Dull knives in the kitchen - a familiar problem! You can resort to the help of special services, but it’s easier and faster to sharpen tools yourself. After all, it is sometimes necessary not only in everyday life, but also for hunting, when professional sharpening of knives is required, which has its own secrets.
Knife sharpening was previously a special art that few owned. Craftsmen with the help of their own inventions and tricks could sharpen a knife to the sharpness of a razor. Now for the sharpening process, the so-called Japanese water grindstones are often used, which are put into water for twenty minutes before use. Then the grindstone must be placed on a stable surface (sometimes they are sold with the stand).
The main goal that you need to achieve while sharpening the knife is to set the right angle at the cutting edge of the tool. The sharper the knife sharpening angle, the better it will cut. It must be remembered that the radius of sharpening of the cutting edge should be minimal. If the sharpening is of good quality, then about five microns remain at the tip. Mandatory procedure - polishing the cutting edge, it is needed for better preservation of the metal.
When sharpening a knife with water stone, it is necessary that water (if the stone is coarse-grained) enter a thin stream of water on its surface, or you can just dip your fingers in water and moisten the stone (if it is with fine grain). With the help of a small pebble - nagura - a suspension is created on its surface, which favorably affects sharpening: for this, you need to rub the stone with it. It should immediately be clarified that the angle of sharpening of the knife is the angle at which the knife is sharpened with respect to the stone. It may be different. Hunting knives are sharpened at an angle of twenty degrees. Chopping tools are less blunt, therefore they are sharpened at a larger angle. Having chosen the necessary angle, put the knife blade on the grindstone, press it with two fingers and sharpen it. You can make movements with the blade back or change their direction. Sharpening starts from the place at the handle and gradually reaches the tip. The end of the knife must be sharpened in arcuate movements. Do not sharpen in separate parts, otherwise steps may appear on the blade. The knife must be sharpened on both sides, gradually reducing the pressure. After this, you need to choose another grindstone, finer grain.
Today, there are special devices that have simplified this process and made it publicly available: for example, a grinding machine manufactured by Spiderko, which combines several types of stones. With its help, in just 40 movements, the instrument is brought to the desired sharpness. In this case, a knife is carried out one at a time, then on another stone, holding it vertically. Sharpening stones are made of aluminum-ceramic. They sharpen all grades of stainless steel knives very well.
Sometimes when processing a blade, the angle of sharpening of the knife has to be changed. This problem occurs if the factory angle does not coincide with the angle to which the grinder is set. The old tried and tested method will help here - using coarse stone and oil to form the desired angle. After that, again you can use the grinding device for the final processing of the tool.
The steel from which the knives are made is divided into grades and has various characteristics. Accordingly, the angle of sharpening of the knife will vary, which should be taken into account when fine-tuning it. For tools used in the kitchen, an angle of thirty degrees is recommended. For large and powerful knives - forty degrees. Most often it is difficult to determine the grade of steel and therefore the choice of the desired sharpening angle is intuitive. You can remove its traces from the blade with a stiff dishwashing sponge and liquid detergent.
After studying the proposed material, sharpening kitchen knives is no longer difficult for you. It is enough to prepare the necessary tools, observe safety precautions when working with knives - and the result will be sharp, sharpened to the state of a razor blade.