You bet, I would strongly suggest you find them through the best online stores. I've lost the link to the best site which included sharpening of carpentry tools. I have a friend who is an expert, his hand plane will draw a flawless curl 10' long that you can read the paper through.
How To Sharpen Japanese Knife,Japanese Kitchen Knife,Japanese Cutlery,Japanese Chef's Knives.Com
You can get aides for maintaining angles from several places and there are holders for over sink sharpening. Japanese sharpening is exclusively done with whetstones and water. I resurface the stones occasionally with SiC on a sheet of float glass. The old telescope making kit is good to keep around, grits down to 3 micron.
Kyocera makes a small diamond wheel for their ceramic knives.
EDIT - I hesitated over one of the last two, I do wonder why.
Last edited:
I get good results with the Apex kit (which takes lots of time) and also with the pair of DMT diamond-dust rods (which are very quick). 25um then 9um.
Edge Pro Apex Model Sharpening System Kits | Edge Pro Inc.
https://www.dmtsharp.com/sharpeners/sharpening-steels/diamond-steel/
Edge Pro Apex Model Sharpening System Kits | Edge Pro Inc.
https://www.dmtsharp.com/sharpeners/sharpening-steels/diamond-steel/
Hi Guys
After i longer while i try to be back here sometimes.
I was out of order more or less, they inserted me a new hip left, but now i can cook again.😱
This week a simple dish with Satay pork, tasty housemade sour-hot suauce and some rice.
BTW : Nice knifes you have. I bring my for sharpening twice a year, maybe i will take a course how do to it properly.
After i longer while i try to be back here sometimes.
I was out of order more or less, they inserted me a new hip left, but now i can cook again.😱
This week a simple dish with Satay pork, tasty housemade sour-hot suauce and some rice.
BTW : Nice knifes you have. I bring my for sharpening twice a year, maybe i will take a course how do to it properly.
Attachments
That looks neat. One thing to remember is that ritual, respect for tradition/elder craftsman, etc. is even more ingrained in cutlery than audio in Japan (think swords). Another example, long grinding your ink by hand in preparation for sumi-e painting is an essential part of the process, Miyamoto Musashi was also an accomplished painter.
I have a friend who collects 17th/18th century samurai swords, sharpening them not only costs $3000+ you have to present the swords pedigree to get a craftsman to even bother with it.
Looks very nice, it's funny when I started to cook in 1975 raspberries were a two weeks of the year special treat, same with asparagus (local farms only). Good to see you back, I hope you might have some wisdom for our digitising vinyl thread if you have the time.
Scott,
Your sharpening link is interesting in that he starts flat edge sharpening and finishes convex.
Mark,
That sharpening jig is interesting.
I used to use angle guides but they really don't allow for feel. With practice you can tell when you are sharpening at the right angle by the feel of the cutting action and the speed at which the blade gets sharper.
The down side is I spend about two weeks each year maintaining my tools. About one week of that is sharpening. Drill bits have a special grinder, punches some by hand others with tooling, planes knives etc. can be entirely by hand or with a number of grinders. I even sharpen some screwdrivers!
Some blades do get sent out. Particularly circular saw blades and some larger punches. I used to have dado blades that when sent out would often come back improperly sharpened! The blades and choppers would be sharp but no longer the same diameter. My current sets of dados use carbide inserts so no sharpening needed. You get four sides to rotate through and then you change them for new ones.
On my list of tools to get is a surface grinder.
Your sharpening link is interesting in that he starts flat edge sharpening and finishes convex.
Mark,
That sharpening jig is interesting.
I used to use angle guides but they really don't allow for feel. With practice you can tell when you are sharpening at the right angle by the feel of the cutting action and the speed at which the blade gets sharper.
The down side is I spend about two weeks each year maintaining my tools. About one week of that is sharpening. Drill bits have a special grinder, punches some by hand others with tooling, planes knives etc. can be entirely by hand or with a number of grinders. I even sharpen some screwdrivers!
Some blades do get sent out. Particularly circular saw blades and some larger punches. I used to have dado blades that when sent out would often come back improperly sharpened! The blades and choppers would be sharp but no longer the same diameter. My current sets of dados use carbide inserts so no sharpening needed. You get four sides to rotate through and then you change them for new ones.
On my list of tools to get is a surface grinder.
That is how they sharpened our antique guillotine paper cutter. 5/8" thick blade 3' long, HEAVY, and the sharpened edge was at least 3" long at a very shallow angle. Impossible to do with anything else but a magnetic table surface grinder. The cutter had the old fashioned safety system where the handle's end was about 4' away from the action. We used to buy full sheet paper 44" X 34" and cut it down to the standard sizes as needed, this thing cut through a full 34" ream like butter.
Interesting to see the proponents of hand sharpening. I have an electric one like this and find it is very good and of course very quick. Is there a reason people still want to do it by hand? https://www.amazon.ca/ChefsChoice-T...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Z56JM8DX87XDCFQR982G
Oh wait, I am asking a diy crowd. Duh!
Seriously though, I'd like to hear.
Oh wait, I am asking a diy crowd. Duh!
Seriously though, I'd like to hear.
A little slow food ritual, connecting with the maker, whatever, and in fact no machine can do it as well as an expert by hand. I have one of those machines I use it for steak knives and such. Remember the Japanese knives are all handed/asymmetrical.
We also have a Chef's Choice electric sharpener, the one that has separate slots for 15 degree bevels ("Japanese") and 20 degree bevels ("German / American"). It does indeed produce a very sharp edge, although it takes off metal a lot faster than hand sharpening does. But in our house there isn't room for it on the countertop so it sits in a cabinet, mostly unused. Whereas the diamond rod "sharpening steels" are in the knife block on the counter and can be grabbed in one second flat. So the rod gets used 99 times out of 100.
edit- wife prefers the no-skill-required electric sharpener, which is probably the winning argument.
edit- wife prefers the no-skill-required electric sharpener, which is probably the winning argument.
Last edited:
x2 Welcome back, Groove T. And hope your new hip gets you back into the kitchen fully!
And welcome, Ed. We'll be demanding food stories rather than knife sharpening guides soon. 🙂
P.S. Just looked up how folks are doing chemical mechanical polishing on stainless -- a slurry of silica and sulfuric + hydrogen peroxide around 1.5 pH was good for removal rate (and no notable difference in morphology stepping through pH). Just in case you want to take it to another level. 😉
I bought a Harbor Freight ceramic paring knife. The plastic handle came off after a few years (has about a 3/4" long tang) and I am left with just the blade. I have kept it to see how it is to sharpen, and I tried it a few days ago before the discussion turned to knives here. Very hard to see/feel what angle you are supposed to be at, but I am slowly getting the nicks out with a diamond stone. Leaves a white powder on the stone.
These things are fairly sharp initially, but don't seem as sharp as a steel knife. They stay sharp for a long time, but unless you baby them you will have nicks all over the blade in no time. Don't put them with other wares without a sleeve of some kind, even if it is just card stock.
These things are fairly sharp initially, but don't seem as sharp as a steel knife. They stay sharp for a long time, but unless you baby them you will have nicks all over the blade in no time. Don't put them with other wares without a sleeve of some kind, even if it is just card stock.
I understand I never use the mini-blender but hand make pesto/salsa in a big granite molcajete much to my wife's amusement.
I spent the first part of my slave youth on a stool, watching a surface grinder flatten parts for plastic injection and metal punch/press molds.
The stage before I made 50 cents an hour was endless waiting till I could push the stop button of the autosetting when the grinding wheel had passed the end of the surface, single thing I was allowed at that age.
Thanks for giving me the shivers, Mr Simon.
Yes, good to see the Groove man back and that you are able to get back into the kitchen after surgery. Always look forward to seeing your dishes/meals.
ok, I'm the wife in our house then. I simply don't have the time nor patience to sharpen by hand and I don't get a Zen like connection to the tool. I want it ready for use again as quickly as possible. I only get about 2 days between sharpenings as I am very hard on my knives.
