Thread: Kitchen Knife Honing

Yes, diamonds work very well on kitchen knives, especially neglected knives. The problem with diamonds is removing the burr.

So, do not make a large burr. Use lite pressure and if you have a higher grit stone, remove the burr using a higher angle about 45 degrees with light even strokes. Make sure the bevel is completely removed, cut off, not broken off. If you break off the burr, you don’t have an edge.

Though you can break it off then reset the edge with lite strokes. How high you want to take a Kitchen knife depends on what you do with your knives and how you care for them. Tossing in a sink full of dishes or whacking bones will quickly dull you knife.

For kitchen knives a dual grit India stone 150/400 grit is a very nice kitchen stone that can give you a paper whittling edge. On the knife forums, most guys that sharpen knives are edge obsessed, but a 300-400 grit edge is all you need and for most task works much better than any 1k plus edge.

A diamond edge is great for cutting raw meat, an India edge is a good multi-purpose edge, for slicing/carving, a higher grit 1k edge is better, especially with carbon steel. A carbon steel slicer is a joy to use, and inexpensive vintage carbon steel is easy to find on Ebay

Look at Sabatier and don’t turn you nose up at Old Hickory, I have bought smoking Old Hickory carbon knives for a dollar at flea markets. If you want fancy, re-handle them.

Sharpening knives will gouge a soft stone, especially when learning. You will have to lap the stone flat for razor use. You can dedicate one side for razor and the other for knives, mark the stone. Or just buy separate stones. A Norton, 8inch India is about $20 and really all you need.

You can learn to freehand easily watching a few good videos, a sharpie and some practice. Or buy a jig.