Deep Dive: Sharpening

Whenever we have asked you all for what you want to see and learn about, the answers almost always include how to best sharpen your Bloodroot Blades knife. There are so many systems and tools out there that it can be very confusing to know what to do, so today I'm going to give you a simple approach that will help your knives cut well and last as long as possible. 

Bloodroot Blades knives are different from most knives out there because the edges are very thin and hard, and the steel we use is chosen and heat treated to be easy to sharpen. All of these features make your BB knife quicker to sharpen to a high quality edge than almost any other type of knife. 

Most of our styles of knives are made with very hard steel, which allows us to have edges that are quite thin. This thinness creates excellent cutting efficiency, but it also means (and this is important) that when it’s time to sharpen your knife, very little metal needs to be removed to get the edge back in good condition. Most sharpening problems we see involve people taking off too much metal.

The ticket is to remove as little metal as is necessary to reestablish the edge. A fine ceramic hone (not a steel or diamond hone) is your best friend. Honing can be done frequently and should take less than 20-30 seconds with 5 to 10 light strokes per side. Here is a four minute video demonstrating some honing techniques. Enjoy me figuring out how to film a video in my kitchen :)

Sharpening on Stones

Once a ceramic hone is no longer putting your edge back to complete sharpness, you can sharpen on a 1000 grit stone. This should only be necessary once or twice a year (for a home cook). Coarser stones (lower numbers than 1000) are usually unnecessary and can take off too much metal. Sharpening on a 1000 grit stone should take 1-3 minutes for most of our knives, though it may take a little longer if the knife is super dull or the knife has a thicker edge - like a belt knife or yo deba. If you want to, you can refine the edge with a 4000-8000 grit stone.

Finally, to clean off the final rough microscopic foil of metal on the edge (called a wire-edge or burr) and give the edge a nice polish you can use a stropping technique discussed in the video below. This is not necessary, but does help your knife hold its edge a little longer and make it a little keener.  One quick side note on sharpening with stones: make sure your stones are reasonably flat. 

If you do not feel comfortable sharpening your BB knives on water stones, we can do this for you (see info at the bottom of this page)

Edge Angle

This is our most commonly asked question! When you are sharpening on stones, shoot for approximately 15 degrees (about the angle of a paper matchbook wedge) on each side for our typical double bevel knives. Honestly, edge angle is not very important on a knife that has a thin edge geometry like most of our knives do, and they will cut pretty well with anything from a 8-10 degree edge to a 25 degree edge. So, don’t stress about this. 

Here is a 10 minute video talking through these sharpening techniques:

Why most store bought sharpeners shouldn’t be used for BB knives

Store-bought sharpeners are usually designed for thick, soft, stainless steel knives and are therefore too aggressive for BB knives - they take metal off too quickly and too unevenly. Pull-through or electric sharpeners will typically shorten the life of your knives (because they are taking off too much metal), and they do not give you the cut quality the knife was designed for. These systems also make future sharpening more difficult. The same thing is true of ridged metal steels/hones and most diamond steels/hones and probably your local guy with a belt sander. They are designed to rip off steel quickly to give you a quick and dirty edge and are simply too aggressive for the way our knives are designed.

Also, no worries if you have been using these systems on our knives. We are glad to restore the edge for you free of charge if and when needed.

Suggested sharpening tools

Simple ceramic hone: we use a Lansky Sharp Stick. You’ll see in this link that it’s listed as Medium grit, but that’s not accurate - we’d guess it’s around #1500 grit and works great for us. There are also many other good ceramic hones out there. You're looking for fine or super fine, so stay away if the hone is advertised as coarse or lower than #1000 grit. 

Waterstones: King #1200 (our favorite, needs soaking ahead of time, may be hard to find), #1000/4000 grit, #1000/6000 grit. Two-sided combination stones by a variety of companies are great systems for the infrequent sharpener and are usually easy to find online.  

You can also always send your BB knives back to us for free sharpening. If you get your knife to us, we will turn it around quickly and we cover return shipping. If you want to send your knife in for sharpening, you can contact us at info@bloodrootblades.com.