Stainless Steel “Knife Steel” / Sharpener – Handmade in Argentina

Schmieden brand, full tang 12cm knife sharpener, ‘knife steel’, hand crafted with marbled horn and mixed hardwood handles. Sharpener surface measures 5” / 12cm in length with a total length of 10”. Hardwood used is ‘chestnut’, accented with brass spacers and a solid brass butt. These pieces are hand crafted by the skilled hands of Argentine artisans in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nicely finished with a 100% full grain cowhide leather storage case, holder. Select from the dropdown menu below for the choice of colors.

Knife blades lose their sharpness with use, especially the carbon steel blades. A dull knife blade will not only be useless but can also be more likely to slide off its cutting surface onto a finger or hand! That is why it is important to have the right tool to keep your knife edge sharpened. And ‘knife steel’ is the correct tool for safely sharpening any knife blade.

Keeping knives sharp is essential. To find out if a knife is sharp, we can try cutting an ordinary sheet of paper; if it fails when we try to slide it and we do not manage to make a clean cut without effort, it is time to sharpen it. To use a sharpening steel safely, we must hold it in front of us vertically, resting the end on the table or stable and smooth work surface, with the handle facing up. The knife blade should be positioned at an angle of 15-20 degrees to the sharpening steel. Then, we have to slide the blade in a sweeping motion, forming a smooth arc, making a slight pressure and always with the knife in contact with the sharpening steel. The idea is to pass the entire blade through the sharpening steel, ending with the tip. Then do the same gesture on the other side and repeat the double movement eight or ten times.