In the kitchen, on the hunt or in any other business, sharp knives are always needed. With the help of such tools, it's not just easy and pleasant to do something, but the result is beautiful. Today, there are many mechanical and electrical devices on the market, with which knife sharpening at home is not difficult. However, all of them are rather for women. The real man-master will necessarily use the old good method of manual editing of the blade. This process is even more painstaking and longer, but the result will be completely different.
About steel
The quality of the sharpening of knives by their own hands will depend not only on the skill, the grinders, but also on steel. Its optimum hardness varies from 45 to 60 HRC. With a knife made of softer material, the cutting edge will easily crumple, and from a harder one, it will be dyed and blunt. Determine the quality of steel can and independently, but this will require a new file. If it is lightly pressed, it will slide along the edge, and if it is strong - it will be slightly clamped, then the hardness of the material is "correct".
Sharpening of flat knives
The initial operation is performed by a bar with large grains. It is processed from both sides of the cutting edge of the blade until a burr appears along its contour - a thin strip of "excess" metal, which is bent in both directions. Then sharpening knives at home continues with a finer grained bar. With its help, completely removed the traces from the impact of the previous trash, not paying attention to the burr. His removal should "tackle" a bar with the smallest grain. The burr is sewn on both sides in such a way as to give the cutting edge of the blade an angle of 23 - 45 °. It is this method of sharpening that allows the blade to not be blunted for quite some time. Final finishing of the knife is carried out by slate and skin.
Sharpening knives at home: practical advice
Universal knives, as you know, does not exist. Proceeding from this, the angle of sharpening of each knife will depend on its purpose. For example, if a kitchen knife is supposed to be used only for cutting cheese, bread, sausage, and a worker - for sufficiently soft materials (leather, paper, etc.), then the grinding angles of these tools can be made minimal. If the knife is intended for cutting bony meat, frozen fish or other hard materials, then its grinding angle should be approximately 30-45 °. It should be noted that proper sharpening of knives at home for non-professionals can present some difficulties, therefore, it is recommended to beginners to use a simple device for forming the edge at the right angle. To make it, you need a wooden bar, from which you need to make a wedge. Its length should exceed 2.5 times the height. The received wedge-shaped device is mounted on the grinder, the knife is pressed against it, and then it is necessary to move the blade with the knife along the grinding bar with the blade forward. This method automatically provides the necessary edge sharpening angle. In this case, the blade with a wide facet will receive a cutting edge at an angle of 25-30 °, and with a narrow edge - 30-45 °.