What is the difference between honing and sharpening knives?
Part of our Frequently Asked Culinary Questions. Click to see more answers to your questions.
Your trusty kitchen knife is your right-hand tool, and you want it to perform at its best. To keep it in tip-top shape, you need to understand the two essential processes: honing and sharpening.
Honing
Honing is like a daily exercise routine for your knife. It’s a quick and routine task that helps maintain the blade’s edge. Think of it as a tune-up rather than a complete overhaul. To hone your knife, you use a honing steel or rod, a long and slender tool made of steel or ceramic. For weekly and monthly maintenance, a honing steel is a must. Shun’s have two surfaces, one for more-frequent honing, one for less frequent.
Sharpening
Sharpening, on the other hand, is a more intensive process reserved for when your knife has lost its cutting edge and no amount of honing will bring it back. When sharpening, you’re not just maintaining the edge; you’re reshaping it. You’ll need to set the correct angle for your knife, usually between 15-20 degrees, and carefully grind the blade against the abrasive surface. This process removes a small amount of metal from both sides of the blade, gradually creating a new, sharp edge.
Serrated knives
But what about serrated knives? Can utility bread knives be sharpened?
Matt Matsushima at Shun Cutlery explains:
Generally serrated knives do not get dull as the serrations should not touch the cutting board only for a slight amount of time.
Serrations technically cannot be “sharpened” but they can be “honed.”
The “sharpening” process does remove material, so after time, a serrated knife that has been “sharpened” multiple times will eventually turn into a regular knife.
Also, our bread knives have larger half-moon serrations, that can be honed by hand (ie individually, like a chain saw blade).
That being said, our knives can be sent to Shun under our warranty, and we can “hone” the blade, which will return them to an expected level of performance.
We recommend watching Shun Cutlery’s videos on HONING and SHARPENING knives.
In summary, honing is the routine maintenance, akin to keeping your knife’s edge straight and aligned between sharpening sessions. Sharpening, on the other hand, is a more in-depth process that’s done as needed when your knife becomes noticeably dull.
