How do I clean my knife sharpener?

Question

Pictured below is my knife sharpener. I’d like to sharpen my knives, but there’s so much metal built up on the stones that it won’t sharpen. How can I clean these off? Attempts with cloths and Q-tips have been unsuccessful. Here’s a link to the sharpener.

Answer 1

According to the owners manual here, it says to

Always clean your sharpener after use. Clean with damp cloth or mild brush. Do not rinse with water. Store in a drawer or cabinet.

Since you have a build-up of material that can't be removed, the manual suggests,

When the carbide blades or ceramic stones stop removing metal from the knife blade, they should be replaced. Contact Smith's to purchase replacement blades or stones and for instructions on how to replace them.

Answer 2

I use Ajax and an old toothbrush and it gets all the blackness off the ceramic

Answer 3

• a) use a toothbrush and if it doesn't do the job go to "b"
• b) go to an outdoor store selling mountain climbing gear. They have brushes that are more "hard" than toothbrushes. They have different sizes and the one I'm using is very narrow. I use it to clean many outdoor gear and would never part with it!
• c) a pencil eraser may not do the job if it's a regular brown one. Go to a store selling office/school stuff and buy one of those old-fashioned erasers with one brown side and one blue side. the blue side is MUCH more abrasive and better suited for your needs.

So always have a mountain climbing hard brush and a blue eraser in your maintenance kit at home :)

P.S. The brush I'm using was made by FLASHED but they don't seem to do it anymore. It has two ends. One is about the same dimension as a regular toothbrush, but the brushes are way harder. the second end is very very narrow and very hard. That end would be just perfect for your needs. You could also go to an automotive store but avoid metallic brushes!!

Answer 4

A pencil eraser works well if you can fit one in there.