Whether you are using a chef knife or a hunting knife you always want to slice your food effortlessly and cleanly. A dull knife is always dangerous and most likely you will lose your grip.
This is the single most reason why a knife should be sharpened. When sharpening a knife the blade gets rubbed against the sharpening stone and a few amounts of metal gets removed from the surface of the blade.
After the knife gets sharpened a Greyish residue is left over which is a mixture of stone and metal which gets formed due to friction.
The greyish residue can be quite dangerous for the health if the knife is not cleaned properly and It can lead to severe health Issues.
Therefore, It becomes quite important to clean your blade after sharpening it.
So, In this post im going to give a complete guide on why should you wash a knife after sharpening. So not let’s try to find out more in this article.
Should You Wash a Knife After Sharpening?
When sharpening the blade you would see that the metal gets removed when water is added during sharpening, in the form of paste.
Depending on the type of sharpening stone that you are using, you will remove less or more metal from the knife blade.
You do not need to remove them during the sharpening process, but after sharpening the blade it’s important to remove them.
The grey residue can be quite dangerous if you cook your food without cleaning the blades. After sharpening the blade, make sure that you wash your blades using dishwashing soap and hot water.
Once you complete sharpening your blades rinse the blade with clean water, and air dry or pat dry the blade with a clean paper towel. This will remove all the metal and stone particles from the blade.
Types of Honing Rod That Removes Metal
There are many different types of honing rods used for sharpening a knife blade, and the technique that you are using for honing mostly depends on what you are trying to achieve.
If you just need to realign the edge of the blade and maintain it well, then two or three swipes from both sides of the blade with minimum pressure should be sufficient.
- Steel Rod: The steel rods are perfect for smooth honing and they will not remove a noticeable amount of steel from the knife blade. Most kitchen uses this type of sharpening rod.
- Ceramic Rods: These types of rods are slightly more abrasive than steel rods and this will remove a small amount of metal.
- Diamond Coated Rod: The rod removes a large amount of metal from the blade. Most professionals use such types of sharpening rods.
Honing vs Sharpening
Honing and sharpening are both completely different. Honing is the process of maintaining the edge of a knife that is already sharp. Honing the blade pushes the blade back and straight to the edge of the blade.
Honing the blade corrects the edge of the blade without shaving much material from the edge of the blade, and if done properly the blade will seem sharper.
If you are a professional, It is always recommended to hone your blade before use, so that you can get a better cutting experience.
On the other hand sharpening, your blade actually removes metal from the blade edge and actually sharpens the blade.
There are a variety of sharpening tools that you can use. To get real results, there is no other way than to use a sharpening stone.
To use a sharpening stone you just have to hold the edge of the blade at an angle of 20 degrees and apply pressure using the other hand. As you guide the blade across the stone the blade gets sharpened.
Best Honing Rods
- SHARPAL Professional Ceramic Sharpening Honing Rod Steel
- Japanese Diamond Honing Rod, Professional High Carbon
- Ninja Knife Sharpening Rod
- Nobel Honing Rod
Should You Wash a Knife After Honing
Honing is just the process of maintaining and correcting the edge of the blade, and It only removes very little metal from the edge of the blade if you are using a steel rod.
If you are just using a steel honing rod it is not actually required to wash the blades.
By sharpening you take some metal and create an edge, but by honing you just realign the edge of the knife blade.
How To Clean a Knife After Sharpening
- Cleaning a knife after sharpening is quite easy, and you just need to follow the below steps.
- Once sharpening is completed there will be a grey residue on the surface of the blade.
- Remove the grey residue from the surface of the blade by pouring clean water.
- Now lose the debris from the blade by using honing oil dish soap.
- Finally scrub all the leftover metal and debris with a clean brush, and non-metal scouring pad and wash the blade with hot water.
Conclusion
I hope this guide would have helped you in finding out why knives need to be cleaned after sharpening.
No matter whether you are using an electric knife sharpener or a Whetstone, It’s always a safe choice to sharpen the blades.
We hope this article has been helpful in helping you in finding the solution to your answer. So, If you have any questions please share them in the comments below!
FAQ: Why Should Knives Be Cleaned After Sharpening
There are a lot of questions asked by a lot of people and these are some of the most commonly asked questions asked by people and I have added them to this article.
1. What Is The Last Thing You Must Do After Sharpening a Knife?
The last step after sharpening your blade is to remove the burr from the knife blade. Then you can wash your knife blade with soap.
2. Should You Wet a Knife Before Sharpening it?
The natural sharpening stone can be used wet or dry. But wet is recommended to dissipate the frictional heat and ensure smooth action while sharpening.