Will using a knife sharpener reduce the lifetime of my knife?

Question

In the long run, is it better to regularly use a knife honer instead of a knife sharpener once in a while to keep the edge sharp?

Answer 1

You should use both. Knives have a very thin ragged edge (the burr) that is too small to see, which gets pushed over from use, and which makes the knife seem dull. A honing steel straightens this burr out. I use a honing steel before I cook every day.

Over time, the burr wears down, or can no longer be straightened. At this point, you will need to use the sharpener, which actually removes metal from the blade. One metaphor would be that if your knife was carpet, honing is like vacuuming, and sharpening is like steam cleaning.

Answer 2

Absolutely. A honer, or even better a sharpening steel removes a minuscule amount of material. Or knife will last a lifetime.

The honer only realigns the blade, it doesn't remove material and reestablish a true bevel.

Eventually, you'll use the honer and it won't do anything, thats when you use the sharpener.

Realize though, that the electric sharpeners often have a rough sharpening disk, and that will remove a lot of material. You want to use that sparingly.

Other than that, you can sharpen every few weeks and your knives should last years and years.

Answer 3

I worked with a 60+ year old chef who had been using the same knife since he started his apprenticeship at age 15 (no exaggeration). Over the decades he had worn away at least 1cm of blade width by sharpening and honing but it was still completely functional.