When sharpening a knife, what exactly does honing do?
In: Engineering
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With use, even a very sharp knife will become subtly warped and bent, reducing its ability to cut. Honing a knife realigns the blade, creating a straight edge and, thus, a sharper blade.
A knife’s edge if you zoom in on it is really a pointy triangle shape when freshly sharpened. As you use it, it gets micro bends, dings, tiny chips, etc. another good way to think about it is like if you have a paper airplane and you hit a wall with it. The tip crumples slightly, but when you fly it again, you straighten it out, flatten the edges around the tip to make it “as pointy” again before you throw it again (don’t throw your knives in the kitchen plz). Sharpening is like folding the airplane the first time fresh. Honing with a Steel Rod is like straightening it out after it got dinged up hitting a wall. It’ll never be quite perfect again and the more you do it the worse it gets, so eventually you need to start again. With knives, you reshape the edge with a stone (or grinder) so at least you don’t need a fresh piece of paper/steel!
This video has a good illustration about what honing vs sharpening does. Go to about 4:15. https://youtu.be/uobhCSJ5cgc?si=91LKWkSrMyFOEqCb
As a knife gets used, on a microscopic level the blade edge curls over on itself. Like rolling up a piece of paper. Honing it straightens that curl out without removing material. Giving your knife a sharp edge again.
Sharpening is subtractive and you lose material, honing is making all the microscopic knicks and imperfections are pointed in generally the same direction (facing out) which is the next best thing to increase cutting ability.
Don’t hone a knife. Those sharpening rods that come with knife sets will give you another week of “pseudo sharpness” by turning the knife edge into a jagged mess. Yes, a jagged messed up edge, will feel sharper, like a saw cuts thru wood…but when it wears out those jagged edges it makes, will be even worse.
When a knife is dull, switch to a different knife, and once you have time, actually sharpen the full knife with a sharpening stone. (The easiest sharpener for the home cook, are those devices that swing a stone, on an arm, over the blade edge. Or even those magnetic rolly cylinders….pull thru sharpeners are the worst, even worse than the honing rod)
There are a lot of well meaning answers on here, but our understanding of sharpening has changed over time. The whole “it aligns the blade” thing is outdated and incorrect.
A honing rod DOES remove material, and creates a very small micro-bevel near the apex. Honing is similar to sharpening, in that you are creating an apex. The two steps to sharpening a blade are 1) Apex the blade and then 2) Remove the burr. With honing you’re generally not creating enough of a burr to worry about, so you’re just creating a small apex.
https://scienceofsharp.com/2018/08/22/what-does-steeling-do-part-1/
Here is a proper breakdown of what a rod actually does, with ultra-detailed scanning electron microscope images so you can see the results.
Generally, you don’t hone when sharpening.
You sharpen the blade on a stone and use a strop to remove tiny particles, etc., left over from the sharpening.
Honing aligns the edge of the blade and is generally done right before using the knife.
(If you ever watch a cooking show, notice how the chefs will quickly hone their knives right before they start cutting.)
Honing is used for softer steels, and especially thin blades. This makes it very applicable to western kitchen knives. The edge of the blade will bend or fold, so that the cutting edge is no longer directed towards what you’re cutting. Honig it straightens it out. This is less of an issue with a thicker blade since it’s stronger, so you won’t see someone honing a wood carving knife.
Asian, and especially japanese knives, are typically made with much harder steels. They won’t bend like that, and can be much sharper as a result. Instead, they’ll chip as they wear. Honing a chipped edge does nothing to fix it. It must be sharpened on a whetstone.
You mentioned stropping. Stropping can be considered a simultaneous sharpening and honing, and very mild. The leather tugs on the blade which removes burrs and can somewhat realign the edge. What many don’t know is that a strop also has a polishing compound in it, which acts as a very fine whetstone.
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