Sometimes when you have to sharpen a knife, it may be a knife for general use or knife used in the kitchen, you may find that it is very hard work and you can not do it in the right way. There are only one factors that affect to the effectiveness of knife sharpening, it's about the method of sharpen. This article will suggest on how to sharpen a knife, which could be apply to both knifes for general use or knifes used in the kitchen.



Whetstone

There are 2 common types of whetstone, 1) is the type that has one side coarse and one side smooth surface and 2) the type that has both side coarse surface. However, the both type has no impact on your quality of sharpening. You can do it effectively regardless to the type of whetstone that you use. Some people may think that the quality of sharpen also depends on the quality of the whetstone, but the truth is, it's not due to the quality of whetstone at all.

Using water or oil will definitely help to get the good output rather than sharpen a knife alone without using them. Water and oil will helping on increasing smoothness when knife rubbed with the whetstone, and this will increase whetstone lifetime also.

How to sharpen

1. Before sharpening process, use water drop on the knife to increase smoothness as mentioned above. Generally, using oil will provide more smoothness than using water, but if you can not find oil, it is still OK to use water instead because the objective is to increase the smoothness when sharpening.

2. Lay down the knife on the stone in 20 degree askew with the stone. Then slide the knife to front direction around 10 times consecutively. Turn over the knife blade and do the same process again. You can repeat these steps as many times as you want until you satisfy that the knife is sharp enough. After you satisfy with the result of sharpness, then now its time to use another side of whetstone, the smoother side (the coarse side used for sharpen the knife, but smooth side used for adjusting the blade looks neat and ready for use). The adjusting processes also as important as the sharpening process, if you want your knife look neat and beautiful. Now turn over the whetstone smooth side up and do the same process as what you do in sharpening method.

Note: during both sharpening and adjusting process, use three of your finger push on the blade to keep it attach to the stone during the process.

3. Pull the knife the same way that as if you try to slice the stone, but be careful about the weight you put on the blade, should be not too heavy or not too light. Other thing that you have to be aware is do not lay the blade to be too parallel to the stone, otherwise, the blade may be scratch on it.

4. After finish, now it's the time to test the sharpness. You have to test by use the knife to cut on a paper, if the it can cut the paper the you can be sure that you have done a good sharpening, if not, let sharpen it again. After you get the satisfactory result, anoint the blade by oil and keep it in its place, don't forget to clean the stone too.