A dull knife, chisel or other cutting tool usually draws human blood quicker than a sharp one. A keen edge cuts where it should. A dull one is likely to jump out of the groove and bite the holder.
Sharpening knives and other tools mystifies most people. The problem has created whole new businesses touting new products as a result. Today, throw-away fillet knives for three or four dollars are easily found in most sporting goods stores and bait shops. When they dull, the marketing strategy encourages throwing them away and buying another. Companies like Lansky, Gatco and Smith Whetstone Co. offer knife and tool sharpening-systems designed to make knife sharpening easier for us laymen – and to avoid buying a new knife every time the old one needs sharpening.
The basic engineering of a knife’s blade is pretty simple. Learning what happens to dull a blade in use simplifies the chore of keeping this cutting tool sharp.
Modern knife makers craft multitudes of fillet knives and kitchen cutlery from stainless steel compounds using chrome and vanadium alloys. Each ranks high on the Rockwell Scale of Hardness. They hot-roll other knives and tools from high carbon steels that are not nearly as hard on the Rockwell Scale as stainless.
Stainless steel, while improved using a new freezing process that alters its molecular composition making it easier to sharpen than before, is still much more difficult to sharpen than high carbon steels.
Housewives place discriminating marketing demands on a knife maker’s products. They insist on bright shiny knives that do not oxidize, turn dark and (horrors) rust in that most labor saving of all home appliances - the dishwasher. Whether sharp or not apparently is insignificant when compared to stainless’ shiny and antiseptic appearing visual features.
High carbon steels do not remain bright and shiny with use. They turn brown with proper oiling. They rust when improperly cleaned. The only advantages they offer are: easier to sharpen; carve your turkey faster and more efficiently; create fewer trips to a local hospital’s E.R. due to working with a dull blade.
Jim Economof, Schrade Cutlery in New York, explains what happens to a knife’s edge in use: “A sharp knife’s edge eventually begins to roll over. Stropping or whetting the edge (drawing it away from its cutting surface) restores it to the original erect position. This may be done on the heel of ones hand, thigh of their jeans or a special leather strop.”
“It must be done frequently to keep the edge from rolling over and crimping down. When that happens, it needs sharpening on a stone or other device to put a new edge back on,” Economof concluded.
“Morty The Knife Man, Inc.” in New York caters to the commercial fishing trade. James Parnell from Morty’s explained that fillet knives have 20-degree bevels as opposed to utility, pocket, belt and cutlery knives having 27-30-degree bevels. The correct bevel of a particular cutting tool is necessary for it to do its job effectively.
Since fillet knife blades are much thinner than their other kin, their flexibility, shallow degree of bevel and extreme hardness of steel makes them very difficult to sharpen. Special sharpeners for drawing blades over crossed ceramics or steels, maintains the accuracy of these thin blade’s shallow bevels and their sharpness. Using a good quality Arkansas stone, I can sharpen a pocket knife and shave you with it. I cannot sharpen a fillet knife without one of these aids.
Economof and Parnell agreed on the following steps:
1. If your knife is sharp to start with, whet it frequently to prevent the edge from crimping over.
2. Find a method of sharpening that works for you (Lansky, Gatco, Smith Whetstone Co., etc.) and stick with that method.
3. There is no magic method to sharpening any tool - just common sense applied to sharpening the edge and maintaining the correct bevel. (Translation - don’t let the chore intimidate you!)
I began to understand while talking to these men why certain practices acquired over the years were effective for me. Such as stropping a prized wood carving chisel on the heel of my hand to bring back its edge.
I make sure my pocket knives and belt knives are good high carbon steels. To prevent rusting, I maintain light applications of oil after sharpening and cleaning a blade. Oiling the sheath of a belt knife is good preventive maintenance also. I use mineral oil on the latter. The same techniques work for kitchen cutlery too. Use vegetable oil on them.
Sharpening tools is an art but one easily learned when the mechanics are understood. A sharp knife is one of the most versatile tools, if not the most versatile, you will ever use.