Sharpening your knives

It's important to keep your knife sharp for precision cutting but also because a dull knife causes lack of control, making it much easier to cut yourself.

Sharpening can be done about once a month or once every few months, depending on how much you use your knife. Once you get used to doing it, it should only take about 10 minutes.

For the demonstration in the video we're using a waterstone that I have soaked for about 20 minutes before sharpening in order to soften it a little.

It is useful to have a stone with two sides, each with a different grit. One is a rougher surface for starting to hone the edge and the other is a denser surface for refining. A good combination is a 1000 grit (rougher)/4000 grit (smoother).

The technique demonstrated is different from what many chefs use, which is sweeping the blade across the stone in one swipe. This alternative technique is easiest for maintaining an even angle with your knife. It's very important to have this consistent angle to make sure you sharpen the bevel (the two angles that make up the edge of your knife) evenly.