This is part three of our video series where we demonstrate the various sharpening techniques and tools essential to properly maintain your knives. In this video demo, we demonstrate the best way to flatten a sharpening stone and maintain a smooth finish by using a stone fixer.
Video Transcription
I'm gonna explain to you how to flatten your [sharpening] stone. Eventually over time the stone, after sharpening, will become concave. You'll get some high spots, some low spots. Usually, it's in the middle here, it starts to bow in a little bit.
[To start flattening the stone], what I'll do is soak the stone in water for a few minutes—alone with the stone fixer. Then when flattening, I'm just going to slide the stone fixer straight up and down, like so.
I'm also [going to] shape up these edges here [on the top side of the stone]. Sometimes they become sharp and your knife might get stuck in there, gouge the stone, and also maybe chip your knife—so you want to keep [the edges] smooth as well.
So, for now, I’ll just grind those out a little bit—along with the top [and bottom edges] of the stone.
So, how do you know when the stone is flat?
Well, here you can tell that the logo of the King Stone has come off. Once that's all removed, you know you have a new, fresh surface to sharpen on. Now, if you have to use the stone for a little while—obviously these won't be here anymore. So, you could take either a pencil and draw like a grid line onto the stone. You'll notice if some pencil [marks] up here—say on a high spot [are still there]. [If there are still pencil marks, you’ll know that] you still need to grind away some more of the stone to get it nice and level.
And that's how you flatten your sharpening stone
—End Transcript—
We hope you enjoyed this insightful video on how to flatten your sharpening stone. Want to learn more? Check out our resource page or blog for more great videos on caring for your Japanese knives, knife skill demonstrations, and so much more.
All tools used in this video are available for sale here on our website.