When you use a good quality knife, there is no denying the fact that it would require regular sharpening and maintenance after a certain period of time. It not only maintains the blade and its sharpness but also increases the life and durability for the same. So, learning how to sharpen a serrated knife yourself is crucial or you can use knife grinder to sharpen your knife.
Without proper maintenance and sharpening, the knife will not last a long time, no matter which brand of type of knife you prefer. When it comes to serrated knives, they are specially designed to carve crusty bread, so that it does not smoosh the soft inside and cut through the crusty outside easily.
How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife?
So, can you sharpen a serrated knife? Of course, you can! All you need is a thorough and effective guideline.
If you have been using a serrated knife for quite a long time, then you must have gone through the issue where the knife is not as sharp and effective it used to be. Due to the design and quality of a serrated knife, you would hardly need to sharpen it.
If you are buying premium quality serrated knives, like Dalstrong knives, then you would hardly need to sharpen such knives during their lifetime, especially if you are only using it to cut bread. Sharpening a serrated knife is as easy as it gets. Just follow the below-mentioned guidelines.
Use A Serrated Knife Sharpener
The first and easiest method to sharpen a serrated knife is to get a serrated knife sharpening tool. Apart from the sharpening tools that are used to sharpen the plain edge blade of a chef’s knife, there are also specific sharpening tools meant for serrated knives.
These tools help to sharpen each serration separately, making sure that all the serration area is dealt with. Most of the serrated knife sharpeners come in rod-shaped and a taper to accommodate different sized serration.
- Choose The Right Shaped Serrated Knife Sharpener
If you are looking for good quality serrated knife sharpener then you will also find a triangular or square-shaped sharper in the market that is specifically designed to sharpen the serrated knives.
Due to their shape and dimensions, they work best on the serrations of the knives. Moving them back and forth, which help to sharpen the blade. A narrow triangle tool is your best option in this case.
It will not give the best quality effect as given by a professional knife sharpening expert, but will definitely make the knife look much better than being a dull knife.
- Sharpen On Beveled Edge
The best way to sharpen a serrated knife is to do it using the sharpener on the beveled edge, as it is the area that comes in contact the most. When it comes to both sides of the blades, one side has the same angle until the edge of the blade.
While the side, the blade will angle done before the serrated edge, which is also called the bevel. The serrated knife sharpener should only be applied to the beveled side of the knife.
- Get The Right Angle
Since one has to sharpen each serration separately, it is very important to do it at a proper angle. One can easily use the angle of the bevel side which can be anywhere from between 13 to 17 degrees. Using the sharpening rod at an angle will allow a smooth action and lead to less effort while sharpening the serration.
- Smooth The Burr
A burr is an uneven metal shaving that you will often find on the backside of the groove. Run your fingers along the backside of the groove and as soon as you feel a burr, rung the sharpening tool on it to smooth it out. It normally takes only a few strokes to do so. Instead of your fingers, you can also use the fingernails to check it.
- Use Whetstone To Sharpen Straight Edge
Along with the serrated porting of the blade, one also needs to sharpen the straight edge at the front of the blade, before the tip. To do so, using a whetstone is preferred. If you do not find one, you can also use a straight edge sharpening tool. A few strokes on the stone or through the sharpening tool will do the trick.
- Extra Info On Sharpener
One can also use a mechanical and electric serrated knife sharpener that can be easily bought from an online or offline store. These knife sharpness have a complete guide and require very little effort to sharpen the blade.
Although they’re mostly available for straight edge chef’s knives, there is also electric sharpness that is available for serrated knives as well. These allow a user to sharpen the blade at an angle, which is similar to the angle on the other side of the knife’s edge.
What Now?
Serrated knives are meant for a specific purpose in the kitchen, which no other knife can perform. The blade edge of a serrated knife is very different from a traditional knife. Where a traditional knife has a smooth plane edge, the serrated knife blade is designed like a hand saw.
The teeth design of a serrated blade can easily cut through the exterior hard crust, in a similar way and movement, like that of a saw. Now that you know the tricks – you should no longer be wondering how to sharpen a serrated knife with an electric sharpener, right?
However, when it’s finally time to sharpen these knives, people generally have no idea how to do it. It is because of the saw-like blade construction which requires a person to sharpen it with a technique.
In fact, what people do not know is that it is fairly easy to sharpen a serrated knife. A common idea among people is that serrated knives are not easy to sharpen as the chef’s knife and they often go to professionals to sharpen their knives. Let’s have a look at some of the few ways through which you can easily sharpen a serrated knife by yourself.
But what if you don’t want to use any serrated knife sharpener? Is there any alternative way. There are plenty of them as I have talked already. Now, watch the following video to learn how to sharpen it without using any special tools.
Tips To Avoid Regular Knife Sharpening
Apart from these sharpening methods, there are a few tips that one needs to follow before buying a serrated knife. These tips will make sure that you do not need to sharpen your knife for a very long time.
In some cases, the premium serrated knife does not need sharpening for a lifetime. Such knives might be a bit more expensive than regular knives, but once you purchase it, you will never have to think about buying or sharpening a new knife.
Premium quality serrated knives like Dalstrong knives are made up of the best quality stainless steel there is, which makes the blade last for a lifetime. Due to this very reason, it is fairly popular among many chefs. Let’s have a look at a few tips that one should follow before buying to reduce the maintenance of the knives and the requirement of sharpening it.
- It is always preferred that purchasing a premium quality knife will automatically reduce the maintenance of the knife in the long term. If you do not wish to sharpen the knife in the long run and want to purchase a knife that can provide expected performance for years to come, then I would suggest you purchase a knife that has been made from high quality and high carbon stainless steel. Many premium companies have been using imported Japanese stainless steel that is under for traditional sword making in Japan. Multiple folds of sheets are used to make such serrated knives and they do not require any kind of maintaining.
- Most of the blades that are made with high carbon stainless steel also come with edge retention and corrosion-resistant properties. Make sure to check all the similar properties in the knife that you want to purchase. Once that is done, the blade will provide you superior performance for a long time.
- Make sure that whichever knife you are purchasing, comes with a sheath, A good sheath not only acts as a great cover for the knife but also protects the blade from the outer damage. A sheath helps to cover the blade from the outer world when it is not in use. This not only prevents accidents but also protects the blades from outer damage.
- It is always better to have a ceramic honing rod that uses a steel honing rod. A ceramic honing rod is much more flexible and stronger. Also, it removes any unwanted materials from the blade which can increase the sharpness of the blade. Therefore, always select a ceramic sharpening rod when trying to sharpen a rod.
Conclusion
These are some of the ways through which one can easily sharpen their serrated knives, without having to spend a lot of money on a professional and without wasting a lot of time.
Other than that, one needs to make sure that they follow all the tips and tricks that have been mentioned in the article, to make sure that they buy the best quality knives, which does not need maintenance and sharpening regularly.
There are obviously numerous ways one can go through in order to sharpen the serrated blades. The details mentioned above are to help you in understanding that no matter which method you use, it is not difficult to understand how to sharpen a serrated knife.
The most simple rule related to any knife is that the better quality knife you decide to buy, the stronger will be the built and it will last you forever.
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The knives can also be categorized based on their blade grinds, or in other words, the shape of their blade. These edge styles get the names flat, hollow, taper, convex, and chisel. It is impossible for a single sharpener to fix and polish all of the types. However, the best knife sharpener for you is one that can handle the majority of your knives.
When’s a knife not a knife? It’s when the cutting edge is dull, which is why you need the best knife sharpener that fits your needs. The main problem, of course, is that it’s not always easy to buy the knife sharpener on the market.