Top 10 Beginner Knife Sharpening Mistakes

Top 10 Beginner Knife Sharpening Mistakes

If you've ever sharpened a knife, you've understood the struggle. Sharpening isn't rocket science, but there's also a lot of things to keep track of when you're putting an edge on your trusty blade! Pro sharpener Naoto is here to help you out with all the things you're probably doing wrong. Did we miss any of your pain points? Let us know in the comments!

Chapters:
0:00 Professor Naoto is here to help!
0:41 Not soaking your stones
1:26 Using oil instead of water
1:52 Sharpening at the wrong angle
2:42 Sharpening at an inconsistent angle
3:39 Pushing too hard
4:06 Going too fast
4:34 Not using the whole stone
5:02 Not truing your stones
5:58 Not getting a burr
6:58 Not removing your burr
7:45 What did we miss?

Or visit Knifewear stores in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, or Vancouver.

Join our community:

[mattbonnell]

Keeping a consistent angle is definitely giving me the most problems. Especially at the base and tip of the knife.

[rcheskin]

Inconsistent angle was the hardest for me to overcome and eliminate a scooping motion. I found going slow, picking up the knife off the stone on the edge leading strokes, and occasionally reaffirming my angle using a Wedgek angle guide helped until I had built up enough muscle memory.

[oceanwaves]

Having an inconsistent angle is fine, as long as you don't go over a certain point.

A knife sharpened at 15 degrees per side will be out cut by a knife sharpened at 8 to 15 degrees per side. The latter will just take longer, because all strokes at less than 15 degrees won't be making contact with the apex.

Also, if you're good, you can sharpen a knife without forming a burr. Extremely difficult, but this should always be the goal, as it keeps burrs minimalized.

[toxboxdevel]

The biggest problem I've had with sharpening was instructions not being specific or getting into details. No one told me how long to soak the stones until you. A travesty of communication.

[michaelireland]

zen & the art of the angle, stay withthe zen & your angle will appear

[charlesmoeller-vunq]

For many years I never soaked my wet stones, that is 1967 - 2024. Thank you

[hellobirdman]

Thank you for the informative video! I'm curious, you mentioned the different edge angles for each type of steel, is spine thickness of the blade also a determining factor for the edge angles? And if so, are you taking both the type of steel and the spine thickness into consideration before you set your edge? Thank you again! 💜🌸

[LINEN]

when should you remove the burr? When you finished the first side and you created a burr or is the first burr removed automatically with sharpening the second side? Thanks for your videos you are great guys

[mynameisjhun]

I want to be like Naoto when I grow up.

[illchef]

I have a question. When sharpening your knifes and let’s say you have multiple stones going from 200 grit to 16000 grit. Is it necessary to sharpen on each grit you have or what?

[gtrzero]

Awesome video. My freehand sharpening has improved, but I still can't figure out the strop. Do I load it with a compound or just leave straight leather and do you stick with the same angle? Or can I just strop on my stones. Cheers great video

[nicolestogrin]

Not using the whole stone is the mistake I have been guilty off.

[charlesmoeller-vunq]

Ok please show us how to "true your stone".

[gnomechonky]

Do you have any tips for a beginner trying to sharpen a couple of non-chef knives? I have a paring knife and a meat cleaver (both German) but I can't seem to improve the sharpness of either. It's hard for me to raise a burr on either one, so I'm guessing the angle is not right (obviously the nickel method won't work too well on the paring knife).

[davesmith]

It would be nice if you'd show the sharpening process under a USB microscope at 200X magnification - so that we could see the bevel, the scratch marks, the burr, and the removal. That way we could see what's going on, which is why microscopes were invented. All you have to do is take photographs. USB scopes come with built in photo and video software, fully compatible with Windows 10.