How To Use An Electric Knife Sharpener Properly
As the name suggests, an electric knife sharpener is used to sharpen blunt and dull blades and knives. In the entirety of its lifetime, a knife can never be sharp throughout as it is the characteristic of a blade to wear out and go blunt with age and use.
Thus each time we have a blunt knife we go to a market to buy a new one, which may end up being an expensive affair. An electric knife sharpener is used over manual sharpening as it involves a long, hard, and tedious process. This also includes a lot of workmanship, patience, and experience.
On the other hand, anyone can use an electric knife sharpener with relative ease. Electric sharpeners outstands over other sharpening methods and are considered to be the most efficient blade sharpeners and polishers, as they provide you with 2 or 3 grinding wheels with varying levels of coarseness or grit.
You must also be aware of the knife you’re going to sharpen. Some of the varieties are meat cutting knife, fillet knife, chef knife, boning knife, paring knife, etc.
Let us now have a look at how to use an electric knife sharpener.
How To Use An Electric Knife Sharpener
STEP 1 - KNOW YOUR SHARPENER
You must acquaint yourself with the sharpener and use the user manual for the first few operations. You must always keep the sharpener in such a way that the on/off button should face you.
Most of the sharpeners come with 2 or 3 stages to completely sharpen the knives and give them a beautiful finish. You must know the number of stages available in the sharpener, as well as the purpose each stage serves.
STEP 2 - KNOW THE PURPOSE OF EACH STAGE
Every electric knife sharpener has two to three stages, with each stage having a specific purpose. The first stage electric sharpener is where the sharpening is done and knives can be made edgier in this stage. But, you must make sure, you don’t overdo it, or else you might cause damage to the blade.
The second stage of the sharpener will hone the blade of your knives. It will give the knife a sharper edge and tone it up a bit.
The third and final stage of the sharpeners makes sure your knife stays razor-sharp by polishing the knife, so the micro-burrs on the blade can be cleaned up.
STEP 3 - PLACE THE BLADE IN THE SLOT
You must press the heel of the knife down as far as possible to connect with the grinding stone. Once this is done, you need to switch your electric knife sharpener on.
STEP 4 - SLIDING THE BLADE
You should place the blade at an angle of 15 to 20°. The sharpener will automatically set the angle of the knife handle as it is pulled through the slot and connects with the grinding stone.
Then you should smoothly pull the knife back towards you by tilting it upwards to the shape of the blade. It ensures that you get the blade sharpened.
STEP 5 - PASSING THE BLADE TWICE ON EACH SIDE
Depending on how sharp you want your blade to be, you have to repeat the process twice on both sides of the stage-1 sharpener. The knife should be pulled through an equal amount of times on both the left and right side of the stage-1 sharpening wheel to ensure a sharp blade.
STEP 6 - USING STAGE-2 GRINDING
Just like in stage-1, in stage-2 also, the knives should be repeated twice on each side of the blade on the fine grinding stone.
STEP 7 - USING STAGE-3 POLISHING
The stage-3 is available only on the premium electric knife sharpeners, while cheap knife sharpeners only have the first couple of stages.
After completing sharpening your knives on stage-1 and stage-2 stones, the stage-3 stone enables you to polish and smoothen your knives’ blades. Thus, for better precision, you have to run your blade through the stage-3 wheel.
STAGE 8 - CLEANING THE BLADE
After you are done with sharpening and polishing your blade, the final stage of sharpening is cleaning of the blade. It is always recommended to rinse the knife in soapy water first and then rinse off with clean water and then thoroughly dry it before use.
You can also wipe the knife with a towel, to dry it and take off any left-over magnetic pieces on the blade.
Conclusion
So this is all about how to use an electric knife sharpener. I hope this tutorial would be helpful for you while using an electric knife sharpener. Please ensure your safety while using the device.
Also, share your thoughts about this article in the comment section 🙂
