Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
method_burger
563
Jun 23, 2018
Just my experience/opinion.
-First, using the knife properly. Don't torque the blade when cutting, try to cut bone, or other weird things. It doesn't matter how awesome the steel/grind is, if you pretend a knife is a sledgehammer. Keep in mind a knife edge is nanometers thin (or whatever, really really thin) so it is very weak. -Second, strop or hone to realign the edge. Most knife edge become misaligned edge during use. The goal is to realign the edge to be straight again. This skips sharpening, which will increase the life if your knife. Another good aspect about strop/hone is that you ensure that the misaligned edge doesn't literally roll over into a U shape and chip out. Keep in mind, the more times you realign an edge, the weaker it gets (sort of like bending a paperclip back and forth too many times, the metal at the bend will eventually suffer too much fatigue, work harden, and then snap off) -3rd and last method is sharpening, where the edge is just dull. Either the edge is plain flat, chipped out, rolled over, sharpening literally removes this metal and creates a new edge. If you don't like your knife edge (too thin or too thick) you can also redo your edge to how you want it.
Theres also a mix of 2 and 3, where you use the final stones of sharpening to give the knife a touch-up sharpening. Basically only use high-grit stones and then strop. This is useful if your edge is dull to the point where stopping and honing doesnt do anything, but does not have significant damage like edge rolling or chipping.
Again, this is my own experience and I find it works well for me, so just take this as a few ideas on what you can do. The best thing to do is just play around and see what works best for you.
PRODUCTS YOU MAY LIKE
Trending Posts in More Community Picks