There are three stages to knife sharpening: honing, or steeling, stone sharpening, and professional grinding.

Honing, or steeling, is the act of realigning the edge of your blade. Your knife blade comes into contact with objects and surfaces stronger than itself all the time: counter (!), bone, stones/pits, and so on. This bends the edge of your blade, making it dull. Honing your blade on a steel helps readjust the bent-over parts of your blade so the edge is straight. It’s a good idea to hone your knife before working with it, especially if you keep it in a drawer (which you really shouldn’t anyway), and every 15-30 minutes of continuous use depending on what you’re using it for.

Using a stone to sharpen your knife when honing can no longer set an edge gently wears away the bent, dull parts of your blade. It also eliminates pits and nicks that can sometimes appear on a blade. There are different types of stones, and arguments about which are the best kinds to use fill blogs all over the Internet.

When your knife is no longer operating smoothly, and you either don’t have or don’t know how to sharpen a knife using a stone, you call a professional grinder. They’ll either have a pickup and delivery service or a grinder right on the truck. They can set an edge on a knife better than stone sharpening, and in less time. They can also set different angles of edges, which are useful for different types of uses. The questions a professional grinder asks you help them determine how to set your edge for you. They can also sharpen less expensive stainless steel blades, which are hard to resharpen once they’ve lost their edge, as well as kitchen shears/scissors.

Robby’s Sharp Edge Service is a professional knife grinding service in Jerusalem. Robby Abrams offers pickup service in Jerusalem and dropoff service for those who live outside the range of his bicycle. You can call for pricing and service at 052-673-4252.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Equipment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.