How to sharpen a pocket knife without a sharpener

Q: Can you sharpen knives without a knife sharpener?

If you need to sharpen one but you dont have a sharpener, you can use the bottom of a porcelain mug or plate. Just draw your blade down the rough part of the ceramic several times.

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Things You'll Need
References
About This Article
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Can you sharpen knives without a knife sharpener?
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Cutting with a dull knife can be dangerous. Having to work harder to slice through whatever you’re cutting means you’re more likely to cut yourself. Fortunately, it’s easy to sharpen a knife yourself with a whetstone, a honing rod, or even a coffee mug.

1
Pick an angle to sharpen your knife. If you already know what angle your knife is sharpened at, you'll probably wish to sharpen it at this angle again. Sharpening at a different angle will take significantly more time and may take a few goes before any rough angles are smoothed out.
- If you don't know the current angle, ask the manufacturer of your knife or inquire at a knowledgeable knife shop to determine what angle is appropriate for your knife.
- If you have to make a gut decision, choose an angle of 10° - 30° per side. Shallower angles make a sharper edge that doesn't last as long; steeper angles are more durable, so 15° - 20° is a good compromise between the two.
2
Lubricate your whetstone or diamond stone with a small amount of mineral oil. Look for honing oil, a light kind of mineral oil. Honing oil will both lubricate the whetstone, making it easier for the blade of the knife to pass over the stone, as well as keep the steel shavings (the by-product of sharpening) from clogging the stone's pores.[1]
- Check with the manufacturer's guidelines for your stone regarding lubrication. The most common sharpening stones are carborundum stones and are designed to be used wet or dry. Many are destroyed when oiled, but some are pre-oiled or specifically designed for oil, and will generally be labeled as "oil stones."
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3
Use an angle guide to control your edge's angle, if available. A sharpening guide is a small tool that's placed underneath the knife in order to maintain a constant angle when scraping the knife across the surface of the stone.[2] Otherwise, you will have to control the angle by hand, which is hard and requires a well-formed perception of angles.
- One of the most difficult aspects of sharpening a knife is getting the angle right. To make this process a bit easier, try painting the very tip of both sides of your blade with a sharpie pen. Then, throughout the sharpening, inspect whether the marker is being removed during the process. [4]
4
Start off on the rough grit side of the stone. Check the grit on your stone, or the packaging that came with the stone, to identify which is which. In general, whetstones and diamond stones each have different grits on either side.[4] The rough grit side is used to grind the steel down, while the fine grit side is used to sharpen or hone the knife. The grinding process comes first, so you start on the rough grit side, applying only light pressure.
5
For a symmetrical edge, sharpen the knife by dragging it across the stone in the opposite direction you would move it to slice a thin layer off the stone. This allows a burr to form and prolongs the stone's life.
6
Continue grinding at this angle until your grind goes roughly halfway through the steel. This doesn't need to be precise, just well-estimated. For a one-sided edge ("Scandinavian grind", "chisel grind", etc.), do not flip the knife when instructed to do so by this article.
7
Flip the knife over and sharpen the other side of the blade until you create a new edge. The easiest way to determine that you have removed enough metal is to sharpen until you have raised a burr, a feature that steel will naturally form when one bevel is ground until it meets another.
- Burrs will generally be too small to see, but you can feel it scraping/catching on your thumb if you stroke away (dull side of the knife to the sharp) from the edge. Finer stones produce smaller burrs, but they are still there.[5]
8
Flip the stone over and begin sharpening one side of the blade, this time using the finer grit. Your goal here is to smooth over and eliminate the burrs created by sharpening the knife over the coarser grit. This transforms the blade edge from a ground edge into a finer, honed edge.
9
Flip the knife and begin sharpening the one side of the knife on the fine grit side of the stone. Again, make sure you hit both sides of the knife with the fine grit.
10
Begin alternating swipes on the fine grit. Sharpen one side of the knife with a single stroke, then immediately flip the knife and sharpen the other side. Do this several times for the best result.
11
If you wish, further polish or even strop the edge to the desired sharpness. This makes the edge better suited for "push cutting" (cutting directly into materials, pushing straight down without sliding the blade across the object) but generally impairs slicing ability: without the "microscopic serrations" left by grinding with a stone, the blade tends to not bite into things like tomato skins.

1
Use a honing rod in between sharpenings to keep your blade from degrading. The honing rod, or simply "steel" as they're often called, aren't normally used to resuscitate a dull blade from the proverbial graveyard. Instead, they're often used to keep knives sharp in between use.
- Using a honing rod regularly delays the need to use a whetstone or a diamond. This is a good thing: Using whetstones and diamonds shave metal from the edge of your blade, reducing the knife's lifespan. The less you use your whetstone, the longer your knives will thrive.
- What does a honing rod do? A honing rod realigns the metal in a blade, massaging small nicks, indentations, and flat spots away. Compared to a whetstone, it does not remove any significant amount of metal from the blade of the knife.
2
Hold the honing rod in your non-dominant hand. The rod should be held at a comfortable angle facing away from your body. The rod tip should be elevated above the rod handle.
3
Hold the knife firmly in your dominant hand. Your four fingers should be holding onto the handle, while your thumb can be placed on the spine of the knife, far away from the blade edge.
4
Hold your knife at approximately 20° in relation to the honing rod. Your angle doesn't need to be exact, just approximate. Whatever angle you decide to choose, or unwittingly end up choosing, make sure to maintain the same angle throughout the honing process. Changing the angle used during the honing process won't smooth out the metal in the blade as much as using a consistent angle will.[6]
5
Maintaining a 20° angle, move the knife across the top half of the honing rod. Try to start this motion with the heel of the knife touching the rod and end it with the tip of the knife touching the rod.
- In order to master this process, you'll need to move your arm, your hand, and your wrist. What's especially important to get the right action is moving the wrist. Without moving the wrist, you won't be able to sweep the entire blade — heel to tip — across the honing rod.
6
Maintaining a 20° angle, move the knife across the bottom half of the honing rod. Using the same sweep of your arm, hand, and wrist, gently move the knife across the lower half of the rod. Use only as much pressure as the weight of the knife itself. After completing both a top- and bottom sweep, you've done one revolution.
7
Do a total of 6 - 8 revolutions with your honing rod before each use of the knife.

1
Place an old coffee mug upside down so that the bottom of the mug is exposed to the air. In a pinch, a coffee mug can serve as a surprisingly effective sharpening tool if you don't have any fancy equipment. The ceramic material of a mug is a material coarse enough to get good results. Indeed, some honing rods even use ceramic material to keep a blade homed in between sharpenings.[7]
2
Maintaining a 20° angle, sweep one side of the blade across the grit of the coffee mug several times.[8]
3
Maintaining a 20° angle, repeat the process using the other side of the knife.
4
Alternate sides of the blade for the final two or three sweeps. Take one side of the blade and run it across the coffee mug, then turn the blade around and hit the opposite side. Repeat this pattern several times.
5
Finish the process with 6 - 8 swipes of your blade across a honing rod. Smooth out any burrs or kinks in the metal with several swipes on your trusty honing rod.

Add New Question

Question
What is the proper maintenance of knives?

Ollie George Cigliano is a Private Chef, Food Educator, and Owner of Ollie George Cooks, based in Long Beach, California. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in utilizing fresh, fun ingredients and mixing traditional and innovative cooking techniques. Ollie George holds a BA in Comparative Literature from The University of California, Berkeley, and a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from eCornell University.

Private Chef & Food Educator
Expert Answer
Do not wash your knives in the dishwasher. Wash them with hot soapy water and dry by hand. Store knives safely in a knife roll, designated drawer, or magnetic wall knife holder.
Question
How do I sharpen the blade of a curved knife?

Do it the same way as a normal knife, just move with the curve of the blade.
Question
Can a bench grinder be used for sharpening?

It can be. Just dip it in water occasionally to make sure that the knife doesn't overheat and lose the factory temper.

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Keep a first aid box near you so that in the case of any bad emergency you can do a primary treatment before you go to the hospital.
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Cheaper stainless steel kitchen knives won't hold an edge well; don't get discouraged - it may not be your sharpening technique. They will sharpen just fine but will dull very quickly. What's happening is that the edge is rolling over because the steel is soft. Try using a steeper sharpening angle or a knife with a harder steel.
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Electrically powered stones and grinding wheels need to be used with great care. The heat generated by the stone while grinding with these devices can anneal (soften) the steel, causing the knife to dull quickly with use.
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Show More Tips

If you are using an oil stone don't use water on the stone, at it will cause the pores of an oil stone to clog and become useless for sharpening.

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If you do not remove enough metal to create a new edge, you will leave some of the dull edge in place. A dull blade (or a blade with dull spots or nicks) will reflect light from the very edge of the blade. A razor sharp knife edge will not show "bright spots" when you hold it blade up under a bright light. You will need to remove enough material from the sides of the bevel so that the edge stops reflecting light.
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Always be careful around recently sharpened knives (and all knives in general). Practice correct knife skills to prevent accidents.
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Don't drag your fingertip across the newly sharpened edge to see if it is sharp. A better test is to try to cut a single piece of newspaper while holding the paper loosely between two fingers.
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Things You'll Need

Knife
Flat, abrasive surface: Arkansas stone, rock, sandpaper...
Angle guide or a steady hand

References

About This Article

Article SummaryX

The easiest way to sharpen a knife is to use a whetstone. First, soak the whetstone in water for 10 minutes. Then, set the whetstone down on top of a cloth. Hold the blade away from you and rest it on the corner of the whetstone at a 20-degree angle. Hold the blade by the handle while pressing the top of the blade down with your nondominant hand. Then, drag the blade into the stone 5 to 10 times before flipping it over and repeating the process on the opposite side. You can also use a sharpener to hone the blade of your knife. To use a sharpener, place the blade into the thin slot with the sharp side down. Drag the blade back and forth along the slot 5 to 10 times to sharpen both sides of the blade at the same time. If you don’t have a sharpener or whetstone, you can sharpen a blade using a ceramic mug or plate with a rough bottom. Put a cloth down and flip the mug or plate upside down on top of it. Next, place the blade at a 10-degree angle against the raised lip on the bottom of the mug or plate. Then, slowly drag the blade against the lip. Repeat this process 10 to 15 times before flipping the blade over and sharpening the opposite side. If you do have a whetstone or honing rod, read on for help on how to use it!

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Can you sharpen knives without a knife sharpener?

If you need to sharpen one but you don't have a sharpener, you can use the bottom of a porcelain mug or plate. Just draw your blade down the rough part of the ceramic several times.