If you use your knives routinely regardless of if its your trusty pocket knife or your go to chefs knife, eventually its going to need some maintenance. That might include sharpening, honing, cleaning, or just an inspection to make sure its ready for use.
If you're asking how often should I sharpen my knives, then this article should help you get a regular schedule based on some common factors.
Recurring maintenance comes with any of our important tools. A regular maintenance schedule give you the chance not only to check the sharpness of the blade, but also to see if any other issues may be arising like rust, chipping, or other kinds of damage.
The longer you own and work with a knife the more you'll get to know the needed maintenance schedule but there are a few things to know.
In general the harder the cutting task, and the more often the knife is used, the faster the edge will go dull.
That doesn't mean that it needs to be sharpened all the time...
To test for dulling a paper test is often performed to see how easily the knife edge cuts. If the knife struggles to cut even after honing then its likely dull.
When honing no longer helps the knife cut well, its time to sharpen.
Honing is generally recommended every three hours of hard use.
Signs your knife needs sharpening
An easy way to check is using the paper test. Try to slice through a slice of paper. If it tears jaggedly then you probably need to sharpen.
If you feel yourself using extra force to cut through normal use then its another sign of needing some whetstone time. For example a chef's knife should easily slice through an onion.
Finally if your knife struggles with soft items then you may need to check its sharpness. A squashed tomato instead of a clean cut is a major warning sign for a chef's knife!
How dull knives affect performance and safety
Its worth mentioning that keeping your knife sharp and ready is more than just a frustration when you go to use it. A dull knife can slip or require more force to cut, which can lead to injury. In addition its likely to tear material or cause unintended damage.
Factors that affect how often you should sharpen knives.
When your specific knife is going to need to be sharpened depends on several different factors. Mainly its type, bevel angle, the hardness of the metal, how it’s used, and how it’s stored.
Type of knife
Different kinds of knives will need their own maintenance schedule. Pocket knife blades are smaller than a chefs knife, therefore the edge does more work per cutting inch. Alternatively a long bread knife wont need sharpening for a long time if properly used due to the serrations and only slicing soft breads.
Some grinds, like a hollow grind, have thinner edges which will cause faster wear than a more traditional grind. Make sure you know what kind of grind your knife was set with and if it requires a more frequent trip to the whetstone.
The shorter the edge length, and the harder materials the knife cuts, the sooner you'll need to resharpen!
Hardness
Not all metal is the same and not all forging processes are equal when it comes to hardness. A common method of measuring hardness is with the
Rockwell Hardness Scale (you can read the specifics on the scales here).
A knife with a softer metal will have an edge that will likely dull and chip easier than one that is at optimum hardness.
Alternatively a knife with a much harder metal might not dull as easy, but may break or shatter easier.
Use frequency
In general, the more you use your knife, the faster it will dull.
So your trusty daily carry pocket knife, that does everything from cutting open letters and boxes to slicing through hard plastic at work, is going to need more care than that pairing knife that goes forgotten in the knife block.
Cutting surface and storage
Use the right cutting surface: There are few things that can dull a knife quicker, in our opinion, than cutting on the wrong surface. A proper cutting board will help keep what you're cutting stable, and also provide a surface that stops the knife from damage. In the culinary world most kitchens use wood or a plastic/rubber/composite mix instead of stone or glass. In the field you might chose to cut over a tree stump or a box rather than a piece of metal.
Proper storage: Leaving your favorite cutting tools lose in a drawer or generally unprotected can be both dangerous and lead to early trips to the sharpening stone. The edge can bounce off other knives, drawer sides, or other objects and cause damage and dulling. Any cutting edge should be stored safely in a sheath or a block where the edge is safely protected.
Our general rule for frequency
So, how often should you sharpen your knives? Here's the general rules we follow.
- When cutting performance degrades and it feels like its not slicing easy, its time to give it the paper test.
- If it fails the paper test, hone the edge and see if rolling the edge back into place fixes the problem.
- If honing doesn't fix the problem then its likely time for sharpening.
Best practices to maintain optimal sharpness.
Now that you're figuring out how often you should sharpen your knife, here's some quick tips to keep it sharp longer.
Use the right knife (and surface) for the right job
Using a chefs knife to try and cut through a tree limb is probably not going to give you great results compared to an axe. Use the right cutting tool thats designed for the job that will have the right metal hardness, bevel angle, and weight.
Maintain your sharpening frequency
Keep to your schedule when it comes to knife maintenance. When you need to use your trusty knife isn't when you want to find out its dulled!
Hone regularly
Our rule is for every 3 hours of heavy use, a knife should be inspected and honed using either a honing iron or a strop.
Store correctly
Make sure that how your store your knife is safe and uses a sheath. This helps prevent dings, chipping or damage from weather.
FAQ
- How to tell if a knife needs sharpening?
- Use a paper test to see how dull the knife might be as well as if it needs honing or sharpening.
- What can happen if you don't sharpen your knives?
- The knife will dull over time which can lead to problems cutting.
- What is the difference between honing and sharpening a knife?
- Honing realigns the edge where sharpening creates a new edge.
- Can you sharpen knives too much?
- The more often you sharpen the more metal you will remove, however sharpening is essential to long term use.
- How long should a sharp knife last with regular use?
- Our rule is to hone every 3 hours of hard use and sharpening when needed.
- Is professional knife sharpening better than doing it at home?
- Professional sharpening can help if you have a damaged knife, but many can be sharpened at home with practice or an easy to use system.
