Sharpening a blade that is already sharp
Every blank we ship arrives sharpened at 400 grit. That is a working edge — it will cut when it reaches you. What it will not do is stay that way forever, and what you do about that depends on the steel.
This guide covers maintaining an edge that already exists, which is a different and much easier job than creating one.
Stropping: the step most people skip
Before you reach for a stone, reach for a strop.
A working edge dulls in two ways. It wears away, which needs abrasive. And it rolls over — the very apex bends to one side. A rolled edge is not blunt; it is misaligned, and stropping straightens it.
How: a leather strop, loaded with fine compound or bare. Blade flat, spine slightly raised, drawn away from the edge — never into it. Ten passes per side.
When: before use, or whenever the knife feels like it is starting to slide instead of bite. A knife stropped regularly can go months between sharpenings.
This single habit does more for edge life than any steel upgrade.
When stropping is not enough
If the edge fails a paper test after stropping, the apex has worn rather than rolled, and it needs abrasive.
Choosing the abrasive for your steel
Hardness and carbide content decide what will actually cut your blade:
- 1.4116 at 54–57 HRC — any stone. Ceramic, waterstone, even a pull-through in a pinch.
- N690 at 58–60 — ordinary waterstones work well. This is part of why N690 is such a comfortable steel to live with.
- AEB-L at 60 — waterstones. The fine grain means it sharpens more easily than the hardness suggests.
- Sleipner at 60–62 — good waterstones or ceramic.
- Elmax, M390, Vanax at 60–61 — diamond or high quality ceramic. The vanadium carbides in these steels are harder than the abrasive in a standard stone, so an ordinary stone polishes the softer matrix and leaves the carbides standing.
- Vanadis 4 Extra at 63–64 — diamond. There is no shortcut here.
Using a stone that cannot cut your steel is the most common reason people conclude a premium blade "will not take an edge."
Grit sequence
For maintenance, you rarely need to start coarse:
- Edge slightly dull — 1000 grit, then strop.
- Edge noticeably dull — 400 to 600, then 1000, then strop.
- Chipped or damaged — start at 220 to remove the damage, then work up.
Skipping grits leaves deep scratches that the finer stone cannot remove, and the edge ends up weaker than a properly progressed one.
Angle
Consistency matters more than the exact number. An edge sharpened at a consistent 20 degrees beats one that wandered between 15 and 25.
Reasonable starting points:
- Kitchen knives — 15 degrees per side. Thin, keen, appropriate for boards and food.
- Outdoor and EDC — 20 degrees per side. More durable, better for wood and rope.
- Choppers and machetes — 22 to 25 degrees. Impact resistance over keenness.
Our blanks arrive with the edge already set. Matching the existing angle is easier than changing it — colour the bevel with a marker, take a few passes, and see where the marker was removed. Removed at the apex means your angle is too high; removed at the shoulder means too low.
Testing the edge
Three tests, in order of severity:
- Paper — should slice cleanly through printer paper held loosely. If it catches or tears, keep going.
- Thumbnail — the edge should bite into a nail at light pressure rather than skate.
- Arm hair — the traditional test. Impressive, and honestly not necessary for a kitchen knife.
A knife that passes the paper test cleanly is sharp enough for any normal job.
The burr
Sharpening raises a burr — a thin lip of metal folded over on the opposite side. Feeling for a consistent burr along the whole edge is how you know you have reached the apex.
Then you have to remove it. Alternate light passes at your sharpening angle, reducing pressure each time, and finish on the strop. A burr left in place breaks off in use, taking part of the edge with it, and the knife feels dull an hour after you sharpened it.
What ruins an edge fastest
In order:
- Glass, stone or ceramic cutting boards. Nothing else on this list comes close. Wood or plastic only.
- The dishwasher. Heat, detergent and blades knocking against other items.
- Twisting or prying. A thin hard edge chips when used as a lever.
- Loose storage. Knives in a drawer with other cutlery lose their edges to contact.
- Scraping with the edge. Turn the knife over and use the spine to move chopped food.
A realistic maintenance routine
For a kitchen knife in regular use:
- Every few uses — ten passes on a strop.
- Every few months — 1000 grit stone, then strop.
- Once a year or when damaged — full progression from a coarser stone.
Harder steels stretch these intervals. A Vanadis 4 Extra blade at 63–64 HRC might go a year between stone sharpenings with regular stropping — and will demand diamond when it finally needs it.
Every blade in our blade blank range ships sharpened at 400 grit with the hardness published. To choose a steel by how much sharpening you want to do, see blade hardness explained and our guide to powder metallurgy steels.