Hone kitchen knives regularly

Vivront.com for kitchen knife sharpening. We love home cooks and cooking too.

Honing your kitchen knives regularly can extend the sharpness life of your knives. If you don't cook for a week or so then honing every week is over kill. However, consider honing each time you use your knives or at least every five to 10 uses.

To hone, roughly match the angle of your knife's cutting edge with the rod of your hone. Take equal passes per side. Start at the heel of the knife and slide it down the hone where you finish at the top of both tools. We use the cutting board for balance and a backer.

What does honing a knife do? Great question. Each time you cut with your knives you also slightly bend over the cutting edge. Sure, it's microscopic, mostly. But these tiny simple bends at the cutting edge affect your knives ability to cut. Honing a knife re-aligns, or straightens, the metal on your blade. It bends back the slight bends. Easy.

Now, knives can go rounded out or get nicks and dings in normal use. Honing can make them slightly better in these case. However, if the knife needs a new cutting edge then it'll need a sharpening. Sharpening is different than honing it that it removes material from the knife vs. simply re-aligning the material on the knife.

Need a sharpener near you every so often? We use your mailbox and the internet to service your kitchen knife needs. It's easy. Check us out.