How to Use a Whetstone to Sharpen a Knife, Step by Step

What you need before you start

A medium stone around 1000 grit does most of the work. A finer stone (3000 to 8000) refines the edge, and a coarse stone (220 to 400) is only needed for chips or a knife that has gone completely dull. A combination 1000/6000 stone covers both of the first two jobs and is what most people start with. You also need a stable base: a rubber holder, a sink bridge or at least a damp towel under the stone so it cannot slide.

Have a cup or spray bottle of water, a towel and something to test the edge on, such as a sheet of printer paper or a tomato. A felt-tip marker is useful the first few times: color the bevel, take a few strokes, and look where the ink has gone. If it is removed only at the very edge, your angle is too high; only at the shoulder, too low.

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Step 1: Soak or splash the stone

Soaking stones, such as most King and many budget stones, are left in water until air bubbles stop rising, usually 5 to 15 minutes for medium grits. Fine finishing stones often only need a splash, since soaking can soften them. Splash-and-go stones like Shapton Kuromaku and Glass Stones should not be soaked at all: wet the surface and start. Read the stone's instructions; leaving a resin-bonded splash stone in water for long periods can damage it.

During sharpening, keep the surface wet. A grey slurry will form from steel and abrasive. Leave it: on soft waterstones it helps cutting. Add water when the stone starts to look dry or the knife begins to skate or stick.

Step 2: Set and hold the angle

Most Western kitchen knives are sharpened at about 20 degrees per side, and most Japanese knives at about 15. If you do not know your knife, 15 to 17 degrees is a safe middle for kitchen use; pocket and hunting knives are usually 20 to 25. A rough guide: lay the blade flat, raise the spine to 90 degrees, halve that to 45, halve again to about 22, and drop a little further for 15 to 20.

Hold the handle in your dominant hand with the index finger on the spine or the thumb on the flat of the blade near the bolster. Two or three fingers of the other hand rest on the flat of the blade close to the edge, pressing it onto the stone. Lock your wrists and move from the shoulders so the angle stays the same through the whole stroke. A clip-on angle guide is worth using for the first few sessions.

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Step 3: Raise a burr on the first side

Start with the edge facing you or away from you, whichever feels steadier, and work the blade in sections: heel, middle, tip. Push the knife across the stone with light to moderate pressure, about the weight of your hand plus a little more, and ease off on the return stroke. Sweep toward the tip as you go so the curve near the point gets the same treatment as the straight part.

Keep going until you can feel a burr: a slight rough lip on the opposite side of the edge, felt by drawing a fingertip gently across the edge from the spine outward, never along it. On a dull knife this can take 20 to 50 strokes per section on a 1000 stone. The burr must run the whole length of the edge before you switch sides. If there is no burr in one spot, that spot has not been sharpened yet.

Step 4: Repeat on the second side and move to the finer grit

Turn the knife over and repeat with the same angle until a burr forms on the first side. It usually comes faster the second time. Then reduce pressure and alternate sides with fewer strokes: ten per side, then five, then three, then one. This makes the burr smaller and keeps the two bevels even.

Move to the finer stone, for example the 6000 side, and repeat the process with lighter pressure. You are not trying to raise a new big burr here, only to replace the 1000 grit scratches with finer ones. Work each side until the bevel looks evenly polished, again finishing with alternating single strokes. The edge should now cut paper cleanly from heel to tip.

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Step 5: Remove the burr and clean up

A small burr left on the edge makes a knife feel sharp for one or two cuts and then dull. Take it off with a few very light edge-trailing strokes on the finest stone, a few passes through a piece of cork or soft wood, or 5 to 10 alternating strokes on a leather strop. Test on paper: a clean, quiet cut along the whole edge means the burr is gone.

Rinse the knife and dry it. Rinse the stone, let it air dry away from direct heat, and check it with a straightedge every few sessions. Soft stones dish in the middle, and a dished stone puts a curve on the edge and makes the angle harder to hold. Flatten it with a flattening plate or coarse diamond plate when the dip becomes visible.

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Common mistakes

Changing angle during the stroke is the most common problem: it rounds the edge so the knife never gets sharp. Slow down, use the marker trick, and keep the wrists locked. The second is switching sides before a full burr has formed, which leaves a dull spot that no amount of fine-grit work will fix. The third is pressing too hard on a fine stone, which creates a new, larger burr instead of refining the edge.

Other habits to avoid: sharpening the tip by lifting the handle too high, which rounds the point; working only the middle of the stone, which dishes it fast; and judging sharpness by feel on the edge with a thumb, which tells you little and is a good way to get cut. Paper or a tomato is a better test.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a whetstone session take? Sharpening a dull kitchen knife on a 1000 stone and finishing on a 6000 takes about 10 to 20 minutes for a beginner, less as you get consistent. Touching up a knife that is only slightly dull often needs only the fine stone and a couple of minutes.

Do I push or pull the knife? Both work. Many people sharpen on the push stroke with the edge leading for more control and use the pull stroke as a light return. What matters is that the angle stays constant in both directions.

How often should I use a whetstone? For a home cook, a full sharpening every one to three months is typical, with a honing rod or strop between sessions. If you need the coarse stone every time, the knife is being allowed to get too dull or the edge is being damaged by a hard cutting board.

Can I use oil on a waterstone? No. Waterstones are designed for water, and oil clogs them. Oil is for Arkansas and other oil stones, and diamond plates are used dry or with water.