpened at an angle of 10-20 degrees;
fillet knives and professional chefs require an angle of 25 degrees;
household knives - 30 degrees;
hunting blades are processed at an inclination of 35-40 degrees.

You will need not only to determine the angle of inclination, but also to maintain it during the entire work.

Advice! To find and endure required amount degrees it is good to use a sheet of paper folded several times. It is a fast, cheap and accurate meter.

If, after reading the article, you still have questions about how to properly sharpen knives with a bar, the video attached to it will completely clarify them. It clearly shows the entire sequence of actions, which means that it will be easier for you to repeat them, gaining your own experience.

With the use of the first bronze weapons, it became necessary to maintain them in good condition. The introduction into primitive life of new metal tools also dictated the need for artisans who could give the blade the necessary sharpness.

It was in those days that the ancestor of the bars for sharpening knives appeared. The first whetstones were oblong-shaped stones made of sandstone and silica rocks. Later, each warrior carried a small bar with him to sharpen his weapons.

A bit of theory

Modern Process sharpening of the cutting edge is conditionally divided into three stages: peeling, sharpening, finishing. Accordingly, grinding stones / bars of various grain sizes are used for metal processing: coarse-grained, medium-grained and fine-grained.

The concepts of hard, medium and soft /bars are also applicable. The concept of granularity is the size in microns of crystals (grains) that remove metal layer by layer.

Coarse-grained bars are designed for rough work: they carelessly process the blade, removing metal in large fractions. Fine-grained stones grind down the irregularities left by a larger bar, thereby bringing it to the ideal cutting edge.

When working with some stones, it is necessary to moisten them with water or oil.

This is due to two reasons:

There are samples of stones / bars that work extremely inefficiently without lubrication and wear out quickly. When the cutting edge rubs against the stone, the water between them is a kind of reagent that forms a suspension with the abrasive. Thanks to this very suspension, the bar grinds the metal. A striking example of such stones are Japanese water stones.
When metal rubs against the surface of the bar, particles of stone and metal clog the pores of the bar, reducing its abrasive ability, the water flow washes away excess dirt, keeping the working surface of the grinding bar intact. It should be noted that the abrasive during dry sharpening can scratch the polishing of the blade, which is also not very good.

The main types of grinding abrasives

Natural stones are in the highest price category due to depletion natural resource, Availability self made for bar production or high mining costs. They are used by sharpening professionals, for this reason, for domestic needs, the acquisition of such a stone will be an extremely impractical solution.

Some samples need to be soaked in water, lubricated with oils. They have a wide range of grits for all stages of blade sharpening. Natural stones are among the most expensive in the field of tool sharpening and have long earned the respect of craftsmen.

The only drawback of working with such stones is the requirement for skill and experience. Unprofessional sharpening with natural stone will knock off the blade of the knife and ruin the stone.

Here are the most famous types of natural sharpening stones: Arkansas natural stone (Novaculite, Washita, India), African ZuluGrey, Japanese water stones (Nakayama, Oozuku, Narutaki, Shabudani, Okudo), Belgian blue stone and Cuticule.

Synthetic stones are made from an abrasive with a hard-based binder. We list some of them:

Artificial water stones They are an alternative to natural counterparts. In work, wetting with water or special oil is required. Storage in water is allowed a few days before the start of work. After sharpening, it is recommended to dry the stone. The price of artificial specimens is cheaper than natural ones, but remains at a high level.
Diamond sharpening stones are very durable materials and are often used to level other sharpening stones. Fine-grained specimens last longer than large ones, due to the slow chipping of the abrasive. When working, it is recommended to use a lubricant - soapy or plain water. On various Internet sites, the structure of diamonds is illustrated in the form of regular polyhedra, although this is fundamentally wrong: under a microscope, the crystals look like an ordinary stone. irregular shape, the planes are different and some faces are visible.
The disadvantage of diamond stems from its dignity: high sharpening speed, respectively, with inept handling, you can remove an extra layer, damage the cutting edge or leave a deep scratch.
Ceramic stones have high wear resistance like diamonds, sharpening quality like natural stones, but at the same time a low sharpening speed. Such products are suitable for finishing and maintaining the sharpness of the blade. They do not need water or oil, after work they are washed with water and wiped with a rag. Suitable for sharpening household tools: needles, fish hooks, scissors, shaving accessories.
Abrasive synthetic whetstones low price category. Such products made in the USSR were in every home. Carborundum and electrocorundum grains, which are a solid material, grind metal well, but due to a weak binding composition, they quickly crumble. After working with the product, rinsing with water is recommended. Or, sharpening the tool with lubrication initially.

Sharpening household tools

For sharpening kitchen or woodworking tools, it is most practical to purchase a double-sided sharpening block: large / medium or medium / small (size of abrasive crystals). Natural stones are not taken into account, as they require a certain skill.

For the above purposes, diamond whetstones for sharpening knives produced by the Venev factory are quite suitable. A domestic enterprise located in the Tula region is a monopoly in the field diamond tool on the Russian market.

Some Venevian bars show a manufacturing defect - problems with flatness. Such a disadvantage is not critical, it can be leveled.
To sharpen any tool, you need to fix a bar or stone on a flat surface, since both hands will be needed during work.

Fasteners can be factory-made or ordinary boards nailed to the workbench as a stop. When sharpening a knife, take right hand by the handle, and the left by the blade (for right-handers) and try to use the entire surface of the stone for uniform chipping.

Place the tool with the butt towards you, and with the blade away from you, laying it on the stone. Sharpening is done by moving the stone away from you and slightly to the right, sharpening the left side. For sharpening the right side, the handle is taken in left hand.

Both sides are sharpened the same number of times. Do not change the angle of the blade in relation to the bar, otherwise the cutting edge will quickly become dull.

You need to grind until the formation of metal dust, check the sharpness on a sheet of paper - a knife with minimal effort should cut paper freely. If the result is the opposite, you need to repeat the procedure. It is possible to wash off abrasive particles from a knife and a stone after work or in the process of sharpening.

Sharpening scissors is easier and faster than sharpening knives. In the case when you need to quickly sharpen scissors for several uses, you need to take a glass bottle or any cylindrical metal object (a needle will do).

Further, this inventory must be cut with scissors - in literally. That is, to make cutting movements across a metal object or along the neck of a glass bottle. Such sharpening gives sharpness for a short period.

For best results, you need an average sandpaper, file or sharpening block with fine grit. When using an abrasive skin, you simply need to cut it or rub the scissors on the canvas with external chamfers (cutting plane).

The inner parts of the blades must not be sharpened - this can lead to a complete malfunction of the tool. When using a file, it is necessary to sharpen from the connection of the blades to the tip, passing it along the outer edge of the blade.

When using a small bar, you can also work like a file, and with a large one, put scissors on it and also sharpen the outer cutting edge.

When sharpening, be sure to observe the angle, with its decrease or increase, either the wear of the blade will increase, or the cutting ability will decrease.
It is not recommended to check the sharpness of the tool using your own body parts.

So some citizens check the sharpness of a knife by cutting the hairs on their hands. The paper way is much safer. For sharpening a meat grinder knife, an abrasive corundum stone of medium / fine grain size is suitable.

It is necessary to sharpen in a circular motion clockwise, along with the knife, the grate is sharpened in the same way. In the process of work, it is necessary to constantly moisten the surfaces and carefully monitor the planes of the knives to prevent distortions.

When the cutting planes are sharpened to a shine, you should attach the knife to the grate and check for gaps between them - there should not be any.

Modern human life is accompanied by a variety of metal tools, which, in turn, require attention and care. To this day, for 5000 years, grinding bars and stones have been coping with this task, the demand for which is only increasing every year.

Video

Anyone who has ever tried to cook something on their own knows how annoying dull knives. Preserving precious nerve cells is not difficult, you just need to get a good sharpening bar, for example, a diamond one. Our article will tell you how to choose it.

Diamond whetstones for knives - the subtleties of choice

Among all the abrasive materials used to sharpen kitchen (and not only) cutting tool, diamonds occupy a special place of honor. Due to their unique structure, they are very high level strength and hence long service life. At the same time, such a bar is almost not clogged with chips - to completely clean it, just rinse it under running water or wipe it with a cloth. Sharpening with diamond stones is suitable for knives made of almost any material, from the usual stainless steel to cutting-edge ceramics. Although the latter, of course, will have to tinker for a long time. When choosing diamond sharpener worth paying attention to:

dimensions. For ease of use, the length of the bar should be at least 3-5 cm longer than the length of the largest knife.
Grain. To determine the degree of abrasiveness of diamond bars for sharpening knives, marking will help, which for domestic products includes several numbers separated by a line. Ideally, the household should have several grindstones with different grits: for peeling works(160/125, 200/160, 250/200), semi-finish sharpening (100/80, 125/100) and finishing sharpening (40/28, 50/40, 63/50). But it is quite possible to get by with one double-sided bar, the sides of which have a different degree of abrasiveness. For foreign-made bars, the grain size is indicated by one number from 200 to 1200, equal to approximate number grains per inch of surface.

Probably, each of us has come across such a situation when it takes a very long time to cut something, for example, semi-finished products at a feast, for a birthday or for another holiday. But, as always, at the most inopportune moment you find out that the preparation is going very slowly, and the reason for all this is a dull knife that rolls over a piece of meat like a toy, although we remember that not so long ago we sharpened this very knife with our own hands . How not to get into such situations and not delay the start of the holiday, we will talk in this article.

In contact with

To begin with, let's figure out what is whetstones and what types they are. Whetstones are small, usually rectangular items made of abrasive stones or coated with abrasive materials. Abrasive materials from the French "abrasit" - to grind and from the Latin "abradere" - to scrape off, that is, these are materials of high hardness, and they are used for processing various kinds surfaces such as: glass, leather, metal, rubber, various minerals, etc.

In our case, we are talking, of course, about knives made of metal. With the help of various whetstones, it is possible to sharpen the blade of a knife to such an extent that it can easily cut through a human hair without much effort. So, what are sharpening bars?

Bar of Arkansas stone

The birthplace of this stone is America, Arkansas. It is mined in very rare deposits, where there are reserves of natural stone that are unique in their structure. The process of extracting this stone is very costly, which explains the high price for the Arkansas bar. Arkansas stones are composed of very fine, naturally compressed quartz crystals and vary in their level of abrasiveness, which is why they are divided into 4 different groups: soft, hard white, hard black, and hard transparent.

With the help of these stones, the metal from the knife blade is removed in a thin layer, producing quality sharpening for a long time. For sharpening best quality using a special oil. In no case do not work with this bar without using oil, the working surface of the bar will become clogged with small metal particles and it will be quite difficult to clean it.

Japanese water stone block

By the name you can guess the country of origin of this stone. Compared to Arkansas stone, these products are softer. Before using such a stone, it should be placed in a container of water for fifteen or twenty minutes. Time depends on the hardness of the stone. Immersion in water is also necessary to unclog pores, restore an abrasive surface, and remove contaminants. And also important: if you are going to work with several stones of different grain sizes, then you should place each stone in a separate container, as the surface of a small degree of abrasiveness may become clogged with abrasives from large stones. At finishing knife, this may cause scratches on the blade.

The performance of this stone is very high, with it you can restore any knife, even the most hopeless blade. But the only downside is that it wears out quickly. working surface. Some craftsmen grind such a worn bar on hard emery to return it to original view.

In addition to natural whetstones for sharpening, there are artificial, manufactured industrially. They are inferior in quality natural stones but much more affordable. As part of the working surface are usually used: corundum, silicon carbide or chromium oxide. Crystals from these substances are stronger than steel, and when sharpening a knife, they perfectly cut off a layer of metal with a thin film. To hold the crystals in the grindstone, a special base is used. Its material is much softer than steel and working crystals. The spent crystals gradually fall away from the base with each layer, and gradually, as the surface is worn down, the bars resume their working properties.

diamond bars

Naturally, you cannot take such products to a pawnshop under the pretext that they are gem. Microscopic crystals are applied on the working surface of the bar, resembling diamonds in their strength, but created artificially. But at the same time, the price of such a bar is quite high. Such a diamond coating can be either polycrystalline or single-crystal.

Diamond whetstones for sharpening knives are of two types and differ from each other in the way the crystals are attached:

Ceramic bars

ceramic stones are made in different countries. The main manufacturers in this moment are Poland, China and Germany. Such products are made of fine grains of electrocorundum or silicon carbide together with a binder material. The main advantage of such stones is their wear resistance. Medium-grained stones wear out very slowly, and fine-grained stones will last a very long time, as they practically do not wear out.

The main disadvantage ceramic products - fast clogging with metal particles and loss of abrasive properties. Fine-grained stones are especially prone to clogging. Therefore, most often ceramic stones used for finishing after roughing the blade. But a handy mixture of liquid soap mixed with fine sand or regular kitchen tool for the cleaning metal products. It is recommended to clean these bars after each use.

And also we should not forget that when working with such products you need to use lubricant. You can use a soap solution or plain water, so that the surface is neither clogged nor clogged with metal particles.

So, when we examined the types of whetstones, we will figure out how to sharpen knives with them correctly.

How to sharpen knives with a bar

The main thing in knife sharpening is understand sharpening technique, because the master will be able to sharpen the blade on an ordinary brick, and the amateur will ruin the blade even on a natural abrasive stone.

Before you start sharpening, prepare the following:

Comfortable and non-slip work surface.
Small bowl of water.
Towel.
Paper.

The first step is to prepare the knife: it must be washed with soap and dried.

Then you need to decide on a grinding product. For best effect follows during work alternate coarse-grained and fine-grained bars. The ideal option will prepare coarse, medium and fine grain stone. With the help of a coarse-grained rectangle, the desired angle and shape of the blade edge is restored. The medium-grained stone restores the edge itself, and the fine-grained stone is finished. At different manufacturer varying degrees granularity of fine-grained stone, so you need to choose such a stone as needed. It is best for a beginner to purchase a stone with a large working surface, the chances of sharpening a knife on it are much higher.

Before sharpening, you should put the bars in a container of water. If you chose a diamond stone, then it should be slightly wetted, but when you decide to use Arkansas stone, then we should not forget that it is covered with special oil, and not soaked.

After necessary procedures, you need to choose the angle of sharpening. The greater the angle of inclination during sharpening, the more different the purpose of the knife. The blade, which was sharpened at an angle of 30 degrees, will find good use in complex work, sharpening at 20 degrees is suitable for work of medium complexity, sharpening at 15 degrees is suitable for light work. For normal kitchen knife, the sharpening angle is just 15-20 degrees. If at first it will be difficult to maintain the desired degree of sharpening, there are special pads with which you can maintain the desired degree.

When you have decided on the angle, you must adhere to this angle throughout the entire sharpening process. Sharpening process consists of the following steps:

Grinding.
Polishing.
Fine-tuning.
Edge straightening.

A whetstone is installed on the table, which is removed from the container with water, usually there is a special stand under it, in order not to damage the surface of the table and fix the stone on the surface. The knife must be taken with both hands: hold the blade with your left hand, and hold the handle of the knife with your right. Then you should choose the desired angle relative to the working surface of the bar.

The edge of the knife should be directed away from you. Then slide the blade along the bar in a smooth motion away from you forward and to the right.

In the place where the blade bends, you should raise the handle of the knife so that the specified angle remains in the same position. Run the edge of the knife as if you want to cut an even thin layer from this rectangle. It is important to calculate the movement so that the start of movement comes from the handle, the middle of the blade is in the middle of the bar, and at the end grindstone there was already the tip of the knife blade. Do not change the angle while sharpening the knife to make your work as efficient as possible. Each side of the blade should go over the sharpener the same number of times, so change sides of the blade after each pass over it.

You need to repeat the movements until small particles of metal appear over the area of \u200b\u200bthe entire blade, and in the place where you ran the edge along the bar, there should be an even shiny strip. Then remove the metal particles with paper and change the stone to a finer grit. Repeat the same steps. When it comes to the finest grit, it will be necessary to grind the surface until a line appears on opposite side, it is called hangnail.

After increasing the gradation of the bar to fine grain, the burr becomes smaller, but does not disappear. So she needs to get rid of, taking a stone with the finest grain size and run the blade over it with each side once, just like when sharpening, only the last movements should be done in such a way that the surface of the sharpening product is almost not touched by the blade. For this procedure, it is best to take a clean bar or clean the used one in the manner described above.

The quality of a sharpened blade depends on how sharp the edge itself is. After you have got rid of the burr, you should take a special block of wood, treated with a special paste and leather, to polish the edge of the knife with it.

To check the sharpness of your knife, take a knife and a piece of paper. If the knife is able to cut paper effortlessly, then the sharpening of the knife has been excellent. Do not check the sharpening of the knife with your fingers, as this can lead to cuts.