HORL® Blog

You can clean the #3000/#6000 whetstone by rubbing them gently in circles against each other. If you only have one of the whetstones, you can clean it with some sandpaper or an eraser.

The service life of the corundum whetstones depends on the use. The whetstone #6000 wears off faster than the whetstone #3000. To make sure that the whetstones last as long as possible, make sure that your knife is sharpened on both sides with the Standard Diamond and the Ceramic Honing Disc before using the whetstones. The cutting edge should be free of burr to prevent massive abrasion of the stones. Clean the whetstones, the magnetic angle support and the knife before and after each sharpening process.

To remove grinding residue of the diamond and ceramic discs, cleaning with a pencil eraser is sufficient. If necessary, the diamond grinding disc can be unscrewed and thoroughly washed in warm water, with a little washing-up liquid and a brush.

When used properly, the HORL® Diamond Standard does not need to be replaced. The industrial diamonds we use are suitable for efficiently sharpening all knife steels of any degree of hardness without water. When a HORL® diamond grinding disc is used for the very first time, some excess diamond particles are eliminated. This is audible, but quite normal and occurs only once. After a few minutes, grinding will become quieter and the grinding disc’s surface much finer. The grit of the disc should now be only slightly rough to the bare finger. The disc has reached its working surface condition. Use it only to sharpen kitchen and cooking knives.

Enclose the HORL® Sharpener firmly with one hand. With the other hand, the desired grinding wheel is turned up in an opposite movement. After changing the grinding wheels, the grinding wheels should again be mounted on the roller grinder with the screws tightly screwed down by hand. Note: The grinding wheels can be changed on the model HORL® 2, HORL® 2 Pro and the first generation HORL® Sharpeners.

To grind particularly broad blades, where the cutting edge stands higher than the grinding disc, elevate the sharpener with a suitably thick cutting board to ensure contact with the cutting edge is within the radius of the diamond grinding disc.

The amount of time required will vary when a knife is sharpened for the first time with the HORL2®, depending on the condition of the blade and the quality of the steel. On average, it takes five minutes. The edge must first acquire the chosen 15° or 20° grinding angle. However, thanks to the constant grinding angle, only a few rolls back and forth are needed for subsequent resharpening.

Use the marker pen method to visually check the success of the grinding process. Carefully draw the felt tip of a marker pen along the entire knife edge, so that it simultaneously leaves ink on both sides. Once the ink is removed by grinding on both sides, the desired angle is achieved.

Although damascus knives are often made of harder steel than most ordinary knives, a hardness degree of beyond 60 HRC is no problem for the sharpener.You can use the sharpener to sharpen any steel knife. Due to the even application without any concentrated strain, the sharpener sharpens even the most precious knives with the highest precision. Due to the constant grinding angle, only the material that prevents the knife from becoming sharp again is removed.

In general, the sharpener is well suited for also sharpening ceramic knives. However, since ceramic is not magnetic, the angle must be maintained by hand.

Every hardened knife steel is magnetic due to its iron or carbon content. Therefore, knives also known as "stainless steel" are usually magnetic. There are different stainless steels for different applications. There are magnetic and anti-magnetic stainless steels. An anti-magnetic stainless steel is used for example for kitchen sinks or the like. However, this would not be suitable for hardening, let alone for producing a powerful knife from it.

You do not need water to sharpen knives with the sharpener because no significant heat is generated due to the smooth rolling movements. The diamond coating is also designed just to be used dry. The additionally available high-grade corundum grinding whetstones #3000 and #6000 also achieve top results when used dry.

The sharpener is primarily designed to sharpen large and small kitchen knives. Therefore, due to the possibility of a great difference in grinding angles, sharpening scissors, scythes or other tools with the sharpener is not recommended.

Cutlery knives often have fine serrations which cannot be sharpened with a sharpener. However, smooth cutlery knives can be sharpened without any problem. However, the HORL® Sharpener is primarily suitable for high-quality steels of chef's and kitchen knives.

In the outdoor and hunting knife sector the blade geometries are often quite adventurous, which in places cannot be sharpened optimally with the HORL® sharpener. The basic rule to follow is: the cutting edge must be smooth and the knife should also lie flat and correctly against the Magnetic-Angle-Support. Outdoor and pocket knives often have a stable angle, so it is advisable to select the 20 degree angle for grinding.

In principle, kitchen knives of any quality can be sharpened at 20°. However, depending on the condition of the blade and the quality of the steel, many knives can be sharpened to an even finer edge at 15°. You can find out whether your knives are suitable for this by sharpening them on the 15° side for three to five minutes. If the sharpness is not satisfactory, it is advisable to use the 20° grinding angle.

The grinding angle is the angle at which the knife is machined from one side. Since most knives are ground on both sides, the grinding angle (e.g. 15°) is also ground in from both sides. After grinding both sides with 15° grinding angle, a 30° cutting edge or 30° cutting angle is obtained. Therefore, the cutting angle is usually twice the grinding angle.

For knives that have been sharpened freely by hand until now, the angle usually varies after each sharpening. For this reason, the actual grinding angle can often not be determined. Therfore, it is worthwhile to sharpen your knives once with the sharpener and the Magentic-Angle-Support to a constant grinding angle which can be reproduced with each sharpening process.

After grinding, the HORL® Leather removes even the finest abrasive particles and ensures a clean, smooth blade. Strop both sides of the blade with a slight pressure on the leather, always swiping the blade towards the knife‘s spine. If you feel a slight scratching when you pull the blade over the leather, this is a sign of burr. Removing it only requires a few movements with diamond and honing side of the sharpener. The knife can then be wiped again over the HORL® Leather.

Basically, the coarsest grain size is used first and the finest is used last. We start with the HORL® diamond to grind the knife completely. Afterwards the ceramic or stainless steel honing disc is used, the HORL® whetstone - #3000 fine, HORL® whetstone - #6000 extra fine and finally the HORL® leather. At the end strop a few times with the HORL® Leather.

To sharpen small knives, attach the knife to the magnetic angle support with the blade facing upwards so that the cutting edge is level and protrudes above the contact pad. In this case, the spine will not touch the worktop.