Look sharp in kitchen

How to get your knives in shape for holiday cooking.

Don’t lie to me. Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth: Who was president the last time you sharpened your knives? One of the Bushes? Harry Truman? Even if it was Barack Obama, I’ll bet it was long ago enough that your blades could use a little powder on their noses, if you know what I mean.

Why you need to learn this

A sharp knife is a useful and safe tool. A dull knife wastes your time, messes up your food and is more likely to slip and slice into one of your nearby body parts. Yow. With the holidays upon us, it’s conceivable that you may be doing somewhat more cooking over the next few weeks than you normally do. With that in mind, it’s important that your knives are up to the job.

The steps you take

First, let’s differentiate between sharpening and honing. Sharpening makes an unusably dull knife usable. It grinds tiny bits of metal off the edge of the blade, making it, well, sharp.

Honing works like this: While the edge of the blade appears to be one uniform piece of metal, it’s made up of, in fact, bajillions of microscopic teeth, called “burrs.” When you use the knife, some of those teeth get bent over, putting them out of alignment and making the knife harder to use. That’s where honing comes in.

By running your sharp blade across the honing steel, you’re pushing those teeth straight back into alignment, allowing the knife to work more efficiently. If your blade is not sharp to begin with, though, you can hone it till the cows come home, and your knife will still be duller than a Kurosawa retrospective.

And here’s the thing: As I said, your knives probably aren’t sharp. Most people rarely hone their knives, much less actually sharpen them. How do you know if it’s sharp? Well, for starters, it should be easy to use. You shouldn’t need to exert much pressure, really, when cutting. The knife should do the work.

Then there’s the paper test: Hold a plain sheet of paper vertically in front of you. Try to slice down through the top of the paper. If you can do it with ease, your knife is sharp. If the paper just folds under the pressure like every single Chicago Cubs team for the past hundred years until 2016, then, yeah, you should sharpen it.

Now, a word about sharpening equipment. There are lots of tools, machines and stones out there. Machines are OK, but they can damage knives if you put too much pressure on them. I recommend a good two-sided stone, one side with a coarse “grit” to put an edge on your dull knife, and one side with a finer grit to get it razor sharp.

Here’s another thing to know about stones: They need a liquid to help carry away the small bits of metal that you remove as you sharpen. These filings, interestingly, are called “swarf,” like what your dog says after he bites his tongue. Depending on the materials from which they’re made, stones require oil or water. When you buy your stone, ask which one it requires. I prefer water stones because water is free and it flows like the wrath of an angry god from those metal pipey things sticking out of your sink.

So, you have your stone and you have your knife that’s duller than dirt-water soup. Here’s one way to sharpen it:

1. Lay a damp towel on your counter and set the stone on top, with the short side parallel with the edge of your counter. Pour a little water or oil — depending

on which stone you have — over the top. (You could also just soak your water stone for 10 minutes prior.)

2. With the blade facing away from you, place the point on the stone at the bottom corner closest to your knife hand. Place the index and ring fingers of your guide hand on the flat side of the blade to steady and guide it.

3. Tilting the knife at about a 20-degree angle to the stone, slide the blade up toward the opposite end, so the blade “slices” across the stone, until you reach the heel of the blade. Do this three or four times, making sure the entire edge from tip to heel crosses the stone.

4. Flip the knife over and repeat the motion three or four times.

5. Repeat on both sides until your knife is sharp. Test it by cutting through paper.

The whole process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. You should really be doing this, depending on how much you cook, once or twice a month. Regardless, you should hone your knife every time you get it out. Here’s one way to do that:

1. Hold the honing steel upside down on top of your cutting board. 2. Touch the heel of your

knife to the steel, just below its handle, at a roughly 20-degree angle.

3. Pull back and down on the knife so the blade runs across the steel all the way to the tip.

4. Place the opposite side of the blade on the opposite side of the steel and do it again.

5. Repeat this on each side four or five times. This ensures that your sharp knife is functioning to its fullest potential. We should all be so lucky.

To hone it, touch the heel of your knife to the honing steel, just below its handle, at a roughly 20-degree angle. Pull back and down on the knife so the blade runs across the steel all the way to the tip.

MICHAEL TERCHA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS Wet the stone with water (or oil, depending on the type of stone you have) before sharpening. Tilting the knife at about a 20-degree angle to the stone, slide the blade up toward the opposite end until you reach the heel of the blade.