The Chinese way of sharpening a knife
I sharpen my knives the way my mother did, with a whetstone or sharpening stone.
Keeping a chef’s knife sharp is just as important as knowing how to use your chef’s knife. If your kitchen knives are not razor sharp, then you will not be able to cut the ingredients perfectly. A dull knife will take more effort, and will crush softer vegetables such as tomatoes. Thus, it is very important to keep knives sharpened and free of rust. If the tool is not sharpened for a long time, or if it is put away wet, rust can form and damage the tool. Before preparing ingredients for cooking, we must make sure we have sharp knives.
https://mychinesehomekitchen.com/2021/05/28/knife-techniques-used-in-chinese-kitchens
I learned to sharpen knives from watching my mother
Sharpening a knife is a technique that requires patience, time, and skill. When I was young, I learned by watching my mother use a large sharpening stone with a matte texture to sharpen the knife, which we called a whetstone.
My mother would hold the knife with both hands, with the blade facing outwards, keeping the knife face and the sharpening stone at an angle of about 15 degrees, gently pressing it against the stone. Before sharpening the knife, she sprinkled some water on the knife and the whetstone. While maintaining the same angle, she used both hands to force the knife to push and pull on the whetstone. She repeated this action to sharpen the knife evenly. When there were many grinding marks on the blade, she would stop, turn the blade face over and sharpen the blade on the other side.
Then my mother switched the coarse whetstone with another whetstone with a finer grit texture and sharpened the knife again. This step required a lighter force, and she increased the angle slightly.
Finally, she put a fine edge on the blade by using a lighter touch, until no traces of grinding could be seen on the knife’s surface.
Testing the knife’s sharpness
Mom would observe the knife with the blade facing upwards. If we could see that the blade is not white but a black line, then the knife edge was sharp. If there is no sunlight, then she would try to cut some ingredients to check whether the knife was sharp. A sharp knife will easily slice through the toughest meat or the softest vegetable with hardly any pressure.
These were my mother’s methods of sharpening knives. I remember that the sharpening stones she used were pure and natural. Her entire sharpening process was done on a sharpening stone. Most people now buy sharpening stones or sharpening rods or electric sharpeners in stores. I prefer to use a whetstone because it is a tool I have been familiar with since I was a child. Today’s whetstones are lighter and more portable, and there are more choices in the degree of grit.
Sharpening with a modern whetstone
For modern whetstones, there are also some important things to consider. Whether you sharpen the knife vertically or horizontally, you should sharpen it diagonally, so that the knife can evenly contact the whetstone and at the same time avoid damage to the surface of the whetstone.
Blade angle
The angle between the knife and the whetstone is very important when sharpening the knife, and 15 degrees is the best sharpening angle. If the angle is too large, the blade will be sharpened thicker, which will cause the blade’s sharpness to be maintained for a short period of time. After a short period of use, the blade will become dull. If the angle is too small, the blade will be sharpened very thinly, and it will be easy to curl or notch during use.
Correct force and posture when sharpening the knife
The strength that you use when sharpening must be “light push and heavy pull,” which is carried out according to the direction of the tool, to avoid damage to the blade. In order to save energy when sharpening the knife, it is best to stand with two feet one behind the other, pressing the weight of the body on the front leg. During the sharpening process, the blade should point to the outside of the body. Do not point the blade toward your body.
Use paper to test the sharpness
Now, there is an interesting way to test whether the knife is sharp. Take a piece of ordinary paper with your left hand, hold the handle of the knife with your right hand, and cut the paper vertically downward. If the knife can cut the paper smoothly, then the knife is sharp.
Note：
You need to wash the knife before sharpening, to avoid the knife suddenly slipping and hurting your hands during sharpening. The sharpening stone can be watered in an appropriate amount during the sharpening process. Wetting the whetstone reduces the force required when sharpening the knife and prevents the blade from heating up and generating sparks.
Small whetstone:
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