The worst enemy of a cook is a blunt and dull knife and certainly the most dangerous tool that one may have in the kitchen. It is incredibly important to keep the knives in great condition, and this becomes easy with the knife sharpening tools that are available on the market. Sharpening and honing knife is not at all a rocket science that cannot be performed manually.
What is the difference between honing and sharpening?
Honing is far different from sharpening. When someone makes use of “butcher steel” or “honing steel” to sharpen their knives, it is called honing. With honing, blades of the knife may be sharpened that in turn makes the edge straight and ready to use. However, actual knife sharpening is something that needs to be done professionally. Those who wish to maintain their knife in a working condition may make use of knife honing tool or the butcher’s steel. For regular use, they are ideal and there is no need of maintenance and allows the knife to cut evenly with every use. Such honing tools can easily be purchased from departmental stores and as per their quality, they vary in price.
How to use the knife sharpener?
Firstly, anchor the honing steel with dishcloth or towel on countertop and hold the sharpening tool vertically with pointing down towards the towel. The person must hold the knife perpendicularly to the centre of honing steel. Knife must tilt perpendicular and parallel half way towards the steel. This will put the knife 22 degrees from the honing steel. Angling is incredibly important for western knives are often molded with blade that is 20 degrees off vertically. Even if the simple sharpening tool is used, same process applies.
Why there is a need for knife sharpener?
Knife sharpener can help sharpen the knife that can be used to perform a variety of cutting activities in the kitchen. Kitchen shear and knives are the most important tool in the kitchen. Sharp knife can cut up slippery raw bacon comfortably. Uniform cutting in case of bacon is impossible, however, if you have a sharp knife, this can be easily accomplished. You can cust the bacon in a desired way and this is why a knife sharpener becomes all the more essential. What one can get with a sharpened knife is straight, exact and perfectly cut pork. With sharpened knives anyone can remove the thyme leaves all the way from fresh sprigs. Bread can be snipped through in no time. Pizza slices, foccaccia into squares, quesadillas into wedges can be cut very easily. Dried fruits which are painful to cut may be chopped within minutes. Chicken can be split and may be laid flat before roasting with much ease. By doing this, roasting time of chicken gets halved. Unwanted bits can be lopped off with a little mess.
The process of knife sharpening proceeds in several stages. With sharpening, removal of metal to form a new edge takes place. With sharper knife, variety of cutting activities may be performed conveniently. If there is the presence of knife sharpener, one does not have to rush to professional to get the knife sharpened.