That’s it – everything else on this page is a refinement of that principle.
The way to look at it is this; for a knife, honing is as coolant, lubrication and fuel is to an engine. Check it regularly and keep them topped up. Sharpening is your annual service – don’t do it unless you need to.
realigns the edge. Every time a blade meets a chopping board, the very tip of the cutting edge – which is extraordinarily thin – bends and rolls microscopically out of true. A honing steel pushes it back. No metal is removed. It takes thirty seconds. A professional chef does it every time they cook.
The technique matters: slow, deliberate and gentle, not hacking away like a loon as seen on the telly. Maintain a consistent angle (around 15 degrees is right for our knives) and alternate sides with each stroke. The sound changes as you go – after four or five strokes you’ll hear the steel and blade begin to sing together rather than rasp. Then you’re good to go.
Sharpening removes metal to create a new edge. It’s what you do when honing is no longer enough – when the edge has worn rather than just bent. For a knife that’s properly honed, this should happen once or twice a year at most.
Whetstones produce the finest possible edge in skilled hands. The operative phrase is skilled hands – they require a thorough understanding of what you’re trying to achieve, real practice to get right, and a fair amount of patience. If you go down this route, we’d suggest not going above 3,000 grit for most kitchen knives, and investing time in understanding the theory before touching your best blade. Naniwa make some excellent ones.
The HORL 3 is what we recommend for most people. The magnetic angle guide removes the hardest part of whetstone sharpening – holding a consistent angle – which is where most home attempts go wrong. It produces a genuinely good edge, it’s compact, made in Germany, and once you’re familiar with it, a touch-up takes minutes. Buy the upgrade pack; the base model is adequate but the additional grits make a real difference, and also get some stropping compound (jeweller’s rouge will do the job very well and you get can get it on Amazon for pennies).
Large electric sharpeners – the serious workshop variety, not the domestic pull-through type – do an excellent job, but you’re looking at £250 or more for one worth owning. They’re also unforgiving in the wrong hands, and possibly overkill unless you have lots and lots of knives and are very idle with the honing steel.
Pull-through sharpeners and cheap electrics – avoid like the plague. They will make your knife slightly less blunt, at best. They will not make it sharp. Some of them cause genuine damage.
A note on kit
There is a certain type of person – and we say this with complete affection, because several of us (i.e Tim) are this person – for whom setting up, calibrating, and maintaining a sharpening system is half the pleasure. If that’s you, the world is your oyster. The Tormek T8 produces a magnificent edge in skilled hands and their ceramic polishing wheel is a thing of beauty, though expect to spend around £750 by the time you have everything you need and be prepared for a real learning curve. The Edge Pro Apex is a well-regarded guided-rod system that rewards patience and delivers an excellent result on most knives, once you’ve accepted that the base model will have you back on the accessories page almost immediately. The Wicked Edge is similar in concept and similarly good for shorter, chunkier blades – less satisfying on long, slender chef’s knives.
If the above sounds appealing, go for it. If it sounds like a lot of faff for the sake of chopping carrots, the HORL is the right answer, and if you’re still a bit nervous then get in touch – we’ve got a little list of tips for the top for the Horl system that’ll help out no end.
The wax layer will fade gradually over time – far more gracefully than varnish – and from that point we recommend re-oiling monthly, or whenever the handle looks like it would benefit from some attention:
Wash and dry the handle. If you like, give it a gentle sand with P600 sandpaper. Apply a good coating of Danish Oil with a lint-free cloth – adding terebene at around 10-20% will increase penetration and speed up drying time, if you can be bothered; it’s far from mandatory. Leave for five minutes, wipe off the excess, and leave for a further hour. Repeat once (or twice if the handle is thirsty), then leave somewhere warm for 24 hours, or until thoroughly dry to the touch.
Wooden handles benefit from use. The more you cook with the knife, the better the handle looks.
Your knife is well-made and will survive the odd trip, but it won’t thank you. Make sure – at the very least – you re-sharpen as soon as it escapes and give the handle a good oiling if it’s made from wood.
The combination of high heat, prolonged moisture, and salt-based detergent will ruin the blade edge, corrode the steel, and wreck the handle. The knives also rattle around against other items, which damages the edge further.
14c28n has nitrogen added to it and this, plus our heat treatment, creates a very corrosion resistant surface.
However there’s only so much a chrome/oxygen bond can do and very infrequently there’ll be a bit of tarnish. Your first port of call is Barman’s Friend and a bit of elbow grease.
Your second port of call is getting in touch so we can suggest an alternative plan, or simply get you to post it back for us to recondition.
