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| My birthday order |
OK, so it is not my birthday today. However, I DID receive an order today that I had placed with money that I received on my birthday, so it's the next best thing. I have become rather entranced by knives recently, I have to admit. I have been reading up on the care, maintenance, storage, and use of knives in the kitchen. I have found several great resources out there including free classes, tutorials, and other posts to help me learn exactly the right things to do when caring for knives. Firstly, let me share my birthday order.
My order only consisted of two item, but they are important items for me to have and to know how to use. The first of these is a whetstone. Whetstones are - based on my reading - one of the most effective ways to sharpen a knife. Whetstones are graded very much like sandpaper, with a grit number. The higher the number, the finer the grit. When properly used a whetstone will remove the least amount of metal from the knife while allowing the edge to be sharpened to a razor sharp edge. Lower grit whetstones can even be used to repair chipped blades and broken points before moving to a higher grit to reshape and resharpen the blade
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| 2000/5000 grit whetstone |
The second item I bought was a honing rod or honing steel. Some knife block kits come with one of these, and some do not. My knife block did not, so I had been without this tool for some time. I did not know what I was missing. When a knife is used the edge can get knocked out of line - sometimes so slightly that it is not noticeable to the naked eye. The purpose of the honing steel is to re-straighten the sharpened edge in between sharpening. Knives should only need to be sharpened once every one to two months, and edges should be hones every other day or so - depending on how often you use the knife. I would hone every day if it's a knife you use often, like a chef's knife.
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| 8-inch honing steel |
So know you know how I am going to spending my time over the next few days. Reviewing my materials on how to sharpen and hone knives; practicing and perfecting the craft of sharpening my knives; going through every knife in my block and in my new knife roll and sharpening them all to razor quality. I don't know about you but that sounds like fun!
Free resources on knife care and skills from around the internet:
Remember to keep those fingers tucked back!
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