How to sharpen knives bar?

Human life is impossible without food, and quite a lot of kitchen utensils are now used to prepare it. One of the most popular items, without which it is difficult to imagine cooking, is a knife. High-quality knives help to quickly grind the desired products, clean them and cut the meat or fish. It is not always possible to purchase a product from good materials, and soon the knives start to get blunt, which makes it very difficult to work with them.

To save the situation, you can sharpen it with a bar, but the result will depend on the correctness of this action.

On the market and in stores now you can find a lot of knives, which differ in their appearance, size and even material, but one thing remains common - sooner or later they all get blunt.

The most common cause of deterioration in cutting ability is steel damage from daily use. The working part is constantly subjected to the load, therefore, microparticles begin to split off from it, which affect the quality of cutting.

The second reason why the knife is blunt is a violation of the correct cutting angle. Few people know how to keep knives at all during this process, and therefore the equipment wears out very quickly and exclusively, solely through the fault of the owner. If during cutting there is a need to apply more and more effort, then this is a clear sign that you need to sharpen the knife.

A number of verification measures can be taken to confirm or refute the need to work to improve the sharpness of the instrument.

1. To check the need for hemp rope, which is folded 4 times. The challenge is to cut it with a knife at a time. If you can do it without problems, it means that the knife is still quite sharp - there is no need to sharpen it. If the rope remains intact in some places, then the time for the procedure is now.
2. The second method involves the use of a file that you need to hold on the blade. If it slides, then the knife is still suitable for full use. If you feel jags and chips, then you can not do without sharpening.
3. For the simplest test option, you need a simple sheet of paper that you need to cut by weight, holding it by the edge. If the knife goes smoothly and easily cuts the sheet, then it does not need to be corrected, if the blade moves intermittently, if not completely, then the product urgently needs to be sharpened.

As soon as the condition of the knife is established, you can either use it for some time or sharpen it using the appropriate inventory.

To choose the right bar for sharpening knives, you need to know about the types and variations of these products. Today it is possible to distinguish:

• bar or musat;
• electric or mechanical sharpener;
• grinding tool for grinding.

Most often at home use the bars, the main difference between them is the grain or abrasiveness of the stone, which can be:

• fine-grained - used for high-quality grinding of the tip surface;
• medium-grained - necessary to give the desired and proper shape of the knife blade;
• coarse-grained - needed to give the correct shape of the tip and restore the desired angle on the knife.

If we take into account the material from which such bars are made, then we can distinguish the following types:

• natural materials: flint, corundum, diamond, emery, garnet;
• artificial materials: borazon, elbor, silicon carbide, synthetic diamond samples, electrocorundum.

The most convenient is considered to be an oblong diamond stone, with the help of which you can quickly eliminate any problems with the sharpness of a knife. The bar may be round, but it is not very convenient to hold it in your hand, because such products are most often produced for electric sharpeners, which are recommended to be used only by professionals, otherwise you can very quickly spoil even the best quality knife.

If we talk about the design, it can be:

• abrasive outer layer, which must be stronger and harder than the material to be sharpened;
• matrix with softened material (clay, ceramics, technical earthenware), which allows to keep small particles, and this layer should be softer than abrasive, but harder material to be sharpened - this design is necessary for uniform erasing of the bar and the formation of a new and new layer of crystals for sharpening.

If we consider all types of bars for sharpening knives, it is worth highlighting the most common.

• Diamond bar. Most often used in domestic conditions for sharpening kitchen knives. It is easy to use and store. Diamond particles are very durable and do not wear out for a long time. The product itself is very strong and does not break even when dropped from a height. Of the relative disadvantages can only be noted irregularities and abrasions on the blade of the knife, which leave quite large crystals on the bar.
• Elborovy. This bar is made using the chemical reaction of boron compounds. According to the main characteristics, it is in no way inferior to a diamond bar, but it is additionally also resistant to chemical effects. The advantage of this product is a smaller granularity of the working surface, as a result of which it does not deform the blade of the knife, allowing it to be sharpened delicately.
• Ceramic. Created during the roasting of ceramic bars. Advantages can be called low cost and good durability. Of the minuses worth noting: the clogging of metal debris from the knife blade in a short time, as well as the difficulty in cleaning the grains.
• Japanese water stone. It is created using silicate matrix and carbide grains. In order to sharpen the knife qualitatively, the bar is soaked in water for 20 minutes, which will make it possible to polish and sharpen the knife blade with the highest quality, although the work itself will be rather dirty. For such a device is very difficult to care for, but it is its only minus.
• Bars of natural stone. The basis of the product is quartz, and any sedimentary rock can be a matrix. In order to work well, it is best to have several options that differ in rigidity. For full operation, the product is lubricated with mineral oil.
• Sandpaper fine-grained paper. It is a thick sheet with an abrasive material that does not last long, but can help sharpen a knife in an emergency.

To choose the right bar, you need to know the basic characteristics of each of the options, as well as their purpose.

To sharpen kitchen knives, you must have a clear understanding of this procedure. Each knife is unique, as it can be made of steel of various density and quality, therefore, the sharpening stones are selected in accordance with these properties. Preparing the knife for the procedure looks like this:

• determine the hardness of the blade, which will give the opportunity to choose the bar of the desired grain;
• wash and degrease existing tools;
• dry prepared kitchen knife is fully operational.

Sharpening knives with any bar can have various consequences: either the product can be made sharp or it will be completely spoiled. Knives with a soft blade need fine-grained sharpening, and with a hard - coarse-grained. Wrong choice will negate all efforts.

Preparing the knife is an important step, as a dirty or greasy tool will be harder to process or it will not work at all. When washing the knife, it is necessary to degrease not only the blade, but also the handle, so that the utensils do not fiddle in your hand during work or accidentally slip, which can cause serious injury to someone who sharpens the knife.

Before you start sharpening knives, it is worth checking their sharpness, for which it suffices to estimate the smoothness of the tip. If it is rough and uneven, then the situation should be immediately corrected. In the case of a smooth and even surface of the knife edge, there is no essential need for additional surface sharpening. Once the necessary kitchen tools are identified, you can take on the work that must be performed in strict sequence and according to certain rules.

In order to sharpen knives manually, you need to know the specific rules of this event. At home, not always have all the necessary inventory, but from the available parts you can always build a suitable work area. The most important rule is the fixation of the bar, which allows you to sharpen effectively with the help of two hands, without fear of unforeseen wounds or injuries.

To sharpen knives correctly, you need to lay a bar on a rubber mat or fix it in other ways, at the same time raising above the working surface in order to exclude unfavorable contact with the table or tabletop where the work will be performed.

As soon as the bar is fixed, it is necessary to determine the angle of sharpening of the cutting surface. For each product, these values ​​will be different: for a scalpel, you need to set the angle from 7 to 18 degrees, for a kitchen knife it increases to 25 degrees, production knives, which cut more durable products, sharpen at an angle of 25-35 degrees.

The technology of sharpening a house knife with a stone looks like this:

• the knife is placed with the tip perpendicular to the bar, after which it tilts at the right angle so that the edge is ahead;
• for turning the tip, you need to drive the knife forward in a smooth but sure motion, trying not to change the angle of the product;
• the tip of the knife should be final, after which the movement is repeated once more;
• it is important to ensure that the cutting part does not break from the bar, as this may cause its deformation and the formation of chips on it;
• the sharpening technique is the same for both sides of the knife: once one has been worked out, it is necessary to change sides and repeat the manipulation again;
• work continues until the cutting surface is completely smooth and thin.

To sharpen a knife, it is enough to walk them through a coarse-grained bar, but such a product is not suitable for use, as it will quickly become blunt again. It is very important to sand the surface, which can be done with a fine-grained bar. Processing in this case is exactly the same as when sharpening knives.

So that work went confidently and rather quickly, It is very important to moisten the blade with water or apply a special oil before starting. As soon as characteristic burrs appear on the tip, the product is ready for the next stage. To properly polish the knife, It should also be lubricated before work.

The final stage of the work will be to check the sharpness of the blade, for which the most reliable would be to cut a regular sheet. With perfect sharpening, the cut is smooth and fast. If the manipulation was carried out with violations, then this will immediately affect the result. You should not check the tip with your fingers, as there is a big risk of injuring the top layer of the skin and causing infection.

To sharpen the home knives yourself, you need to be able to properly carry out this manipulation. In addition to obtaining theoretical knowledge, it is worth trying them on old products, which will not be a pity if something goes wrong. As soon as the progress in work will be obvious, you can safely begin to sharpen all the knives that are in the house and need to improve the quality of cutting.

It is worth remembering that cutting products with different purposes have a different angle of inclination, which is very important to withstand in the process of sharpening:

• Japanese-made knives should be kept at an angle of 10–20 degrees;
• professional equipment and fillet knives should be held at an angle of 25 degrees;
• for ordinary household knives, the optimum angle will be 30 degrees;
• for hunting knives, the angle should be increased to 35-40 degrees.

In the process of work, it is important to press the knife lightly so as not to break the abrasive particles out of the bar. Sharpening knives is a daunting task, since you need to set the angle of inclination correctly, pick the right bar, moderately press and make sure that the blade does not jump off the sharpening.

If the bar is used too actively, then irregularities and dents will soon appear on it, which will interfere with the use of the equipment. In order not to have to buy a new product, you need to whittle off the extra layer, aligning the bar over the entire surface, and re-use it for its intended purpose.

It is important to work in a respirator or gauze bandage, since there will be a lot of microparticles in the air that should not get into the human respiratory system. Keeping inventory and taking care of your tools in a timely manner will allow them to be useful and necessary for a person for a long time.

To learn how to sharpen a knife on a stone, see the following video.