The steel hones, the stone sharpens
Many people say the dull knife is the one that cuts you. What the honing steel in your block does and does not do, and what is dulling the knife.
Built from people with a dull knife and a steel they were not sure what to do.
The kitchen knife has gone dull, and somewhere you picked up the idea that a dull knife is the safe one, so you have let it be; there is a ridged steel in the block that you run it down now and then, and nothing much changes. People are the source here.
Keep the knife sharp, because the dull one is the one that slips.
The steel in your block only straightens an edge; when it stops working, the knife needs a stone.
The dull knife is the dangerous one
Many people say it, and others say it again: a sharp knife needs less force, goes where you aim it, and makes a clean cut that heals better, while a dull one needs pressure, and pressure is what skids off a tomato or an onion skin and into the hand that is holding it, and tears what it does cut. One person adds the onion: a sharp edge crushes fewer cells, so fewer of the compounds that make you cry get into the air. Some people say people treat knives badly, in the sink and the dishwasher, until they are very dull.
Two things people call sharpening
Some discussions exist to split one word into two. The ridged steel hones: an edge that has been used folds over, and drawing it down the steel stands it back up. That is why one person does it daily and why a knife that only needs honing cuts again in a minute. But honing takes no metal off, so it cannot bring back an edge that has worn away; that is sharpening, on a stone or a sharpener, and some people say the two words get confused, so a dull knife is honed and called sharpened. Some people add the exception: a harder-steel knife can chip if it is run over a steel, and is sharpened on stones instead. One person keeps a steel for daily use and a stone for when the steel stops working; one says a plain ceramic hone is all a gift-set knife needs; one says the hard part is holding the same angle on both sides, and one says a local restaurant will know the person who sharpens for a small fee if you would rather not learn. The first question below carries the mug, the foil, and the pull-through sharpeners.
What is dulling it
Some people warn against the glass cutting board: glass is harder than the steel, so every stroke flattens the edge against it, and people add chipping, slipperiness, the noise, and a board that can shatter from a hot pan or a knock on its corner. Stone worktops do the same, one person says; so does a bamboo board, another says, because of the glue in it. Some people warn against the dishwasher: the heat cycles, the detergent and the banging against other things wear the edge and the handle, and some people point out the damage is that, not the steel losing its temper. One person warns about the sink: a knife dropped into a basin of dishwater is found by the hand that reaches in blind. A knife is not a cork-digger. And the second question below carries the argument over wood and plastic boards, which people do not settle.
Where people split
The main disagreement, with some people on each side, is about the knife block, and it is set out below. The analysis of the forces that people give favours one side, and this page carries that and no more.
If your knife is a harder-steel one, the steel can chip it and the stones are yours, not the block’s hone. If it is a soft-steel budget knife you intend to dishwash regardless, one person says that is what those knives are for, on the grounds that they are cheap to replace; this page carries that as their view. If your knife is ceramic, it does not go near a glass board, and it is not honed on a steel. If what you want is the angle, the stone to buy and how often to use it, people ask those questions many ways and do not answer them, and this page does not carry an answer it did not find.
The community disagrees on this one
Store the knives edge-up in the block, or does it not matter? Some people on each side argue it, across some discussions, and the analysis of the forces that people give favours the second side.
Edge up
Some people store their knives with the cutting edge facing upward in the block, so that the weight of the handle does not drag the edge along the wood every time the knife slides in and out.
It makes no measurable difference
Some people say the force of sliding a knife into a block is nothing beside the force of cutting, so the practice does not change how long an edge lasts in any way you could notice; it does no harm either.
What decides it, in people’s own words, is a physical analysis of the forces, which favours the second side, against a marginal or psychological benefit on the first.
Common questions
Can I just use the bottom of a mug, or foil for the scissors?
Some people use the unglazed ring on the bottom of a ceramic mug as a stand-in for a stone, and people split on it — some say it works as a temporary fix when nothing else is to hand, others say it leaves a rough, uneven edge and scratches the mug, and that the money is better spent on a real sharpener; the decider people give is whether you own a stone. On scissors, some people pass on the tip of cutting through folded aluminium foil, and one person who sharpens scissors for a living points out that foil rounds the two meeting edges and smooths a nick but does not sharpen, and can spoil a good pair over time — this page carries the point, not the tip. On the steel itself: one person says a honing steel goes smooth after a few months and then feels like it does nothing, and asks whether it has worn out — asked and not answered. One person warns a diamond-coated steel cuts metal, which makes it a sharpener wearing a steel’s name; one person warns the pull-through V-shaped sharpeners take off too much metal; one person says a cheap ceramic hone or a coated steel is all a gift-set knife needs, and the expensive stones are for expensive knives. Is sharpening on a stone easy? One person says it is easy and you will not want to stop; one says it is not, because holding the same angle on both sides takes real practice, and one person in another discussion says the goal for a home kitchen is a working edge, not a perfect one, which is the easy version. What angle, which stone, how often — those are not covered here, and this page does not fill them either.
Is the board part of the problem?
If it is glass, yes, some people warn: glass is harder than the steel, so the edge flattens against it, and people add that it chips edges, that it is slippery under a knife, that the clacking is unpleasant, that a hot pan or a knock on a corner can shatter it, and one person points out tempered glass is durable on its face but breaks from its edges. One person says marble and granite worktops do the same thing; one person says the same of a bamboo board, because the glue that holds it together is hard; one person warns a ceramic knife on a glass board is two brittle things meeting. Some people keep a glass board for one job — kneading dough or chilling pastry — and one for display, and one person says they were sold as hygienic in the 1990s and 2000s and ruined knives. Wood or plastic is where people argue, in some discussions, and this page does not settle it: wood is kinder to the edge and, some people say, its pores let bacteria die off, while others say a scored plastic board holds bacteria in its grooves — and one person turns that on its head, saying the very study people cite for wood ends by recommending plastic for raw meat because it is easier to clean properly. What people agree on is the maintenance: a wooden board needs oiling, rinsing rather than soaking, and no dishwasher, and one person warns the hygiene worry is real only for a board that is left wet and neglected; some people say plastic is the right answer if you will not commit to that, and one person adds that cheap plastic sheds into the food as it scores. One person points out a board that scratches under normal scraping is a poor board or a poor knife.
Should I scrape the board with the back of the knife?
Some people say to flip the knife and push the food with the spine, and people disagree with themselves about why, so this page carries the argument rather than the tip. The case for: one person says every chef they have worked beside does it, and some people say it is basic kitchen practice, safe for the fingers, and correcting someone who scrapes edge-up is normal. The case against, from some people: pushing food is a small fraction of the force a chop puts on the edge, which is why scraping is not what dulls it, and one person says pressing the edge into wood would smash it flat before sliding it would fold it — the edge folds from cutting, not from tidying. A chef of twenty-five years calls the tip useless, and another person says a bench scraper does the job without flipping anything. People arguing it land on the decider: if you hone as a habit, the wear from scraping is nothing, and if you do not, the tip is cheaper than the habit. People also carry the safety half: some people will not push food with the edge facing their body in case a hand slips, and others say that with a knife held properly, that slip is a very long chain of accidents. On chicken: some people say kitchen shears are the right tool for joints and bones, not a sign of poor knife skills, and a knife on bone is the harder and less safe cut.
Questions this step helps with
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