
Having a sharp knife in the kitchen makes a world of difference with your food prep and cooking experience. A super sharp knife will take you from feeling like a boring ol’ home cook-wanna-be to a bad-ass kitchen ninja. Truly. :)
If you don’t have a good knife, then go get one. On Amazon.com (<— best deals). Or ask for one on your next gift receiving holiday. Of course, there are many who would say you should feel the weight of the knife in your hand before purchasing. There’s some truth to that. Decide for yourself.
Back to the importance of a sharp knife: Would you believe a dull knife can be more dangerous than a sharp knife? Truly. When you have a dull knife, it can slip off the food your cutting and easily hit (read: injure) your finger. But with a sharp knife, although it’s sharp and seems more dangerous, it cuts effortlessly which gives you more control over the knife.
Control is a good thing.
Plus, a sharp knife makes for faster chopping.
Speed is a good thing.
The trouble is keeping your knife sharp. The best way is with whetstone sharpening, but I don’t have the whetstone, I don’t have the time, and I don’t have the skill – it’s a world unto itself.
Electric knife sharpeners are known to ruin knives – or at least you’re more prone to ruining your knives with an electric one. I’ve seen it happen as it can too easily get your knives misshapen.
While we’re talking about ruining knives… the last thing I want to do is ruin my nice knives. Here’s my collection of them with this one being my oldest and favorite. I bought it at raw food cooking school way back in the day, over 10 years ago. I recently bought the rectangular shaped vegetable cleaver last year for variety. I’m definitely a MAC fan. They’re reasonably priced and totally awesome.

The serrated knife and boning knife you see are Victorinox brand and I opted for spending less money when getting those. I didn’t go super fancy cuz frankly I don’t use them as often. However, they are fine knives and get very good reviews. For those of you wondering… that gorgeous walnut magnetic knife holder is this one. I had it on my wish list for the longest time and finally pulled the trigger to buy it for myself with some birthday money. It’s very cool and takes my coolness in the kitchen to the next level – of something or other.
Ok, so back to sharpening… we’ve covered that it’s safer to have sharp knives and that it’s proper for keeping your knives in good shape. But, how can you best sharpen your knives at home?

I use this great wet stone ceramic sharpener. I was hesitant because of the price, but it’s paid for itself.
You see, when I needed a good sharpening, in the past, I’d take my knives to the Knife House in Phoenix for a truly good sharpening with a whetstone. The trouble is that it isn’t convenient for me so I wasn’t doing it as often as needed (they always had a line and a long wait). I decided that I should probably embark on the steep learning curve of whetstone sharpening and went to a culinary tool store to research my options. When I was there, I was told about the MinoSharp 3 Knife Sharpener.
I figured that if I didn’t like it, I could return it. I checked reviews on Amazon and saw that it was popular. Ok, I bought it (at the culinary store seeing as they demonstrated it for me and all, but I did pay more that way. Amazon is less expensive, as usual).
But, who cares, cuz hot damn… It’s good!


Here’s how it works….
- Fill the little reservoir with some water, close the top. Gently run the knife through all three wheels, starting with the rough, then doing the middle, then doing the far right, which is fine. I do about 20 to 40 strokes per wheel before moving to the next wheel.
- Wipe the knife dry.
- Do a paper test. See if you can effortlessly cut a piece of paper with one stroke through it.

I find the act of sharpening with this sharpener quite meditative from doing all of the back and forth strokes. I just chill out and get my zen-ninja on while I’m doing it. Sometimes it only needs about 20 strokes per sharpening wheel and other times I’ll do 40 to 60 strokes per sharpening wheel.
But, that’s not all to keeping a knife properly sharpened. You need something between chopping episodes to keep it in nice and honed, since it’s not reasonable (or necessary) to give it a full-on sharpening every time. The honing rod helps the knife keep its edge for awhile, and you should use it after each chopping session. Heck, some chefs use it even more often than that, like mid-chopping of vegetables.
For honing my knives, I use this MAC ceramic honing rod. The ceramic makes it harder than a steel rod for faster results. It’s pretty, too.
