How To Sharpen A Pizza Cutter?

Knowing how to sharpen a pizza cutter is a must for you if you are serious about homemade pizza. It’s a crucial step and can easily ruin all your hard work. 

While a sharp pizza cutter can help you slice the pizza in different styles evenly keeping sauces, cheese, and toppings in place, using a dull one can make it a messy pile. If you want to say goodbye to those frustrating moments, read on. 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll discuss a wide range of methods of sharpening pizza cutters using various tools so you can decide freely. We’ll also inform you why the pizza cutter gets dull, how to maintain its sharpness, and the approximate cost of professional help.

Can You Sharpen A Pizza Cutter?

Honestly, your pizza cutter doesn’t need to be very sharp. The pressure you apply to the blade against a hard surface is enough for cutting the crust, cheese, and toppings of the pizza. 

So making a pizza cutter razor-sharp can make it more dangerous particularly if you have children in the house. So it isn’t wise to introduce a risk that doesn’t need to be. 

But if your pizza cutter becomes completely dull and useless, you can sharpen it and restore its effectiveness. It’s also easier to sharpen a pizza cutter. 

Though it has a curved edge, sharpening a pizza cutter is quite similar to sharpening a knife. So if you have experience sharpening a knife, you won’t have any problem sharpening the pizza cutter.

Understanding The Type Of Pizza Cutter

You can sharpen your pizza cutter using plenty of appliances. However, the right tools to choose and the right technique to use depend on the type of pizza cutter. Hence it’s essential to understand the type of pizza cutter. 

Metal Pizza Cutter

You can sharpen the blades of metal pizza cutters using plenty of sharpeners. However, you can’t sharpen porcelain or plastic pizza cutter wheels.

Pizza Cutter Rocker

This type of pizza cutter is quite identical to a knife. It doesn’t have any moving parts that may make the sharpening process challenging. However, its curved shape blade can still make the sharpening job a little bit tricky.

Pizza Scissors

 Depending on the design, pizza scissors are considerably more difficult to sharpen. You may need to take apart some pizza scissors for easier sharpening. 

How To Sharpen A Pizza Cutter- 6 Most Effective Methods

A sharp pizza cutter helps slice the pizza evenly. In addition, a well-sharpened pizza cutter blade allows you to slice off the gooey cheese and delicious sauce properly from the pizza. 

If you want to retain the sharpness of your pizza cutter, you must maintain its edges. Below are some most effective pizza cutter sharpeners along with the proper process:

Using A Wet Stone

Water produces aluminum oxide slurry that can remove steel more speedily than dry sand. 

Material requires:

• Polishing spray
• Protective glove
• Wet stone

Wet The Blade

First of all, wet your pizza cutter blade using cold water to protect the blade’s edge from heat during sharpening. It’ll also help you make the sharpening process much easier. Water will keep the blade cool during sharpening; however, you have to keep the water at the right levels.

Grind The Pizza Cutter 

Sharpen side by side of your pizza cutter blade to remove the carbides from its cutting level. This’ll also provide you with a consistent surface. Though it’s a simple process, you have to follow it carefully to avoid danger. For example, 

If you hold the cutter in hand while grinding it down against the wet stone, the cutter can slip off your hand. 

In terms of type, you should opt for a thicker stone as it helps keep the pizza cutter level during cutting. A thicker pizza cutter also creates a visible edge. 

Apply A Polishing Compound 

After sharpening the knife, remove the roughness and clean the cutter using a polishing compound and cotton cloth. A polishing compound can remove the chips and nicks effectively from the cutter’s plane blades while restoring its bright finish. 

Check The Result

After sharpening the cutter, run it rapidly through a piece of paper to check the result. If it tears the paper, it means the cutter gets sharpened properly. Now spread some oil on the blade of your pizza cutter to protect it from oxidizing.

Using Diamond Sharpening Stone

It’s one of the most popular pizza cutter sharpeners and experts use this versatile tool to sharpen plenty of metal including chainsaw and tomahawk. Below is a step-by-step process to restore the effectiveness of your pizza cutter using a diamond sharpening stone:

• Take the blade out of the cutter wheel and hone the cutter into a sharper edge. 
• Move your blade anti-clockwise against the diamond stone to get a sharper edge. 
• After sharpening the cutter blade, remove scratches from its surface using a polish compound. 
• Finally, lubricate the blade to make it rust-resistant.

Knife Sharpener

The knife sharpener is another helpful and commonly used appliance to sharpen a pizza cutter. However, you’ll require the skill to sharpen your pizza cutter wheel using a knife sharpener. 

It’s designed with a pair of wheel-shaped sharpening stones that align perfectly to sharpen your blade. In addition, you have to make sure that your pizza cutter properly fits inside the sharpener. Otherwise, this appliance won’t work on your pizza cutter. The procedure:

• Grasp the sharpener strongly or secure it in a place.
• Run your pizza cutter gently through the sharpener in a consistent motion. Don’t apply excessive pressure and run the blade back and forth.
• Angle the blade slightly if required
• Clean the blade with a dry cloth

Puck Sharpener

Puck stone is a traditional alternative to the whetstone. If you want to restore your dull cutter blade to its former brightness, use this fine-grained stone. Its design with an integrated handle makes the sharpening job easy. 

You can sharpen any kind of pizza cutter using a puck sharpener. However, sharpening the wheel or curved blade is a little bit trickier. The procedure:

• Firstly, soak your puck sharpener in water for around 10 to 15 minutes.
• Place your pizza cutter’s blade on the stone maintaining a 20 to a 30-degree angle.
• Push the blade towards maintaining a long and firm motion and ensure consistent pressure throughout.
• If you are sharpening your pizza cutter wheel, rotate the wheel several times to get a consistently sharp blade.

Belt Grinder

A belt grinder is a reliable power tool to sharpen various finishing metal products. It’s also suitable for sharpening pizza cutters, particularly rocker pizza cutters. 

However, you’ll require some skill to operate the belt grinder and this appliance isn’t recommended for sharpening the pizza cutter wheel. The reason is that a belt grinder is difficult to handle on a moving surface and can cause injury.

Apart from that, if you already have a belt grinder, you can use it to sharpen your pizza cutter. Otherwise, it’s an expensive machine and won’t be worthwhile to buy a new one for sharpening a cutter. 

The procedure:

• Firstly, turn on your belt grinder.
• Hold the pizza cutter on the moving belt maintaining a 30-degree angle.
• Apply some pressure to the wheel using your finger to prevent the cutter from spinning the belt too quickly. This way the pizza wheel will move slowly and you’ll get consistent grind around the blade. 
• Carefully handle the blade as it can hurt you badly on the spinning blade.

Fine Sandpaper

If you are a beginner and looking for the easiest method to sharpen your pizza cutter blade, use fine sandpaper. However, this method won’t provide you with long-lasting effects and your cutter’s blade can become dull over time. 

The procedure:

• Take fine sandpaper in one hand and hold your cutter’s blade strongly in the other hand. 
• Run the sandpaper’s abrasive surface with shorter strokes along the blade’s sharp point.
• Keep working in this direction and don’t try to rub the abrasive surface.
• Continue moving the fine sandpaper along the whole blade’s length until it gets sharpened.
• Finally, clean the dust from the pizza cutter using a dry cloth.

Why Do Pizza Cutters Get Dull?

A pizza cutter consists of an axle structure and wheel to cut larger foods like pizza very easily and efficiently. It also helps make a nice presentation of pizza and enjoy the meal comfortably. 

In terms of effectiveness, the pizza cutter becomes dull. They aren’t designed to be razor-sharp. So pizza cutters can get full easily and over time particularly if you don’t use it correctly. But, how to know if your pizza cutter gets dull? A dull pizza cutter can’t cut through pizza as efficiently as it should. So you may need to apply extra pressure to slice and eat your pizza. 

Below are some reasons why your pizza cutter gets dull:

Continuous Use

If you’ve brought your pizza cutter for a long time and use it frequently, it means your pizza cutter becomes dull due to continued use. A pizza cutter is quite similar to a sharp knife. So it can also become dull because of incorrect use like knives. 

For example, if you apply lots of pressure on the wheel during cutting pizza on a hard surface, it can become dull quickly and might not cut pizza efficiently.

Using On The Wrong Surface

Your pizza cutter may also get dull because of using it on the hard surfaces like steel, stone, or pans.  

So if you want to retain your pizza cutter’s sharpness for a longer time, use plastic or wood cutting board. These cutting boards have a soft surface and will help retain the cutter’s sharpness.

Using Cheap Cutter

Cheap pizza cutters are usually made of low-quality materials. These pizza cutters lose their sharpness very quickly and are also difficult to sharpen.

Incorrect Storage

Your pizza cutter may lose its sharpness quickly if you don’t maintain and store it properly. After cutting pizza, don’t leave your pizza cutter dirty. Otherwise, your pizza cutter’s edge will get damaged and it’ll lose its effectiveness.

How Much Does it Cost To Sharpen A Pizza Cutter?

Sharpening a pizza cutter is extremely straightforward and there are lots of appliances that you can use to make the job done. But if you are concerned about safety, but don’t have the skill or time, you can ask for professional help. 

Though it’s rare, some professionals offer pizza cutter sharpening services at affordable prices.  If you live in Washington, you can take the aid of sharp stuff to sharpen your pizza cutter. They cost $6 for sharpening plain knives, $7 for all serrated knives, and $8 for scissors. Apart from these appliances, sharp stuff also sharpens various types of appliances including pizza cutters and small lawn tools. 

They usually charge depending on the time required to repair or sharpen the appliance and cost an additional $4 for ‘expert damage repair’. 

Truthfully if you compare this sharpening cost with the new appliances, investing in new appliances will be a smart idea for you. Typically, a nice pizza cutter costs around $5-$25. This is why we suggest you practice sharpening your pizza cutter at home so you can restore its effectiveness at zero cost.

FAQs on How To Sharpen A Pizza Cutter?

Final Words

Hope you understand how to sharpen the pizza cutter at home efficiently and appropriately. In addition, we’ve discussed plenty of methods to sharpen your pizza cutter to help you decide the most effective method based on your skill, available appliance, and the type of pizza cutter you have. 

Lastly, don’t make your pizza cutter razor sharp as it’ll be both unnecessary and risky. Instead, clean your pizza cutter properly after every use and store it properly so you hardly need to sharpen it.