How To Sharpen Serrated Knives

As everyone knows, stainless steel and other metal blades work best when they have a sharp edge. Unfortunately, over time you will find that blades become blunted. This makes them less efficient; it also makes the cut less neat, and it can even be dangerous – in many instances, a blunt blade can increase the chance of slipping and causing an accident.  You should always ensure that your knives are regularly sharpened, whether they are machine knives or simply part of your kitchen equipment.

But what about serrated knives? Maybe you have a favourite bread knife that has become worn. What can you do to get it back to a good condition, ready to use safely and effectively? At Precision Edge Limited, we are here to help with all your enquiries that relate to blades and machine cutting edges.

Serrated Knives – When do they need Sharpening?

It can be difficult to know when your blade needs to be sharpened, especially with the curved shape of the serrations. A good sign can be when it is no longer as quick for cutting, for example if it is taken more time or energy to divide the item in two. Another sign is if the edge is dragging in the cut. This can be shown by torn edges to the cut. If you are cutting food, it will likely look uneven, not smooth, and in the case of bread or cake, there will be many crumbs left behind. These are a good indication that it is time to restore the cutting edge.

How to Sharpen your Serrated Knife?

If you are working by hand, you should not use a traditional sharpener tool as these are almost always designed for straight edges and will damage the precision serrations. Firstly, make sure that you are working safely. You should not start to do a job like this unless you are competent at using the tools, you are in a safe workspace, and you have appropriate safety equipment like gloves. Once you are set up for working safely, locate the bevelled side of the blade, since the edge should have a flat side and one which is bevelled. This is the side that you will want to sharpen.

Having identified the correct side, take a sharpening rod of an appropriate size. There is no avoiding it, this is a slow process because you need to do each serration individually. Hold the rod flat against the angle of the bevel, so it should be at a fairly flat angle to the face of the blade. Smoothly run the rod against the blade edge several times, making sure that it is continually running against the side of the bevel at the same angle.

Repeat this step for each of the serrations. Once you have done them all, you need to make sure that there are no burrs, or small pieces of metal, along the edge of the blade. Use a whetstone or a very fine sandpaper and carefully run it along the flat side of the knife. Your blade should be sharp and ready to use.

How can Precision Edge Limited help?

As you can tell from this article, the process of sharpening is slow and time consuming. If you have multiple machine blades, then it will take even longer. Why not see how affordable our prices are? Let us focus on what we do best and use your valuable time for what your company needs. You can find our contact details on the website, we are waiting to hear from you.