All knives at some point will become dull. This is part of the life of a knife. Higher-end knives like Japanese chef knives are robust, but they will need sharpening.
A blunt blade is a knife expert’s worst enemy. Not only are they annoying but they’re also unsafe. Any knife that needs excessive force to cut is dangerous. If you’re one of those people who do this, you might want to think about buying a knife sharpener.
You’ll save yourself many knife cuts and accidents. You might find knife sharpening frustrating or tedious but you have to do it. Unless you have a lot of money and are able to keep buying new knives every two months.
We’ve got good news because there’s an easy way for you to sharpen your knives. The Lansky knife sharpener controls all the angles, helping avoid human error. Each stroke you take can only follow one angle of motion. So we’re going to show you how to use the Lansky knife sharpener. Let’s get to it.
How To Use Lansky Knife Sharpening Kit
This method of sharpening will keep all your sharp edge tools in mint condition. This is a world-recognized sharpening kit that wouldn’t set you back too much money or time to use. It takes out most of the guesswork for you, making the whole process more enjoyable. It will also make it faster so that you don’t have to spend copious amounts of time at the sharpening station.
Placement
First things first – you need to remove the clamp found in the box and place the blade inside it. The small groove is for small pocket knives like a swiss army knife. The rest of the clamp should be for larger hunting knives and big blades.
Unscrew the screw at the front of the clamp. Fit the blade of your knife into the gap. Push it in until it reaches half the distance of the blade. Then using a screwdriver, tighten the screw. You must make sure that it’s tight enough that the blade won’t slip out or move around.
Setting Up The Hones
You should find four or five different hones in the box. There will also be an equal amount of guide rods. Remove these from the box and connect them as follows:
Place the guide rod in the hone holder where the screw is, at the back. Place it down on a flat surface to align them. By doing this you are putting the guide rod in line with the honing stone. Then with very light pressure tighten the screw at the back to secure the guide rod.
Ensure that the entire rod and stone are in contact with the surface. If it isn’t then you can bend the rod a little to get it nice and flat. Lansky controlled angles sharpening comes in four different degrees. 17, 20, 25, and 30 degrees. The 17-degree guide will give you a fine edge. Sharpening with the 20-degree angle will be good for your chef knives and paring knives.
The 25-degree angle is perfect for your pocket knife or hunting knife. The 30-degree angle is great for cutting rope, hard vegetables, and other tough items. Each clamp gives you maneuverability for sharpening both sides of a blade. You have grooves on either side of the clamp that works at the same angle on each edge.
The guide grooves are oval-shaped allowing you to sweep the hones from side to side. Thus improving the effectiveness of each stroke. We’ll discuss the right movements next.
Sharpening Method And Motions
Now that we’re set up you can begin sharpening. Take the clamp and hold it in one hand with the hone in the other. You will start with a course hone and work your way down to the finer hones. Start with the grinding hone. You have to use this with a lot of force to remove the excess steel. Have a firm grip and peel off that unwanted steel.
Place the stone down onto the blade with the guide in the correct hole. The guide rod should touch the top of the guide hole at all times. It can move from side to side but you should try to keep it up top. Then using an upward motion against the blade start sharpening. You don’t want to be pulling the hone backward on the blade because this is ineffective.
Avoid this because all it’s doing is moving the steel filings to the underside of the blade. After a while, you’ll find that the blade isn’t getting sharp at all. When stroking up against the blade, sweep to the side as you do it to cover the entire blade. This will give you an even edge across the knife blade.
How Many Times On Each Side?
You can repeat this five to ten times on one side. After which you should flip the knife over and do the same on the other. Do this until the knife blade is sharp then switch to the medium hone. Repeat with less pressure this time, and then move to the fine hone. You might feel that the hone is losing some of its stability. This is because the hone is getting clogged with steel filings.
All you need to do is get some oil and place it on the bottom of the Stone. Rub it in and let it sit for a while. Then using a cloth wipe off the excess filings. You should find that the stone will be back to how it was when you first started.
If you’re pedantic and you want a nice smooth finish on your blade then use the ultra-fine hone at the end. This will give you a razor-sharp blade that looks good. Use this hone with a very light grip and use only a few repetitions.
How To Use A Lansky Turn Box Knife Sharpener
This type of sharpener is less complicated but is more dependent on your skills. Experts tend to prefer to use this because it’s a little bit faster. They trust their ability to control the knife.
The box has rods attached to it at angles determined on the box. All that’s needed is then to stroke down on the rods with the knife at 90°. It’s very easy to mess it up because you have to keep the knife at 90 degrees at all times. You stroke down with the blade edge against the rod moving back and forth while you do it. This sharpens the blade evenly from top to bottom.
Conclusion
Sharpening starts off as a chore or house task but soon becomes a fun thing to do. You don’t appreciate a sharp knife until it’s gone. Then you sharpen it again and voila – it’s like a ray of sun through the clouds on a rainy day. Don’t let your knife degrade into dullness. Try to sharpen your blades after every two or three uses. It doesn’t take long once you’ve got the hang of it and you’ll find cutting so much easier.
Learning how to use the Lansky knife sharpener isn’t a tall task. They are so user-friendly and after a couple of tries, you’ll have it down to a T. Lansky has a few different types of sharpeners. We’ve found the controlled angle version to be the best for beginners. If you want to move on to a more simple one that’s also fine.
