Are you a fan of pizza? How many times a week do you enjoy this Italian dish? And here comes the question: Are you confident in how to sharpen a pizza cutter in a proper way?
A sharp pizza cutting tool is considered as the one that allows you to slice the pizza dough definitively with a beautiful cutting line. Everyone is happy to enjoy their favorite Italian dish at the time they get a new pizza cutter home, but things do not last this way forever. Depends on the way we use the tool, your cutter may get dull quickly and even with very slight dullness, it is now another story.
Well, it may come in your mind that getting an inexpensive pizza cutter and throw it away after few times of use is probably better and time-saving. It is not a bad idea if you are a millionaire, or the one who eats pizza once or twice a year. However, as the quote “Penny saved is a penny earned”, be a wise man to choose to sharpen your pizza cutter instead of replacing it every single time.
Cutting the pizza with professional tool is necessary because it will help your taste of enjoying the dish much enhanced. Let’s check out our article with these following facts right away for your best taste of pizza:
- Types of pizza cutters
- Why sharpening a pizza cutter is necessary?
- The reasons that your pizza cutter becomes dull
- How to sharpen a pizza cutter: Steps by steps
- Q&A
- Conclusion
You may already have a pizza cutting tool, but let’s first take a look at how many types of pizza cutters there are in the market, as later we will show you detailed methods to sharpen your specific tool.
Table of Contents
Types of pizza cutters
A pizza cutting tool is like ringing a bell to all of us. Its design is marvelous and helpful as we now can create perfect cuts for our pizza. Acknowledging the types of pizza cutters will help you choose the most appropriate tool and the correct ways to maintain its sharpness. Due to different purposes, pizza cutters are categorized in various shapes and styles, which could be divided into three types:
- Rolling pizza wheel
- Pizza blade
- Pizza shears
Rolling pizza wheel
A rolling pizza wheel is probably the most easy-to-find tool that is available almost everywhere on the street venders or in the kitchen. This type of utensil provides perfect cutting lines through your pizza dough.
Its design looks like a solid steel wheel with a handle. To cut the pizza, you can simply use the holder to pull the tool back and forth. The circle blade rolls to the middle of your pizza and separates your pie into desired smaller pieces.
In order to choose a good rolling pizza wheel, you should pay attention to the stability of the circle blade and handle.
Rocking pizza cutter / Pizza blade
As excellent as its look, this item is the one that you wish to buy for your untesil. Because of its design as a straight blade, the way it is operated is quite distinctive from the above mentioned tool. A rocking pizza cutter, or pizza blade itself, has a semicircle shaped blade on the lower edge. The upper straight edge is where you should hold the blade and grip it.
How to operate this tool is as simple as its look and name, you should create rocking motions by pressing the blade down from side to side. Be careful not to slip the blade out, it will be dangerous for your hands. Besides, you also need to be cautious to wash the rocking pizza cutter as its sharp surface almost takes the entire shape.
However, this tool seems to never break during use since it has least assembled parts, and cleaning it may be the simplest and quickest job too.
Pizza shears
Does this one look familiar to you? Yes, it seems a pair of scissors and the way it operates sounds the same too. That’s why people also name it pizza cutting scissor.
The tool uses two blades to shear through the pizza crust. First, you need to slightly raise up the pie edge. Then, definitively shear to the center with the two blades of the tool. Do this task all over again until your dream piece of pizza comes out. Don’t think that its appearance prevents it from creating wide-spread cuts, in fact, the tool provides an impressive outcome.
Is sharpening a pizza cutter necessary?
Despite our first mention of the necessity to sharpen a pizza cutter on the top part, we feel that you may still think of the question. The answer to this is always yes.
Some people are happy to enjoy their Italian dish no matter in what form it comes in, others pay more attention to their taste. For individual purposes, a perfect pizza piece can bring you joys and make your day. It also brings you more senses of happiness and a comfortable look to everything else. In the field of hospitality, an imperfectly sliced pizza should not be acceptable to serve the guests. As a matter of fact, beautiful pizza cuts contribute to get your guests’ appetites going and maintain the returning visitors.
The reasons that your pizza cutter becomes dull
We have received a lot of similar question to the dullness of their bladed tools. A pizza cutter, as well as any other utensils like scissors or knives, can get dull depending on the way and frequent level you use them.
Cheap price, cheap materials
Comparing to other kitchen cutting tools, the pizza cutters aren’t initially made to be too sharp. A low priced pizza cutter may seem very sharp in the beginning, but after few times of use, it will get dull easily.
Use default
Make sure you are shearing the pizza with a professional tool for the right purposes. Keep in mind that your pizza cutter can only used for cutting the pizza, not for other similar material such as dough products.
As you may rarely pay attention, using a specific utensil to separate the pizza on its stone or pan instead of the cutting board may contribute to the damages of your pizza cutter. Due to the hard surfaces of where you place the pie, even slicing the pizza itself can cause unintentional damages.
Mistake in storage method
How about storing the cutting tool after use?
As you may not know, appropriate storage contributes to the sharpness of your pizza cutter. We almost put it in the drawers together with other gadgets without a second thought, which means that they will hit each other and all of your tools will gradually become dull. Otherwise, you may accidentally abrade your cutter while pulling it out in a narrow container, too.
How to sharpen a pizza cutter: Steps by steps
Different types of pizza cutter should be applied with different methods of sharpening. Some cutters are made of material that is not applicable for sharpening by the below listed tools, rough plastics or porcelain ingredient, for example. In order to assist you in doing this task successfully, out expert team has drawn out the procedure steps by steps for your reference.
- Step 1: Preparing all relevant equipment, including the pizza cutter and the sharpener.
- Step 2: Deciding your comfortable position to hold your cutter while sharpening.
- Step 3: Getting your pizza cutter sharpened with the professional tool.
- Step 4: Testing the edges of the cutter to make sure it works.
There are a lot of supporting tools for sharpening your pizza cutter, whether it is automatic operating with electrical base or manual. However, manual tasks will give us the best outcomes, which are divided into 05 main types of pizza cutters:
- Knife sharpener
- Whetstone
- Diamond sharpening tone
- Puck Sharpener
- Belt grinder
Knife Sharpener
This is the first answer that comes to your mind when you think of such a supporting tool, isn’t it?
Knife sharpener is clearly the most common and available sharpening tool that you can easily find in your kitchen. In spite of the difficulties in rotating the blade to release a satisfying result, it is the knife sharpener that provides you with immediate option to sharpen your pizza cutter.
As it is especially designed for sharpening knives, this tool works better with the pizza cutting blade rather than the wheel one due to its round shape. To make it work, you just simply need to blade your tool one side to another, back and forth until it gets the sharpness that you want. After that, soaking it in water for approximately 20 minutes may contribute to the sharpness level. Nevertheless, it is not among our top recommendations as the pizza cutter is not exactly the same to a knife.
Whetstone
A whetstone, or wet stone, is a processed stone with good grain used for sharpening kitchen bladed tool kits. Its design usually combines a flat shape and performs various grits on the surface, which measures the stone’s roughness ability.
As it can deal with most of the metal kitchen tools, a wet stone is very popular to our daily life. To use it for sharpening, soaking it in water for about 15 minutes is probably the most effective way before the main works. Once done, place it on your kitchen table or cabinet or any other stable flat surface begin to grind the wheel of your cutting tool.
You should start your grinding with the blade wheel of a 45 degree angle and roll it over the whetstone’s surface to make sure you have grinded all surround edges. It is a must to maintain the stability of your pressure on the wheel every time you rotate it to avoid its getting uneven.
By doing this method, remember to put on your rubber or fabric gloves in case it suddenly rotates in other directions while you are working on it. Safety is priority. Another thing to keep in your mind is to wet the blade regularly, which help to create correct shaves for the edges.
Diamond Sharpening Stone
Instead of the gritty surface as of the whetstone, a diamond sharpening stone still looks quite similar with its interrupted diamond surface. Despite its more expensive cost, many people are keen on using this method because of its ability to provide even and fastest sharpening for your pizza cutter.
For a rolling pizza wheel, if it has a handle, you can easily separate the wheel and the blade. You should grind the sharpening tool with its angle by applying it from inside to outside while moving in both counter-clockwise and clockwise direction. Keep holding the angled shape of your tool during your pressure application.
Once everything is done, remember to wash the blade carefully and dry it immediately before reinstalling all of its parts. Your careful tasks contribute to the maintenance in surface’s flat form that prolongs your lifespan of the pizza cutting blade.
It is recommended that you soak the pizza cutter again or lubricate the wheel in the end to prevent your tool from getting rusted.
Puck Sharpener / Sharp Pebble Puck
This tool is an alternative way of the traditional whetstone. With its flat ground surface, the puck sharpener, or a sharp pebble puck, allows you to sharpen your cutting tool comfortably thanks to its ergonomic design.
For this kind of cutter, you can use to sharpen different blades. You can also use it to cut your different types of pizza. The versatility of this tool is what makes it so widely accepted.
Another method instead of using the traditional grinding wheels can be considered as the puck sharpener. A puck grinder is a hand grinder that operates in a similar way.
To use this kind of sharpener, deep it in water in approximately 5-10 minutes, just like grinding a stone, then sharpen the pizza blade with one hand by sliding the grinder back and forth with the angel you wish for.
This tool looks like a grinding wheel that you need to soak in water for 10 minutes. Once you are done, you need to grip your hand tightly and start sharpening your pizza cutting wheel. It is a hand grinder that works better for grinding tools.
Slightly different from a traditional grinding wheel is a puck grinder. It works in an approximately similar method to its regular counterpart, except for the portable characteristics.
Many people even claim that it is better than a knife sharpener for sharpeners. That’s even though it’s not the optimal tool for pizza grinding.
Belt Grinder
Another option is to sharpen your pizza with a belt grinder. The belt grinder is an electrical tool mainly used for the finishing stage of metal products.
First, you need to activate the blender and place the pizza at an angle with the moving belt. Pressuring the wheel with your fingers helps to get it rid of spinning fast. Be cautious not to hurt your fingers on the movement or rotation of the blade.
This is supposed as a pretty good choice due to its steadiness to use, but with the sliding belt and swivel edge, you need to pay attention when using. This tool is also quite large and expensive to purchase.
In case you wish to seperate pizza with a cutting tool of a bit of strength, use a belt grinder. It is often used for the finishing of bladed products.
The figure that creates a good belt grinder is that it is easy to use. However, operating the tool requires a bit of attention due to the tool’s rotating edge.
Its dimesion and cost can also discourage users seeking for an efficient tool to get their pizza cutters sharpened. If that is your sole purpose as a belt grinder, you might be better off looking for a different choice.
Pizza Cutter Sharpener
Using a pizza cutting sharpener to sharpen your cutting tool is considered one of the least effort performed method. Except for its particular design for a pizza cutting blade, it works the same to knife sharpeners. All you need to do is place it on a stable surface and pull your pizza knife back and forth through the grinder. Keep repeating this until the blade is as sharp as you want it to be.
This can also be considered a safe way to sharpen your tool, since the design of your grinder, your blades rarely seem to go in the wrong direction or are easy to screw. As simple as its name suggests, sharpening a pizza knife with this method only takes a second.
Q&A Frequently asked questions
How long does your pizza cutter stay sharp?
There is not a certain answer to this question, as it again depends on the way we use the pizza cutter every day.
As mentioned above, one of the reasons that reduces your pizza cutter’s lifespan is to store it all together with other bladed tools in a narrow container. You should always remember to get rid of any movement from two sides of your tool. Because your pizza cutter, as well as any other bladed utensils, are designed for direct use from its blade only, other impacts can damage its edges. The proper and unique correct method to use your pizza cutter is to only move up and down its blade.
Things also occur to blunt its edges when you put too much pressures on your cutting tool. Don’t you think that it will be safe for you if the blade gets dull a little bit. A pizza cutter should be sharp enough to make sure it will definitively and smoothly shear through the crust thickness, or else, you will have to do the task all over again and it is even more dangerous to your hands.
How to maintain the sharpness of your pizza cutter
Using the honing rod / steel
The reason we did not mention this method as one of the main ways to sharpen a pizza cutter is because it is obviously not used for sharpening. However, utilizing this untesil to help the sharp-edged maintenance is another story.
So can you tell the differences apart honing and sharpening?
Sharpening is the act of removing the harmful material that sticks on the blade’s edge , whereas Honing refers to the maintenance of a blade edge which is already sharp. It means the more frequent you hone your tools, the less frequent you need to sharpen them. Once you keep your edge sharp, it is very slight, so the steel will easily bend when you use it. This is the time for honing to show its functions off. In case you regularly hone your pizza cut, you don’t need to get it sharpened more than two times a year.
A sharp blade is much safer for application than a dull one. Despite the honing rod is not particularly designed for sharpening bladed tools, let’s try using it to maintain the sharpness of your pizza cutter.
Before they start to hone the pizza cutters, many people usually soak their tool in water rub it with soap or dishwashing liquid before executing the next steps.
With the rod method, you should hold the cutter with your dominant hand and the rod with the other. The low bladed edge of the tool should create an angle of approximately 20 degrees with the steel stick. Place your pizza cutter near the top of the rod. Watch out the location of your hands to avoid being cut off.
Now it’s time to create quick motions of your cutting tool down and across the rod until the half-moon blade touches the bottom. You should repeat the tasks again and switch to the opposite site of the steel stick. After six to ten times of striking on each side, the blade edge will get dramatically sharp. The narrower the bevel between two tools you maintain, the more aligned outcomes your cutting edges will become. Doing it in a right way, you only need to apply light pressures.
One important thing you should keep in mind is to never let the side of the edge to collide with the rod or it will be damaged.
Manually wash your pizza cutting tool
Have you ever thought of cleaning your pizza cutter with a dishwasher?
If yes, you are not the only one. Most of people usually throw their cutting tools in a washing machine without any doubt and think that it is a great way to get them completely cleaned by heat and water. Actually, thermal energy is the main factor that dulls your blades quickly. Moreover, putting your tool together with other kitchen utensils in a small dishwasher has indirectly let them hit each other and left nothing in the end except for stains. Please spend some time to wash your pizza cutter with your bare hands, you may figure out the outcome in such a good state.
A blade will get dull and ugly once touched too many times. The same thing will happen with the wooden handle of a rolling pizza wheel. It may get visible damages, or even worse, break due to the heat!
Due to the above reasons, although some manufacturers have stated that it is allowable to put your pizza cutter in the dishwasher, we still recommend you not to do it. However, in case you still wish to try the Kitchenaid Dishwasher , let’s make sure you place your pizza cutter straight up not touching any other hard-surfaced kitchen tools such as dishes and cooking pots. As soon as the dishwasher finishes its work, make sure you take the pizza cutter out immediately without crushing other subjects and then dry it in a proper way.
Conclusion
But if you use the cutter often and without sharpening for a long time, it might not only become dull but also develop rust, which you definitely do not want anywhere near your pizza.
Have you found out how to sharpen a pizza cutter correctly?
Let’s make it simple and keep your favorite Italian dish as good-looking and tasty as it can be with the assistance of a sharp pizza cutter so you can simply put your dish into your microwave and enjoy it.
It doesn’t have to be too demanding to pay continual attentions to sharpening and honing the toll all the time. Take it easy, keep in mind that maintaining its sharpness and all relevant tasks is not a hard thing.
Do you still remember all the things?
Before really starting the works, carefully read over all the instructions again to see if there is anything special to be noted about your pizza cutter’s characteristics in a proper way. Once you feel sure about everything, confidently move forwards to the installation steps.
Comfortably go steps by steps to make sure things go as flat as a pancake. Be cautious with your hands while executing the sharpening. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance from someone else if needed. The more careful you perform your sharpening procedure, the longer your pizza cutter maintains its sharpness.
After every successful sharpening, plan up a timetable for honing your pizza cutter. Once you hone your tool regularly, you will least have to execute the sharpening tasks too soon again.