How to Sharpen a Knife with a Whetstone – Sharpening Dull Kitchen Knife to Extremely Sharp

Sharpening your own knives is easy with a Whetstone sharpening kit. They’re typically two sided and have a course and fine texture like this one with 1000 and 6000 grit. The beauty of a Whetstone is that you don’t need oil to sharpen your blades. Before each use, the Whetstone needs to be soaked in water.

Keep the stone submerged until the bubbles slow down or about 5 minutes then it's ready for use. Starting with the lowest grit which is 1000 on this stone, hold your knife at about a 15 degree angle and slide it away from you. It only takes light pressure along the strokes. You don’t need to push too hard. Gently slide from the tip to the base of the blade. After about 12 to 15 strokes, flip the blade over and repeat on the other side. Continue using gentle and even passes across the stone. Remember to hold the blade at about a 15 degree angle which is about half the height of your thumb. Keep the moves consistent and at the same speed.

At this point, I can flip the stone over and use the fine course side. Most Whetstones come with a nice wooden base that do a good job to hold the stone in place while sharpening. Before starting, you might need to add a bit more water to the surface. Now with the fine course stone, finish the sharpening process like before at the same blade angle and nice consistent passes along the stone. About 10 to 12 passes is good before switching to the other side of the blade. At this point, the blade should be extremely sharp. I’ll just give a quick paper test here. I can now slice paper quite easily with my knife.

This Whetstone also comes with plastic guide to help hold the blade at exactly a 15 degree angle. Handy for some people! There are many Whetstones available but choosing one with a 1000 and 6000 grit is a good general purpose stone for home use.

I hope you found this video helpful and if you did please give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel TheRenderQ for more how-to videos and product reviews.

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[donhubner]

Thank you that was a good primer and you didn’t give me 10 minutes of nonsense like so many videos!

[KiwiApteryx]

The simple tip of "hold it at half the length of your thumb" was perfect because i dont got one of the angle assisters, thank you.

[kryptik]

Thanks for not wasting our time with bullshit and getting straight to the point. Short, sweet and efficient.

[Negasuki]

searched for "how to sharpen a knife with a whetstone" this is the video that came up first. There's a good reason for that. Thumbs up - Subscribed.

[JackSparrah]

Thank you! Straight to the point, and without 20 mins worth of fluff like so many other videos. Just got mine and about to try it out

[cynthiapatterson]

Thanks you so much for your simple and very informative demo. That's exactly what i needed to know without having to watch a 30 min video first. 😃

[richardkathnelson]

This video instruction is definitely the best that I’ve seen. Straightforward, concise - no long preamble. Excellent!, ,

[lalorraine]

Very useful! I have never used a whetstone before, and your video told me exactly how to do it - thank you!

[EDBass]

LOVED THIS!!!! Straight to the point, no extraneous waffling or talking to the viewer like they're a toddler. EXCELLENT TUTORIAL!!!👍

[jingyun]

Thank you. One of the easiest reviews I've watched so far.

[chadmarkley]

So helpful and just happened to be the very whetstone I've already purchased!

[benjaminlipson]

My dude, thank you! There are so many unhelpful videos showing you weird techniques for sharpening your knife. It took me forever to find one that was actually good!

[aliceiw]

Really clear and sharp with no long explanations. Thank you.

[merchillio]

Thank you. Concise and straight to the point, exactly what I needed

[slaughterhound]

Well, I have some experience in sharpening knives, but still found this video useful. It's always good to see/study other people's techniques and see how well they synchronize with what you already know/do. Best to study several techniques, try them out and see what works for each individual.

[nattytempest]

Comprehensive and simple. there will always be differences of oppinions with the specifics, but this is a great starting point and doesn't over complicate anything. Thank you!

[styxce]

Quick, concise, and well explained. Thank you.

[PlanetEarthPOD]

Best video on this I’ve been sharpening without wetting my stone!! Thankyou for the knowledge, very helpful.

[kopilandia]

Straight to the point! Thank you for sharing.

[mikaelkindborg]

Thank you really good and to the point tutorial! Now I feel confident to go ahead and sharpen my kitchen knife using your method!