Sharpening knives with a whetstone

Get a whetstone with a coarse and fine side, and a honing steel. Honing steel re-aligns the blade, best used before every time you cut with the knife (rinse it after honing so you don’t get metal particles in your food). Whetstone actually sharpens the blade by taking steel off the surface and reshaping the edge.

Honing:

• put the honing steel point down on a non-slip surface, like a towel
• hold the blade against the steel at like a 20° angle, run it down the steel from the heel to the tip of the blade, then the same on the other side
• alternate sides, do it maybe 5 times on each side, no need to go quickly

Sharpening:

• pre-soak the whetstone in water
• start on the coarse side, then finish on the fine side.
• when sharpening the blade, match the angle that it’s at, and use some pressure. you’re trying to take enough metal off the blade edges so it goes from a U shape to a V shape.
• from time to time run the knife against the honing steel to clean off any metal remaning along the edge.
• keep the stone wet at all times
• you can test the blade against a sheet of paper (it should slice clean through), or a tomato (it should easily cut the skin without bruising).