So the first flint knife was sharpened. Or maybe not, but for some reason, some women still try to sharpen knives, driving one blunt knife over another.

Ever since iron was discovered, knives have been made of metal and whetstones have been used to sharpen them. They are still in use today. More recently, 50-100 years ago, they walked around the yards weird people with an ingenious bookcase behind their backs and shouted in loud voices: "I sharpen knives, scissors, I straighten blades!" At this signal, housewives ran out of houses and apartments, carrying with them a bouquet of blunt knives. Now these strange people have disappeared somewhere, you can’t even meet them on the market, and therefore you have to do the sharpening of knives yourself. You can do this in different ways:

Electric sharpeners

Progress is inexorably moving forward and electricity is increasingly being introduced into our lives. electrical appliances and tools designed to facilitate the existence of a person, a huge number have been invented, there are even electric knives, but in this case we are interested in devices for electric sharpening of ordinary steel knives, but even such devices are incredibly numerous. AT household usually one of the following is used:

1. Desktop grinder

No matter how they are called - grinding machines, grindstone, editing-grindstone, grinding machine, grinding machine etc. Grinding machines are mainly used for sharpening various kinds of building tools, but for ordinary kitchen knives, such machines are quite suitable. It is necessary to work on such a machine in compliance with all safety measures.

2. Joiner's machine

The device of some carpentry machines allows you to change the saw blade to a grinding wheel. However, no protective covers and screens are provided for such machines, and therefore it is necessary to sharpen knives on such machines with the utmost care, always wearing safety glasses.

3. Bulgarian

(angular Grinder). Initially, this power tool for sharpening knives was not intended in any way, however, sharpen it for grinding wheel a grinder knife is quite possible, but again, all safety measures must be observed when working with a grinder.

4. Belt electrogrinding

This power tool is mainly used not for sharpening knives, but for finishing after sharpening on a machine or grinder.

The disadvantage of the above methods is that these tools are construction tools, take up a lot of space, and therefore it makes no sense to buy them specifically for sharpening knives. And if any of the above is already on the farm, then no one forbids using it. For example, in the country, you have to sharpen knives, choppers, scythes, scissors and a grinder and belt electrogrinding.

5. Electric sharpener for kitchen knives

Such sharpeners in recent times appears more and more. They are made specifically for sharpening kitchen knives, have a relatively small size and sharpening knives on such sharpeners is the safest. There are a lot of models of electric sharpeners for kitchen knives, from simple and cheap ones at the price of $10-15 (A), to semi-professional ones, at the price of $100-150 (B), which allow sharpening in several stages. Electric sharpeners for kitchen knives look something like this:

Photo 1. Electric sharpeners for kitchen knives, scissors

To sharpen a knife with such an electric sharpener, you need to insert the knife with the cutting part into the corresponding slot and draw the knife back and forth several times.

Manually

Despite the fact that man has long conquered the highest mountains and the deepest depressions, has been flying into space for many years, manual knife sharpening, which implies long and necessary grinding of the cutting part of the knife, is still in force. For sharpening knives are used:

1. Whetstone(bar)

There are a great variety of such stones, they are parallelepiped in shape or in the form of an elongated oval. Rectangular bars can be two-layer, i.e. consists of two stones of different grain sizes. However, the grindstone can be of any shape. Previously, when it was possible to buy a whetstone without any problems except in a dream, fragments of grinding wheels from factories and factories were used to sharpen knives. Moreover, there were so many of these fragments that it can be assumed that people deliberately broke grinding wheels in production in order to be able to sharpen knives at home, although I may be wrong.

Be that as it may, the basic principles of sharpening knives on a grindstone have not changed much over the past few thousand years. The main thing you need to know when sharpening knives:

1. As a rule, knives have one of the following cross-sectional shapes:

Picture 1. Basic cross-sectional shapes of a knife.

Form (A) is the easiest to manufacture and the most reliable in terms of strength, as it provides almost the same rigidity and flexibility of the knife along almost the entire length of the blade. However, it takes the longest time to sharpen knives of this shape, since the length of the cutting edges, indicated in Figure 1 by the red line, is maximum for such knives. Recently, knives with a cross-sectional shape (B) and (C) are becoming more common. Knives with this shape are sharpened faster. The angle formed by the cutting edges is usually in the range of 20-30 degrees. With a decrease in the angle, the length of the cutting edges increases, with a decrease in the angle, the cutting qualities of the knife deteriorate.

2. When we want to cut something, we press the cutting edge of the knife, formed by the cutting edges, onto the object being cut. At the same time than less area cutting edge, the less force must be applied to perform the same action. In other words, cutting, for example, carrots or potatoes, is much easier with a sharp knife than with a blunt one, and the blunter the knife, the more effort is needed to do this.

3. If people cut only vegetables and fruits and only on special boards, then the knives would remain sharp for a very long time after sharpening. However, the knives used for cutting meat with bones become dull on these very bones very quickly and they often have to be sharpened, in a good way, after each major cut of meat. When the knife becomes dull, the cutting edges do not form the letter " V", but rather the letter " U". Therefore, the process of sharpening comes down to returning the edges to the shape of the letter " V".

4. When we run a knife on a whetstone or a whetstone on a knife, some of the metal is rubbed off or scraped off by the grains of the whetstone, leaving characteristic scratches. The coarser the grain, the more metal can be scraped off at a time, but the deeper the scratches will be and the rougher the cutting edge will be. Therefore, stones of different grain sizes are often used to sharpen knives. Grinding stones with larger grains are used for primary sharpening - editing. Grinding stones with finer grains are used for finishing sharpening - finishing.

5. When sharpening, the knife blade must be held at an angle of 10-15 degrees to the bar, while the direction of movement is chosen as follows:

Figure 2. The direction of sharpening knives.

In this case, as a rule, after each movement, the knife blade rotates 150-160 degrees and, accordingly, the blade is moved in opposite side. In this way, both edges are sharpened, and if the knife was not very dull, then sharpening it will take no more than 1 minute (the time for washing the knife after sharpening or wiping with a clean rag is not included here).

Note: below, in the comments, a certain expert, who had read smart forums, tried to explain for a long time that I had a lot of errors in the description and that in general it would not work well to sharpen a knife in this way. I tried to explain for a long time that for ordinary purposes such sharpening of a knife is quite enough. And then even tried to display it on video. It didn't work out very well for a number of reasons. Particularly because I'm a shitty director. Perhaps in time I will make a new video, but for now, if you want, you can watch this video. True, the only thing that is visible in it is that it takes no more than 20 seconds to edit the knife. So this video is nothing more than an answer to the question of doubting experts.

2. Sanding paper or paper

By and large, sharpening a very blunt knife on sandpaper or sandpaper will not work, or rather, there is hardly enough patience, this method is more used for finishing already sharpened knives. For example, after sharpening a knife grinder or on a large grindstone.

3. Sharpening sets

Since it is not easy to maintain the angle of inclination when working with a conventional grindstone, for lovers of simplicity and accuracy, special sharpening kits are sold, such as Lansky or Spydeco, which allow you to sharpen knives at a given angle. The Lansky set is especially good in this regard. Sharpening a knife using the Lansky tool looks something like this:

Figure 3. Knife sharpening on Lansky's tool.

1 - Clamp for clamping the knife blade.

2 - Clamp screw.

3 - Holes for the guide, allowing you to sharpen the blade at a certain angle.

5 - Handle.

6 - Whetstone attached to the handle. Usually the set includes several bars of different grain sizes.

7 - Stand with a handle and holes for attaching to the base.

Such sets are not cheap: from 50 to 100$. The set, among other things, may include paper instructions and even DVDs.

3b. Special file

By special file I mean not the usual metal files sold in construction stores, but parallel-cut cylindrical files included in some knife sets. Usually, a stand is included in the set of such knives, and the stand has a special compartment for a file. While the knives are relatively new and relatively sharp, the use of such a file still gives some result, but in cheap sets of knives, the file becomes dull over time as well as knives. This also includes ordinary metal files and needle files. To be honest, it is theoretically possible to sharpen a knife with a file or a needle file, but I have never tried it myself - there were always enough other improvised means.

4. Sharpeners with whetstone

Recently, more and more mechanical knife sharpeners have been produced according to appearance reminiscent of electric: the same slots for inserting a knife blade, a handle for easy sharpening. The main difference is that the grindstones do not spin, which means that you will have to drive over the stone yourself.

5. Sharpeners with cutters

Now appeared relatively the new kind knife sharpener. Outwardly, they may resemble sharpeners with a whetstone, only 2 metal cutters are used instead of a whetstone. When you sharpen knives on such a sharpener, the cutters remove chips from the cutting edges. Thus, the process of sharpening knives is accelerated as much as possible, it is enough to pull the knife through the cutters once or twice with force. Main disadvantage such sharpeners is that with frequent sharpening, the knife blade melts literally before our eyes and the knife lasts for 3-5 years no more, then you have to buy a new one.

6. Any stone

including cement. If you don’t have any of the above at hand, but you still need to sharpen the knife a little, then you can crawl with a knife on any stone that comes to hand. Once upon a time, I had to sharpen knives in this way.

But no matter how the knife is sharpened, it is necessary to remember the main rule: the knife blade must be absolutely clean before sharpening, in the sense that there should be no fat on the blade. Fat is a natural lubrication, and since in the vast majority of cases, friction is used when sharpening knives, lubrication is useless here.

And yet, progress does not stand still, now ceramic knives are increasingly used in the household instead of steel ones (now stone is replacing metal). Over time, ceramic knives also become dull and need to be

Knives are the most used tool in the household. Whether it's kitchen, folding, stationery knives or surgical scalpels - they should always have a sharp blade. During work cutting edge any, even the most perfect instrument, becomes dull and the problem is always relevant. In order to maintain sharpness on your own, you need to know how to sharpen knives properly and master this useful skill.

With a decrease in the angle of sharpening, the sharpness of the blade increases, but the risk of destruction of the cutting edge by side load increases. Typical cross-sectional angles of a symmetrical point are about 25-30 degrees. Very sharp knives can be 20 degrees or less. Different knives are sharpened differently depending on the purpose, the geometry of the blade and the material from which it is made.

These features are important in deciding how to sharpen a knife. For example, a surgical scalpel is a sharp but fragile instrument that, after losing its cutting properties, cannot be restored. Straight razors are also unusually sharp, have a very low cutting edge angle, and require sharpening once a day or more often. Another extreme case is the axe. It is mainly used for splitting wood or impact cutting, so it can have a sharp point that does not require frequent sharpening. Generally, the harder the blade material, the smaller the angle.

The composition and hardening of the steel affects the sharpness. The latter is limited by the grain size of the material from which the blade is made. For example, European kitchen knives are usually made from soft materials with a tip angle of 20-30 degrees and a hardness of 52-58 HRC, and tools for the kitchen of the East are traditionally made from hard steels with angles of 10-20. For these products, hardness of 59-60 on the Rockwell scale and above is not uncommon.

Edge processing types

There are several technological operations to restore the cutting properties of the blade. The need to use each of them depends on the type of instrument, its condition, and the stages of restoring properties. They are very important for understanding how to properly sharpen a knife at home. Here are some of the edge processing methods:

All these procedures can be applied in stages and simultaneously as stages full recovery tool or separately, depending on the tasks or purpose of the blade.

For example, straight razors are straightened before each use and even during shaving, but are treated on stones only a few times a year, and edge restoration is not required for years. A hard steel kitchen knife may need an abrasive only once a year, and butchers using carbon steel tools can get by with just a sharpening of musat literally every few cuts.

Types of wear

Usually, the technology of how to properly sharpen kitchen knives is a set of measures from coarse and fine sharpening with possible subsequent polishing, if the material of the tool allows you to increase the sharpness of the final procedure. For high-quality steels, before a noticeable loss of cutting properties, the tool is able to make 200-500 cuts on food products and maintain acceptable sharpness for a long time after that.

Intervention in the geometry of the edge may only be necessary for severe wear every few years, except in emergency cases. The main damage, leading to the need to remove large amounts of metal with abrasives, occurs mainly when using the blade as a lever. Such loads can even cause the blade to bend or break.

No less destructive for a knife are large efforts on solid objects. Attempts to cut through ice, bones or accidental contact with dishes on the side leads to chipping of the edge. Also, the sheet can be damaged by severe corrosion, usually from food acids or from high temperatures and aggressive chemical substances in dishwasher. The formed corrosion shells on the edge require its complete restoration.

To avoid such damage, follow simple rules:

Sharpening methods

Knife connoisseurs often demonstrate a fanatical approach to the issue of sharpening. With a large arsenal of devices, they achieve from cutting tools extreme sharpness, thereby turning sharpening into an art or a very expensive hobby. For domestic needs, the approaches they use are hardly justified, since the equipment used for these purposes can many times exceed the cost of the knives themselves, while there are many methods for obtaining razor sharpness. inexpensive ways.

On the other side of the range are users who have no idea how to properly sharpen a knife with a bar or with the help of improvised materials. For those who are not keen on the intricacies of this business, it will be a pleasant discovery that there are many inexpensive ways to obtain a razor sharp blade that do not require complex devices or unattainable skills.

On the grinding wheel

A highly undesirable method for processing. Due to the fact that it is difficult to competently limit the place of contact of the abrasive with the blade from heating, there is always a risk of steel tempering, and hence the loss of the initial hardness of the cutting edge. Therefore, for normal sharpening quality tools rotating abrasives, without properly organized cooling, are unsuitable. In most situations, sharpening a knife properly means hand-finishing it.

But in the case of very large chips on a blade without a circle, removing such a large amount of metal can be unimaginably long. If the knife is inexpensive, and the damage suggests that this is the very exceptional case, then it makes sense to use an electric grinding wheel or. The abrasive on the device must rotate without beats and at a low speed. Numerous videos about the details of restoring the edges in this way are easy to find on the Internet.

On abrasive stones

Sharpening metal tools with stone bars - classic way. The stones intended for this differ in shape and abrasiveness. From the point of view of geometry, for domestic purposes it is enough to have flat rectangular bars. On such stones, the vast majority of knives can be processed, with the exception of those that have crescent-shaped (concave) sections of the cutting edge or serrated sharpening.

The very technique of carrying out the work looks like this: it is necessary to make smoothly repeated cutting movements along the plane of the stone, passing along it with the entire surface of the edge. In this case, it is necessary to observe a constant angle of inclination of the blade to the plane of the bar. The question of choosing the grain size of a stone or a set of stones is very important. Grit is measured in grits. This unit of measure means the number of abrasive particles per square centimeter stone surface.

If the knife is sharpened on a regular basis and just when it is still able to cut, then a single 600 grit stone will be enough to care for it. To restore a cutting edge or sharpen a very dull tool, you will need a 200-300 grit stone. The ideal would be sequential processing on a set of several stones with a gradual decrease in grain size. The optimal set of bars looks something like this:

1. 300-400 grit. For rough handling.
2. 600-800 grit. Sharpening after the previous stone.
3. 1000 - 1200 grit. Polishing.

Processing on the last stone in the list allows you to cut loose hair and paper. Although many connoisseurs recommend mirror polishing on ultra-fine abrasives of 1000-1500 grit, for most household knives, the use of stones with a value above 600 grit hardly makes sense. It must also be borne in mind that the price of stones increases with a decrease in grain size. In terms of the materials from which the bars are made, they can be divided into natural and artificial in origin, dry and wetted (with water or oil) according to the method of use.

Sharpeners

The greatest difficulty in manual sharpening represents the need to maintain a constant angle of inclination to the plane of the stone. Various manufacturers offer devices that take over this operation. There are systems that provide fasteners on a metal rod passing through adjustable holes. Thus, with their help, it becomes possible to move the abrasive relative to a rigidly fixed knife blade at a strictly defined angle.

No less popular are the so-called V-shaped devices. They look like two interchangeable abrasive rods in a vertical plane at an angle to each other, fixed in a wooden or plastic base. To sharpen the knife, it is enough to make sliding movements with the blade along the stones perpendicular to the substrate.

Some manufacturers offer electric sharpeners with several stages of sharpening and even at different angles. These systems are generally designed for use in the kitchen and suffer from the same disadvantages as the grinding wheel. Moreover, even in the most expensive models no more than two sharpening angles are provided. Their main advantage is speed. Many models allow you to restore the knife within a few minutes.

Sandpaper or cloth

it great way get acquainted with sharpening simply and cheaply, without the risk of spoiling expensive abrasives. There are many methods to conveniently fix a sheet of emery on a block or wrap it tightly wooden block. Abrasive sheets are available in a wide range of grits from their respective stores. The home master can only form a solid and smooth surface. Compared to stones, sandpaper during sharpening, it is better to use lighter and more frequent movements - strong pressure easily crumbles the abrasive grain. Otherwise, the technologies for working with a knife are similar.

In such a business as sharpening knives, it is important to remember that a sharp blade can bring a lot of trouble and therefore requires careful handling. But, paradoxically, blunt knives are cut in the kitchen more often. This is because an unsharpened tool requires more force and energy to work, thereby increasing the likelihood of incorrect and unintended movements.

It was considered an important skill for any man. After all, success in hunting and other complex matters depended on the quality of this work. Knives were used almost everywhere: from the extraction and processing of food, animal skins to interpersonal warfare and asserting territory.

Due to the fact that the knife is practically an essential item in the kitchen, it becomes dull very quickly and requires sharpening.

To date, knives are not used so seriously, but the breadth of their application has not lost its range. They stay the same necessary tools in the kitchen in the process of processing and cooking, for repairs various products but also for art.

Choosing a knife blade and assessing its quality

With good sharpening, the knife will serve you for a very long time, without requiring additional sharpening of the blade. But still, the duration of the tool’s operation will still largely depend on the quality of the knife itself, and in particular on the material from which the blade is made.

Today the market produces many different knives. Moreover, many manufacturers consider their products to be universal and almost eternal. But advertising always does its job to increase demand for the product. Therefore, it is more reasonable to learn at least the minimum criteria for selecting a knife blade and the timely choice of material for sharpening it specifically.

As the size of the knife increases, the material should be thicker and stronger.

1. The larger the knife, the thicker the blade should be. At the same time, the main thickness does not look at the sharpened, but at the upper blunt side. Here everything should be proportional. Highly big knife should not have a too thin blade even on the cutting part, while a small knife will be thin in itself, and the blade will have a thickness barely noticeable to the eye.
2. Accordingly, the larger the knife, the stronger steel it is made of. Therefore, it will need to be sharpened more carefully and for a long time. It is recommended that the largest cutters be sharpened exclusively on diamond discs or on the most powerful electric sharpeners, since the use of a stone in this case is useless.
3. When buying a knife, be sure to check its degree of flexibility. good blade won't bend at all. But if the knife is very thin and yet tends to bend, then it is important that the blade immediately return to its original place. That is, irreversible deformation is a sign of a very Low quality the material itself.

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Sharpening with a whetstone

For high-quality sharpening of knives, you can completely do with a special grindstone.

There are quite a few methods for sharpening knives. The choice of a particular method largely depends on the willingness to spend your money and time, and also on the scope of a particular knife. Therefore, to begin with, we will consider the most inexpensive and long-established method - sharpening with a special stone. And then we will briefly dwell on mechanical sharpening.

There are two main types of sharpening stones: artificial and natural. Artificial stone has a larger fraction, it is also larger in size. In modern artificial materials this type usually has one side less aggressive and the other has larger grains, making the stone suitable for sharpening even large and severely blunt instruments.

Natural stone for sharpening is somewhat cheaper, and it also has a fine-grained structure on both sides. Therefore, it is more appropriate to use it for sharpening not too dull knives and for maintaining the sharpness of blades with soft metal from time to time.

Before sharpening the knife, the whetstone should be lubricated with vegetable oil.

Now start sharpening. But first you need to oil the stone, whatever it is. You can use a small amount of ordinary sunflower oil for this. It is necessary to lubricate the entire bar from all sides, and then let the oil soak in for about 7-10 minutes. This will make small particles less vulnerable to microscopic pieces of metal from the knife clogging them during the sharpening process. Therefore, the stone will serve you much longer.

You can start the main process. Sharpening is done in two stages: first with the rough side, and then with the softer side. This applies directly to bilateral artificial stones. The knife must be wiped from dust and applied to the stone like this, while driving the blade with force in the indicated direction.

The aggressive part of the grindstone will make it possible to quickly remove the main blunt layer of metal from the knife. It should be noted that it is desirable to try to hold the knife at an angle of about 20-25 °. This figure is considered optimal for fast and high-quality sharpening. However, given the fact that knives today are very different in their forms, you can be too biased not to take this recommendation, but to approach your work creatively.

During sharpening, you need to try to make smooth movements, pressing enough on the blade. Approaching the edge, it is recommended to slightly raise the blade, due to which the sharpening will turn out to be of better quality. At the same time, observe the perpendicularity of movement relative to the cutting part of the knife.

It is necessary to sharpen the knife on the aggressive side of the stone carefully, periodically checking the opposite side of the blade. A sign that the main sharpening is over will be the presence of small notches on the tip of the blade.

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But today, not everyone wants to sharpen knives with a stone, no matter how good it is. Therefore, an electric sharpener is used for this purpose. It is usually used in large enterprises for the manufacture of tools and various household materials from metals, as well as in metallurgical shops.

Sharpening a knife on an electric sharpener is much easier and faster. It does not make sense to focus too much on the angles while holding the tool, as modern electric sharpeners are able to independently adjust the degree of inclination. Knowing that the process is much faster on a sharpener, consider a few important points:

1. To sharpen a knife, which will serve as a tool exclusively for cutting food, it is enough to sharpen the knife for about 5 minutes (this is if it is almost completely dull). The angle of inclination can be taken to the minimum.
2. If you want to achieve maximum sharpness of the blade, then it is important to sharpen one side until pronounced burrs appear. When they become clearly visible, turn the knife over to the other side and continue sharpening until the burrs are removed and the blade is very thin.
3. As a finishing knife after using an electric sharpener, it is best to use diamond disc. He will remove small notches in the fastest time and with the highest quality, making the tool almost ideal for work.
4. If you want to update the blade on the sharpener, then for this, experts recommend using standard circles of the EBK brand in white. Their advantage is that they do not burn through the edges, making the process as delicate as possible.
5. When using an electric sharpener, it is important to correctly set its speed. The optimal figure is considered to be approximately 1.5 thousand revolutions per minute. it average value, at which you will always have time to notice in time how sharp the blade is, so as not to spoil the material of the knife.
6. An important point in electric sharpening is the timely cooling of the edge. The more often it is cooled, the less likely it is to burn the blade. Do not be afraid that with an intensive process, the material acquires a purple hue. With proper and frequent cooling, even this is compensated.

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The choice of angle when sharpening according to the type of knife

Special attention deserves consideration of the process of sharpening professional expensive knives, as well as individual blades. Since they are different types, consider the basic rules and sharpening tips, just based on these types of tools:

1. Knives for processing meat carcasses are recommended to be sharpened at an angle of 25 °, and tactical tools - from 25 to 30 °.
2. For sharpening professional knives for hunting, it is necessary to observe an angle of 35-40 °.
3. If you go hunting quite often, then the sharpening angle must be increased to 45 ° - so the knife will serve you sharp much longer than usual.
4. The work on the blades of reusable straight razor knives deserves special attention. At the same time, it is necessary to observe the minimum angle of holding the blade during sharpening - about 10 °.

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Methods of final sharpening (finishing)

After that, you need to finish sharpening. For this, the already fine-grained side of the sharpener is used. The process of removing notches and giving the knife its final degree of sharpness is called finishing. Finishing on the less aggressive side is carried out according to the same rules as on the coarse-grained side. After that, the knife is considered sharpened.

Some deserve special attention alternative ways final sharpening (finishing). As a rule, they are used when special sharpness of the tool is needed. Therefore, it is advisable to consider the most inexpensive alternative finishing methods in more detail.

To sharpen a knife, you can use a small piece of genuine leather.

1. Using a small piece of genuine leather. Oddly enough, but such material is able to sharpen the blade very well. Before this, it is advisable to remove the notches with a fine-grained stone, and then proceed to processing. First, a piece of leather is wiped from dust and treated with a thin layer of a special paste such as GOI. Then you need to wait 5-7 minutes until the paste penetrates the pores of the skin, and get to work. Fine-tuning by this method is done according to the principle “from the grain” - that is, the knife blade must be kept away from you while working, and moved along the skin in the same way. It is important to turn the blade slightly to the side so that the turning occurs as if diagonally. So the effect will be much better.
2. Musat has recently begun to gain great popularity for finishing knives. This is a twig made of steel, on which there are several longitudinal grooves. You need to sharpen a knife on it differently than on a belt or stone. In this case, the knife remains motionless, while the musat itself leads along the blade. You will not achieve the same good effect as from a piece of skin, but you will slightly sharpen the knife, which is important.
3. A good effect for finishing knives gives ceramics. The most ordinary cheap dishes are used for this purpose - a cup or plate that you do not need on the farm. Instead, it is better to take a separate piece of ceramic, which you will always use for this purpose. Sharpening is carried out in the same way as on a grindstone. Only it is not a smooth, but a rough surface that is chosen (usually focused on outside the bottom of the vessel). Otherwise, nothing will work.

The ability to sharpen a knife has always been considered an essential attribute of any real man. And if in ancient times life depended on this art, today the correct sharpening of knives affects only the thickness of slices of sausage for sandwiches and therefore usually turns into the prerogative of hunters and gunsmith collectors. We decided to rectify the situation and tell about ways correct sharpening knife.

Today you can find a lot of sharpening devices: traditional whetstones, Japanese water stones that are in fashion, advanced electrical appliances and a lot of everything else. But the most reliable method of sharpening still remains grandfather method- use a regular grindstone.

Do not forget that this process requires patience, a firm hand and certain skills, so in this case only practice will help to sharpen the knife correctly.

Choice of grindstone

Grinding stones are both natural and artificial. The former, as a rule, have a fine-grained structure and are more suitable for fine-tuning than for sharpening a very dull blade. Artificial whetstones are made with coarse grain on one side of the bar and fine grain on the other, which makes them more versatile.

Having chosen the desired bar, you must either grease it with oil or moisten it with water and let it stand for 15–20 minutes. This is necessary so that the microscopic gaps between the grains of the stone are not clogged with steel particles. If you neglect this rule, the touchstone will serve much less than we would like.

sharpening

If the block is double-sided, use the rougher side first. This will allow you to quickly remove the necessary layer of steel. For the correct sharpening of the blade, the key is the angle at which the blade is located to the bar. An angle of 20 degrees is considered ideal, but experienced people advise to approach this creatively - depending on the type of knife and what kind of work it will be used for.

Hunting and folding knives are sharpened at an angle of 30-35 degrees if a sharp cutting edge is needed, or at an angle of 40-45 degrees to increase resistance to dulling. Tactical knives - 25–40 degrees. Professional chef's, boning, and fillet knives are sharpened at 25 degrees, while home kitchen knives are sharpened at 25–30, while Japanese kitchen knives are sharpened at 10–20 degrees; straight razors - 10–15 degrees. The main thing to remember: the smaller the sharpening angle, the sharper knife, and the more - the longer it will remain sharp.

Sharpen your knife in a smooth motion, lifting the handle slightly when it comes to sharpening the curve of the blade. This will keep the same angle of sharpening of the entire cutting edge. In addition, the blade must be guided so that the direction of movement is always perpendicular to the cutting edge.

That is why devices popular among housewives, consisting of a piece of plastic in which two disks of abrasive material are fixed, are not suitable for proper sharpening. They sharpen the knife quickly, but the blades sharpened in this way will also become dull very soon.

You don’t need to press hard on the blade, but you shouldn’t iron the whetstone with a knife either - it’s important to find a middle ground. Keep sharpening the blade until reverse side the cutting edge will not appear clearly perceptible "burr". In this case, you can start processing the back side of the blade.

fine-tuning

After the surfaces that form the blade are brought to mind on a coarse whetstone, you can begin to refine them with a fine-grained whetstone.

In order to make the blade razor-sharp, after processing with a fine-grained whetstone, you can take a special belt or just a piece of leather. Our reader Konstantin Luchnikov, a man experienced in this matter, warns: sharpening on a belt is different from sharpening on an abrasive bar. On a bar, you can sharpen both “to the grain” and “from the grain” (however, this is still a subject of controversy), but sharpening on the skin is carried out only “from the grain”.

The skin should be treated with GOI grinding paste or any other abrasive paste. Sharpening on a belt is no different from sharpening on a whetstone, so there are no special subtleties here - use the skin in the same way as a grindstone.

Alternative finishing methods

As a grindstone, you can use the ceramic edge of a plate or mug. Just flip them over and make sure the edge on the bottom has a rough surface.

The sets of kitchen knives today certainly include musat - a steel bar with longitudinal grooves and a handle. It is not suitable for sharpening, but it allows you to keep the sharpness of the blade longer. Indeed, running a musat along the blade a couple of times before and after work is a much less time-consuming process than a full-fledged sharpening.

AT field conditions looking for special stones on which hardened steel can be sharpened is not an easy task. Therefore, hunters carry miniature whetstones with them, and often bring them to the sheath in which this knife is stored.

Sharpening quality check

You can find out if you have sharpened a knife well with several simple ways. The first and safest is to test the knife in action. To do this, you need to take a piece of paper, preferably newsprint, and try to cut it. Or take a tomato and try to cut it: with a blunt knife, as you know, it is problematic to cut soft vegetables and fruits. Japanese knives are tested in a spectacular way, tested by samurai: the newspaper is rolled into a tight roll, the ends of which are wrapped with tape. This design should be installed on the edge of the table and struck at an angle. If the knife is sharp enough, the paper column will break in two, like a bamboo stalk cut with a katana.

Also, the quality of sharpening is checked by touch. This is not safe, but it allows you to identify possible defects that may appear in the process of working with a grindstone. You need to carefully hold the pillow thumb across the blade without pressing. If the edge of the blade is clearly defined, then you have done a great job. A dull blade will feel visibly round to the touch. Blade sharpness can be checked by eye. To do this, you need to bring the knife to a light source and see if the cutting edge glares. If there are glare, then there are dull areas.

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 do-it-yourself 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 subsequent work will be a whetstone. To get the perfect result, you will need several stones of different grits. 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 touchstones cost decent money, but if you want to get really good result, then you 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. An acute angle 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.