Sharpen a serrated knife?

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chiklitmanfan

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I have a fairly thin flexible serrated vegetable knife that I would like to sharpen up. It is of high quality and after a couple of years it has lost its scalpel-like edge. Can you effectively sharpen up a small thin serrated knife?:huh:
 
Yes, but you only sharpen one side, the side that does not have the serrations. Look close and you will see which side is which. This means you can not use one of those 'pull-through' hand held sharpeners. You either use a whet stone, or an electric sharpener that sharpens one side at a time, such as an Edgecraft Chef's Choice sharpener.
 
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I was considering using my Dremel which has an assortment of little miniature cylindrical whet stones to sharpen the serrated side but that thing has such power that one minor slip would ruin the knife. Will try what y'all advise and forget the former idea. Thanks.....
 
I have a couple of knives with this type of serration. I use a lansky system with a stone for serrated edges. The instruction is to use the stone to follow the curve of the serration.

If you have a fine stone that fits the serration, I'd try it.
 

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Have a look at this Edgemaker video. It shows him sharpening a serrated knife with it.
I've moved on to using a Zwilling J.A. Henckels Stainless Steel Duo Knife Sharpener, but I still have the Edgemaker to sharpen my serrated knife. It sharpens it well.

You can slide ahead to 2:33 of that video to see him sharpening a serrated blade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwyHJfBk5eU
 
I think to properly sharpen serrated knives requires lots of patience. I personally would refrain from using pull throughs or electric knife sharpeners. There are sharpening rods by DMT made specifically to sharpen serrations. That's what I think you need. The best way is to go through each serration with the rod and do it that way. There's a good video on YouTube which explains exactly how to do it. Search it up and go from there. Good luck!
 
Have a look at this Edgemaker video. It shows him sharpening a serrated knife with it.
I've moved on to using a Zwilling J.A. Henckels Stainless Steel Duo Knife Sharpener, but I still have the Edgemaker to sharpen my serrated knife. It sharpens it well.

You can slide ahead to 2:33 of that video to see him sharpening a serrated blade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwyHJfBk5eU

Believe it or not this device really does work well on serrated.
 
Hand the knife into a specialist before you ruin the edge, that is what I do with mine.
 
A lot of serrated knives are flat on one side of the blade. You can keep them sharp for a long time just by honing that side flat on a whetstone and ignoring the scalloped side. This can leave scratches on the flat side, but that doesn't bother me. I use a 1,000 grit or higher for this so the scratches are not too deep.

On the scalloped side, if you are sharpening by hand, you need a round ceramic or diamond rod that fits the grooves. Difficult, but not impossible.
 
A lot of serrated knives are flat on one side of the blade. You can keep them sharp for a long time just by honing that side flat on a whetstone and ignoring the scalloped side. This can leave scratches on the flat side, but that doesn't bother me. I use a 1,000 grit or higher for this so the scratches are not too deep.

On the scalloped side, if you are sharpening by hand, you need a round ceramic or diamond rod that fits the grooves. Difficult, but not impossible.

I took a look at my serrated steak knifes. Sure enough it is flat on one side. I also have an old stone that at one time belonged to the local neighborhood knife sharpener that would sharpen the knives for women. He walked the streets hollering out to announce his presence.

So I used this stone for the first time to sharpen one steak knife per the information in this posted subjected. Let me tell you, it passed the cutting paper test. I will get back to you when it comes to cutting meat.
 
Great! Glad it helped.

"local neighborhood knife sharpener"- now _that's_ East Boston, lol. I learned to sail in Boston Harbor, out of the Boston Sailing Center, not far from you. Learning to sail in Boston Harbor is like learning to drive on the New Jersey Turnpike.
 
Great! Glad it helped.

"local neighborhood knife sharpener"- now _that's_ East Boston, lol. I learned to sail in Boston Harbor, out of the Boston Sailing Center, not far from you. Learning to sail in Boston Harbor is like learning to drive on the New Jersey Turnpike.

My kids make it around a rotary even when it is not their turn. If you can drive in Boston without losing your sanity, you now know your very own strength. Rotaries are the bane of folks who are out-of-staters. For our English friends, rotaries = round-abouts. I think Massachusetts is the last state to have them. There are two of them right down the road from me.

Actually where you learned to sail was on the mouth of the Charles River. The flow of the river mixing with the tides coming and going can make sailing very difficult. Even for a motorized boat.
 
A lot of serrated knives are flat on one side of the blade. You can keep them sharp for a long time just by honing that side flat on a whetstone and ignoring the scalloped side. This can leave scratches on the flat side, but that doesn't bother me. I use a 1,000 grit or higher for this so the scratches are not too deep.

On the scalloped side, if you are sharpening by hand, you need a round ceramic or diamond rod that fits the grooves. Difficult, but not impossible.

Sharpening the scallop parts of a serrated knife. "Edgemaker" video posted earlier. Check it out.
 
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