Don’t Forget Your Knives

In light of my last post about holiday preparedness, I would be delinquent not to mention the 2nd most forgotten holiday task. Do not forget to sharpen your knives! People don’t think about having a sharp knife for carving until they are about to carve their selected holiday roast.

At a time when we should be very busy sharpening knives at the shop, we are always amazed no one brings them to us for a nice edge.

The best way to get knives sharpened is by a professional sharpener, however not all of us have such fine tradesmen in our local area. Many of these craftsmen accept knives for sharpening via mail, if you think ahead. Additionally, some culinary shops offer knife sharpening services, as do hardware stores, but it is possible to do it at home. The best method for home knife sharpening is to use an oil or water based stone. However, it can take some practice to get the technique down and if you haven’t done it before, the day before a holiday meal is not the time to start. You can do damage to your knife if you don’t do it correctly.

For easy and quick home knife sharpening, I recommend an electric sharpener. These machines will not give you the kind of factory edge a professional can, but they can produce a nice sharp edge. Given the state of most consumer knives, this will be an improvement.

There are many models available but I like Chef’s Choice models the best. They produce the kind of sharp edge one needs and can help make it easier to keep kitchen knives sharp. They have many models available, but are basically either 3 or 2 stages. The 3 stage sharpener has a grinding stage, then honing, and finally a stropping or buffing slot. The 2 stage models have only the honing and stropping stages. Most home sharpening can be handled by a 2 stage machine, unless your knives are butter knife dull. In which case, you need the grinding stage to literally reset the edge.






If you have Asian knives, you can only use machines specifically designed for Asian knives. The difference? Asian knives have a higher pitch angle (15 degrees) than do Western made knives (22 -24 degrees). Additionally, Western style knives have an a-frame house style edge and Asian knives have more of a steeple like edge.

Chef’s Choice makes a sharpener for Asian knives as does, Kershaw, the maker of Shun knives.



Chef’s Choice Asian Style Sharpener



Shun Electric Knife Sharpener

I have used manual sharpeners and they do an OK job, but require a lot more effort and do not achieve the results of the electric models. Also, so called sharpening steels are not for sharpening but for edge maintenance.

Remember, sharpen those knives BEFORE the holiday meal arrives.


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