Sharpening Kitchen Knifes

Eldi_Dos

Now the weather is on the turn starting to make more seaonal food, home made soup, casseroles and suchlike. Been a bit dismayed that my kitchen knifes seem to have lost their edge over the summer, usually hone them after every use with a steel but been a bit remiss over the summer with that and found that trying to sharpen with a steel is not working.
I intend to get a Minotaur Sharpening Stone from Toolstation and use that.

My question is how do other members of the forum sharpen and keep sharp their kitchen knifes.

TELLIT01

I have a number of sharpening tools accumulated over the years and find this the most effective.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4037653

Albermarle

The block the knives are held in has a built in sharpener. No doubt not as good as doing it properly, but easy.

twopenny

My grandfather used to do the kitchen knives on the edge of the concrete doorstep.

I use a sharpening block that I use for garden and DIY tools.

Though I recently bought a brilliant and sharp knife from a local DIY cheapie shop for £1.50  😁
Triple riveted handle.
When I found out how good I went back for a second.
Tried all the fancy 'super sharp' ones and they were rubbish.

danrv

Eldi_Dos said:

I intend to get a Minotaur Sharpening Stone from Toolstation and use that.

I'd get a whetstone rather than the Minotour sharpening stone. I think that's more for tools.
I bought a Keenbest whetstone kit from Amazon. 1000-6000 grit so much finer and designed for kitchen knives.
Does a great job on my old Prestige hollow ground chef knife (upgrading soon).

The kit has a useful info booklet, bamboo holder, angle guide and cloth. Just needs to be completely dried out before storage as the bamboo attracts mould easily.
I also have the pull through sharpener shown previously. It's ok for a quick sharpen but a whetstone is a better, more gentle method.

grumpy_codger

Eldi_Dos said:

...
I intend to get a Minotaur Sharpening Stone from Toolstation and use that.

...

Bravo! IMO, a (fine) sharpening stone (or sandpaper on a block of wood) is the only right tool for good knives. All other tools I know simply kill the knives very fast (again, IMHO).

bjorn_toby_wilde

+1 for the whetstone. I have a reversible diamond stone for my woodworking tools and I use that, but the principle is the same. Start on the coarse side then move to the fine. I feel it’s more about the technique than the stone.

I got a bit hung up on getting the right angle with kitchen knives at first but if you rock the knife blade gently you can usually feel it, or use a sharpie on the edge, then you can soon identify areas where you’re not taking off enough metal.

Strop with a steel or a leather strop afterwards and you can get them scary sharp 😬

ROY47

Have a look on e bay or similar for   Accusharp knife sharpener 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=AccuSharp++Knife+Sharpener&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313 

around £13 ish   I've had one for about 8 years at home  and it is still sharpening my knives , but not serated knives

 the sharpening blades can be removed and "turned around " in the unit for double the length of time they can be used 

Used to have one in work and it was used almost daily and lasted around 4 years 

twopenny

Sharpening stones are often seen at car boot sales.
I got a beauty in a handmade hardwood holder which is far superior to the new ones and the holder holds it steady.

Eldi_Dos

Thanks for all the replies, looks like I will be going for a Whetstone with two grades of grit.

@ROY47
I salute your bravery if you use that tool regularly, looks a bit fearsome for my liking.

moneysaver1978

What type of kitchen knives do you have? If not too expensive or fancy, you could use this (I use this too).

If it is an expensive or nice Japanese knife, I would get a whetstone - John Lewis have a few nice selections but I went for this as it was cheaper and seemed to work well.