About once a year, I pull out my knife sharpening kit to sharpen the kitchen knives. This year, I managed to do it in January, rather than March, when I generally get around to it.
My main task, in a sharpening session, is to sharpen the kitchen knives, primarily our carbon steel “Old Hickory” set (see High Carbon Steel Kitchen Knives) although I generally pick up a few other blades, like our pocket knives. If I’m going to make a big production, I may as well go all out.
Before I continue, I must stress: many knife sharpening systems exist, and there are many ways to sharpen knife blades. I am not advocating my method, or implying it is in any way superior to other methods. It’s merely the method I use.
Mark uses his Lansky sharpener on a kitchen knife (Photo: Sarah A. Zeiger).
Back when I acquired our kitchen knives, I researched various sharpening systems, and settled on the Lansky Deluxe 5-Stone Sharpening system (paid link) It got good ratings, and fell in my price range. I use it for “formal” sharpening, my once-a-year sharpening session. In between times, I use various methods for touching up the edges of our knives, from a diamond-dust wand to a chef’s sharpening steel to actual whet stones of various makes and sizes.
The reason I like the Lansky is that it allows consistent whetting angles from 17-30°, so I can shape a keen, consistent edge without a lot of concentration. My biggest problem with hand sharpening a blade comes from finding and holding the constant angle for whetting (I like 20-25° personally) throughout the sharpening process. The Lansky system frees me from that problem. The sharpening jig includes all of the main angles, with easy-to-understand instructions, and good guides.
Most of my sharpening sessions include only the medium and fine stones or bars. I use the coarser bars to repair blades when needed (see How to Repair a Damaged Ax Blade); I occasionally use the ultra fine bar for really bright work.
Part of the sharpening process also includes wiping the blades and the wooden handles with a mineral oil-soaked rag. We keep one hanging on a nail near the kitchen sink, ready to touch up the knives through the year on a whim. We use the edible mineral oil, sometimes used as baby laxative, because the knives are used for food preparation.
Some of our kitchen knives and a few pocket knives, with the Lansky jig (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
We find that most of the high carbon steel edges hold for most of a year. Making a thorough, annual project of it works pretty well for us.