My two serrated knives need sharpening. The description is embarrassing but they’ve been really good knives. One is a decades old Cutco, stainless steel, probably, with fine serrations, the other is by Furi, but from the Rachael Ray line- got it at Big Lots. It has larger serrations than the Cutco, but I digress. They’re without pedigrees, but I’d like to get them sharpened and I’d like to have an idea how/where to get that done.
Any ideas?
I wish you luck.
Resharpening fine serrations is nearly impossible unless you or your sharpener has access to exactly the same cutting wheel used by the maker.
Coarser concave serrations can be reworked more easily and effectively using round or chainsaw files. But the sharpener must choose the file size very carefully–too small will leave jagged protruding “teeth”, and too large will destroy the spacing. Picking the right diameter file is an art. I have maybe 8 sizes of small round files, and I still get it wrong a lot.
If you find a pro sharpener who excels at serrated knives, let us all know.
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Thank you, I’ll do that. May need to ditch those and get a new one, but I sorta have a sentimental attachment to the Cutco one, at least.
Will Cutco not sharpen it? They say if they can’t sharpen a vintage knife, they’ll replace it.
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I totally get that–I have boxes of blades I’m attached to.
What you might consider is having someone remove the serrations on the Cutco entirely, leaving a conventional continuous edge. You can always buy another Cutco with brand-new serrations, and you’d still have the one you love in a useful form.
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buy new ones
it will be cheaper and more effective
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Please don’t laugh.
I use the Anysharp Pro pull through for all my serrated knives and it bloody works.
I’ve given one each to my father and my brothers and this pull through device works very well on serrated knives.
I almost binned my dull serrated knives until I gave them a run through the Anysharp Pro.
Advice no matter what the instructions say - only go one and the same way through the device. Only one way.
https://www.amazon.com/AnySharp-Metallic-Sharpeners-Suction-Sharpener/dp/B07932MBZC
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I use a pencil, wrapped with fine grit wet/dry paper on my bread knife.
choose a smaller diameter pencil that the serrated spacing, wrap with the wet/dry paper until you get the right “size”
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As long as the carbide V fits into the serrations’ hollows, yes, some sharpening happens. More or less depending on the thickness of the V.
Another option is the tapered diamond “steels”, but the chainsaw files are mobettahs.
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This is the CORRECT way to do it.
If I owned a really expensive serrated knife that was dear to my heart, I would sharpen my serrated knives the manual hard way - but since I only own a small Global serrated knife and a large Zwilling serrated bread knife, and they both becomes acceptable sharp when using them in my Anysharp Pro pull through device, I see no reason to spend extra time on sharpening them as I rarely use my serrated knives.
I would use this way to do it the correct way, the way a professional sharpener would do it:
A whetstone isn’t the answer for sharpening a serrated knife - for this task, you’ll need a ceramic honing rod.
How to Sharpen a Serrated Knife:
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Determine which side of your knife is the beveled side. Though you might not know this at first glance, your knife should have flat and beveled sides. On one side, the blade is at the same angle all the way to the blade’s edge. On the opposite side, the blade angles down just before the serrated edge. This is the beveled side, and it’s the side you’ll sharpen.
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Run the sharpening rod through each gullet gently in several short strokes. Push away from the blade’s edge, toward the spine, and only to the point where the rod is the same diameter as the gullet — the space between the tooth tip and the inner surface of the blade — in order to avoid enlarging it.
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Repeat until you’ve sharpened all the gullets. This is a painstaking task, and there is no shortcut. For this reason, even those comfortable with sharpening their knives at home choose to take their serrated knives to a professional sharpening service, but have no fear! Patience perseveres and produces a good result that endures many uses.
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While you’re working away at the gullets, you may notice that burrs collect on the opposite side of the knife. Remove these metal pieces by running the flat end of the blade along a whetstone.
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Your serrated knife will have a clean, sharp edge.
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The Anysharp Pro is not the absolute best sharpening result for all serrated knives, but it works pretty darn good on the Wüsthof and Zwilling bread knives and the Global serrated knives I’ve tried it on.
If I owned more expensive serrated knives, I would be a bit more hesitant to use the Anysharp Pro on them. It is a quite harsh pull through device, you really have to be cautious when using it and find the right amount of pressure.
Too much pressure and you can potentially damage the serrations, too little and you won’t sharpen the serrated knife. I use one motion, placing the knife in the pull through by the heel of the knife, then slowly pulling it one way through the device and repeat this step 10-12 times.
It just bloody works on Wüsthof, Zwilling and Global serrated knives.
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Abrasive paper or cloth wrapped around a dowel or round file works, but it’s not a good way to fatten the thing to fit the hollows. After the first wrap, the stuff tends to wrinkle and tear.
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I had no idea Cutco did that- thanks so much for the information, I’ll look them up.
I actually have one like it with a straight blade. It was used outside for gardening for a couple of years and it’s totally dull. I used a carbide blade sharpener that didn’t make much difference despite multiple tries. Maybe I’ll send that one to Cutco too, it’d otherwise be a great slicing knife.
Probably true.
Claus,
Have you tried on kitchen sheers like Oxo?
No i have.
I use a whetstones on kitchen sheers.
They’ll get extremely sharp that way.
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I have found that simply steel honing the high points on both sides (not bothering with the troughs) does wonders for a serrated knife.
My daughter’s roomie only had a serrated chef’s knife (why? dunno?), so she brought it home for me to work on one weekend.
I’ve done the same to a couple of serrated bread knives and gotten similarly good results.
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Yes, can’t neglect the “teeth”–they’re what initially tear into foods. You can use a flat stone, belt, etc. But over many sharpenings, the teeth shrink.
The opposite happens, too, when the hollows get sharpened to the exclusion of the teeth. Someone will use a too-small circular file, and the teeth become (dull) fangs.
This is why it’s important to size the file or wheel to equal the serrations, or ever-so-slightly oversize.
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