While preparing to teach a cooking class last week, I was reminded that most people have no idea what it's like to prepare food using a sharp knife. Every time you use your knife, it gradually gets duller and duller, especially if you are using a hard surface to cut on. For most home cooks, the knife dulled so gradually they don't even notice that they might as well be using a butter knife to chop carrots with.
I found a pretty good website that gives you a good description on how to keep your knives sharp: http://www.hub-uk.com/cooking/tipsknives.htm If I can find good diagrams or a video, i will post those.
These tips are good for keeping sharp knives sharp, but what if your knife is dull? (Don't even wonder, it is.) You can take it some place like Bertarelli'sif you are close to the Hill, otherwise Dierberg's has a calendar for when they do knife sharpening at various stores or Schnucks will sharpen up to 3 knives at a time for free at their Meat Counters. There is usually a display on top of the meat counter that has cardboard knife protectors you can take home, write your info on and bring back to the store with your knife in it. Hope this is helpful!
