Knife Sharpeners |Afiladores, Piedras de Afilar & Chairas

Knife Maintanance

Honing steel - Contrary to what many believe, the honing steel is not a sharpener. A honing steel straightens the blade while a sharpener sharpens the blade. A honing steel is a rod made of steel, ceramic, or diamond, generally about 1 foot (30 cm) long (although can be longer) and ¼ to ½ inch (6 mm to 12 mm) thick. It is used to hone a knife blade after sharpening in order to restore the edge and improve cutting ability. All a steel does, is correct the V angle on the cutting edges of the knife blade, which should be anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees, depending on the type of knife you have. Correct steel technique will ensure a better edge on your knife.

Honing stones also called whetstones - come in coarse and fine grits and can be described as hard or soft based on whether the grit comes free of the stone with use. Japanese water stones (both artificial and natural) come in very fine grits. Before use, they are soaked in water, then flushed with water occasionally to expose new stone material to the knife blade. The mixture of water and abraded stone and knife material is known as slurry, which can assist with the polishing of the knife edge and help sharpen the blade.

Hand held Sharpeners - These handy tools provides two-stage sharpening for knife blades.

Electric Sharpeners - This professional, two-stage electric knife sharpener incorporates conical diamond-coated disks in stage one and a revolutionary tropping/polishing disk in stege two to create, in just seconds, an edge of unprecedented sharpness and durability on fine edge knives.