Kitchen Knife Sharpening Tools
- Kitchen knives need regular sharpening.knife image by dethchimo from Fotolia.com
Kitchen knives are an essential tool for kitchens and food preparation. They can be used to perform a number of tasks and enhance the skills of the user. With much use the edges of blades can get dull and need to be sharpened. Regular sharpening of knives keeps them working at their best, and there are a number of tools that can be used for sharpening. - A leather strop is a strip of leather that is used to sharpen and straighten a blade. The edge of the blade is sharpened by holding it as flat as possible on the leather with downward pressure while the blade is drawn across the strip in repetition until sharp. When used in this fashion with an abrasive the strop can also serve as a polish. Leather strops are usually mounted onto a piece of wood, or may be hung on a flat surface.
- Steel sharpeners are made of a slim shaft of steel attached by a guard to a handle. Hold the blade at an angle, about 20 degrees, and pull it across the steel rod a number of times on both sides of the blade until it is is sufficiently sharpened. The steel shaft will realign and sharpen the blade, no matter the speed of the strokes.
- Electric knife sharpeners are devices that run on electricity and are used to sharpen blades. The knife is inserted into one of the device's slots, and an internal motor mobilizes special alloys which grind against the blade, sharpening and straightening the edge of the blade. There are many makes and models of electric sharpeners, with different motor speeds, and single or multiple slots and stages, but the dullest blades can usually be sharpened in less than one minute.
