How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us?

Josh Donald, owner of Bernal Cutlery in San Francisco, teaches your the correct technique.

People have the wrong ideas about knives. A knife doesn't cut like a razor or a plane iron on the push stroke. It's somewhat like a saw with teeth that cuts in a sliding motion as it's pushed or pulled. A properly sharpened knife is honed to a fine edge, yet has an appropriate roughness so that it has bite, or an ability to sink into the cut.

Understanding the subtleties of sharpening is what we’re about at Bernal Cutlery, in the Mission District of San Francisco. We’ve sharpened thousands of knives. We also sell knives and teach people how to sharpen anything from a kitchen knife to a meat cleaver. We’ve learned there's more to sharpening than a fine edge. Sharpening takes into account whether the knife is Japanese or Western, its material (stainless or carbon steel), and how the knife is used (slicing meat or fish, chopping vegetables, paring). The user's preferences must be considered. We also think sharpening is fun, and one of the best parts of my job is talking to the amateur and professional knife users that we serve.

We sharpen all our knives by wet grinding, typically finishing by hand on Japanese water stones. How fine we hone the knife depends on the knife and sometimes the user's preferences. To sharpen a knife, you need a basic but comprehensive set of water stones. In the Japanese grit numbering system, coarse stones are 220 to 600 grit, medium stones are 800 to 1,200 grit, fine stones are 4,000 to 8,000 grit. These stones and a strop might cost as much as $150, but you’ll get many years of use out of them, and there are inexpensive alternatives.

I can't tell you how to sharpen every type of knife because that would take an extensive chart to match each knife and steel alloy to the appropriate method. I can say that the best way to get a knife with a cutting action that pleases you is to experiment. Make notes to record what works and what doesn't.

Also, it's important to understand that you don't need to take a knife through all three grits every time you sharpen. For an overhaul, you need all three grits, but for a tune-up, your knife many need just a few passes on the medium and fine stones, and a couple of passes on the strop. Beware overly aggressive sharpening, and make sure to maintain or produce a thin tip geometry. The heavy hitter of coarse stones is the 220, and it removes metal in a hurry. If the knife is chipped or has lost a proper edge profile, you can bring it back to shape with this stone. But if you don't do much repair work, skip this grit size. Instead, a 600-grit stone is better to begin the sharpening process.

To sharpen a dull Western stainless-steel knife take a few strokes on the 600-grit stone, proceed to the 800- to 1,200-, and finish with a 2,000- or a 4,000-grit, then strop. If you have an ordinary carbon-steel (non-stainless) Western knife, you can use up to an 8,000-grit stone to produce a finely honed edge with a pleasing cutting action.

To sharpen Japanese stainless knives, start with a 400- to 600-grit stone, proceed to an 800- to 1,200-grit, and finish with a 6,000-grit.

A water stone is an abrasive block that uses water as the cutting lubricant. Its stone particles wear away as you sharpen, exposing fresh, fast-cutting surfaces.

To sharpen a stainless-steel Western-style kitchen knife, soak the stone for a few minutes and place it on a non-slip utility mat. As you work, splash some water on the stone or use a small spray bottle to keep it lubricated. And let the "mud," which consists of stone particles and water, build up. It helps the stone work better. Hold the knife at an angle (the height of two quarters from the spine of the blade) so the bevel makes complete contact with the stone's face, and draw the knife straight back and forth along the length of the stone, starting at the knife's heel, slowly working up to the tip. Pull the handle away from the stone as you go. Be sure to travel along the center of the stone. And use enough pressure so that the ends of your fingernails on the blade go white, but don't press harder than that. It's the motion, not the pressure, that does the work. Raise a burr with the first stone and then work up to a finer stone to remove those scratches, just like using sandpaper. The burr forms where two intersecting angles are formed in the honing process. To remove the burr, use a leather strop, one of rubberized cork or softwood with a polishing compound on its surface. Lay the knife over the strop's face and draw it backward. Two to four passes on each bevel are probably all you need. Hold the knife up to the light to check for a thin, bright line that indicates the burr's presence. Strop again if needed.

Rinse the knife and wipe it dry. Wash the stone and metal particles out of the non-slip mat. Then try the knife on some food.

Suppose you’re cash-strapped and can't afford a set of water stones. Take an 8-inch piece of 2 x 4 and staple sandpaper to its wide face. Use 220- to 320-grit for coarse, 400-grit for medium, and 600-grit for fine. Strop on a pine block with honing paste. —J.D.

Buy Now

$28

My favorite low-cost sharpener is a simple Chef'sChoice Diamond Hone by EdgeCraft. When I don't have time to break out my water stones, I pull it out and take a few passes on it.—Roy Berendsohn

Josh Donald is the owner of Bernal Cutlery, San Francisco.

How to Deep Fry a Turkey

How To Carve a Thanksgiving Turkey in 7 Easy Steps

The 6 Best Turkey Roaster Ovens

4 Great Turkey Sandwiches For All Those Leftovers

9 Great Gifts for the Thanksgiving Host

15 Last-Minute Essentials for Hosting Thanksgiving

How To Spatchcock a Turkey

You Can Make Thanksgiving Dinner With a Drone

5 Turkey Tools to Save Your Thanksgiving

Turkey Hotline Saves Your Thanksgiving

The Worst Times to Travel This Thanksgiving

How to Grill Your Entire Thanksgiving Dinner