Hi, I'm Jesse Holliday the executive
chef at VA Portland healthcare system
today we'll be showing you the three
essential knives you'll find in a home
kitchen and how to safely sharpen them
the first knife we're gonna use is
called a chef's knife this is a 10-inch
knife
they also come in other sizes where I
personally recommend the 10-inch I feel
the 10-inch has more functionality
because you can cut larger items such as
watermelons or large roasts with a
smaller knife you would have to cut
around or make multiple cuts to get the
job done
ensure the knife is stainless steel
German steel is preferred by chefs but
overall the general rule is that the
steel must be rigid and cannot have any
flex flexible knives when sharpened tend
to dull quicker than stainless steel and
lose more metal throughout its life with
German steel this is less of an issue
the second knife we're going to use is
the paring knife this is used for detail
work with small items chefs use this
knife for peeling such as an apple you
can also use it for cutting tops off
strawberries and things of that nature
the last knife we're going to use as the
boning knife these come in two different
varieties the rigid version and the
flexible version the rigid knife is
designed for red meats or pork or
chicken the flexible knife is designed
for fish because the flesh of the meat
is a little more delicate and so having
the extra flexibility really helps out
so now that we've described the three
essential knives I'll demonstrate
different ways to care for them the
easiest tool used to sharpen knives is
called a honing steel a honing steel
doesn't actually sharpen a knife rather
it hones the edge that's already there
there are multiple methods to accomplish
this but I'll explain the most efficient
way run your knife at a 15 degree angle
down the length of the honing steel then
hone the other edge of the knife and
repeat on both sides to ensure safety
perform the sharpening away from you
while still sharpening at a 15 degree
angle down both sides of the blade
repeat the sharpening on both sides a
few times until you feel that the
sharpening is complete
test the new refinement and repeat as
necessary
honing both sides to test the sharpness
of the knife stroke your finger
perpendicular to the blade don't stroke
your finger parallel to the blade
because you will cut yourself ensure you
stroke your finger perpendicular to the
blade lightly to feel how sharp the
knife is what you're trying to feel for
is called a burr when a knife gets dull
the knife edge will actually curve in on
itself creating a burr it'll make the
knife dull feel the sharpness of the
knife make sure there is no burr there
if you feel uncomfortable running your
finger over the knife test it by cutting
some produce personally I recommend
using the finger method because it'll
make you familiar with the blade now if
honing does not work for sharpening your
knife eventually you're going to have to
sharpen it using some other method
instead of taking it to a sharpening
store or someplace that sharpens it for
you you can do it yourself now I have
here a sharpening stone that I purchased
over the Internet
the stone was relatively cheap it was
only two dollars there are two sides of
this stone a coarse and a medium grain
there are also fine grain stones
available
make sure you soak the stone in water
for about 15 minutes prior to applying
oil I'll explain why momentarily place
the stone over a damp towel so that it
won't move too much you don't want any
move in because you'll definitely cut
yourself when you're sharpening the
knife the last thing you'll need is a
mineral oil you don't want to use
regular kitchen oil like vegetable oil
or olive oil because it'll leave a
residue over your stone which will build
up over time and ruin the stone all I'm
going to do is apply a small amount of
mineral oil over the top of the stone if
you do not soak the stone in water for
15 minutes prior to apply in the mineral
oil the stone will soak the oil up like
a sponge the oil acts as a lubricant
during the sharpening of the knife
spread the mineral oil throughout the
stone surface now you'll use the same
technique used with the honing steel
you're going to use a 15 degree angle
but you're going to want to keep the
knife at that angle across the entire
stone cut into the stone diagonally
keeping the same angle as you drag it
across the stone while keeping a light
pressure on the edge of the blade
don't cut straight into the stone and
don't swipe across the stone again
keeping the blade at a 15 degree angle
drag it across the stone diagonally
while keeping a light pressure on the
edge of the blade repeat this process on
the opposite side of the knife ensure
you drag the whole edge of the blade
across the stone repeat this process
about five or six times till you get
used to the technique when you feel that
you are done test the knife like we did
when using the honing steel run your
finger over the blade as you did earlier
and check for burrs if you applied
uneven pressure when sharpening the
knife on either side of the knife you'll
feel a bird going left or right to fix
that run the knife across the stone over
the burr side once then test again
finally when you're done using the
sharpening stone use the honing steel to
give the edge of keen finish
so today I showed you three essential
knives in the home kitchen and two
different methods of sharpening I hope
you enjoyed and happy cooking
you
