How to sharpen knives for meat grinders at home?

Meat grinder is an indispensable attribute that can be seen in any modern kitchen. With this mechanism, you can easily make minced meat, which is necessary for making a variety of tasty and healthy dishes. Unfortunately, over time, meat grinder, like any other household appliance, can fail. A prolonged intensive operation can lead to blunting even the most expensive cutting elements. After reading this article, you will learn how to sharpen the knife on a meat grinder. After all, you do not have to go to the workshop for that.

How are the cutting elements of the meat grinder arranged?

To figure out how to sharpen knives for a meat grinder, Should understand the principle of their work. Inside any device are two types of cutting elements. One of them is stationary. This knife is a round piece with small holes. The second one has blades with sharp edges. When the pressure-fed product rests against a non-rotating knife, part of it is forced through the auger into the holes. At this time, the rotating knife cuts out small pieces. The quality of the minced meat directly depends on the sharpness of the cutting parts.

Preliminary preparation

Before you sharpen the knife for a manual mincer, It must be prepared. This will determine the quality of the work. After all, if the sharpening technology is broken, you can easily damage the knife. Before proceeding to the process, it is recommended to lubricate the blades with ordinary vegetable oil. The same must be done with the grindstone. These simple manipulations will protect the knife from the possible appearance of fragments due to incorrect rotation of working blades. After five minutes, when the knife and the grinding tool slightly dry, you can start grinding.

Sharpening with sandpaper

This is one of the most popular and available methods, allowing you to quickly grind a knife for meat grinders at home. When choosing the thickness of the emery, it is necessary to take into account the thickness of the knife itself. Thin fine knives are perfectly sharpened with the help of weak paper, whereas for blades made of thick metal a large fraction of grains is needed.

Taking a knife in one hand and paper in the other, you need to rub each blade of the knife alternately with sandpaper until it becomes sharp.

Sharpening with a grindstone

This second most popular method is as effective as the previous one. Those who do not know how to sharpen knives for a meat grinder, you can try to do this using a grindstone. In this case, you can go in two different ways. The first involves the rotation of the knife, the second is the movement of the stone.

Those who wish to use the first method, it is necessary to acquire a fine-grinding grindstone, the area of which is three times the diameter of the knife. Otherwise, the process of sharpening will be very long and not too effective. Putting the knife in the middle of the grinding tool, you should make sure that its blades fit tightly to the surface of the stone. Slightly holding the knife with your finger, you need to twist it, gradually increasing the speed of rotational movements. From time to time, it is recommended to interrupt this procedure to check the uniformity of the blades. Sharpening is considered complete after all knurls and jags disappear on the knife. It should be noted that this technique is effective only for not too blunted blades.

Now we need to figure out how to sharpen the knives for the meat grinder by turning the stone. This technique is applicable even to very blunt blades. In this case, it is recommended to use fine-grained grindstone, the dimensions of which are comparable with the diameter of the knife. Sharpening is provided by the friction of the blades against the surface of the tool.

Sharpening with a special machine

This is the most convenient method, but, unfortunately, it is not suitable even for beginners who have no idea how to sharpen knives for a meat grinder. The machine used for this has a smooth abrasive surface that looks like a normal disk. Before sharpening, a special paste is applied to the surface of this tool, which contains fine abrasive particles. After it has dried, the disc is fully ready for use.

In order to sharpen the knife, it is necessary to gently press its blades to the included machine. During work, you need to arrange small breaks to prevent overheating of the metal.

In conclusion, it should be said that this technique has several significant drawbacks. It can only be used by those who have basic skills. A person who has never grinded knives for a meat grinder will hardly be able to properly grind them on such a typewriter. The second disadvantage of this method is the high cost of the grinding machine. Therefore, before you buy a similar machine, you need to think carefully about how appropriate this purchase is.