Remember your first truly sharp knife? That bad boy cut clean and clear through tomatoes and onions and salmon and steak, shaming its dull drawer-mates. With a good knife, once-mundane tasks suddenly become pleasurable and satisfying. You can chop and slice for hours, comfortable and cramp free like the kitchen ninja you were born to be. But how much do you really know about your bladed BFF? Can you identify its various parts, for instance? Quick: **point to the tang**! 

Can’t point to the tang? Don't worry: that’s exactly what this little graphic is for. Use it to school yourself on the difference between a bevel and a bolster, a butt and a belly. **You’ll quickly master all the funny lingo you need to sound sharp around your favorite knife nerds.** What’s that? Oh yeah. We did manage to sneak a little pun in there. Sorry about that.

Know Your Knife

Learning how to sharpen your knives is an essential cooking skill. A sharp knife does a better job of cutting or slicing food, which is obvious enough, but it also lets you work faster and safer.

The Benefits of Sharp Knives

There is a lot of confusion about what an <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/knife-collection">expensive, high-quality knife</a> does for you in the kitchen. Keep in mind that all knives are sharp when new. And all blades can be made sharp, it's just that some blades will dull faster than others. Sharpness is mostly a matter of how well the blade was honed on a whetstone. The ability of a knife to hold a keen edge, however, is mostly a function of the metal used to make the blade, the angle of the bevel, and how the blade has been used (or abused). 

In the end, we will always choose a sharp knife over a dull knife, regardless of which one is more expensive. While expensive knives might stay sharp longer and feel nicer balanced in your hand, the real key to a sharp knife is to keep up on sharpening the knife. To prove the point, we purchased an inexpensive used knife and then sharpened it. We were surprised at just how well it performed against some of our most expensive knives—at least until it quickly lost its edge.

Do You Need an Expensive Knife?

Knives are a cook's most precious possession—absolutely essential to producing **perfect pieces of sashimi, [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-mince-a-shallot finely minced shallots], and everything in between**. Here at ChefSteps, we rely heavily on [link http://www.epicedge.com/shopexd.asp?id=91905 Japanese waterstones] to keep our slicing tools in ship-shape over the long haul. Find them intimidating? Let's change that right now. With a little knowledge and practice, you can easily **master DIY sharpening** with these bomb little blocks. 

Like most things worth doing, learning the technique takes a little practice, and a little practical knowledge, too. Before you begin, read through this section to get your head around the basic concepts. Once you've procured [link http://www.epicedge.com/shopexd.asp?id=91905 a sharpening kit], we suggest you begin practicing on your rustiest old blades, or head to a thrift store and **stock up on a few cheapies to sacrifice to the stone**. Soon enough you'll be forming burrs with the best of 'em. Then you can offer up your services next time you need a favor from a friend, or just want an excuse to enjoy one of life's more relaxing rituals—a great way to shave off some stress at the end of a rough day.

**NOTE**: The video above is an older video, which we made before we paired up with Daniel O'Malley. We still think it's a great video, but it goes into slightly more detail than a beginner might need. If you've never sharpened your knife, we recommend you watch the video for reference, and then follow the steps and looping videos below.

Basic Knife Sharpening

Honing—righting a bent cutting edge so that it’s straight once more—is the most basic way to ensure your knives serve you well over the long haul. **The more you hone, the less you have to sharpen**, and that means your knives will work great *and* last a lifetime. 

Why’s honing so important? Think of it this way: a knife’s edge is microscopically thin, yet this slender surface spends its days getting whacked against a hard cutting board. Is it any wonder, then, that this once-straight edge can get knocked out of alignment in the space of a couple of hours of cutting? It is not. The question is, **how do we get that edge straight again**? And the answer is: by honing it on the reg. 

If you don’t know the difference between honing and sharpening, you’re certainly not alone. The two things are frequently confused but in fact are quite distinct. **Each time we sharpen a knife, we remove material from the blade**. Sharpen that tool enough times, and you’ll eventually run out of blade entirely. When we hone, however, **we’re simply straightening the knife’s cutting edge**. *By keeping our knives well honed, we can cut down on the frequency with which they need to be sharpened*, thus allowing them to stay in our lives a lot longer. 

As [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/meet-daniel-o-malley Daniel O’Malley] demonstrates in the video above, proper honing technique is easy to get down. The key components are picking the right rod—also known as a “steel” or “hone”; setting yourself up for success with the correct positioning and angles (**honing correctly is all about the right angles**); using a smooth, fluid motion to right that errant edge; and caring for your hone so that it continues to serve you well. Read on for everything you need to know to keep things on the straight and narrow.

Honing

Introduction to Knife Sharpening

Knife nerds love performing the so-called “hair test”—running a blade along their arms to test sharpness. If hairs pop off without effort, you’ve got yourself a suitably sharp tool. If they curl stubbornly around the blade, it’s time to [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/basic-knife-sharpening break out the waterstones].

Worried about unsightly bald patches on your arm? You can always test that blade on a buddy’s instead. Heck, you could even go a step further and liberate him from an overly scruffy beard. Just be sure to get permission first (come to think of it, you might want him to sign a waiver). And if you do decide to free your friend from facial hair, for crying out loud be careful with that Adam’s apple. Nobody wants this to turn into a Sweeney Todd situation.

**DISCLAIMER**: Really, guys, we're just being silly. You don't need to shave yourself—or your friends—to know if your knife is sharp, so don't try this at home. Test your blade's sharpness on a tomato like a regular person.

Shave a Friend!

Imagine taking a quick trip to the local thrift store to pick up some cool-looking old knives, then transforming those dusty dullards into a beautiful set of blades that cut clean through all manner of meats.

Make Your Own Steak Knives!

To remind us all of the importance of an appropriately sharp knife, we offer you this diversion from class for your online viewing pleasure: Grant demonstrating his skills as a Fruit Ninja.

Cut Stuff in Slo-Mo!

Have you ever wondered why a sharp knife slices through food with ease, whereas a dull knife does not? Or why slicing cuts cleanly, whereas chopping can mutilate delicate ingredients? The answers to these questions even explain why a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife. It all has to do with the physics of cutting.

It may surprise you to learn that cutting anything always starts with a crack. In the kitchen, we use a knife to open and expand a crack in the food we're cutting—whether we're gently slicing or aggressively chopping it. 

But anyone who has done much cutting knows that slicing is fundamentally different than chopping. Why? Chopping is all about pressing the blade of your knife downward. When your knife strikes the surface of the ingredient, there is a split-second where the food beneath the blade is compressed into a V-shaped valley. A moment later, a threshold is crossed and the food ruptures under compressive force. Now, the blade plunges downward, propagating this crack through the food. This is not unlike how a log is split under the sharp blow of an ax.

Slicing is different than chopping because the knife is only pressed down with modest force, so there is only a small amount of compression. Instead, slicing stretches the food as the blade is drawn across its surface. Like most materials, food is strong under compression but weak when stretched. 

And this is why slicing cuts cleanly. The tearing force easily rips open a crack without the need to press down hard. This results in a much cleaner cut.

Creating a strong tearing force when slicing is also why it's essential that your knife be sharp. The stretching force arises through sideways friction between the blade and the surface of the food; if there's not enough friction, then the knife cannot get traction to rip open a crack. Instead, you'll need to push down harder with your blade—squishing the food—to get a crack started. 

Seen under a microscope, the cutting edge of a dull knife is actually round like a wire and very smooth. When drawn over food, it glides along because there is so little friction. In fact, there is so little friction that it's hard to control the blade and it can suddenly slip off the food and plunge into your fingers, the main reason a dull knife is dangerous. 

A sharp knife, by comparison, has a crisp edge, with microscopic peaks and valleys along its length that generate a lot of friction as you drag it across the surface of food. This sharp edge easily grabs hold of surface and tears open a crack. Once the crack is started, a gentle downward pressure allows the blade to plunge through the food, opening the crack as it goes.

For those who are interested in the physics of cutting, Professor Madadevan, an applied physics researcher at Harvard University has just published a wonderful paper on this subject that you can find <a href="http://physics.aps.org/featured-article-pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.244301">here</a>.

How Knives Cut

Fun With Knives

Meet Daniel O’Malley

Knife Collection

More Resources

Remember your first truly sharp knife? That bad boy cut clean and clear through tomatoes and onions and salmon and steak, shaming its dull drawermates. With a good knife, once-mundane tasks become suddenly pleasurable and satisfying. You can chop and slice for hours, comfortable and cramp-free like the kitchen ninja you were born to be. But if you want that knife to continue working at peak performance, you have to show it some love. That means cleaning it properly, storing it properly, honing it regularly, and sharpening it to maintain the blade. In this class, you’ll find all the information you need to learn to hone and sharpen like a pro. Which pro? How about blade sage Daniel O’Malley, owner of the epic knife emporium the Epicurean Edge in Kirkland, Washington, and a foremost expert on selecting and maintaining the world’s best chopping-and-slicing tools. Through video demos and clever tips and tricks, O’Malley walks us through the theory and technique of sharpening knives using Japanese waterstones—the badass little blocks that master bladesmiths have used for hundreds of years. Yes, you can always outsource your sharpening, but where’s the fun in that? We wager that once you’ve tried blade shaping on your own, you’ll fall in love with this ancient, relaxing ritual, as well the sense of satisfaction that comes with caring for your own steel. Knives are, without a doubt, our most important tools in the kitchen. If you want them to last a lifetime, you need to treat them right. We’re here to show you how.