How to Sharpen and Hone Kitchen Knives? Let’s Look at the Process!

No matter how impressive your knife’s material is — it will require a fair amount of maintenance. The biggest priority on that list is keeping the blade sharp. 

A dull knife fails to cut smoothly and provide consistent results, poses a health risk for its user, and requires way more force to cut through ingredients. Unfortunately, the sharpening process is what most people get wrong. 

Some sharpen the blade too rarely; some use the wrong sharpening tools, and some leave it at honing and expect it to remain sharp. 

Today’s discussion will focus on sharpening and honing (for the beginners — yes, they’re different). We’ll look at the best practices and the big no-nos. 

Sharpening vs. Honing — What’s the Difference? 

Sharpening and honing are entirely different processes with different purposes, meaning they’re not interchangeable. 

Honing — The Middle Step 

A sharp knife has a fine edge, but it has a particular coarseness. This creates the bite that your knife has when cutting something. Think of it as a microscopic cutting saw. 

After some usage, the straightly aligned edges get inconsistent micro serrations and move out of place (try with a microscope, and you’ll see). As a result, those little teeth don’t cut straight, and the process isn’t as efficient as before. 

With enough time, these micro serrations can turn into bigger headaches and dull the knife quicker. 

Honing seeks to resolve that issue by straightening the bent edges of the blade. The easiest way to do that is with a honing steel. This is a fairly inexpensive coarse rod to run the knife along and tune it up. 

It’s not as coarse as sharpening rods that it’d shave metal off the blade. Instead, it’s only aggressive enough to get the blade’s straightness back. 

Sharpening 

Frequently honing your knife won’t help maintain the same sharpness that your knife initially had. It might seem sharp initially, but honing doesn’t provide a lasting edge.  

That’s where sharpening comes in. It’s a far more aggressive process that shaves off a significant chunk of the blade’s material. This helps make a dull, smoothened blade thin and sharp. 

Therefore, sharpening tools have to be much coarser to handle steel in this way. Popular tools include whetstones with different grits to help achieve the right sharpness. Like honing rods, there are also sharpening rods that use coarser materials (diamond steel, for instance). 

How to Hone a Kitchen Knife? – The Process 

When it comes to honing, I’d suggest using a honing rod. It’s easy to use and inexpensive. Ensure the rod is at least a few inches longer than the knife you want to sharpen. Otherwise, you’ll have to keep repeating half-steps, which can ruin the consistency. 

While alternatives are available, a fine-grit ceramic honing rod does an excellent job for me. It’s not coarse enough to hurt the blade with frequent honing, yet it helps to maintain a sharper edge for longer. 

Ensure you don’t drop it; otherwise, be ready to bid adieu to your rod. 

Holding the Rod

There are different approaches to holding the honing rod. Some people like to hone the blade by pulling it toward their body; some prefer doing it the other way around, while some hold the rod against a surface upside down. 

This is subjective, but I recommend holding the rod against a steady surface if you’re only beginning. Holding the rod in the air can ruin the consistency without enough experience, and there are no enormous benefits to doing it that way. 

The Honing Angle

The honing angle is highly crucial. It primarily depends on the knife’s design, as different manufacturers and designs have different grinding angles. The goal is to maintain that. 

This angle can change if you’ve sharpened the blade at a different angle. In any case, hone the blade similarly to the current edge angle.  

For instance, many Western kitchen knives come with edge angles of around 20 degrees. On the other hand, you can find many Japanese knives with more acute angles — ranging around 15 degrees or lower. 

These blades need to be sharper than standard German options, hence the acute angle. 

Either way, you need to know the angle before honing. A wrong angle will fail to keep the knife sharp; it’ll instead dull it. If you don’t have an idea, we’ll assume an angle of around 20 degrees. 

• Hold the rod according to your preference. Having something underneath the rod (if you’re holding it perpendicular to a surface) can help stabilize it. A little towel or a cutting board should suffice. 

• The next step is to get the knife at the correct angle. Try using the age-old trick of finding the angle. First, hold it against the rod at a complete 90-degree angle. From there, turn that into half (it doesn’t have to be insanely accurate). 

That half gives you 45 degrees, so you have to split it into halves again. Doing so gives us around 22 degrees, which is what we want for more standard knives. 

If you want an even more acute angle, turn that into half (around 11 degrees) and slightly lean it to get about 15 degrees. 

• Having found the correct angle, we can begin honing. Start from the bolster or base of the blade and slide the knife along the rod. If the rod is held down, pull the blade toward yourself while sliding the knife. 

If you’re holding it in the air, slide the knife away from you while maintaining the angle. 

• Remember, this doesn’t require a lot of pressure. Hold it lightly and graze the blade along the rod. 

• Alternate the blade’s edges while you make a few passes. Usually, it doesn’t take too many of them — three to four do it for me. You may require more if you haven’t honed the blade in a while. Don’t hone the tip itself, as that can reduce its sharpness. 

And that’s about it! After a few passes, check whether the knife feels sharp enough. If not, then chances are that it requires a bit more work. You might also be honing the blade at the wrong angle, so beware.  

If nothing works — honing is not what you require. The blade has lost any residue of sharpness, and you’ll have to sharpen it before honing has any significant effect. 

Sharpening a Kitchen Knife

Sharpening has a much more significant effect on a knife, and the intricacies are endless. Let’s tackle them one by one. 

Knowing Whether the Knife Requires Sharpening

It is crucial to determine how much you need to sharpen a blade (or if you require it at all). Many beginners either sharpen their knives too often or too rarely. Usually, you’ll need to do it once every few months (this frequency depends on the knife and its usage).  

The easiest trick in the book is to try cutting a piece of paper. A sufficiently sharp blade can cut through papers without leaving ragged edges. Otherwise, the cuts won’t be consistent, and you might even have to push the blade through. 

You could even try cutting ingredients to determine whether the knife requires sharpening. Unless you feel the need for it, sharpening isn’t a requirement. 

Methods of Sharpening a Kitchen Knife

There are plenty of ways to sharpen a kitchen knife — with varying degrees of accessibility and effectiveness. You can find sharpening rods (similar to honing rods), electric knife sharpeners, tabletop sharpeners, or the good-old manual alternatives like whetstones. 

Electric Knife Sharpeners

Electric knife sharpeners have motors, and you must pull the knife through the slot(s). These slots have different levels of coarseness — starting from very coarse and ending with honing. 

These tools are easy to use, and they’re insanely quick. You won’t have to spend much time learning their intricacies, either. However, they shave off a ton of metal from the blade, reducing its lifetime. Additionally, the result lacks finesse and control, which chefs don’t like. 

There’s also the possibility of heat, which can sometimes interfere with the blade’s tempering. I’d only recommend using such tools if you have inexpensive knives and want to call it a day as quickly as possible. 

Tabletop Sharpeners

These sharpeners follow a similar principle, but they require some elbow grease. There are a few slits with different grits — through which the knife gradually goes. 

As expected, this approach doesn’t allow for much control during sharpening, and the experience lacks accuracy and control. Again, these sharpeners literally file off chunks of metal from your blade, which hurts my soul. 

That’s why I wouldn’t suggest using tabletop sharpeners unless you don’t care too much about the knife at hand. For occasional users with budget knives, these can be suitable. 

Sharpening Rods

Now, sharpening steel is the same as honing steel. The difference is that it’s much coarser and can sharpen the knives. For instance, many users use diamond sharpening rods for their stainless-steel knives. 

These rods require even more effort but provide more control than electric knife sharpeners. However, sharpening with such tools may be tricky for beginners. 

Whetstones

Whetstones are the OG of kitchen knife sharpening. This is as manual as it gets with sharpening and only bears good results. Despite the name, these can also be synthetically made. 

Whetstones (or sharpening or whetting stones) come in different grits. As you know, a higher grit number refers to a finer or less coarse stone. I’d suggest purchasing a double-sided one if you’re only starting.

If you require more control over the process — which professionals often do — just get more grit options. 

Unless you’ve got an utterly dead knife, a 1000-grit for the coarser side and a 5000 or 6000-grit for the finer side works fine.  

Note that Waterstone is a different material; you must soak it. It slowly dissolves into water and creates a gritty byproduct that helps sharpen knives. 

Whetstones can work with or without water, depending on the particular product you buy. 

I recommend getting stones that work with water, as dry ones can affect the knife more easily. For beginners, that can result in irreparable damage to the blade.  

How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife

Since electric sharpeners are pretty straightforward (and they’re not the best option, in my opinion), this guide will focus on whetstones. 

1. Refer to the stone manufacturer’s guidelines. If it requires water, then our first step is to make it wet. Get a container filled with water, and put the whetstone in there. You’ll notice bubbles coming up. Leave the stone there for a while until those bubbles stop coming up. 

Many synthetic stones (silicon carbide, for instance) can work without water. Some even require you to use mineral oil — so it’s about knowing what the stone needs. 

2. Put the stone on your countertop (or on a towel to prevent a mess). Ensure that it won’t slide away as you sharpen. 

3. Hold the knife with two hands against the coarse side of the stone — one hand on the handle, one on the knife’s edge. If possible, hone it beforehand to get the burrs aligned. 

As mentioned, it’s crucial to know the blade’s grinding angle. Refer to the manufacturer’s manual for this detail. A wrong, inconsistent sharpening angle can ruin the knife.

Some expert users intentionally do it, but that’s out of today’s discussion. 

4. Put a few drops of water on the stone to get the slurry going. Then, start sharpening at the required angle. Start with the bottom edge of the knife and cover the whole blade with each pass to maintain consistency. 

Put a bit of weight on it, and maintain somewhat even pressure throughout the blade. Don’t push the knife too hard on the upward motion; only while coming back. 

5. After doing a few passes on one side, it’s time to move on to the other. You’ll have to switch hands for this — it might feel difficult initially. If it’s tough to cover the whole knife with each pass, you can sharpen parts of the blade at once; but be careful. 

6. Make sure you have the same number of passes on each side of the knife. Even a few extra passes on one side can imbalance the bevels. 

7. The knife is very coarse right now, so we have to tame it with the other side of the stone. If you’re satisfied with the results after a bit of sharpening, it’s time to move on to the finer grit. Go through similar motions again, and feel the edge with your fingers.

If the stone has lost moisture, throw in a bit of water every now and then.  

8. Assuming satisfactory results, you can now rinse and wipe the blade off. If possible, hone the knife after sharpening it for better results. Try the paper-cutting method to see if the knife is ready to go. 

Remember, being quick won’t get you ahead in sharpening kitchen knives. Instead, you may alter the sharpening angles, which ruins the edge. Go slow and accurately — that creates long-lasting and consistent results. 

Secondly, don’t sharpen your blades on the same portion of the stone. An uneven stone with an arc can make sharpening tricky later on, so try to keep the surface as flat as possible. 

Thanks to the awkward serrations, you wouldn’t sharpen serrated knives in the same manner mentioned above. Try using sharpening steels for such knives, as those are thin and can easily sharpen the serrated parts. 

My Last Two Cents

No matter how expensive or premium the knife may be — proper maintenance is crucial. Without knowing how to sharpen and hone properly, even fantastic knives will lose their edge and performance with time. 

Try following the suggestions above and go through gradual steps; the results should be fine (pardon the pun).