How to Keep Your Knives Sharp…for (practically) FREE!

Click on photo for a closer look

Now that you know the best way to sharpen your knives (see previous post for the  Accusharp Knife and Tool Sharpener)…here is the best and cheapest way to keep them sharp. Every time you put an unprotected knife in a drawer you run the risk of ruining the edge. It just takes a little bump to bend or roll the delicate edge of a sharp knife, and although honing with a good sharpening steel is something you should be doing, as it will straighten out the blade’s edge, it doesn’t actually sharpen the knife. Over time the knife will start to dull, until one beautiful summer day while you’re futilely attempting to slice a tomato for a BLT, the knife slips off the fruit (yes, the tomato is a fruit…look it up) and lops off your entire thumb (ok…that’s a little dramatic, but I’m trying to make a point here). Of course, you can buy knife guards, but it’s exceptionally easy to make them at home. All you do is take some cardboard (the thin kind from a gift box works best, but any cardboard will do), cut a long strip that’s the length of the knife’s blade and a little more then twice as wide as the blade, fold it in half length-wise to fit the knife, and just staple evenly down the open edge. Slip this on whenever you store your knives, and they’ll stay sharp no matter how much they rattle around in that overstuffed drawer.

10 thoughts on “How to Keep Your Knives Sharp…for (practically) FREE!

  1. Dunno about the staples. In the above pic, looks like the blade comes into contact with the staples. Won’t the staples equally dull the blade as the knives get tossed about? I’d rather have the paperboard 4x the width and overlap itself and then secure the loose flap in play by using duct tape. The side that has the two folds is for the blade; with one fold (where the tape secures the loos flap) is the length that is aligned with the handle. But then again, as anal as this sounds, I’m better off with a block.

  2. Actually, the blade doesn’t touch the staples at all. Just make sure that the cardboard sleeve is about 1/4″ wider (when folded in half) then the blade and stapled well and the cardboard sides will “pinch” the edge of the knife and hold it firmly in place without it even getting near the staples (of course you can always face the blade edge the other way, too!) But the way you suggested would work well also…thanks.

  3. A Better idea would be to use tape..

    My mom gave me a hand-me-down heavy knife for Christmas once and she made a sleeve for it with cardboard (like this DIY) and duct tape. I still use the same sleeve for storing it in the drawer.

  4. I am looking for a tips like this. Finally I found here. Thanks @writer & hope we will found more good tips from you in future.

  5. I make knife sleeves out of the translucent plastic cover sheets on reports. I keep the staples on the top edge of the blade instead of the sharp edge.

  6. @R_W_B
    You can also use a thin piece of leather or a thick thread like substance and sow the edge neatly, that would add some beauty to it without the use of staples thats kind of ugly… You can also use rivets with bristol board colored

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