Whether you are a professional chef or an amateur cook the most important tool in your kitchen is a quality knife. Kitchen knives can range in price from less than a dollar to more than $100 for one knife. Even the most expensive knife, however, is useless without a properly sharpened edge. In many restaurants, chefs use sharpening service to sharpen their knives. Chefs understand that a well-maintained knife can make cooking enjoyable whereas a dull knife can turn cooking into a chore.
As you use a kitchen knife, the blade wears down from friction over time. The acids in acidic foods, such as tomatoes, also aid in the process. A quality knife should be sharpened every day in order to maintain its blade. Sharpening services are expensive and impractical for most home chefs and amateur cooks.
The best way to ensure that the edge of your knife will be properly maintained after every use is to become proficient at sharpening knives yourself. There are a number of commercial knife sharpening devices on the market today. Some of these devices work well, some barely work at all, most are better than nothing, yet are unable to give you a quality edge.
The best way to sharpen your knives is by hand with the sharpening rod. Sharpening knives by hand with sharpening rod takes a little practice. You should learn how to do this with some of your cheaper knives instead of immediately using the sharpening rod on an expensive chef’s knife. Using the sharpening rod improperly can actually dull or damage the blade of a knife. To sharpen your knife properly, hold the sharpening rod in your left hand with the tip pointing up and away from your face. Hold the knife in your other hand and run the sharp side of the blade along the sharpening rod. Start at the handle and work your way to the tip of the knife by the time you reach the tip of the sharpening rod. You should now flip the knife to the other side of the sharpening rod and repeat the process on the other side of the blade. When sharpening the knife, you are actually not grinding the blade to a point, but creating microscopic serrations on the blade. This is why many commercial sharpeners do not work. Many commercial sharpeners simply grind the blade to a point. A blade sharpened this way will cut most foods, but not with the quality and precision required by a chef who is serious about cooking.
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