3 Good Reasons to Sharpen Your Own Knives

A sharp knife is more effective, more efficient and safer. No edge lasts forever, of course, and we find no joy in using a knife that's about as sharp as a billiard ball.

Many knifemakers -- Bark River, Benchmade, Zero Tolerance and others -- offer sharpening services at little or no cost to you, and sometimes that's a good option. We believe, however, that you should sharpen your own knives. Here are three good reasons why.

1. Sharpening is a skill. We're only as good as our skills. We can have all kinds of fancy, expensive and way-cool knives, but they're just tools. What matters is what we can do with them.

In our opinion, skills define us.

Sharpening is a skill which must be learned. Sharpening a knife is a manual task which takes time to accomplish. While those two truths may not fly high in our automated world, they're essential to owning a knife. So if you own the tool, you should make the commitment to acquiring the skills required to maintain it.

2. You'll learn about your knife. When you sharpen a knife by hand, you learn about its steel, its grind and its edge. By getting a feel for angle and motion, time and effort, you'll find out how hard and wear-resistant the material is.

Listen carefully -- you'll hear the steel talking.

The lessons you take, by the way, apply not only to sharpening a knife, but also to using it. Taking the time to sharpen your own knives will pay big dividends when you put them to work.

3. You're taking responsibility for your knife. We're often amazed at folks who bemoan the disturbing trend toward "outsourcing," and yet they farm-out ordinary tasks that they're perfectly capable of doing themselves.

Like sharpening a knife, for example.

It's your knife. You will be the first person to sense that its edge is getting dull -- not a sharpening service, not your buddy, you. It's just common sense for you to take personal responsibility for maintaining it. Make the commitment to keeping your knife effective, efficient and safe.

Want to learn more? Visit our Knife Sharpening page.