The most popular knife sharpening method at home is sharpening on a grindstone. Everyone no doubt knows this method, but most people still don’t know how to do it right. We will figure out how to do it right without unnecessary efforts and without special equipment.
Over time, even with the most proper operation, any knife becomes dull. And its cutting edge, which is located at the end of the blade, becomes rounded.
This is absolutely normal. Not normal, this is when notches or chips appear on the tip, indicating the incorrect use of the knife. Such a tool is more difficult to fix.
Now about the grindstone, which is a stone, one side of which is rough with high grit, and the other is smoother with fine grit. The rough side is needed to form the cutting edge of the knife, and smooth to polish the edge to smoothness. Well, this is of course a good example, more often I see how stones with uniform surfaces are used, but not the point.
So, before sharpening, it is necessary to fix the stone well. It is important.
You can do this using a wooden block with hammered nails in the shape of a stone, which do not protrude beyond it.
We set the stone with the rough side up, and fix the piece of wood in a vise if possible.
Sharpen a knife on a stone
The sharpening process requires a little skill, but if you have absolutely no experience - it does not matter, the knife will be sharpened in any case, although not so correctly and skillfully.
Imagine that you need to cut a thin layer of oil from a piece. In the same way, the movement of sharpening occurs. We put the knife at a slight angle closer to the handle. And with the longitudinal movement we carry the blade over the stone with the blade moving towards the tip.
Unlike cutting oil, you need to walk with a stone on all surfaces of the knife: from the handle to the ostia.
It was one movement. Now turn the knife over to the other side and go to the other side of the stone. In the same way, we try to cut off an imaginary thin layer of oil with the knife leaving towards itself in order to sharpen the entire plane.
We repeat the process many times: one movement is one side, one movement is the other. There are lovers who make three movements in one direction, three in the other. This is wrong, since the center of the cutting chamfer can go sideways in this case.
Pressing the knife sharpening sharply is not worth it, we distribute the forces evenly, without undue pressure.
Next, turn the stone on the smooth side.
Everything is the same here as with the rude side. Except that the time for polishing is given a little less.
As you can see, the method is very simple, but skill is required. And already with time, when you, what is called “beat your hand”, the knives sharpened by you will be cut no worse than razor blades.
Watch the video
Be sure to watch the video to more accurately understand how the whole process goes.
