Minnesota Musing: Knife Sharpening the Easy Way

Using a sharp knife is important, since more people get injured using a dull knife than sharp knives. Why is that, you ask? It's because people are more cautious when using a sharp knife because they know they have to be careful. It's sharp.

On the same token, dull knives are dull, and people cannot get them to work as well, so they push harder, take unnecessary risks, and - eventually cut themselves by a nasty poke through their skin. Yes. It's true. A dull knife promotes careless behavior.

There are many types of sharpeners out there. There's the old wet stone and oil sharpening, there's the electric sharpening systems. But, when it comes to a quick, easy, ready to use sharpening tool, nothing quite compares to the hand held.

We have several versions of the hand held. We have been using them all so long that the advertising logos have almost been worn off. The most comfortable sharpener we have, has lost its sharpening edge and I am going to try to find replacement edges, or, if more feasible, buy a new sharpener in that brand.

Wish me luck!

There are quite a few knives in our household. We use butter knives to spread butter. They do not need a sharp edge. We use steak knives to cut steaks. I have never resharpened the edge on a steak knife, plus they are serrated on the end. We have countless fishing knives that we've purchased over the years.

The fishing knives come with a small, square knife sharpener but we prefer the hand held version with the finger guard. According to the knife cuts in the guard, it's a good thing it's there, or there would be no fingers. Almost gives one the erbie jerbies to think about.

I think that it's been a good christmas gift option for this guy, so that's why there is an unopened pack of knives. Sometimes they get their favorite knives, as well. Comfortable grip, knife blade just so, etc.

Back in the day, some twenty years ago, we purchase some Titanium bladed knives from a commercial. They were some specially made metal that never lost their edge. We used them for a while and then, for some reason, went back to using the other knives. I think sometimes a person gets so used to the weight of the old wooden handled knives and using the plastic handles feels odd.

They were impressively sharp, however. The joke used to be that they were so sharp, they made our other knives feel like a kids toy. Almost to the point that we were thinking of just putting the old ones in the playdoh drawer. -Smile - We did not do that, however, but we were impressed by the sharpness of the blades.