Mercer Sharpening Guide M15950: Angle Clip for Whetstones, Explained
The Mercer Sharpening Guide M15950 is a small plastic clip. It hooks onto the spine of a chef knife. Two ceramic feet rest against the whetstone below. That contact point sets your sharpening angle. It is not a clamp, a jig with a rod, or an electric guide. It is the cheapest, simplest guide in […]
How to Sharpen a Box Cutter: When It Is Worth It and When to Snap the Blade
A heavy duty trapezoid blade costs about a dime. It gives you two usable tips before it is trash. That is the whole math behind how to sharpen box cutter blades. Sharpening only makes sense if it beats roughly twelve seconds and five cents. Some utility blades are worth a few passes on a stone. […]
How to Sharpen a Knife Tip: Fixing a Broken or Rounded Point
How to sharpen a knife tip is really two different jobs wearing the same name. One is a repair: the point broke off and needs a new tip ground from the spine. The other is a technique fix. The tip rounded off during normal sharpening and never touched the edge at all. This guide covers […]
Single Bevel Knife Sharpening: Ura, Shinogi, and the Order That Works
Sharpen the bevel side first, at about 15 degrees on a medium stone. Follow with light flat strokes on the back. That order matters for single bevel knife sharpening: the back only needs light contact, not a real grind. Flip that order and the flat back, called the uraoshi, gets ground down before it needs […]
Sharpening Choil: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Cut One
A sharpening choil is a small notch in a blade. It sits where the cutting edge meets the ricasso or the handle. Its only job is to give a sharpening tool room to exit cleanly at the heel. People often confuse it with a finger choil. A finger choil is much bigger. It sits near […]
Burr Knife Sharpening: Raising, Feeling, and Removing the Burr
Plenty of home sharpeners panic the first time they feel a rough, thready edge forming mid session. They think they nicked the blade or ruined the bevel. That rough edge is the burr, and burr knife sharpening only works if that burr shows up first. It is proof, not a mistake. The stone reached the […]
Tru Hone Knife Sharpener: What the Pro Machine Actually Does
Plenty of home cooks assume a tru hone knife sharpener is just a heavier electric sharpener. It is not. It is built for shops that sharpen dozens of blades a day, not for one home cook’s two knives. The myth sticks around because Tru Hone uses the same marketing language as a countertop unit. The […]
Can You Take a Sharpener on a Plane? TSA Rules for Sharpening Tools
Your duffel is half packed for a week at elk camp. Your sharpening stone sits on the counter next to your knife. You want one answer before you zip the bag. Can you take a sharpener on a plane, in a carry on bag or only checked? The short version is that most sharpening stones […]
Mail In Knife Sharpening: How It Works, Who Does It Well
Mail in knife sharpening trades a week of waiting for an edge you cannot get at home. You box up your knives, send them out, and they come back sharp. The math works when the knife is worth the wait and no good local option exists. This guide covers how the process actually works. It […]
Knife Sharpening Cost: Real Price Bands for Every Route
Professional knife sharpening runs a few dollars per blade at the low end. Specialty work runs ten times that. A farmers market table might charge five dollars a knife. A Japanese specialist doing a full hand stone finish can bill forty. Knowing which cost band your knife falls into saves money. It also keeps you […]