How to Sharpen a Knife with a Japanese Master Sharpener

so I'm a little afraid of custom knives just because I was

sharpen

ing um on the wheels while I was

sharpen

ing the

knife

it broke and a piece flew across my face it caught my cheek lightly the blood started dripping I went to my uh My manager told me He said he wasn't going to sharpen today. I need my mental health break right now. Hello, my name is Vincent and we are here at Corn Japanese Trading and today we are going to sharpen some basic knives. We will use water stones or sharpening stones. This is the way knives have not been sharpened in Japan for many years and has become a very popular way of sharpening in the culinary industry around the world.

A stone is grinding metal to create a new edge, while burnished steel is used to realign the edge and provide a temporary solution. I just want to go over the different water stones that are available, so the first group are what I consider medium stones. Now medium stones range from around 800 to 2000. I think 1000 is the best stone all around. If you have a good

knife

, it is really recommended to get a good quality stone that matches your knife. We will soak these stones in water for about 15 to 20 minutes before using them. The last group of stones I got are considered fine or finishing stones.

These start at around 3000 grain. This one is 8,000, but I've seen 15 or even 30,000 grit stones, so now that we're over all the stones, we can go ahead and start talking about knife sharpening, so the first thing that's very important is to make sure you know what type of knife you are going to sharpen. Specifically, you want to know the ratio of bevels. I have a Japanese style chef's knife that sharpens at a Ratio of 70 to 30 and I am right handed so holding the knife with the outside edge or right side down is the dominant side, that is the side I am going to sharpen more so the first stone I have here is a 1000 grit stone. this is going to do most of the work now when I sharpen this knife I like him to have it or start on the back which is my side left down, when I do this, the grip I use, my thumb, is on the spine.

The index finger is on the heel and I like to hold the knife diagonally. This position really allows my wrist to control the angle and keep it stable. Now the next step is to find the right angle and this is probably the hardest part. of sharpening each knife has a slightly different angle the way I do this I place my knife flat on the stone I take two fingers and place it half on the stone half on the knife right on the edge and I will slowly raise my Raise the knife up Make sure the edge sits flush with the stone, but I have a little trick that makes it a little easier.

I take three pennies, stack them, and place them on the stone. Place the spine of the knife over those three pennies. Now my edge is flush with the stone, these three pennies act as a perfect guide now that we've found the right angle and you know how to hold the knife we ​​can start sharpening it so I'm going to place two fingers right on the tip and press firmly As I pull down, release pressure as I go up, then move my fingers slightly up and work down in sections and apply the same amount of pressure to each small section.

Now I'm going to repeat this process. several times on the back, now the reason why it is very important to sharpen the knife is because the knife will cut the ingredients much easier and will be much safer after a couple of passes on the back, we are ready. To turn it around and work on the dominant side of the knife with this, I changed my grip a little bit, my thumb is on the heel and my index finger is on the spine now, like before, I'm going to hold the knife about a figure four. o'clock and use my left fingers to feel the right angle.

We are working on the dominant side of this knife. If we wanted to use the penny trick, what we'll do differently is use two pennies instead of three. cents, this will give us a shallower angle and as you can see, just like before, that edge is nice and flush with the stone. I'm going to start by sharpening the tip and moving my wing down, however this time the edge is towards me. so there's one thing I'm going to do differently: place two fingers right at the tip and press firmly as I push up, release as I go down and repeat, then move my fingers up slightly and like before, I'm working my way up.

We lower the knife in sections, now we're working on the dominant side of this knife, which means we're going to work on the side for a lot longer and eventually there comes a point where that edge is going to bend and cause a ridge or whatever. Calling a bur to shape The goal of this sharpening is to get a bur evenly from heel to toe. When you use a water stone, you will start to see mud or sediment build up. metal being removed from your knife that means your stone is working properly but try to keep as much of that sludge there and use it while you sharpen your knife and now that I'm checking for a burr and feeling all along of the edge evenly I'm done with my first stone and can move on to my finishing or polishing stone.

I don't have them soaked, in fact I have them dried. The finishing stones can be a little more delicate if you leave them alone. in water for too long, they may crack while I'm sharpening. I'm constantly adding water, but once I'm done, I'll be sure to pat it dry and set it aside to air dry completely before putting it away. So, like before, I'm going to start at the back, looking for the right angle and from the tip, I'm going down the knife in sections, but this time I'm being very careful not to press too hard and although I'm not pressing too hard you can see that all this sediment starts to build up, which means that the stone is doing all the work and this is actually going to refine the edge, make it smoother, make it sharper, same thing on the other side and work from the tip all the way back. down in sections to the heel now when you are using a polishing or finishing stone the more you work on the stone the more reflective and polished that edge will become right along the edge it will look almost like a mirror finish To me that It usually takes about five or ten minutes.

Once you are happy with the polish of your knife, making sure there are no burrs left, we will take a piece of paper and test the knife. There is very little resistance. I push the knife, make sure you test the entire length of the knife, so you always want to start from the heel to the tip, if there is a dull spot that this paper is going to drag, if there are splinters or burrs left, it's just I'm going to snag The thinner the paper the better the test for your knife, challenge yourself, use thinner paper and if you can cut it your knife will be pristine now, the last thing I want to get into is this little one right? here this is called stone setter, each stone as you use it will eventually start to wear down and this flat surface will start to form buns, so it is very important to use a stone setter to coat the stone, work the surface as evenly possible and make sure you have a nice, flat surface to work on.

Take care of your knives. If you take care of them, they will last a long time.