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This post recommends having serrated knives sharpened by professionals, and not an amateur. I ask about whetstones, steel rod, and pull-through sharpeners.

But wouldn't sharpening efface and remove the serration? Or can the professional recreate the serration? Here's my knife that needs sharpening, where I use these knife terms:

enter image description here

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  • This is not the serrated knife the other question talks about; those are like bread knives, with a wider serration.
    – Luciano
    Jul 26, 2018 at 9:00
  • What is the approximate cost of this knife? This will impact answers somewhat.
    – SnakeDoc
    Jul 26, 2018 at 17:26
  • @SnakeDoc Sorry. I don't know. My parents gave it to me, and they don't remember.
    – user24882
    Jul 26, 2018 at 19:07
  • Could you just remove all the labels in the image, and drop the extra knife parts image? The only additional information the images are really conveying is the type of serration, and the red label is still misleading.
    – Cascabel
    Aug 10, 2018 at 20:46
  • You have the wrong terms that is not a serrated knife.
    – Jade So
    Aug 10, 2018 at 21:19

3 Answers 3

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A decent micro-serrated knife stays reasonably sharp through heavy use. I have two (probably only Ikea own brand, or even supermarket own brand). They're not useful for everything, even brand new, but are generally handy (a little more detail in an old answer of mine).

I've also had some even cheaper similar knives (with the intention of keeping them in work for making sandwiches and that kind of thing). They were fairly rubbish new and were soon discarded when they'd lost what little edge they had. These knives tend to be fairly flexible, meaning that they're not suitable for applying brute force to overcome bluntness.

It would just about be possible to grind the serrations right off and make it into a straight blade, but even if you have a bench grinder for the bulk removal I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy sharpening knives: the knife doesn't sound very hard to start with, or it wouldn't have lost its initial edge so easily, so you'd end up sharpening quite often.

Other options include relegating them to undemanding kitchen tasks (again, see my old answer) or using them as garden tools (see the question I answered).

Forcing them when blunt isn't a good idea - if these blades slip the resulting cuts are more painful than from a straight blade.

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They can't really. The purpose of knives with microserration like in the one shown are as an alternative for people who are looking for knives that won't require upkeep.

Knives with a much wider serration can be sharpened professionally but it can be tricky.

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  • Sorry; I'm new to this and don't understand. (1). "They can't really." So is this dull knife useless now? Ought I bother taking it to a professional? (2) "You could probably very carefully sharpen the flat section of the knife in the picture" To where are you referring exactly? Do you mind illustrating this, e.g. with Paint on my screenshot? (3) "the serration at the base" Same as 2.
    – user24882
    Jul 26, 2018 at 3:53
  • Can you please respond in (by editing) your answer? A chain of comments is more cumbersome to read.
    – user24882
    Jul 26, 2018 at 3:54
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    @Greek-Area51Proposal I believe I misunderstood the text on your image. is the entire length of the blade serrated? I took the red arrow to mean part of the blade had a smooth flat edge.
    – Summer
    Jul 26, 2018 at 3:56
  • "is the entire length of the blade serrated?" No. The red arrow refers to the (main) part of the blade, which is truly smooth, flat.
    – user24882
    Jul 26, 2018 at 19:06
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    @Greek-Area51Proposal I'm not sure you're talking about the same thing still. bruglesco is asking about the full length of the edge of the blade, the theoretically sharp part you might cut with - is that serrated essentially all the way from tip to handle? Or is it unserrated toward the tip where your red arrow is, and serrated back toward the handle where the green arrow is? (All knives of course have a smooth body of the blade above the edge; that's not the part of the knife that cuts things, and serration modifies the cutting edge, not the body.)
    – Cascabel
    Jul 27, 2018 at 21:08
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There are many ways to sharpen knives with micro serrations. Its just uncommon.

The way I do it is to sharpen the knife like you would normally with a flat edge, and hit the area you want serrations with a 36 grit belt grinder. The last step would be to remove the burrs with a fine scotchbrite belt on the grinder.

If you want to do this by hand without any power tools, use a triangular needle file to sharpen each individual tooth.

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