Comment aiguiser votre couteau :
Comment aiguiser et affûter vos couteaux à la maison

Il existe différentes façons de vérifier si votre lame doit être aiguisée. Le test du papier est l’une d’entre elles. Il vous suffit pour cela de tenir une feuille de papier avec une main et de la couper avec la lame tenue par l’autre main. Une lame tranchante doit pouvoir couper le papier sans effort. Une autre façon consiste à trancher une tomate. Si vos couteaux ont du mal à couper la peau fine et la chair tendre d’une tomate, c’est qu’ils ont sans doute besoin d’être aiguisés.

Ou sinon, la fréquence d’aiguisage peut également vous servir de guide. Pour cuisiner à la maison, nous vous recommandons d’aiguiser vos couteaux après 30 à 40 utilisations. Certains pros préfèrent aiguiser leurs lames avant chaque préparation de plats.

There are actually two processes involved in knife maintenance – sharpening and honing. What’s commonly referred to as sharpening is actually honing. Any blade can become dull – which essentially means its fine edge has become bent through use – and needs to be honed regularly. Honing lines the edge of the knife back up, reestablishing the full effect of its razor’s edge. You can do this yourself at home with a honing steel.

Sharpening, on the other hand, is a process where bits of the blade are ground and shaved off to produce a new, sharp edge. This can be done using a knife sharpener or an electric sharpener. And you don’t need to do it as frequently as honing – just a few times a year, or after every 300 uses or so. But don’t forget to always use the honing steel after sharpening! This is because sharpening removes material from the blade and then honing smooths the newly sharp edge, so it should always be done in this order.

With years of use and resharpening, the cutting edge of a knife blade will become thicker, making the resharpening process more difficult. In this case, we recommend a professional sharpening service. Our stores also offer this service for anyone who doesn’t feel like honing and sharpening their knives themselves.

We offer a variety of sharpening and honing tools, so how do you know which one is the right one for you? First, you need to understand the difference between honing and sharpening, so you can choose your tools accordingly. A combination of both honing and sharpening tools should be part of your kitchen equipment, even if you will only use the sharpening tools two or three times a year.

You should also choose the honing tool that’s best for your knife. Stamped knives are made of steel with a slightly lower level of hardness that makes honing easier, so it can be done with a domestic honing steel. The harder steel of a forged knife means you don’t have to sharpen it as often, but you’ll need a diamond or ceramic honing steel to do the job – because its level of hardness has to be significantly higher than that of the blade itself.

Smaller kitchen knives can also be easily sharpened with our Sharpy tool. Larger wavy edge blades like bread knives should be sharpened by professionals, but if you’re an experienced sharpener, you can also use the Sharpy for smaller wavy edged blades. For most people however, we recommend a professional knife service for all wavy edged blades.

Now that you’ve sharpened your knives, click here to see our tips on caring for them so that they’ll stay that way as long as possible.