Why Even Bother Sharpening your Knives?

How many of us have gone on using the same knife out of the knife block day after day, year after year without thinking about it? Or tossed that knife into the dishwasher, or clanged it into the sink after you were done using it? How many Amazon packages has that knife opened for you before putting it back into your pocket without a second thought? When was the last time you did anything to that knife besides use it?

Those knives have been performing faithfully for years without fail and without your help. So why bother sharpening?

Sure, I'm sure those knives are still able to get dinner on the table or get open the package of treats for Fido. What I'm also sure of is that over the years of dedicated service to you is that over time they were becoming less effective, less sharp. Each cut taking a little more force to complete. Each cut less clean.

At first the wear on the knife isn't noticeable, but over time those small changes add up. At some point, instead of cutting with the knife, you are in effect pushing the knife through. Forcing it, instead of letting the edge do the work for you. Not unlike the frog in a pot analogy. The little cumulative changes aren't noticed until it's gotten bad enough to ignore.

I was trying to avoid using the cliche of a sharp knife is a safe knife, but it really is true. If you use a sharp knife to cut a carrot, there isn't much force required to make the cut. Easy. But if you use a dull knife on that carrot, you'll have to force that knife through. Putting lot of force down into the knife, greatly increasing the risk of slipping. Lots of force and a slip will make for either a nasty cut or stab wound.

I've been cut by sharp and dull knives, and while neither experience is enjoyable. The cut with a sharp knife has always been faster to heal and with much less pain. Remember the last paper cut you had? Recall how painful that little bugger was. I know I sure do, I used to work in a file room back when files were still on paper. I used to collect paper cuts like they were Pokemon.

That's in part due to how ragged and rough that edge is. It's most definitely not a clean cut.

Now compare that with a cut from a dull knife, how rough and ragged that edge would be compared to a sharp one.

Now lets compare a sharp knife with a pair of scissors. It's three day's before Christmas and your wrapping all those presents. Sitting on the floor with Elf playing on the TV for the third time today. While reciting the lines verbatim without looking you begin cutting the wrapping paper. That's when it happens, that magical moment when the scissors just glide. You smile, but not at the movie, but because you've just experienced that blissful moment of a tool doing its job well and you'll be chasing that high until the next present you wrap with The Avengers wrapping paper.

And that's the reason you should sharpen your knives! That blissful moment each time you use your knives, or scissors for that matter. To make that effortless cut or glide through whatever you're working on can be yours with just a little sharpening.