Get a whetstone and use without water or oil not matter what videos on the web say to do. Two grades, medium and fine, some are two sided stones. Find them at cooking stores or online stores like Amazon. Prices run from $8 for small pocket stones to over $300. The one I use in the kitchen was about $30. You might ask your older relatives if they have one you can have. We have several stones because my husband is a custom woodworker and he uses them for tools like chisels and carving tools which require razor sharp edges.

It is really easy to sharpen your own knives. You push the blade at a 22 1/2 degree angle over the stone, you don't pull it towards you. (Straight up with the sharp edge on the stone is 90 degrees, half that is 45, and half that is 22 1/2 degrees.) Use both hands to hold the knife, one on the handle and one on the non-cutting edge of the knife to guide it. Do 10 repetitions at the same 22 1/2 degree angle along the length of the blade, then turn the knife over and do the other side. Then wipe the blade and use the fine side to smooth it further for 5 strokes each side using the same angle. Wash the knife with soap and water to remove any metal and dry with a soft towel.

Note that today's whetstones should not be used with water or oil at all like they did in the olden days. Water cracks the stone over time, oil clogs the process and you won't get an evenly sharp edge, and neither make sharpening a knife any easier.

There is usually no need to use a honing steel. That tool is to straighten knives and unless you have the very old non-tempered knives that rust and get out of "true", you don't need one although they usually come when you buy a set of knives and a block. Those knives are inferior and I'd rather spend my money on two good quality knives than a set that won't keep an edge.

You cannot sharpen a serrated knife at home and ceramic knives cannot be sharpened at home either.

My farm is named Whetstone so I know where of I speak LOL - it also has three streams with "Wet Stones" LOL again.

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: Example of a Whetstone

I'm a bit of a nut about insisting on sharp knives. They are safer to use because you don't need as much force; if you have to use a lot of force, you don't have as much control. --Sharpening does involve removing a bit of metal. Those 'sharpening steels' really don't sharpen much, they reset the edge if it has been bent over to one side.

There's a guy named Steve Botorff who has a book out, Sharpening Made Easy. He also has a website on which he has generously made a lot of the info in the book available for free. The link is to his website. Go ahead and read the five chapters he's posted; they're just a few pages each, and it may clarify what you want to get.

At the website he reviews all sorts of devices, from simple slot gadgets to guide rod systems to electric knife sharpeners for the home, all the way to professional equipment. For home use, he likes the Chef's Choice 130 (around $160 from Amazon).

What I have found most useful is a paper wheel system. They consist of two compressed cardboard wheels you mount on a bench grinder. On one you put wax and carborundum grit; on the other you put jeweler's rouge. You sharpen the blade ('create a wire edge' is what the sharpening experts call it)on the carborundum wheel and hone it on the jeweler's rouge wheel. Very easy, you can get the hang of it in a few minutes. The disadvantage of the system is that you need space for a dedicated grinder in your garage or workshop. The advantage is that you can take a dull stainless blade and get a razor edge on it in just a few minutes. Cost for this system is around $60 for the paper wheels and about $40 to $60 for a cheap bench grinder. I like the system a lot. About twice a year I take all my knives down to the workshop, and within an hour or so I have all of them razor sharp; the steel keeps them sharp the rest of the time.

By the way, I prefer old school carbon steel knives to stainless. They're getting harder to find since stainless has taken over. Stainless is a little trickier to get sharp than carbon steel, but I find the paper wheel system works like a charm on them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sharpening Made Easy

Questions:

1. What kind of knife (knives) do you want to sharpen?

2. What do you use your knives for?

3. What kind of cutting board do you have?

4. How good is your knife skill?

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Tue, Dec 18, 12 at 21:59

What nancedar has to say is accurate. If you can hold the knife blade at a consistent angle to a whetstone, that's all the equipment you need. I find that it does require some skill, though. In my hands I find the paper wheel system much easier to use than a whetstone, but maybe I'm a klutz. Your mileage may vary.

I use whetstones for sharpening knives for oboe reed making, but I use the Furi doo-hickey for kitchen knives.

Here is a link that might be useful: F�ri Diamond Fingers

My in house expert corrected me. Carborundum and Arkansas stones must be used with honing oil (available at hardware stores), Japanese water stones must be soaked in non-chlorinated water for 5 minutes before use, and diamond and ceramic stones do not use either oil or water.

Nancy

The best all around is a just a large 4X10" Diamond Stone.
Large surface makes it easier and faster to sharpen any size knife and they stay flat, last forever, sharpen any knife even the super hard ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Diamond Stone

Accusharp available at amazon for around $8. Seriously easy way to get razor sharp knives. It does wear out but you can reverse the blades once before replacing it. I get about a year out of each side of the blades.

"----Carborundum and Arkansas stones must be used with honing oil (available at hardware stores), Japanese water stones must be soaked in non-chlorinated water for 5 minutes before use, and diamond and ceramic stones do not use either oil or water. ---"

The way I understand it, you can use water or oil on any stone. You can even use water on oil stones. Just don't use water after you have used oil.

I would like to know the source of "non-chlorinated water" information, I have not heard that before.

You cannot discuss sharpening methods without knowing the questions I asked of the OP. You can quickly mess up a knife if the wrong method is used for some good knives.

In addition to the types of stones, it is very important to select the correct grit size for your particular use. (Grid/mesh/micron)

dcarch

I follow a similar procedure to Nancy. DH does the hard work with a fairly coarse stone, around 800 grit, then I use two Japanese waterstones to get a fine edge. I think my waterstones are 1200 and 3000 grit, but I haven't found them since our move.

When we were shopping for the waterstones at a woodworking supply shop, the salesman told us he used an electric grinder for his tools because he found manual sharpening too tedious.

Cheryl

Woodworking tools can be sharpened using a belt sander or a motorized grinding wheel.

Most woodworking tools are single-beveled and very short blade length and very thick blade body to absorb grinding heat developed.

Woodworking tools are almost never stainless steel, and the grinding angles are much less acute than kitchen knives, that too helps to dissipate grinding heat developed.

I would not ever use a motorized shop grinding tool to sharpen a kitchen knife. It takes a fraction of a second to permanently destroy a good kitchen knife.

dcarch

I have 2 different sharpeners one a small ceramic hand held and another a flip out stone. However I find myself always resorting to the bottom of my favorite ceramic mug works like a charm and a nice handle to boot.

Sharpening knives can be challenging, but only if you want to shave with your kitchen knives. Sharpening for general kitchen use is extremely easy. Don't let all the complicated talk scare you.

This are just my own opinions, there are many different opinions if you do a search.

Five types of kitchen knife users.

1. People who don't care if their knives are sharp or dull.
2. People who have general department store knives.
3. People who have general department store good knives.
4. People who have expensive good quality knives.
5. People who are sushi chefs or knife hobbyists who spend a ton of money on knives.

For type 1 and type 5, they don't need any sharpening advices.

For type 2 and 3, sharpening (honing) steel can be very useful.

For type 4, good sharpening skills with stones is a very good idea.

Stropping is for type 5 mostly.

For type 2, Wusthof 2 Stage Knife Sharpener or similar are fine.
For types 3 & 4, a sharpening system such as Edgepro or Wicked Edge can be helpful

There is no magic in general good sharpening skills. Grind you knife on the sharpening stone at a consistent angle, go from coarse to medium to fine grid stones, about 10 minutes of work.

Google "magic marker trick for sharpening" for correct sharpening angles.

Instead of fine grid stone, you can also use 2000 or finer grid wet/dry sand paper to do the final fine sharpening.

dcarch