How do you use a sharpening steel?

A good, sharp knife makes cutting easier and work safer. By regularly maintaining your expensive knives you extend the life of the blades and ensure that your knives are always in top condition. In this blog, you will read about the differences between a sharpening steel and a knife sharpener and we give you useful tools for using a sharpening steel.

What is the difference between sharpening and honing?

A sharpening steel serves only as a maintenance tool and can be compared to shoe polish, for example. With regular use of the sharpening steel you extend the duration of the knife's sharpness. Sharpening ensures that small burrs (created on the cut) are straightened out again, making the knife fly through food a lot easier. Over time, the knife will need to be sharpened. This can be done using both a whetstone as a knife sharpener.

The main difference between a sharpening steel and a knife sharpener is whether or not it removes material. Sharpening steels are made of steel and are designed to reset burrs, allowing the blade to cut smoothly through the product again with less resistance. Knife sharpeners, on the other hand, are ceramic or diamond and take away relatively large amounts of steel.

What is the difference between sharpening and honing?

How do you use a sharpening steel?

Now that you know what an appetizer is doing, it is of course also useful to know how it works. When using an appetizer steel, it is important to know at which angle the knife should be turned on and how hard the steel is of the blade.

Grind
If you grind the knife with the wrong corner, you can damage the knife. In addition, there is a danger that the knife can become bone if you grind the knife with too large or too small cutting angle. You determine the right grinding cake by looking at the corners of your knife. Because the smaller the corner, the sharper the knife. For example, the angle of a Japanese knife is very small due to the hard steel species, and the knife can therefore be sharpened very sharply. European knives are made from a softer steel species and are therefore sharpened at a larger angle.

Double -sided cut knife: Slijphoek from 20 - 25 °
Unilateral cut knife: Slijphoek from 15 - 17 °

Hardness

European knife hardness of 52-58 HRC
Japanese knife hardness of 58-61 HRC

A stretch steel, made of steel, has no function on knives with a hardness of more than 58 HRC. After all, these knives are so hard that this cuts in the onset steel. To turn on these knives, you must use a ceramic attachment steel. For an aggressive stepping method, a deposit steel with diamond layer is a perfect solution. With this you do not put the blackberries back, but you remove a minimum layer from the steel. This starter steel has a higher grain size, which is comparable to the grain structure of sandpaper.

Method 1. Sustained

Press the onset steel with the point down on a wet cloth, so that it does not slip away

Keep the knife in the other hand.
Tilt the knife in such a way that a corner of 15 - 25 ° is created between blade and on -side steel.
Pull the cutting edge down over the steel and use the entire length of the steel; The end of the cutting edge of the knife slides to the tip of the knife.
Pay slight pressure on the blade.
Now place the knife on the other side of the starter steel, again at an angle of 15 - 25 °.
Pull the blade over the steel in the same way.
Repeat this movement for each side six to eight times.
Now the knife should be really sharp again.
Remove the wet cloth over the cut from the blade to remove any steel residues.

Method 2. Underhanded

Neem het aanzetstaal in de ene en het mes in de andere hand.
Het mes ligt bovenop het aanzetstaal.
Kiep het mes zo, dat tussen lemmet en aanzetstaal/een hoek van 15 - 25° ontstaat.
Trek de snijrand in een halfronde beweging over het staal en gebruik daarbij de gehele lengte van het staal; het einde van de snijrand van het mes glijdt in een boogje naar beneden tot de punt van het mes.
Oefen een lichte druk uit op het lemmet.
Leg het mes nu onder het aanzetstaal, opnieuw in een hoek van 15 - 25°.
Trek het lemmet op dezelfde manier over het staal.
Herhaal deze beweging voor elke zijde zes- tot achtmaal.
Nu zou het mes weer echt scherp moeten zijn.
Haal een natte doek over de snede van het lemmet om eventuele staalresten te verwijderen.

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