How to sharpen a knife on a stone correctly

The most popular method of sharpening a knife at home is sharpening on a whetstone. Everyone undoubtedly knows this method, but most people still do not know how to do it correctly. We will figure out how to do it correctly without extra effort and without special equipment.
Over time, even with the most correct use, any knife becomes dull. And its cutting edge, which is located at the end of the blade, becomes rounded.

This is absolutely normal. Not normal, this is when nicks or chips appear on the edge, indicating improper use of the knife. Such a tool is more difficult to fix.
Now about the whetstone, which is a stone where one side is rough with a high grit and the other side is smoother with a fine grit. The rough side is needed to shape the cutting edge of the knife, and the smooth side is needed to polish the edge until smooth. Well, this is certainly a good example, more often I see stones with homogeneous surfaces being used, but that’s not the point.

So, before sharpening, you need to secure the stone well. It is important.
This can be done using a wooden block with nails driven in to the shape of the stone, which do not protrude beyond its limits.

We install the stone with the rough side up, and secure the piece of wood in a vice if possible.

Sharpening a knife on a stone

The sharpening process requires a little skill, but if you have absolutely no experience, it doesn’t matter, the knife will be sharpened in any case, although not so correctly and skillfully.
Imagine that you need to cut a thin layer of butter from a piece. The sharpening movement occurs in exactly the same way. Place the knife at a slight angle closer to the handle. And with a longitudinal movement we draw the blade along the stone with the blade moving towards the tip.



Unlike cutting butter, you need to walk the stone over the entire surface of the knife: from the handle to the tip.
It was one move. Now turn the knife over to the other side and move to the other side of the stone. In the same way, we try to cut off an imaginary thin layer of butter with the knife moving towards us in order to sharpen the entire plane.



We repeat the process many times: one movement - one side, one movement - the other. There are amateurs who do three movements in one direction, three in the other. This is incorrect, since the center of the cutting chamfer may move to the side in this case.
There is no need to put too much pressure on the knife when sharpening; we distribute the effort evenly, without unnecessary pressure.
Next, turn the stone over to the smooth side.

Here things are the same as with the rough side. Except that the polishing time is a little less.

As you can see, the method is very simple, but it requires skill. And over time, when you, as they say, “get the hang of it,” the knives you sharpen will cut no worse than a razor blade.

Watch the video

Be sure to watch the video to more accurately understand how the whole process works.