Can You Use Any Smooth Rock As A Knife Sharpener

How do you sharpen my knife without a sharpening stone?

I was just looking knife sharpening up a little while ago. I was surprised with how many different ways to achieve a similar result to using a sharpening stone there are.I now use the bottom of a ceramic mug. It has to be ceramic. Take the knife in your dominant hand and run it across the rough surface on the bottom at a 30 degree angle, for the full length of the knife, from the bolster all the way down to the tip. Depending on how dull the knife is will determine how many lengths you will have to repeat. If it's not too bad, I find 5–10 strokes per side is sufficient. Stropping afterwards is not essential, but why not give it a quick strop if you have a piece of leather. A belt will suffice. This will remove any fine little burs left over and is what you are doing when you use a steel. A long cylindrical file with a handle and guard.Speaking of steels, they are NOT for sharpening. A steel is used in between uses to hone the blade. It does slow the dulling process and removes little burs and knicks from normal use. Always keep your hand properly placed behind the guard. If you are using your own knives which you paid top dollar for, I highly suggest you run your blade, full length from bolster to tip, or vise versa, before and after each use. There are a few techniques. Practice and find which you are most comfortable with. It can be dangerous so start slowly. Work your way up to the level the professionals are at. You can easily lose a finger.I have also seen a belt grinder in a machine shop used to get insanely sharp edges in seconds. Pretty neat. However, if you don't know what you are doing you can quickly damage a perfectly good knife.Other methods are, another knife, the top of the glass on a window in a vehicle when it is rolled partway down, as well as a flat rock found outside. A river rock would be perfect.In any situation always be careful handling a knife. It demands respect. I have seen horrific results when this is forgotten. In regards to respecting your knives, keep them sharp at all times. A sharp knife is a safe knife.Happy sharpening!

Can you sharpen a knife with a hammer?

No you can not sharpen a knife with a hammer, you can only smooth out the edge the same way your would with a sharpening steel in the kitchen. With a hammer and anvil you can sharpen a knife or any other cutting edge tool. Farmers used to sharpen scythes in the field using a hammer and rock as an anvil very effectively, you got a better edge then with a file or whetstone. The idea behind sharpening a piece of metal is to get the cutting edge thin enough to cut through other softer material. you can do this with a hammer and anvil by hitting the sharp edge of the knife. The problems with this are that if you are not very skillful you will get a ragged edge that will saw more then cut and that you will make the edge brittle so that it will break and not stay sharp. So while it is possible it is for most edged items a very poor way to treat them.

Why are there so many different ways to sharpen a knife?

There are many different ways to sharpen a knife. The reason is that each person has a different preference in terms of the time, money, and effort they’re willing to spend on making their knives sharp.Here’s a summary of the pros and cons of the different ways to sharpen a knife, from an article I read on HealthyKitchen101:Pull-through sharpeners: fast, convenient, easy to use, can be used every day. Great for cooks who need sharp knives fast while they’re in the kitchen. However, they don’t work on badly damaged blades, or knives with non-v-shaped edges.Sharpening stones: effective, flexible, can handle various types of knives. It takes time to sharpening using stones, and they’re to be used only once or twice annually.Sharpening rods: quick, convenient, easy to use. However, similar to the pull-through type, they can’t handle non-V edges. Also, they’re typically available in only one abrasiveness level.Sharpening systems: typically consisted of sharpening materials with more than one grit levels and angle guides, these systems are often used by, rather than casual home cooks, knife enthusiasts who enjoy spending time giving their knives new edges. They may require a bit of time getting used to.

Can one sharpen a silverware knife against the edge of a concrete wall?

If I was breaking out of prison. :)Particularly the corner will significantly increase the harshness of this treatment. Whatever particle size you are dealing with, as all concrete is not the same, will be accentuated. Just as a ridge of a mountain is often more jagged than the surfaces of the intersecting planes that form it.You would also have fragility to deal with.The aggregate can probably sharpen some metals.Silverware normally has stainless blades since stainless was invented, and it is normally very stain resistant stainless which tends to be hard to sharpen no matter what you have at your disposal.

Can a chef's steel sharpen a knife sharper than a fine-grit stone?

If you’re talking about those nasty serrated things they usually include with knife block sets, forget about it. Those are going to leave a very rough, nearly serrated edge on the blade. I would never allow one of those anywhere near one of my knives.A proper knife steel is smooth, since the purpose is to straighten out edges that have become wavy, bent or folded over. They don’t remove any material. This type of edge failure by deformation is more common in moderate hardness knife steels such as those traditionally used in European (German and French) cutlery, or in knives designed for frequent touch up as in a butchering operation. Eventually the knife still needs to be resharpened on a stone but the steel can prolong this to some extent.Higher hardness steels such as those in Japanese knives tend to degrade by chipping or abrading instead of bending, so a knife steel is typically useless for restoring edges on those types of knives, though there are many exceptions to both these generalizations.