Knives are one of the most basic tools, and possibly the first tool deliberately manufactured by humans. They have proven useful for a vast array of practical purposes over the centuries. Even today most people use a knives on a daily basis, for food preparation.
The performance of a knife dependends on its sharpness. A sharp knife blade ends at a tiny tip, has a smooth edge and cuts through tough materials with satisfying ease. When a knife is blunt, however, it becomes awkward and inefficient to use, crushing the substances it is designed to cut and requiring much more force and 'sawing' action before the cut is complete.
Knives naturally become blunt over time with use (and blunt much faster with misuse) yet their utility depends utterly on sharpness. Thus the knife sharpening tool is almost as important as the knife itself. Assuming that you enjoy using a sharp blade, your skill with a knife sharpener may, likewise, be as important as your skills with the knife itself.
As indicated in the introduction, knife sharpening is not simply a matter of technology. Although you will clearly need a sharpening device of some kind, it is perhaps more important to treat the knife well in the first place so it needs to be sharpened less frequently and so it will last longer (every time a knife is sharpened, it becomes depleted). There are three important principles of good knife maintenance. Follow them, along with the motto "treat your knife well", and the blade will stay sharp for longer without any sharpening.
Little and often: This means it's better to regularly sharpen the knife and remove small amounts of material each time than wait until the edge is completely blunt, requiring the removal of much metal for it to become sharp again.
Sensible storage: Don't keep you knives knocking around with other household utensils in drawers: even small amounts of contact between the blade's edge and other metal implements can rapidly deaden sharpness. Magnetic knife racks or wooden storage slots are recommended instead.
Use the knife properly: this means cutting onto a soft (probably wooden) chopping board, avoiding glass or ceramic chopping boards at all costs. Do not use the edge of the knife as a scraper to push food from the chopping board. If you need to use the knife in this way, turn it over and push the food with the blunt side of the knife, saving much sharpening effort.
Dont cut onto plate or glass chopping boards
cheap sharpening stone from toolstation This oil stone is very multi purpose, it can be used for kitchen knives, bushcraft/gardening blades, woodworking tools and most other edge tools. It's cheap and affordable but it is made using big industrial processess probably by workers in poor conditions. If you can, get a second hand stone from a market or boot sale. Try and get a stone that is as flat as possible, an oilstone can last a lifetime but needs regular flattening to be effective as a sharpening tool. See a seperate article for a how-to on this, it can be time consuming so try and find a stone in good condition if possible.
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