Sharpen Your Knives

If you cook at home—and you should—then you use knives regularly. And if you use knives regularly, then you know that trying to cut with a dull blade is a real drag. Literally.

A dull knife slows you down, while a sharp knife makes food prep fast and easy. A sharper blade requires less brute force to cut. When you really have to push your knife through your ingredients, you can damage delicate cells surrounding the cut, which ultimately accelerates wilting and discoloration.

And while it may seem counterintuitive, the sharper the blade, the safer the knife. Why? A sharp blade goes where you want it to—when it's drawn across the food's surface, it won't slip. This makes it easy to control how the blade moves through the food, giving you ultimate power over your chopping or slicing. A dull blade can slip, and because you're pressing harder with a dull blade, it's harder to control and often leads to cuts on your finger or other mistakes.

Convinced? Good. Now you need to decide when and how to sharpen them. If you use your knives heavily, you'll likely want them sharpened every three to six months. For more casual, moderate use, once a year is sufficient. The real question is if you want to do it yourself or have them professionally serviced. Each method has its benefits.

Sharpening service,
$59 for four knives,
by Knife Aid

Mail-In

Why look for a local shop when this service sends you a secure envelope to collect your blades for sharpening (insured and trackable)? Their expert knifesmiths determine the best method to renew each knife and then sends them back sharper than when you got them—guaranteed. Plus, it only takes four or five days.

Sharpening service,
$59 for four knives, by Knife Aid

Manual knife sharpener,
$119.95 by Brod & Taylor

Mechanical

Nearly as easy as having someone else do the sharpening for you, a good manual sharpener takes much of the guesswork out of the process. This one, designed by an Austrian knife maker, hones, polishes and sharpens, while the patented spring-action sharpeners quickly adjust to any blade shape for a foolproof use.

Manual knife sharpener,
$119.95 by Brod & Taylor

Japanese whetstone,
$24.23 by King

By Hand

Using a soaked whetstone, find the correct angle for your knife's blade to make contact with the stone. Korin's knife sharpening expert, Vincent Lau, suggests stacking two pennies under the knife's spine to help visualize the best angle. Keep the knife against the stone, apply subtle pressure with two fingers and pull the blade toward you, then push it away. As you go back and forth, keep in mind the sharpening action is when you pull the blade toward you, so ease up slightly when pushing forward.

Japanese whetstone,
$24.23 by King