How to Use a Smith’s Knife Sharpener

In restaurants or on tv, the way chefs chop up anything so fast might’ve had you wonder about the speed. Now, though it’s a matter of practice and experience, it’s also a matter of having sharp utensils.

Kitchen utensils should always stay up to date, because not only do they make your life easier but faster as well.

It’s better to sharpen your knife as much as you require right when you need it, instead of buying a whole new knife set. Thus, let’s learn how to use a Smith’s knife sharpener, so we can help you get your work done in the kitchen faster and easier. 

A Little Backstory 

Since the dawn of humankind, our ancestors had always used sharpening tools and methods to keep their weapons sharp for hunting and staying protected in the wild. To this modern-day, we still use sharpening tools as our kitchen utensils.

The actual concept of knives came later, even though that’s still somewhat 75000 years ago. As the use of knives picked up, the sharpening process and use of sharpening tools followed.

Since the establishment of Smith’s in the mid-1880s, even though they have their own utensil lines, their sharpening tools and gadgets have been favored and prioritized by many around the world. Let’s look at a few of their current popular knife sharpeners and how they work.

Smith’s Diamond Combination Sharpener 

This sharpener has a coarse and grit diamond-like texture. Designed with the latest sharpening technologies, this makes the sharpening process fast and easy.

How to Use a Smith’s Knife Sharpener

Step 1: Hold the handle of the sharpener with one hand and hold the knife safely with the other.

Step 2: Using light oil or water on the stone, take the help of an angle guide if needed.

Step 3: Position your hand/thumb at the back of the blade of the knife to gain better control over the level of pressure while sharpening.

Step 4: Place your knife across the sharpener and start by pushing the blade away (in the opposite direction) from your body.

Step 5: Apply medium pressure, and make at least four of the same/similar strokes.

Step 6:Flip the knife towards you (so the blade is facing you), and secure the hold of the knife as stated before.

Step 7: Instead of pushing the blade away from you, this time, push/move it towards you.

Step 8: Be careful while flipping the knife and making strokes; otherwise, the knife may slip and end up injuring you.

Step 9: When you feel satisfied with the outcome, wash your knife properly to get rid of the fine dust left behind from sharpening.

Step 10:Wash and wipe the sharpener and store it in a dry place.

Smith’s 10 Second Knife Sharpener 

One of Smith’s more popular sharpeners, the 10-second sharpener, is multipurpose- as it can be used to sharpen other things like scissors, hooks, scales, etc.

 How to Use

Step 1: Hold the back of the sharpener carefully.

Step 2: Position your fingers and knuckle to fit inside the handguard. Place your thumb on the thumb rest on top of the sharpener.

Step 3: Lay your knife on a dry and clean, solid, even surface, keeping the cutting edge in a face-up position.

Step 4: Maintain the 90-degree angle, and start sharpening, holding the knife tightly but safely.

Step 5: Put downward pressure as nice and evenly as possible across the blade, and make the same stroke at least four times.

Step 6: Be careful while putting downward pressure; sudden hard pressure can cause the knife to slip into your hand instead and injure you.

Step 7: Wash the knife to get rid of the fine dust.

Step 8: Rinse and wipe the sharpener and store it in a dry and safe place.

Smith’s Tri-Hone Knife Sharpening System

Made of three different types of stones placed on a plastic triangle, this sharpener makes sharpening any knives and utensils easy. This sharpener comes with 2top-notch Arkansas stones in addition to a sharpening bonded abrasive stone, as well as their premium honing oil and an angle guide.

The sharpening stones are as following:

1. Fine (Hard) Natural Arkansas Stone.
2. Medium (soft) Natural Arkansas Stone.
3. Aluminum Oxide (Bonded Abrasive) Stone.

Generally, you can begin with the Medium stone and finish your final honing and polishing with the Fine Arkansas Stone. The Abrasive Coarse stone is primarily reserved and used to realign the cutting edge and to remove nicks. 

How to Use 

The tri-hone sharpening system stones are very easy to use and completely similar to the steps of using the Smith’s Diamond Combination Sharpener.

Now, the difference is the use of honing oil and angle guide was optional in the case of the former and you might have had to buy them separately. Now honing oil and angle guide come along with the three kinds of sharpening stones.

Here, the angle guide makes your work easier, and the lubricant/honing helps the sharpening stones stay protected, sharp, and last longer.

 Conclusion 

Dull knives are difficult to work with; they make your work slow and sloppy. Thankfully there are many tools to help you out, and we have mentioned a couple from the best. Now that you have figured out how to use a Smith’s knife sharpener, we hope you get your work done better, faster, and finer!