How to Sharpen a Knife with a Honing Rod – How It Works

The knives come with sharp edges when they come from the factory but they get dull with the passage of time. The cutting again and again bends the microscopic piece of blade and it becomes hard to push it through the food. 

These things have a negative impact on users. The sharpening steel also called honing rod comes with most of the knives sets but its work is not sharpening a knife but it hone the edges of slightly dull blade. Grinding the blade with steel resharpens the edge so you don’t have to sharpen as often.

How Honing Rod Works

A honing rod is slightly inaccurate because the steel “corrects” or “hones” the edge but doesn’t actually sharpen it. It can help return the blade to its original state by smoothing the edge. But besides all these things, still many chefs think that proper honing requires very little pressure. 

You can hear harsh rasping noise during work with steel and it shows too much pressure is being applied. A silent ring is a sign that the proper stroke is being used, like a feather. Don’t knock the knife against the finger guard as it can damage the edge. The most important thing is the angle between blade and steel that would be 15 degrees. 

The dull knife requires a few light strokes on steel to correct their edges and retain the sharpness. Actually, when slicing through gristly meat, boney chicken, or other tough foods, an occasional swipe of the steel may be called for.

How to Tell If Your Knife is Sharp

To find out if your knife needs a sharpening or not, you can try a paper test. Grab a single sheet of paper and place the heel of the blade at the top of the paper and start to slice it down. If it is easily cut then it would be great but if the knife fails to slice cleanly then hone it and try it again but still it fails then you need to sharpen your knife.

Read More: https://knifeplatoon.com/how-to-tell-if-a-knife-is-sharp/

How to Use Honing Rod

Even though the honing process can be done in any number of positions. The following method will help you to maintain the angle of the knife properly and it will be quite safe as the blade will not move toward your hand or body. While doing all this motion, make sure you are working at the angle of 15 degree between the blade and steel.

Step1: For safety use, hold the honing rod vertically with the end firmly planted on the counter. Now place the heel of the blade on the top of the steel and point the top corner of the knife slightly upwards. Hold the blade at a 15-degree angle to the steel.

Step 2: In this you need to maintain the light pressure and 15 degree angle between blade and steel, slide the blade down the length of steel in extensive motion, drag the knife toward your body so that your middle blade is in contact with middle steel.

Step3: Complete the motion by passing the knob of blade over the bottom of steel. Repeat the same motion on the opposite side of the blade. You can repeat it 4 to 5 times on each side of the blade to realign the edges.

Best Rod for Knife Sharpening

Now you have a better idea regarding how to use sharpening steel rod, we also suggest you to wusthof 10” sharpening steel. You should start with a 10 inches rod because it allows you to use any type of knife that is normally used in home kitchens from paring to chef’s knife. 

It is a nice one for beginners due to its quality handle and no chances of slippery and magnetic fine-grit steel that attracts any metal fibers, so it won’t end up in your components.

Alternative ways:

1- Sharpen knife with whetstone

2- Sharpen knife with dremel tool

3- Sharpen knife with a sharpener

Frequently Asked Questions