Are serrated knives self-sharpening?

[Chris]

Are serrated kitchen knives self-sharpening? I seem to recall that that was said when they first came out.

[Huge]

No.

Well, it depends.

The serrated Kitchen Devils I have seem to stay sharp for a *long* time, but cannot be sharpened because they're serrated both sides.

But I have just sharpened the John Lewis carbon steel serrated I bought a few months ago. It's only serrated one side, so a few strokes over a stone on the flat side and it's as scarily sharp as it was when I bought it.

[Adam Funk]

You can (IME, anyway) sharpen a doubly serrated knife with one of these gadgets.

[Brian-Gaff]

No, I think is the the short answer, but I guess it depends on what you term 'sharpening'

Brian

[John Rumm]

It also depends on the type of serration... traditional "wavy" edge serrations (like a bread knife), can be sharpened easily enough. The type (like some kitchen devil knives) with tiny serrations between fine closely spaced "teeth" are much harder to sharpen since the cutting edges are tiny and "protected" by the teeth.

[Huge]

Precisely so.

[tabbypurr]

With those one can sharpen the tips of the teeth, its very easy. Sharpening serrated is easy as long as you don't want to stay faithful to the original pattern of cutting surfaces.

NT

[Alan Braggins]

Not really, but they generally continue to cut when worn better than a non-serrated knife would, which isn't quite the same thing.

Some serrated knifes can be sharpened with appropriate tools:

[Bob Eager]

Scroll down here:

And it works (the sharpening steel). Mind, you need it so infrequently it tends to get lost.

[rick]

What is the technique for easily sharpening these wavy edge knives then ... be good to know

[tabbypurr]

run them over a grinding disc just like a plain blade. The tips get sharpened.

NT

[Adam Funk]

I was thinking of the wavy kind. AIUI, the knife-tuning gadgets work by "micro-serrating" the blade anyway, so they superimpose tiny sharp serrations on the waves.

[Harry Bloomfield]

We have had a couple of those for 40+ years. They are really brilliant sharpeners.

I use them the wrong way, blade towards the handle - I've nicked myself a couple of times doing it that way. SWMBO can't understand how you do it and constantly works with, blunt knives.

You can tell by the change in tone when they have becomes sharp, they sort of 'sing' when they have reached sharp.

[Jonno]

Alan Braggins scribbled

Why piss around with the 2nd one, it would be cheaper to buy another knife.