Lookin' sharp!

Dull knives are so maddening.

They LOOK as though they might cut or peel something but really all they do is mash or scrape.

Have you ever smooshed a tomato, instead of slicing it?

Sawed on a raw chicken breast until it finally separated, but not in even strips?

I'd petition every likely male who dared venture near the kitchen to sharpen my knives, because I didn't think it was something I could do without completely wrecking my whole set.  You can imagine how few likely males wandered through my kitchen...I'd worn out the one who lives here on this task and he could no longer be classified as "likely". 

So, a few weeks ago, I took my cheapest, most awful paring knife and practiced.  If I wrecked it, no great loss! At first, I could only really get one side sharp.  It was a start, though.  I didn't test it on the hair of my forearm, like guys do. (That's a cool trick, if you're a guy, and certainly shows everyone how brilliant you are with a steel! But on chicks, it's just....weird.)  I used tomatoes.  If you can cleanly slice through a tomato with no real pressure, your knife is nicely sharp.  My knife needed pressure still, so it wasn't quite right.

Every way I tried to work the other side of the knife felt awkward and dangerous.  You all know I'm a klutz; the fact that I still have the ends of all my fingers and no scarring on my wrists and arms is a near miracle, really.  But I kept working on it, every time I needed to use that crummy little knife.  And one day, something clicked.  I GOT it!  The knife was SHARP, now, and I grabbed another one...one of the good ones.  Zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop....repeat on the other side...and IT was sharp, too! 

Yes, I just stopped and sharpened all the knives I could. 

I would imagine it was the same feeling an ice skater gets when they land a triple lutz!  YES!

Now, every time I grab a knife to use, I check the edge and if I'm slicing delicate things like tomatoes or bread, I'll give it a quick zoop-ing.  You can't believe how this tiny little skill has made such a huge difference in the tools I use daily!  I feel so....competent and independant!

I think it's one of those things that every girl should learn how to do before leaving home.