Sharpening Serrated Kitchen Knives: A Comprehensive Guide

One of the most important kitchen tools in our collection is the serrated bread knife, which helps us cut into food items with a hard exterior but a soft interior. But if you want to keep its serrated blade sharp to get the job done, it’s important to learn about the different methods on how to sharpen serrated knife edges. In this article, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive breakdown of this process and a step-by-step guide on how to sharpen serrated kitchen knives! 

What is a Serrated Knife?

While your trusty straight-edge knives can help with plenty of tasks around the kitchen, they’re not always the best tools for everyday cooking. This is where serrated knives come in; they follow the same principle as a saw and feature “teeth” along the blade, which grab onto hard surfaces before sliding smoothly. The serrated bread knife is the perfect example, which makes quick work of crusty bread, being a better solution compared to a chef’s knife with a straight edge. 

While some knife manufacturers will claim that you never have to sharpen their serrated knives, this could be part of their marketing strategy. Rather than sharpening your current knife, they’re getting you to dispose of it once it becomes dull and buy a new one. These cheap serrated knives will often be flimsy and won’t be made from high-quality material, so they will end up costing you more money in the long run.   

Why Do Knives Become Dull? 

Before we dive into how you can sharpen your serrated kitchen knives, it’s important to first understand why many blades become dull, leading to the need for a sharpener. It might be surprising to learn that using your knife on food items isn’t the reason why the blade becomes dull, but rather, the cutting board under it. Each time your knife cuts through a piece of food and meets the surface of your cutting board, the edge of the knife suffers from bending backward. 

While this can be fixed with a manual knife sharpener, such as a ceramic honing rod or a honing steel, it’s also possible for the edges to become more rounded rather than angular and sharp. Luckily, the sharp edges of a serrated knife are recessed, which means that they never touch your cutting board; instead, the pointed teeth do the bulk of the work. Below, we discuss the various methods to sharpen knives, along with the different types of sharpeners available in the market. 

Can I Sharpen Serrated Knives? 

If you find that your serrated knife hasn’t been performing quite as well as it used to after a long time, it could be a sign that your knife needs maintenance using a sharpening tool. However, some people have the idea that once their blade is no longer at its peak performance, it’s time to dispose of their dull knife and get a new one. Luckily, this isn’t always the case; all you need is a sharpener, which can be a ceramic sharpening rod or a few household items, to start with the DIY method.  

So yes, you can and you should sharpen your serrated knives — the good news is you won’t need to do this as much as you would with other types of knives. This is because the pointed teeth of serrated knives perform the most during cutting and will stay sharper when there’s less friction. However, this also makes them harder to sharpen, but regular maintenance will make the job a lot easier, and you won’t have to spend so much time sharpening whenever needed. 

How Do I Sharpen My Serrated Knives? 

If you’re new to sharpening knives, the process can be intimidating, but don’t worry; sharpening your blade’s edge again doesn’t need to be a hard ordeal. The one thing to keep in mind is that the sharpening method for serrated knives of very different from straight-edged knives, and can’t be applied from one to the other. This is because a serrated knife comes with individual curved serrations, all of which need to be sharpened individually.  

To do this, you will need to get a serrated knife sharpener, also known as a sharpening rod. These are similar to honing steels but are much sturdier and smaller, which taper off to create a point. This means that along the shaft of your rod, there will be different thickness sizes to choose from, letting you choose the right option for your knife’s serrations.   

Moreover, there are many different ways to sharpen your serrated blades, and you may need a special tool to achieve this, such as electric sharpeners. Another thing to keep in mind is the differences between each side of your blade — it’s common for one side of the blade to have a downward angle, just before reaching the serrated edge. Below is a list of the right tools you can use to ensure that your knives always deliver a clean slice of bread every time. 

Sharpening Stone 

A regular sharpening stone is among the most useful tools to have for sharpening your knife. Also known as a sharpening whetstone, this popular tool is simply a rock with a flat surface that can be used to sharpen a wide range of knives. But because this tool is flat, it’s not the best to use on the beveled edges and serrations of your knife; instead, it should be used on the flat side of the knife. 

Once you finish on that side and your knife is sharp again, you may use a piece of sandpaper to remove the burr around the blade and to give it nice polish.    

Electric Sharpener

Using an electric knife sharpener is another way to keep your serrated knife sharp. This great tool can be used on both serrated and straight knives, making the process much easier and quicker compared to a manual sharpener. There are a lot of high-quality knife sharpeners available in the market, but you must ensure that they are compatible with serrated knives, since many of them can be used on various types of knives. 

In general, your electric sharpener should be placed over a countertop or a flat surface while it’s operated; once the machine is on, place your knife over the specified angle against the sharpening belt. Be sure to pull it across a few times — it should only take minutes to get a sharper blade, but extreme caution should be used whenever you handle a sharp knife to avoid accidents. 

Step-by-Step Serrated Knife Sharpening Process

Before you get too excited about sharpening your serrated knife, it’s vital to understand that there are many steps to the whole process, which we outline below. 

Finding the Beveled Edge

Effectively sharpening your serrated knife will depend on whether you’re able to identify which side has the beveled edge. The beveled side will have prominent serrations that look like teeth or small scallops — the beveled edge will typically be at an angle and should be where you focus on sharpening. Make sure to examine both sides of your knife; it’s crucial that you only sharpen the beveled side since working with the flat side can damage your knife and compromise its ability to cut.    

Setting the Correct Angle

When you’re able to identify your beveled edge, you’ll need to set the correct angle before you sharpen your knife. For most serrated knives, the bevel angle will be around 20 degrees, but to help you find the right angle for your knife, be sure to use a marker on the beveled edge. Doing this will help you visualize where you need to remove materials during sharpening, and it’s also important to match the sharpening tool to where the serrations are. 

Always make light and short strokes on the edge, and adjust your position and angle on the tapered sharpening rod as needed. 

Sharpening the Individual Serrations

When you have the right angle, you can start sharpening the individual serrations by using a ceramic honing rod or tapered sharpening rod; simply match the tool’s diameter to each serration. Maintain a consistent pressure and angle throughout the whole process and repeat 5 to 10 strokes for each serration or until you see a burr form on the other side. Always work on one section at a time and ensure that each one gets the same amount of attention. 

While you’re sharpening your blade, you might notice a burr forming around the opposite side of your knife; this is a piece of metal that rolls onto the cutting edge and indicates that you’ve brought both sides of the knife together.     

Removing Burrs

When burrs do form, they must be removed; to eliminate burrs, it’s best to use a fine-grit sharpening stone or a sharpening rod at a shallow, 10 degree angle on the flat side of the blade. It’s best to use controlled and light passes to pull the burr back until it comes off — some people recommend developing the burr on both sides of the blade before removing it to make sure you get an even point. Once you remove the burrs, you can keep refining the edge with a leather strop by allowing the knife to rest on top of the strop before making reverse strokes. 

Next, pull your knife backwards and further away from the edge; this will help to restore the knife’s sharp edge over the entire length of your serrations.   

Conclusion

While it may sound intimidating to sharpen your knives at home, there’s no need to worry; you have all the tools and information you need to become more self-assured, even if it’s your first time. Whether you’re a home cook or a novice chef worried about the dull bread knives you have at home or in the kitchen, you can now confidently sharpen your serrated blades. Thanks to the step-by-step instructions we’ve provided above, along with the different sharpeners available in the market, you should be able to find the best way to sharpen your serrated kitchen knives.

Sources 

• dalstrong.com
• knivesetcetera.com
• yakushiknives.com