How To Sharpen a Knife With a Whetstone

After skinning this last deer I noticed that I could not keep an edge on my knife so I thought this would make a good post.

How To Sharpen a Knife With a Whetstone

Photo © Danilo Alfaro

The best way of sharpening a knife is with a whetstone. There are other knife sharpening devices available, but most of them tend to grind away too much of your knife's blade. Learning the right way to use a whetstone may take a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to keep knives razor sharp, and save time and money.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: 2 minutes

Here's How:

1. Place the whetstone on a cutting board or countertop, with the coarse grit face up. A wet paper towel underneath the stone can help keep it from sliding.
   
2. With one hand, grasp the knife by the handle and hold the edge against the stone, point-first, with the cutting edge meeting the stone at a 22½-degree angle. Here's a picture of what 22½ degrees looks like. You can stabilize the blade with your other hand.
3. With moderate pressure, slide the blade forward and across the the whetstone, covering the entire length of the blade and keeping the blade flush against the stone at a constant 22½-degree angle.
4. Do this 10 times, then flip the knife over and give the other side of the blade 10 strokes on the whetstone.
5. Now flip the whetstone over to the fine grit side and give each side of the blade 10 strokes.
6. Finish by using a sharpening steel to hone the blade, then rinse and wipe the blade dry to remove any metal particles.

Tips:

1. Always sharpen in the same direction, whether it's front-to-back or back-to-front.
2. Despite what its name might suggest, keep your whetstone dry. Using oil or water on a whetstone traps tiny metal particles in the liquid, which in turn produce a more ragged edge than when using a dry stone.
3. Don't believe the hype about knives that supposedly "never need sharpening." Cutting produces friction, and friction causes a knife's edge to lose its sharpness. There's no avoiding the laws of physics.