How to maintain knives is a concern for outdoor enthusiasts and knives. After all, a good knives deserve our good care. To make knives play a greater role and have a longer life, frequent maintenance is required.
So how to maintain the tool? Using polished steel to sharpen knives and keep the blade sharp is a good way to maintain knives, especially for kitchen knives and other frequently used straight-handled knives.
Experienced knife friends suggest that if the knives are used frequently, they need to be sharpened frequently, at least once before and after each use. In fact, grinding steel is not really sharpening the blade, but correcting and cleaning the edge of the knife.
One of the most basic polished steel is a metal rod with a handle, with straight narrow grooves distributed on it. The better polished steel is magnetized, which can attract the molecules of the tool to rearrange them in a straight line. After the tool is rubbed with the polished steel, it can be corrected and some fine scratches can be removed. Unmagnetized ceramic polished steel also has this effect. Diamond polished steel is also becoming popular as a new trend in the kitchenware industry. Its surface is covered with a layer of single crystal diamond. It has the same effect as traditional polished steel, but it is more durable and lighter than traditional polished steel. The speed is also faster.
When using polished steel, touch the blade to the top of the polished steel at an angle of 20 degrees, and then gently sweep the entire blade across the entire polished steel to the bottom, as if you were cutting a piece of polished steel with a knife. Each time the front and back are polished alternately, so that both sides of the blade can be polished evenly. There is a simple way to judge whether the tool has been polished: Use your thumb to gently touch both sides of the blade. If the feeling on both sides is the same, it means that you have polished it. If one side feels slightly rougher than the other, then lightly re-grind this side, and compare each time until the two sides feel the same. How to maintain the knife, polishing is a key part.
Use natural grindstone to sharpen knives
First, we list the types of natural grindstones that can be used for polishing and their particle size equivalents (grinding capacity):
Vashta Stone-looks like marble, with a particle size equivalent of 300-350. A good starting sanding stone, which can remove small scratches and form a beveled contour.
Hard Arkansas-white or light gray, with a particle size equivalent of 500-600. Used to perfect the edges at the end of the sanding.
Black hard Arkansas-black or dark gray, its particle size is usually 800-1000. Very good polishing stone, can be used to sharpen the blade as sharp as a razor. Over the years, this kind of stone has been almost exhausted, and only a few places still produce this kind of stone. Generally, this kind of stone is not needed for sharpening knives. At first, only those who used folding razors liked to use it to sharpen knives. Generally speaking, we choose a piece of wastar stone and a piece of hard Arkansas as natural grindstones. The size of the grindstone depends on the length of the blade.
For example: portable knife-3-5" long grindstone, hunting knife-4-8" long grindstone, kitchen knife-6-8" long grindstone
When sharpening knives, pay attention to the sharpening skills and use sharpening oil to prevent small metal chips from embedding in the grindstone. Do not use ordinary lubricating oil, which will block the recesses of the grindstone. The angle of contact between the blade and the grindstone during sharpening is the most difficult part to grasp. Place the knife flat on the whetstone, and then slowly raise the back of the knife until the slope of the blade is parallel to the surface of the whetstone. If you raise it too high, it will blunt the blade, and if it is too low, the blade will not be sharpened. You can try Polished at an angle of 20 degrees. When grinding, a large amount of sharpening oil should be covered on the grindstone, and dry grinding is not allowed, because metal chips will be scraped off and embedded in the surface of the grindstone, damaging the grindstone and the blade edge.
Start rough sanding with a Vashta grindstone. Point the blade towards the surface of the grindstone and the back of the knife toward yourself, and make the blade face a 20-degree angle with the grindstone surface, and then push the knife forward as if you are trying to grind the stone. The front end is cut like a small piece. Repeat this movement from bottom to top 2-3 times, then reverse the knife so that the blade faces you, and then use the knife face to make a 20-degree angle with the grindstone surface, and polish the same number of times. Note that the number of polishing on both sides should be the same. When this polishing process is completed, a clear bevel line can be obtained, so that you are ready to enter the final fine polishing process. We use a hard Arkansas grindstone for fine sanding. Similarly, you need to apply a lot of sharpening oil on the surface of the grindstone and repeat the rough sanding until you get the sharpness you expect, and the sanding is complete.
Please note that the grindstone should be cleaned with a cloth after each polishing, and every year, you should thoroughly clean the grindstone with a special solution and a wire brush to make the cavities on the stone unblocked and clean. Remember: blunt knives are more dangerous! In fact, a perfectly sharp knife is safer than a blunt knife, because it cuts easily, does not require you to exert force or look clumsy at work, and is more efficient. No matter how expensive and exquisite the knife is, it is impossible to maintain its sharpness by itself, so you must periodically sharpen and maintain the knife edge so that it is always in the best condition.
If you use a sharpener, first apply a little water on the diamond surface of the sharpener, turn the back of the knife toward you, and the blade touches the surface of the sharpener at an angle of 20°. Push the knife from one end of the sharpener to the other, for example, Push down the top from the bottom section of the sharpener, then reverse the knife, and push the other side of the blade from the top of the sharpener back to the bottom. This alternate action can make both sides of the blade be evenly polished. The number of times a knife is sharpened to sharpness depends on the degree of bluntness of the blade, the material and the force used.
When using a portable sharpener, for safety, the blade should always be held back to your finger in the direction of the sharpener, and the two sides should be alternately polished at an angle of 20°. The polishing method is the same as that of a large sharpener.
How to maintain outdoor knives is considered successful. You can test the sharpness of the knives by cutting paper, food, wood and other things after sharpening the knives. The remaining metal shavings may rust, so after each use, the sharpener should be cleaned and wiped dry.