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Most people have no idea that their blender blades need to be sharpened!
If your blender has stopped working as well as it used to, then learning how to sharpen the blender blades will make a huge difference.
Even the most expensive blenders on the market will need their blades sharpened from time to time. If you use your blender daily, you’ll quickly notice when your blender blades aren’t pulverizing as finely – that’s when you need to get sharpening!
There are a few ways to sharpen blender blades. You can either use a sharpening stone or you can try using eggshells or foil. We recommend using an actual sharpening stone.
Step By Step Guide On How To Sharpen Blender Blades
When you feel like your Ninja Blender blades aren’t cutting it anymore, don’t throw them away! You can easily sharpen them whenever they go blunt with a good-quality sharpening stone. Getting your blades sharpened is the key to using your Vitamix as a food processor.
Whichever type of blender you have, always ensure that it’s unplugged from the wall before you start taking it apart. To sharpen your blender blades using a sharpening stone, follow these steps:
Step 1: Disassemble the blender
After unplugging the blender from the wall, dismantle your blender as necessary. All blender types are different, but generally, all you’ll need to do is separate the blender pitcher from the base.
Step 2: Wash the blender
Washing your pitcher in warm soapy water at this point is a good idea for several reasons.
For one, it means all your parts are totally clean and free of debris, which makes the blade sharpening process easier. It also loosens the blade (which is important for step 3). Lastly, it means your blender can be used as soon as you’ve finished sharpening!
Step 3: Unscrew and remove blades from the blender container
Next, you’ll need to carefully remove the blades from the blender. We recommend using safety gloves for this part! Most blender blades can be freed from the blender by simply twisting them counterclockwise. If it doesn’t feel like the blades are being loosened this way, please refer to your blender instructions manual.
Once removed, you should be able to further dismantle the blades into a base, the ring that held the blades in place, and the blades themselves.
Step 4: Clean the blender blades of stubborn food particles
Although the blades may have already been thoroughly cleaned when you washed the pitcher, it’s important to make sure the blades are totally free of food particles and other debris.
Hold the blade under the tap and rinse it. For best results, use a scouring pad or hard brush to target the extra tough pieces of food. Afterward, carefully dry the blades with a paper towel.
Step 5: Use a sharpening stone to sharpen blender blades
It’s possible to sharpen your food processor blades with the same stone you would use for kitchen knives. One of the best sharpening stones on the market is the Sharp Pebble Premium Whetstone.
To sharpen the blade, keep the sharp point of the blade away from your body. Run the blade along the sharpening stone, ensuring that the blade edge is always pointing in the opposite direction from you. Make sure to maintain the shape of the blade. It will be angled precisely for a reason, so don’t alter the angle.
Standard blender blades come with four arms – two that face up and two that face down. The downward-facing blades on some blender blades – such as Ninja Blender blades – are used for crushing ice cubes and bits of food, while the upward-facing blades are for slicing. In this kind of blender, you should only be sharpening the upward-facing blades.
Be sure to only sharpen the blades that are blunt to ensure that the blender continues to function properly. Also, make sure you determine what type of blades your blender has before you attempt to sharpen them.
Step 6: Test the sharpness of the blender blades
Never run the blade along your finger to test its sharpness! Even the bluntest of blades could cut you, so don’t even place your finger on them before sharpening them. It’s easy enough to test the sharpens of knives, as you can simply test them out on the cutting board.
The best way to test the blades is to run them across a piece of paper. If the blade splits the piece of paper in two with ease, then you’ve sharpened them correctly and they’re ready to go back in the blender.
Step 7: Reassemble the blender
Once satisfied with the sharpness of your blades, screw them back into the base of the pitcher and fasten them using the ring. Reattach your pitcher to the main base, and double-check everything is dry and in working order.
How To Use Eggshells To Sharpen Blender Blades
Don’t want to invest in a sharpening stone? Wish there was a more interesting and hassle-free means of sharpening your Ninja or NutriBullet Blender blades? Give eggshells a shot.
This approach can be a little more inconsistent than the standard blade cleaning methods. If you use eggs every day, whether or not in your blender, you should follow these steps to sharpening your blades:
Step 1: Save up your eggshells
The biggest hassle of this blade sharpening method is keeping your eggshells. There isn’t exactly a limit to how many eggshells you’ll need to sharpen blades, so the more you can fit in this designated container, the better.
Step 2: Blend the eggshells with water
The amount of eggshells and water you should add really depends on the capacity and type of blender you have. However, you should generally add around 3 cups of eggshells and a half cup of water. This size should be sufficient for a standard size blender. If you’ve got a bigger one, these ratio sizes can be doubled.
The eggshells you use don’t have to be crushed; rather, it’s better to use a mix of whole pieces and smaller bits. Stick your blender on full mode and let the eggshells work their magic. Blend your eggshells down until there are no pieces left – there’s no set time frame for this!
Step 3: Test the blades
Test your blades by making yourself a smoothie and seeing if the blender works better than it did before!
Alternative Methods For Sharpening The Blades On Your Blender
If you don’t want to invest in a sharpening utensil or save up your eggshells, there are several alternative methods that you could use to sharpen your blender blade. Many of which require little more than common household items.
Besides using rock salt, you could sharpen the blades with something as simple as aluminum foil.
Step 1: Cut up pieces of aluminum foil
Tear up your aluminum foil into small pieces, and spread them around the blades in the pitcher.
Step 2: Blend the foil
Let the blender cut up the pieces of aluminum foil into even smaller pieces. Start and stop the blender occasionally, and add more foil when appropriate. Continue the process for roughly 10 minutes.
When you’re done, empty out the blender and give it a test to see if the aluminum method worked for your blender!
Common Questions on Sharpening Blender Blades
You cannot use ice to sharpen a blender blade, as ice actually contributes to the bluntness of your blade. If you regularly put ice in your blender for making smoothies, then the ice is most likely the main cause of your blender regularly going blunt.
Salt can be used to sharpen the blades on a blender, as long as the salt comes in big rock chunks. All you need to do is put these salt rocks in the blender, switch it on, and wait for the blender to turn the salt into powder.
You shouldn’t have to ever replace the blade on your blender. If the blades get too blunt, they can easily be sharpened. The only time you should ever have to replace your blades is if they snap due to improper use.
Final Verdict: Sharpening Blender Blades
There are several ways to sharpen the blades on your blender, but the main three methods we’d recommend are using a sharpening tool, eggshells, or aluminum foil.
If you cook regularly, it would be a good idea to invest in a sharpening stone, as you’ll need one to sharpen knives anyway. If not, you’re bound to have some aluminum foil lying around at all times! Once you’ve got your blades sharpened, you can use your Vitamix to grind coffee beans!