How to sharpen knives

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How to sharpen a knife on a cup



Как правильно точить ножи

The ability to sharpen a knife has always been considered an indispensable attribute of any real man. And if in ancient times your life and the life of your family depended on this art, today the correct sharpening of the knife only affects the thickness of the sausage for the sandwich and, therefore, usually turns into the prerogative of hunters and collectors-gunsmiths.

Today, you can find a lot of tools for sharpening: traditional trimmings, Japanese vodka stones, advanced electric appliances and lots of other things. But the most reliable method of sharpening is still the grandfather's method - to use the usual grindstone. Do not forget that this process requires patience, a firm hand and certain skills, so in this case it is only practice that will help properly sharpen the knife.

We decided to correct the situation and tell you about the ways to properly sharpen the knife.

Important! Even among the ancient Slavs, the knife was not only an important object in the economy, but also protected them from evil spirits, participated in various conspiracies and vows. The knife presented to the child symbolized the transition to adulthood. Each father showed his son not only how to correct the knife, but also how to handle it, how to make a cover for him. And today knives are not dissolved in the kitchen environment, they are collected and made an important detail of the kitchen, buying unusual holders and coasters. No povareshki and shoulder blades are not honored with such attention. Correct sharpening of kitchen knives is a matter of honor of any owner, it's not for nothing that they say: "Sharp knives in the kitchen are a good host in the house."

Why knives are blunt?

The knife loses its sharpness in the process of friction of the blade against the surface of a solid object. When cutting from the blade, microscopic particles of steel come off. Simply put, the blade is simply erased, which is the reason for the question of how to sharpen knives correctly.

Standard causes of blunt knife:

  1. If you often cut meat in which bones are present, the blade will need sharpening almost daily.
  2. Often the tools are stupid with the owners, who cut the products on stone countertops, without using a cutting board. Therefore, to not rule the knife daily, use a board. The most optimal for the blade is a wooden board. Glass, ceramic, plastic dull the blade.
  3. If you use knives to cut solid objects at a right angle, then the blade will be blunted much faster.

Choice of grindstone

Как правильно точить ножи

Sharpening stones can be natural or artificial. The first, as a rule, have a fine-grained structure and are more suitable for working out, rather than sharpening a strongly blunt blade. Artificial cuttings are made with a large grain on one side of the bar and with small ones on the other, which makes them more versatile.

Choosing the right bar, you must either lubricate it with oil, or moisten with water and let stand for 15-20 minutes. This is necessary to ensure that the microscopic gaps between the grains of the stone are not clogged with particles of steel. If we ignore this rule, the oselok will serve much less than we would like.

Sharpening

Как правильно точить ножи

If the bar is two-sided, we first use the coarser side. This will quickly remove the necessary layer of steel. To properly sharpen the blade, the key is the angle at which the blade is located to the bar. The ideal angle is 20 degrees, but people are advised to approach it creatively - depending on the type of knife and what works it will be used for.

Как правильно точить ножи

Hunting and folding knives are sharpened at an angle of 30-35 degrees, if sharpness of the cutting edge is needed, or at an angle of 40-45 degrees, to increase the resistance to blunting. Tactical knives - 25-40 degrees. Professional cook, boning and fillet knives are sharpened at an angle of 25 degrees, and home kitchens - 25-30, while Japanese kitchen knives are sharpened at an angle of 10-20 degrees; Dangerous razors - 10-15 degrees. The main thing is to remember: the smaller the angle of sharpening, the sharper the knife, and the more - the longer it remains sharp.

To sharpen the knife you need smooth movements, slightly lifting the handle, when it comes to sharpening the bend of the blade. This will allow you to maintain the same angle of sharpening the entire cutting edge. In addition, the blade must be driven so that the direction of movement is always perpendicular to the cutting edge.

That's why the devices popular with housewives, consisting of a piece of plastic, in which two disks of abrasive material are fixed, are not suitable for correct sharpening. They sharpen the knife quickly, but blades sharpened in this way too soon will be dulled.

You do not have to press hard on the blade, but you do not have to grind the grindstone with a knife either - it is important to find a middle ground. The blade is sharpened until a clearly burr appears on the underside of the cutting edge. In this case, you can start processing the reverse side of the blade.

Debugging

Как правильно точить ножи

After the blade-forming surfaces are brought to the mind on a rough grindstone, one can begin to work them out with a small piece of small grain.

In order to make the blade razor-sharp, after processing with a fine-grained assailment, you can take a special strap or just a piece of skin. Our reader Konstantin Luchnikov, a man in this business is sophisticated, warns: the sharpening on the belt differs from sharpening on an abrasive bar. On the bar you can sharpen both "on the grain" and "from the grain" (however, this is still the subject of disputes), but the sharpening on the skin is only "from the grain."

The skin should be treated with GOI grinding paste or any other abrasive paste. Sharpening on the strap is no different from sharpening on the assortment, so there are no special subtleties here - use the skin in the same way as a grindstone.

Alternative ways of fine-tuning

Как правильно точить ножи

As a grinding stone, you can use the ceramic edge of a plate or mugs. Just turn them around and make sure that the edge on the bottom has a rough surface.

In the sets of kitchen knives today certainly includes musat - a steel rod with longitudinal grooves and a handle. For sharpening, it does not fit, but allows you to maintain the sharpness of the blade longer. Indeed, to hold the blade a couple of times with Moussat before and after work - a much less time-consuming process than full-fledged sharpening.

In the marching conditions to look for special stones, which can be sharpened hardened steel, - the occupation is not the simplest. Therefore, hunters carry miniature trunks with them, and often bring about the sheath in which this knife is stored.

Checking the quality of sharpening

Как правильно точить ножи

You can find out if you have sharpened the knife in several simple ways. The first and safest is to check the knife in action. To do this, you need to take a sheet of paper, preferably newspaper, and try to cut it.

Or take a tomato and try to cut it: with a blunt knife, it is known that soft vegetables and fruits are cut into problems. Japanese knives are tested in a spectacular way, samurai tried yet: the newspaper is twisted into a tight roll, the ends of which are wrapped with tape.

This design should be placed on the edge of the table and struck at an angle. If the knife is sharp enough, the paper column will fall apart into two parts, like a bamboo stem, cut by a katana.

Also the quality of the grinding is checked by touch. This is not safe, but it allows you to identify possible defects that may occur while working with the grindstone. It is necessary to carefully draw a thumb pad across the blade, without pressing. If the edge of the blade is clearly defined, then you have worked on the glory. Blunt blade to the touch will be clearly round. The sharpness of the blade can be checked by eye. To do this, you need to bring the knife to the light source and see if the cutting edge does not shine. If there is glare, then there are stupid areas left.