Handbook of Kitchen Management
Table of Contents
- Preface
- A Guide to Kitchen Hygiene
- A Guide to Kitchen Ergonomics
- Work Must Be Economical
- A Guide to Cookware
- Prevent Food from Sticking to Cookware
- A Guide to Food Packaging
- A Guide to Food Containers
- A Guide to Kitchen Knives
- A Guide to Cutting techniques
- A Guide to Sharpening Knives
- A Guide to Cutting Boards
- A Guide to Washing Food
- What's Next?
A Guide to Sharpening Knives
There are two processes that keep the sharpness of the blade: honing and sharpening the blade edges. In most cases, what your knife needs is a simple honing.
How To Hone a Knife?
Subject to repeated use, parts of the edge misaligns from the straight line. This deformity can be seen when the blade is looked upon very closely. For such cases, the sharpness can be restored by a process called honing.
To hone a knife, you need a honing rod. Buy one that you can hold steadily and has a stopper to protect your hand if the knife slides down past the rod out of control.
Hold the edge of the blade against the rod at a rough angle of the knife's bevel. Now slide the knife along the honing rod from bottom to top. Do it for the other edge too by holding the knife below the rod. Note that some knives have different bevel angles for both sides of the blade. So pay attention to the angle. This process will straighten the misaligned edges of the blade.
Honing takes time to master. As you gain experience, you may slide both the rod and the blade against each other and hone with a poetic motion.
How To Sharpen a Knife?
Over a period of time of use, the sharp edges of the knife get rounded. This too is evident only if you look closer, or if you scrape your finger against the blade (you will feel it's not sharp at all). This is when your knife needs sharpening: a process of shaving off material from the edge of the blade.
Knives are sharpened by scraping their edges at an angle over something stronger than the knife itself. Micro amounts of the knife material is shaved off the blade thus making it sharp again.
Traditionally, knives are sharpened using certain rocks. This tradition still continues in most kitchens in the form of whetstones or sharpening rocks. The common technique is to slide the blade forward and backward at almost a parallel angle to the whetstone. If you have a manual with a sharpening stone, use as instructed.
Modern product design has introduced knife sharpeners where you only need to slide the blade edge in the thin inset of the sharpener. Such sharpeners sometimes comes with honing and polishing capabilities too. We recommended using a whetstone because its cheap, easy and artful to use.
Corrections?
We base our writings on science and reasoning, but we could be victims of cognitive biases whilst doing our research. If there are any inaccuracies in our writings, please do let us know.