SHARPENING KNIVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 5

SHARPENING KNIVES.

Few women really know how to sharpen a knife. According to an expert, this accounts for the comparatively short life of most domestic cutlery, for household knives seldom last more than lialf as long as they should if properly treated. Tho average housewife will rub a knife haphazard on some convenient stone, little realising that she is actually shortening its life by doing so. Yet an examination of most household cutlery will reveal the fact that the majority of the knives have a surprisingly varied width of blade. Some are narrow toward the point, others are hollow in the centre of the blade. The proper way to sharpen a knife is to rub it carefully on a proper oil-stone, hone, or steel. Lay the knife blade almost flat, and, beginning at the heel or haft end of the blade, take a long sweep across the stone, maintaining equal pressure on the blade all the way until every fraction of the cutting edge has passed over the stone. Then, turning the knife blade over, reverse the procedure, beginning at the point. This ensures keeping the cutting edge straight, wears the blade to an equal width all the way on, and puts on a cutting edge which will last twice as long as if any other method were used. If, in the haste to get on a cutting edge, the knife is held at too great an angle from the sharpening stone,, the blade only touches the stone at the extreme edge. A sharp edge is quickly obtained, but the actual result is to wear the knife blade thin at the edge whilei the other parts of the blade retain their thickness. The cutting edge soon wear:; off, ai d after one or two repetitions of the process the blade is so thick that it is impossible to get an edge without grinding, and the life of the knife is considerably shortened by these frequent grindings.