The Kitchen Staple You Can Use To Sharpen Dull Knives In A Pinch

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Using a kitchen knife with a dull blade isn't just annoying or finicky. It's inefficient and downright dangerous. A sharp knife is critical for slicing through meat, veggies, fish, or any other food with precision, ease, and safety from accidents. But what if it's dinnertime and you're only now realizing that your blade is dull, which you can tell from the sounds of food crushing under the knife's weight or the difficult feel to your chopping? To sharpen it up, you need a whetstone or an electric or pull-through sharpener, which many of us don't keep on hand. In a pinch, you can turn to something you almost definitely do have in your kitchen: aluminum foil.

This takes just one minute. You simple fold a piece of foil plenty of times to make a nice, thick piece. Then, as if you're cutting that foil pad, you glide the knife's blade along it around 15 times. The aluminum foil is somewhat abrasive, so it gently smooths out the wear and tear along the blade's edge that dulls it. You can also take a slightly thinner folded pad of foil and bend it over a 90-degree angle like your countertop's edge, and slide the knife over the corner to get some abrasion; just take care to not slice through the foil and into your counter. It's crucial to note that this is not the ideal method — foil is nowhere near as effective as professional sharpening tools, so it's a temporary fix. 

It makes sense that aluminum foil can sharpen knives up a bit — you can also use foil to sharpen your scissors, by cutting a folded piece into strips. The foil lends its abrasion to the scissors' blades the same way it does for knives. While blade-sharpening is one of the nifty kitchen hacks you can pull off with aluminum foil, it's not the best solution as it simply isn't strong enough to smooth a knife's edge out for more than maybe that evening's dinner preparation. But when everyone's hungry and you've got a knife you can't otherwise use, it's a good trick to have up your sleeve. You can also employ sandpaper over a hard surface; sandpaper is a bit more effective than foil but something you may be less likely to have in your pantry. Or, you can mimic a whetstone by slightly moistening a smooth rock from outside. 

There are other odds and ends you already have at home that can sharpen a knife as a last resort: a nail file, a leather belt, or the gritty base of anything ceramic, like a mug or vase. In general, it helps to prevent a suddenly dull knife in the first place by honing it, which is like maintaining its sharpness, with this Utopia 12-inch knife-honing rod before each use. You can also invest in your own Amazon Basics knife-sharpening whetstone or embrace convenience with this Narcissus electric knife sharpener.