The Difference Between Honing and Knife Sharpening (and Why It Matters)
I didn’t learn knife care from my parents, which is a good thing. Their preferred method of knife care is simple: buy a block of knives from a major store and use them until they become dull, then buy a new block of knives from a major store. It seems to work for them. If you’ve ever bought one of these knife blocks, you’ve probably noticed that it comes with a textured metal stick, sometimes referred to as “sharpening steel”.
But this stick does not sharpen. It sharpens. Sharpening is also an important part of knife care, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to sharpen your knives, nor does sharpening mean you don’t need to sharpen them. In fact, you have to hone a lot more than sharpen.
What is honing?
To understand the difference between honing and sharpening, you must understand how a knife blade works. Even the thinnest and smoothest blade has serrations, the teeth are simply not visible. But it is these microscopic teeth that cut and work best when they are all pointed in the right direction. Honing is what straightens the teeth; sharpening creates new teeth by grinding down tarnished metal.
What should you do first?
An unsharpened blade with misaligned teeth can still cut, it just won’t do it smoothly and accurately and will need to be sharpened more often. A dull blade is a little more obvious: you’ll have to use more force to make the cut, leading to most kitchen accidents. Not sure if your knife needs sharpening? Try the onion test recommended by Misen:
If you’re trying to decide if you need to sharpen your knife, the bow will tell you. A sharp enough knife will carefully cut through the onion. If your knife is dull, you will damage the cellular structure of the bulb by trying to cut it.
If your onion slices come out torn, then sharpen the blade and then sharpen the teeth regularly. If you have a knife that you really care about, it’s best to sharpen it after every use.
How to hone
As the KitchenKnifeGuru explains in the video above, sharpening is the delicate process of straightening those little teeth. There are three things to keep in mind when sharpening a knife:
1) Find the right corner and keep it there. (I’ll get to that shortly.)
2) Do not press hard. Slightly more than the weight of the knife itself.
3) Don’t overdo it. As a rule, 3-4 movements in each direction are enough.
The required angle will depend on where your knife was made. According to KitchenKnifeGuru, most German and Western knives should be sharpened to around 20 degrees, although some Henckels and Wusthof factories sharpen to 14-15 degrees; Most Japanese knives are sharpened 11-15 degrees. If in doubt, contact your knife manufacturer.
To sharpen, hold the grinder perpendicular to the table or countertop with your non-dominant hand, holding the tip on a folded kitchen towel. Hold the knife in your dominant hand at an appropriate angle, with the base of the knife at the top of the sharpening. Pull the knife towards you as you slide it over the steel – with light pressure – ending at the tip. Repeat on the other side of the blade. Repeat two or three more times on each side, then try cutting the paper. If it cuts cleanly, you’re done. If not, resharpen a couple more times until it works.
And if honing doesn’t help, it might be time to sharpen. Once a knife is sharp, sharpening it regularly should keep it in good condition for some time. (A knife in good condition only needs to be sharpened a couple of times a year.)