Using your kitchen to create wonderful dishes can be a magical experience. The act of creating a dish from start to finish can be as fun as it can be laborious. To make the latter less of an impediment, you’ll have to ensure you have the right tools behind you. Appliances, such as a blender, are just as vital to have as your kitchen knives.
Although your kitchen knives may seem like they can be as sharp as ever, they are prone to becoming dull. If this is the case down the line, you can bring it back to its original form by using knife sharpening services. There are a myriad of sharpening techniques on the market, some of which are easier than others.
Here are six ways on how to sharpen kitchen knives:
1. Sharp Test
No matter how long you have been using your knives for in the kitchen, dullness is bound to happen. You may soon see the effects of this dullness in the midst of your cooking, which can impede on preparation time. In this light, you’ll want to conduct a quick test.
Grab a nearby piece of paper, such as an old newspaper. Fold the paper in half, and hold it out with one hand. Rest your knife at the top and gently try to slice through the sheet of paper. If the knife produces an unclean cut, or if it doesn’t cut at all, sharpening will then be required!
2. Knife Sharpening Steel Tool
Knife sets come packed with all the tools you need to slice and dice your way throughout the kitchen. For the most part, these toolkits will also come with a very useful instrument, to bring your knife back to a good state. Sharpening steel tools are very convenient to put to use, especially when one of your knives dulls out.
Look for the metal rod that came with your sharpening steel tool. When put into use, it will refine the edge of the knife in question. Hold the metal rod vertically and place the blade’s heel against the steel tip. Point the knife upwards and conduct a sweeping motion upwards and downwards. Do this for five times on each side of the knife to finish the motion entirely.
3. Reshape the Knife Edge
In other scenarios, you may not have purchased a knife set. As a result, a secondary device will be necessary, in order to eliminate the dullness present. Knife sharpeners are the best instruments to put to use here, as they are easy to use. Electric sharpeners are incredibly simple to put into practice, which will do most of the work for you.
To begin with, turn on the sharpener, and hold your knife securely before putting it in. Pull the blade through the slot slowly, but methodically. Make sure that you conduct this motion on both sides, and do not aggressively pull the blade. This could potentially damage the knife!
4. Manual Knife Sharpeners
For those who are on a budget, an electrical knife sharpener may not be on the horizon. Instead, a traditional sharpener, one that requires some manual labour, will be your next best bet. Thankfully, the same motions required by the electrical version will be conducted using this one.
Make sure that you first follow the manufacturer’s instructions, before using the sharpener. Each model may or may not have different guidelines as to how the sharpener should be used. However, it isn’t entirely complicated to figure out, once you get going. Sooner or later, your knives will return to a sharpened state!
5. Coffee Mug Hack
You may not even have a large set of knives that require sharpening. Instead, a smaller knife may have become dulled, but a sharpening tool may not be necessary. Grab a ceramic coffee mug and flip it over on a surface. With some moderate pressure, draw the knife in question across the bottom of the mug. A few, good strokes should do the trick!
6. Whetstone
Although this is one of the best ways to sharpen a knife, it also requires a degree of advanced competency. However, with enough practice, your knives will be as good as new in no time. First, ensure the whetstone is firmly secure on top of a surface.
Then, hold the handle of the blade, and place the blade on the whetstone. Your other hand should be placed on the blade at this point. Draw the blade down the stone, in a circular motion. Repeat this motion several times, and then carefully place your thumb on the blade. If it is sharp, the job has been completed.
Sharpening your knives can be relatively easy to conduct, as long as the right motions are followed first. You don’t want to end up harming yourself after all; be cautious, and your knives will become as sharp as ever!
