WEBVTT

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- Today, we're gonna focus

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on sharpening your
knives with a whetstone.

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(cheerful music)

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So today we're using a whetstone

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to sharpen a few of my dull knives.

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So whetstone is W-H-E-T,

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but, in fact, they do have to be wet.

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So you want to take your whetstone

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and submerge it in water
for 30 minutes to 45 minutes

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before you plan on sharpening.

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When you're ready to sharpen your knife,

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set up your station.

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So I have a couple dish
towels set up here,

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and the dish towels do
two different things.

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So it keeps my stone from slipping around

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and it soaks up all that excess water.

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So the grit count is
labeled here on the side

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and it's just like the
thread count on your sheets.

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The lower thread count,
the lower grit count here

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means that you have larger grit,

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so it's a little bit coarser,

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and the higher grit count on the side

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means that it's a finer grit

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and there are smaller
pieces all packed together.

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If you watched our video on
honing, you know this already,

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but most western blades are
sharpened at a 20 degree angle.

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So take the knife you're working with,

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the knife you're
sharpening with right now,

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and you're gonna hold it
perpendicular to your stone.

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So you're 90 degrees, reduce it by half

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and you have a 45 degree angle.

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Reduce it by half for a 20
degree angle, or close to it.

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You want to just take it down a hair lower

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than that 22.5 degrees that you found.

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Use your thumb as your guide

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and you're gonna try to
hit that angle every time

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you drag your blade across the stone.

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Never have the blade pointed at you.

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You can see as I flip sides,
the spine faces my body,

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not the cutting edge.

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As I run the knife toward me,

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it's always off to the side hip.

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Maintain a firm grip on the handle.

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You want to give some firm pressure here

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as you run the knife.

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All right, so we're gonna do
five strokes on this side.

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Flip it, do five strokes on the next side.

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Flip it back, do four
strokes on that side.

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Flip it over, do four strokes over there.

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Three, three, two, two, one, one.

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And that's gonna be our course side done.

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As you swipe the blade across,
water's gonna come off,

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and you need the water there

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because it picks up grit from the stone

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and that grit creates
what we call a slurry

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and that slurry helps to
actually grind down your blade.

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So we want to keep providing water,

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that way we're not providing
bad friction with heat.

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If all the dings and chips
are out of your knife,

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then you're ready to move
onto the finer grit side,

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so that's the higher grit count.

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Same process, we're gonna
do five swipes on each side.

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Go down to four to three to two to one.

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All right, so that's it!

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All my knives look great.

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They're super sharp.

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I'm gonna finish this

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by honing my knives with a
honing steel, don't forget.

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Check out our video all about honing.

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And after that, wash all your knives.

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And that's it!

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Enjoy your new sharp edge.

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I'm Allie, thanks for watching,

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and check out some other
videos on Lifehacker.

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(cheerful music)