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.