A dull knife is both frustrating and dangerous in the kitchen. Follow these steps—along with the visual instruction in the video above—to learn everything you need to know about honing and sharpening knives.

Correction! After publishing this article, a number of folks pointed out that research exists proving that honing does, in fact, remove metal from the blade. I went back and did some reading of my own and issued a correction. Read it for free here or continue the original article below.

The other day I was slicing up some chicken thighs in order to turn them into tsukune (Japanese chicken meatballs, which you can find my recipe for here).

At least, that’s what I was trying to do.

As anyone who has seen that video knows, however, what was really happening was that my knife blade was slipping and sliding around on the tough, slick skin. The knife was clearly in need of a good sharpening, and that’s what we’re talking about today. But first...

How do I know when my knife is dull?

The first indication is difficulty finding purchase in a vegetable without either slipping off the skin, requiring excessive force, or deforming and crushing it instead of slicing. When chopping pungent vegetables like onions or garlic, you’ll notice much more moisture coming out of them and a stronger odor as cells are crushed instead of cleaved. Delicate herbs like basil or parsley turn dark and leave green marks behind on your cutting board—an indication of cellular damage and lost flavor and aroma.

The good news is that knives can be resharpened in a number of ways.

We’ll get to that too, but the even better news is that a knife usually doesn't need to be fully sharpened every time it starts feeling a little dull. The first thing to understand is the difference between honing and sharpening.

Wait, what's the difference between honing and sharpening?

As you use a knife, the very thin edge can gradually bend and deform. Imagine a line tracing along the very edge of the blade. In a perfectly honed knife, it should be a straight line with very few kinks. As a knife gets used, however, microscopic bends and deformities start to build up in that cutting edge. Rather than a laser-sharp straight line, it ends up jagged, tearing at food instead of slicing it.

By running a knife edge against a standard steel honing rod, rather than removing any material from the knife blade, all you’re really doing is straightening that edge out.

How often should I hone my knife?

I hone my knife nearly every day. On average, I’d estimate that I hone my knife for about every half hour of total use—more or less depending on the demands of the task I’m working on. It may seem like a lot, but it’s an easy process once you get the hang of it, and the smoothness of a freshly-honed blade versus one that has been used even a little bit is noticeable.

Also, it makes you look like one of those badass butchers from movies.

(I’ve used my Wüsthof 10" honing steel for over 25 years now. You can get it here.)

What about ceramic or diamond honing rods?

Ceramic or diamond rods are not designed for honing. Because the rough ceramic or diamond dust coating covering the rods is much harder than the steel of the blade, it acts as a sort of very fine sandpaper, subtly shaving off material from the edge of the blade in order to expose a fresh edge.

These types of rods can be a good stopgap when you know you should probably be properly sharpening your knife soon, but you just don’t have the bandwidth to do it right now.

So, how should I hone my knife?

The key with honing is that you want to use smooth, even strokes, and not a lot of pressure. The goal is to gently coax the edge of the blade back into alignment, not to bash it into submission.

I like to hold the steel in my non-knife hand with the point facing away from me. I then run the full length knife along the full length of the honing rod, from heel to tip, maintaining roughly the same angle as the existing edge.

I generally do:

8 strokes per side

4 strokes per side

2 strokes per side

A couple sets of 2

Then several alternating single strokes

The idea is to gradually work the larger irregularities down into smaller and smaller ones until the edge is straight again.

Test the knife on some actual food. If it cuts cleanly again, you're done. If it still feels dull, it may be time to move on to sharpening.

Do I actually need to sharpen my own knives?

No! For most people, the easiest solution is to find a good professional knife sharpener and send your knives out when they need to be sharpening.

There are a number of gimmicky tools out there that claim to sharpen your knives as well as a professional. Very few of them actually work as advertised. While pull-through or electric sharpener may put a decent edge on your blade, they also typically remove a large amount of material from the blade, shortening its lifespan.

Better are models that behave more like classic whetstones, gently removing material and maintaining the right angle in the process. Rolling sharpeners like the Tumbler come with magnetic guides that fix your knife at the right angle, and a rolling sharpening cylinder with multiple grits to fine-tune your sharpening.

But for the most control, you should stick with classic whetstones. It’s slow. It takes some practice. Even once you’re good at it, it’s an activity that takes time and patience.

Personally, I find that the time I spend with my knives and stones brings me closer to my tools, which makes me a better cook and my time spent cooking more enjoyable. (As I write this, I realize that this makes me sound like one of those guys who works on old-timey cars, or gains satisfaction from the way hand-carved dovetails just join together so satisfyingly.)

And while it's not particularly difficult once you get the hang of it, you are going to be using stones that can physically damage your knives if used incorrectly, so your first attempt probably should not be on your fancy $600 Japanese steel knife.

Okay, I’m convinced. What tools do I actually need?

A quality whetstone will last you for several of the lifetimes of your knives and fortunately, they are relatively inexpensive.

Like sandpaper, whetstones are marked with their grit level. The higher the number, the finer the grit. So while a 100-grit whetstone would be like running your knife over a gravel parking lot, a 10,000-grit stone is fine enough to produce a mirror finish.

The basic rule:

Lower number = coarser = removes material faster.

Higher number = finer = removes material more slowly and leaves a smoother edge.

To get started, at a minimum, you'll need:

A coarse or medium whetstone, somewhere around 400 to 800 grit

A finer whetstone, around 1,000 grit or higher

A stone fixer or flattening stone

Water

A non-slip mat or damp towel to hold the stone in place

A tray or cutting board to work over

A dedicated towel that you don't mind permanently staining with sharpening sludge

If you only want to own one stone, something around 1,000 grit is a useful compromise. For a more complete setup, I like starting around 400–800 grit for the bulk of the work, then moving upward. A 1,000-grit stone will refine the edge substantially; something like a 6,000-grit stone can polish it extremely fine.

And once you have your stones, you’re ready to start sharpening.

The steps to sharpening a knife.

After reading through the steps below, I strongly recommend watching the video above so that you get an understanding for hand position and movement.

Step 1: Soak and flatten your stones

Most whetstones are porous and can absorb quite a bit of water. When sharpening a knife, the goal is to always keep the sharpening surface completely wet so that the knife can glide along without catching or chipping.

In order to maintain that moisture, whetstones need to be fully submerged in water to soak until you no longer see bubbles escaping from them. It can take half an hour or longer depending on how recently your stones were used.

Once your stones are soaked, you can set up your work station.

I start by laying a damp towel on the counter and topping it with a rimmed baking sheet with a second towel laid on top of it. The tray is there to catch the excess water (there will be a lot of it), while the towels are there in order to keep the stone and the tray from moving. You'll also want a bowl of water nearby as you work so that you can continuously keep the stone evenly wet.

Step 2: Wet the stone and grip your knife

Once your station is set up, place your coarsest stone on top of the towel-lined tray. It should be oriented with the short side facing you (i.e., in portrait, not landscape).

Use your hand to splash water all over the top of the stone. The goal is to see the water completely cover the top of the stone without leaving behind dry or uneven spots. If the water doesn’t cover the surface evenly, you either need to soak your stones a bit longer, or you may need to flatten them using a stone fixer/leveler (more on that in step #8).

I grip the knife fairly firmly with my dominant hand, holding my thumb against the spine of the knife and my forefingers against the flat side of the knife. This position allows me to maintain some tension in my hand which keeps the blade nice and stable as I start to sharpen it.

The most important thing when sharpening a knife is the angle.

For most Japanese-style chef's knives, you're looking at roughly a 15-degree angle between the blade and the stone. Many Western knives are closer to 20 degrees. Either angle (or anything in between) can work for any knife you own, and rather than perfectly hitting 15 or 20 degrees, it’s far more important that you maintain consistency with that angle throughout the sharpening process.

Step 3: Begin sharpening

Start by setting the heel of the knife against the near edge of the stone at your sharpening angle. Now, while maintaining tension in your hands and keeping to that angle, gently push your knife straight up to the far end of the stone. Pull the knife back towards you at the same angle and repeat the process. At this stage, you should only be focusing on the heel of the knife—you’ll get to the rest of it later.

When I move my knife across the stone, I like to think of my forearms and hands as fixed in stone. Movement for the knife blade comes entirely from my shoulders and upper arms, while my hands are solely focused on maintaining the angle.

You do not need a ton of downward pressure, and there should be slightly more pressure while you are pulling the knife away from its cutting edge to prevent that sharp edge from accidentally slipping into the stone and chipping it. Think roughly of the amount of pressure you'd use when rolling a lint roller across your sweater and you get the idea.

Continue pushing the knife back and forth across the entire length of the stone around a dozen times, focusing just on the heel of the knife.

As you work, you'll see a grayish, silty slurry form on the stone. That's a mixture of water, stone, and material being removed during sharpening and will actually do a great deal of the work in allowing your knife to slide across the stone while gently removing material.

Step 4: Feel the burr

If you’ve been following the instructions or the video so far, you’ll have only sharpened one side of one small section near the heel of the knife. But it’s a start!

As you remove material from that one side, the very tip of the metal eventually gets pushed over to the opposite side, creating burr that’s so small you can’t see if with your naked eye—but you can feel it, and this burr is the best indicator that you have adequately sharpened that section/side.

To feel for it, gently run the pad of your thumb or finger from the side of the knife down along the blade (always pulling your finger away from the cutting edge, never along or into it!). On the side that you've been sharpening, your finger should glide smoothly off the edge. On the opposite side, you should feel the burr catch slightly.

Continue sharpening the same side of the knife, working section by section until you can feel that burr all the way along its length.

Step 5: Sharpen the second side

Your grip may change slightly when you reverse the knife, but the goal is identical:

Maintain the same sharpening angle.

Keep your wrist stable.

Apply only moderate pressure.

Put most of that pressure as you’re moving the knife away from its cutting edge

Work until you've created a burr along the opposite side.

Remember that the burr always forms on the side opposite to the one you're sharpening.

So by the time the entire second side has gotten a dozen or so strokes, it should once again feel smooth while that burr has now been pushed back over to the first side.

At this stage, I continue the same way I like to hone my knives: Keep sharpening it one side at a time, but with each flip, use fewer and fewer strokes until I am running the blade along the stone just once per side and the entire edge feels smooth with no hint of a burr.

Step 6: Move on to finer stones

Once you've established your edge on the coarse stone, move up in grit and repeat the process.

If you’re on a 400-grit, switch to an 800 or a 1,000. If you've just finished 1,000 and want an even finer, smoother edge, jump up to a 2,000 or 3,000. Keep going, using the exact same technique as you move up the grits, until the blade is as sharp and as gorgeous as you want it to be. Do note that as you move up in grits, the burr will become smaller and smaller—but your fingers are sensitive enough to feel it!

Keep reducing strokes as you finish, alternating sides until you're left with as clean and centered an edge as possible.

Step 7: Hone and test your new edge

You’ve probably all seen that classic paper test for knife sharpness: Run the edge of the knife at an angle against the edge of a sheet of paper and it should slice through it no problem. Personally I don’t find this particular test useful. Even a moderately sharp knife can make it through a sheet of paper but still perform poorly in the kitchen.

The best test for a kitchen knife is what it was made for: food! Grab something inexpensive that you slice frequently—an onion, an apple, or a carrot, for instance—and give it a shot.

Does the knife bite immediately rather than slipping? Can your knife slip through skin or shave off a paper-thin slice without crushing the food underneath it? Does it require noticeably less pressure than it did before?

If so, congratulations. Your knife is sharp!

Now please, just don’t stick it in the dishwasher.

Step 8: Clean, flatten, and store your stones

Once you're done, rinse your stones and flatten them as necessary. When sharpening a knife, you are essentially rubbing a curved object against a flat one. Over time, a shallow channel will end up forming in your whetstone, making it difficult to use without accidentally gouging your knife or stone.

The fix for this is a stone fixer/leveler/flattening stone. These hard, high-grit stones are designed to be run back and forth across the surface of a whetstone to grind away the damage and expose a new sharpening surface.

Once your stones have been fixed, rinsed, and allowed to air-dry overnight on a rack, they’re ready to go back into the dry closet until the next time you almost slice off your finger while cutting chicken—when the knife sharpening cycle can begin again!