{"id":65026,"date":"2026-03-30T16:54:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/how-to-sharpen-a-knife-no-matter-your-skill-level\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T16:54:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:54:40","slug":"how-to-sharpen-a-knife-no-matter-your-skill-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/how-to-sharpen-a-knife-no-matter-your-skill-level\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Sharpen a Knife No Matter Your Skill Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p>It\u2019s mid-afternoon. Six hours from now your dining room table will be bustling with friends waiting on your French onion soup for a dinner party. You\u2019ve got 10 pounds of onions to slice, and your knife just glanced off the first onion as you tried to chop through the stem. Don\u2019t panic. In less than 15 minutes, you can get your blade back to a razor fine edge. That\u2019s true whether you want to take the pro approach of using a whetstone, the absolute beginner route of a $12 pull-through sharpener the size of a computer mouse, or something in between. Even if you don\u2019t have a Massive Slicing Event in the near future, you do need to keep your knives sharp in order to keep them safe (and enjoyable) to use. Just follow these tips for your method of choice to sharpen your blade like a pro (or at least like the confident home cook you are).<\/p>\n<div name=\"accordion\" class=\"AccordionWrapper-gvHLGA hNLEov\">\n<div class=\"AccordionItemWrapper-iLIlCF dnShlA\">\n<div class=\"AccordionContainer-gsDmFY iQqTk\">\n<div data-testid=\"accordion-item-container\" class=\"AccordionItemContainer-jFRYlp zgmT\">\n<div class=\"AccordionItemContainerLabel-etvqIf drgnhO\">\n<p>How do you want to sharpen?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><button class=\"BaseButton-bcGmUs ButtonWrapper-dPMEWm dFZSjb dhutMS button button--utility AccordionItemContainerButton-jMXXPz cpRpLP\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;Button&quot;}\" data-testid=\"Button\" role=\"button\" type=\"button\"><span class=\"ButtonLabel-eCjeQX eTFZtz button__label\">AccordionItemContainerButton<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sharpening a knife is the process of removing steel from a blade, which creates a new edge. A whetstone, a large block of material that\u2019s harder than a knife\u2019s steel, is the tool most professional chefs use to keep their knives sharp. Whetstone sharpening can be tricky though, as it\u2019s entirely up to the user to set the correct angle and keep it steady through repeated passes along the stone. And not all knives don\u2019t come with the same blade angle. Western-style chefs&#8217; knives have a wider 20\u00ba angle for chopping, while most Japanese-style knives have a less aggressive 15\u00ba angle that\u2019s adept at slicing. If that 5\u00ba difference has you feeling anxiety about sharpening your own knives, have no fear. \u201cIt\u2019s actually very hard to damage a knife beyond repair, so beginners shouldn\u2019t worry too much about making mistakes,\u201d says Vincent Lau, knife sharpening expert at Korin in New York. \u201cEven if something goes wrong, a professional can usually fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lau still recommends people try their hand at sharpening their knives with a whetstone, with an added caveat: \u201cIf you\u2019re using an inexpensive knife that costs around $20\u2013$30, investing in a $50 whetstone may not make sense. In those cases, a pull-through sharpener can be a reasonable option.\u201d He also notes that pull-through sharpeners and electric sharpeners can remove a lot more metal than a stone. The more metal a sharpener removes, the shorter the lifespan of your knife\u2014over time, your wedge-shaped chef\u2019s knife can be whittled away to a needle-thin fillet knife.<\/p>\n<p>Below, I\u2019ll get into how to use each of the three main types of knife sharpeners (pull-through, electric, and whetstones) in ways that\u2019ll keep your knives safe and sharp. But first, what\u2019s the deal with honing?<\/p>\n<p><h2>Honing vs. Sharpening<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Running your knife along a honing rod is important for knife maintenance, but it isn\u2019t actually sharpening your blade. \u201cHoning realigns the existing edge of the knife and does not remove any steel. It helps straighten an edge that has bent out of alignment through use,\u201d says Lau. While microscopic evaluation might show that <em>some<\/em> steel is removed when you hone your knife, it\u2019s not the significant amount you grind away when reshaping a knife\u2019s edge. Most honing rods are either textured steel or ceramic, with the ceramic rods better at touching up knives made from harder steel (think: carbon steel Japanese blades). To properly hone your knife, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s mid-afternoon. Six hours from now your dining room table will be bustling with friends waiting on your French onion soup for a dinner party. You\u2019ve got 10 pounds of onions to slice, and your knife just glanced off the first onion as you tried to chop through the stem. Don\u2019t panic. In less than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[5369,5523],"class_list":["post-65026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-cooking-tools","tag-knives"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/knife-sharpening.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}