Thursday, February 17, 2011

Honing your knife is not sharpening it!

You can help keep your knives in tip-top shape if you hone them regularly using a honing steel. Honing does not replace actually sharpening them though, the mechanics behind honing is it straightens out the blade that may be bent on a nearly microscopic level. It will not shave off metal (unless you have one of those new diamond honing rods, I wouldn't recommend buying one of those), and give you a new edge.

When you hone your knives you usually don't need more than 5 passes on each side to effectively bend the edge back into place. If it takes more than that for you to notice a change in cutting, then you need to sharpen it. I will have a post on sharpening your knives soon.

Also please be careful when using knives. Before I actually learned all these things, my knives were REALLY dull, and I was never worried about touching the edge. After I learned to sharpen and hone my knives, I was in the bad habit of not being careful, and cut my fingers many times.
Posted by ChefJRH at 3:41 PM
Labels: ,

19 comments:

  1. JoshFebruary 17, 2011 at 4:32 PM

    Good information. I would have never thought to hone the blade back.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CiriisFebruary 17, 2011 at 11:37 PM

    Very good piece of advice. most peopel are not aware of this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jopjopjopFebruary 18, 2011 at 2:04 AM

    dint know that, thanks for sharing this information

    ReplyDelete
  4. Come At Me BroFebruary 18, 2011 at 4:20 AM

    I should try this!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tó RockFebruary 18, 2011 at 4:22 AM

    Please do something like kitchen for dummies ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. AssortedNewsFebruary 18, 2011 at 6:39 AM

    I was doing it completely wrong, thanks for the video bro!

    ReplyDelete
  7. RamsayFebruary 18, 2011 at 9:28 AM

    I wasn't aware of this at all, I always thought that was sharpening it. And To Rock this blog is definitely kitchen for dummies I'm learning a ton :P

    ReplyDelete
  8. JacobFebruary 18, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    Great info to have

    ReplyDelete
  9. KerykeionFebruary 18, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    Nice i wasnt aware of this at all

    ReplyDelete
  10. Major MackFebruary 18, 2011 at 4:24 PM

    I just use new blades. That blade has to be sharp when im shaving my balls.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousFebruary 18, 2011 at 4:36 PM

    Didn't know about this! Glad to learn about it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. rocknrollcrazyFebruary 18, 2011 at 5:32 PM

    i never knew that, i thought that tool was for sharpening, guess i was wrong

    ReplyDelete
  13. JoshFebruary 18, 2011 at 6:13 PM

    I can't find any place that sells a honer. Where would I go?

    ReplyDelete
  14. obiFebruary 18, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    sharp knife = sharp mind. cool blog and thanks for the tips.

    ReplyDelete
  15. ChefJRHFebruary 18, 2011 at 11:02 PM

    @Josh You can find a honing steel at nearly any kitchen store, or department store (with a kitchen department).

    ReplyDelete
  16. MeFebruary 18, 2011 at 11:23 PM

    didn't know about that 5 passes rule.

    ReplyDelete
  17. differenxeFebruary 19, 2011 at 6:19 AM

    How do I hone a ceramic knife?

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2011 at 1:59 PM

    good post. i didnt know there was a difference between honing and sharpening. keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  19. RaowrFebruary 23, 2011 at 3:13 PM

    Made me lol, my grandpa used to do this

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)