How often should you sharpen your knife?

This is a question we get asked a lot here at Knife Sharp, and the simple answer is ‘when they are dull’!

However, how long it takes for them to get dull is very much ‘how long is a piece of string’ type of question. But for general at home kitchen use we always recommend sharpening your knives at least every 3 months, and much more if you always want your knives to be very sharp.

If you are finding your knives are dulling faster than expected, it’s normally down to one of three reasons:

• The knife is made from poor quality steel – as such the steel is not very hard so the edge quickly gets damaged in normal use and loses its sharpness.
• The last time you sharpened them you didn’t do a good job – one of the most common comments we get from people using our service is how impressed they are at how long their knives stay sharp after sending them to us. That’s because we sharpen them properly using our years of experience and correct methods. A poorly sharpen knife can have a very weak edge and as such blunts very quickly.
• You are not looking after the knife – using hard plastic chopping boards, cutting through hard materials, or throwing your knives into the dishwasher are a sure-fire way to blunt your knives very quickly.

Trying to force a dull knife through food is an accident waiting to happen, as the saying goes, a sharp knife is a safe knife. It’s also much more fun and enjoyable slicing and dicing with sharp knives rather than struggling with dull ones.  

A good test to know when it’s time to get your knife sharpened is when you can’t slice easily through a tomato. We offer a regular subscription service, so you can always have sharp knives. We have several at home foodies, restaurants, and cafes that use this service, as such they always have sharp and safe knives. 

Get in touch with us if you have any questions around if you should get your knives sharpened or not. Remember even cheap knives can be made extremely sharp.

Stay Sharp!