Looking for advice...honing serrated knives

[Chef Mark]

I have always been 'shy' about honing my serrated knives before getting them professionally sharpened---I am always too busy when our pro-sharpening fella comes to the restaurant...never to late to ask...any advice?

[Rob Babcock]

What brand/type of serrated are they? It's generally possible to sharpen them by lightly doing the back side (opposite the serrations) at a very low angle on a stone. Most pro sharpeners say if your knife is serrated on both sides then it's disposable; throw it away when it's dull.

I'll tell you something that does a fantastic job with nearly all the serrated blades I've tried it on- The Edgemaker Pro System. I've got bread knifes that will tree-top hair after a few passes thru it. If you look around this particular part of the forum there's some discussion of these little tools.

One big virtue of the system is simplicity; they're extremely easy to learn and easy to use, yet very effective. They also remove very little metal, prolonging the life of the blade. And the price is great, too. You can order the 3 peice set comprising all 4 grits for $30 shipped.

[Rob Babcock]

Everyone always seems to claim their knives are "shaving sharp," so I can see many may be skeptical of these constant claims. So let me give you some crappy pictures to show you what I mean! Sorry for the quality; it's hard to shave hair with one hand whilst trying to focus and take a picture with the other. I just didn't manage to hold the camera very still. Plus, my legs haven't seen any sun in years. You'd be able to see it better on my arm since the hair is darker and (normally) thicker, but 1) I have almost no armhair on my left arm since I always test my knives on it and 2) if I shaved on my arm I'd have to take the picture with my mouth!

The point is, this is with a $15 serrated bread knife sharpened with about 10 light strokes thru the yellow Edgemaker Pro handy honer.





Another one:

[Yonsen]

to hone mine(it has deep teeth), i find the angle with a steel using the tooth-slopes as a guide and gently drag it back and forth a few times on each tooth until i reach the end. After that, on a shallow angle, i slide the flat side of the blade along the steel.

The edge should be sharp if not too much force was put into the honing process...otherwise you will just bend it back where it was initially.


as for sharpening ,i would either use a round (not oval) diamond steel and do the same process...Gently as the diamond abrasives will eat your blade. Otherwise send it in to sharpen professionally ....should not cost more than a few bucks. (i prefer hand methods over machine).

[Chef Mark]

thanks for the insight-an off-set Dick knife I really like...took advice-now sharp as new

[buzzard767]

Originally Posted by Rob Babcock

Nice pic Rob. That's your arm ---- right???? LOL

[Robo410]

pretty fuzzy leg of lamb, eh?

[buzzard767]

Originally Posted by Robo410

pretty fuzzy leg of lamb, eh?

Were you holding the camera in your mouth????

[Rob Babcock]

I had to use my leg for two reasons: 1) as a knifenut I have no arm hair left and 2) I needed one hand for the knife and one for the camera.

BTW, although an Edgemaker Pro works very well for serrated, just sharpening the back side (the un-serrated side) on a 1000 grit waterstone works well. Use a very steep angle and don't raise a burr.

I'm not a fan of trying to steel the inside of the serrations. More power to you if you can do it but most of the times I see people try it they just mangle the points and deform the serrations. Of course YMMV.