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Does anyone do it themselves? I bought a stone at the Japanese market along with a sushi knife, and the instructions are only in Japanese. The stone I bought has two sides, a rougher and a smoother. I need my blades extra sharp for slicing makizushi and was wondering if anyone had any tips on this. I would prefer not to get one of those electric sharpeners and learn the traditional way.
Does anyone do it themselves? I bought a stone at the Japanese market along with a sushi knife, and the instructions are only in Japanese. The stone I bought has two sides, a rougher and a smoother. I need my blades extra sharp for slicing makizushi and was wondering if anyone had any tips on this. I would prefer not to get one of those electric sharpeners and learn the traditional way.
The stone will probably be a water stone. You'll need to soak it each time you plan to use it. Japanese knives have a very shallow blade angle so you'll need to hold it at a close angle to the stone. I'm appending a series of photographs which show using two pennies to achieve the correct angle. It's very important to maintain this angle to avoid a mangled blade.
Try practicing with a cheap knife. There are easy to use sharpening kits but they can't sharpen a blade with a 10-15 degree angle. They're made for knives from the US and other countries which use a steeper angle. It will be difficult at first but just keep working at it. And please be aware that there are whole books about knife sharpening. You may need different stones if you bought a cheap stone. Read the information on the linked website. Japanese knives are a world unto themselves.
I'm glad you didn't buy an electric sharpener; that would have ruined it.
Customarily, knives have a V-shaped blade edge of 30-36 degrees cutting edge, each side of the V being 15-18 degrees. A Japanese sushi knife is typically a |/ shaped edge (one side flat, one side beveled) for a 15-16 degree cutting edge. It is extremely sharp but also dulls quickly.
For getting your knife sharp on the waterstone, try taping a penny to the spine on the side of the knife closest to the whetstone to keep your sharpening angle consistent while you learn the technique. This will give you about a 16 degree angle (depending on the age of the penny).
Start with the rough side of the stone and work the edge until you raise a burr (you will be able to feel it with your finger, or use a jeweler's loop or magnifying glass to see it), and then use the smoother side of the stone to work the burr off. The flat side of the cutting bevel will only need a couple of brief passes on the smoother stone to taken off any residual burr on that side.
The flat side of the cutting bevel will only need a couple of brief passes on the smoother stone to taken off any residual burr on that side.
This must be emphasized. You sharpen the angled side only. On the flat side you merely remove any burr raised by the sharpening.
It's hard to get the technique from reading about it, but there are lots of YouTube videos online to help you out. Watch a few of them and it will be a lot easier to do.
Here's an interesting one from a professional knife sharpener. Notice that he never touches the flat side to the stone. He dresses the burr off the flat side by stropping the knife on dry cardboard!
I take mine to a true value hardware near my house and for $4.00 my santoku knife gets sharpened. I take it every six months because I use in 7 days a week. It's a J.A. Henkel's brand.
I've used forschners (victronix) professional knives for over 30 years (being a butcher) a sharp knife is a tool of the trade
i trained on a 3 sided sharpening stone years ago, and know very few that are good at using one.. a stone is my preference, but i also love a sander, a popular professional knife sharpener (sandpaper) is over 500.00 - i see them in many stores and butcher shops..
however, recently, i went to a discount tool store and bought a 1x30 belt sander for only 49.00 -it works great, even on older thin blades.
some old pro's dont like sandpaper, (grinds the knife down too fast) but for a quick, very sharp lasting edge, you cant beat it..
a steel isnt a true sharpener (it aligns the burrs)
I sharpen the knives for the whole family, and also buy top quality knives-for gifts
the little handy knife sharpeners are ok too,,,ebay has them for 2.00 apiece, (plastic handle v-shaped metal sharpener-run the v along the blade,, for a super cheap sharpener,,they arent bad..
if you want a high quality reasonably priced knife, buy a forschner(victronix) - the technical term is a 6" boning knife curved, or straight edge, i prefer curved- this is a great all-around sharp knife,,, if you want a large knife/blade buy an 8" or a 10" steak-knife-if you slice your own rib-eyes or strips steaks
these will last forever
The stone will probably be a water stone. You'll need to soak it each time you plan to use it. Japanese knives have a very shallow blade angle so you'll need to hold it at a close angle to the stone. I'm appending a series of photographs which show using two pennies to achieve the correct angle. It's very important to maintain this angle to avoid a mangled blade.
Try practicing with a cheap knife. There are easy to use sharpening kits but they can't sharpen a blade with a 10-15 degree angle. They're made for knives from the US and other countries which use a steeper angle. It will be difficult at first but just keep working at it. And please be aware that there are whole books about knife sharpening. You may need different stones if you bought a cheap stone. Read the information on the linked website. Japanese knives are a world unto themselves.
I'm glad you didn't buy an electric sharpener; that would have ruined it.
I hadn't thought of practicing with a cheaper knife first, thanks! No, the stone wasn't cheap, I bought it in the same specialty store as I bought the sushi knife. Thanks for the tips! Reps coming to everyone who replied.
Quote:
Originally Posted by weezycom
Customarily, knives have a V-shaped blade edge of 30-36 degrees cutting edge, each side of the V being 15-18 degrees. A Japanese sushi knife is typically a |/ shaped edge (one side flat, one side beveled) for a 15-16 degree cutting edge. It is extremely sharp but also dulls quickly.
For getting your knife sharp on the waterstone, try taping a penny to the spine on the side of the knife closest to the whetstone to keep your sharpening angle consistent while you learn the technique. This will give you about a 16 degree angle (depending on the age of the penny).
Start with the rough side of the stone and work the edge until you raise a burr (you will be able to feel it with your finger, or use a jeweler's loop or magnifying glass to see it), and then use the smoother side of the stone to work the burr off. The flat side of the cutting bevel will only need a couple of brief passes on the smoother stone to taken off any residual burr on that side.
Thanks for really informative post. This penny trick is very clever and I will definitely experiment. Yes that bevel is crucial for clean cuts when I am working a piece of salmon or tuna. I'm thinking of getting another type of sushi knife specifically for slicing rolls.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD
This must be emphasized. You sharpen the angled side only. On the flat side you merely remove any burr raised by the sharpening.
It's hard to get the technique from reading about it, but there are lots of YouTube videos online to help you out. Watch a few of them and it will be a lot easier to do.
Here's an interesting one from a professional knife sharpener. Notice that he never touches the flat side to the stone. He dresses the burr off the flat side by stropping the knife on dry cardboard!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who geeks out on this stuff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ7
You can use high grit sandpaper as well, Autozone usually carries them around 2000 or so.
How exactly would I use a piece of sandpaper to sharpen a knife? Having a hard time visualizing this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lubby
I take mine to a true value hardware near my house and for $4.00 my santoku knife gets sharpened. I take it every six months because I use in 7 days a week. It's a J.A. Henkel's brand.
I have two santokus, a long and short one, but those do not compare to a sushi knife. I love Henkels (I have a long carving knife from them, and a block set of Zwilling Henckels SS handles) and had no idea True Value did sharpening. I'll look into whether they do this at my local hardware for my other kitchen knives, but I can't have them jack up my sushi knife.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mainebrokerman
I've used forschners (victronix) professional knives for over 30 years (being a butcher) a sharp knife is a tool of the trade
i trained on a 3 sided sharpening stone years ago, and know very few that are good at using one.. a stone is my preference, but i also love a sander, a popular professional knife sharpener (sandpaper) is over 500.00 - i see them in many stores and butcher shops..
however, recently, i went to a discount tool store and bought a 1x30 belt sander for only 49.00 -it works great, even on older thin blades.
some old pro's dont like sandpaper, (grinds the knife down too fast) but for a quick, very sharp lasting edge, you cant beat it..
a steel isnt a true sharpener (it aligns the burrs)
I sharpen the knives for the whole family, and also buy top quality knives-for gifts
the little handy knife sharpeners are ok too,,,ebay has them for 2.00 apiece, (plastic handle v-shaped metal sharpener-run the v along the blade,, for a super cheap sharpener,,they arent bad..
if you want a high quality reasonably priced knife, buy a forschner(victronix) - the technical term is a 6" boning knife curved, or straight edge, i prefer curved- this is a great all-around sharp knife,,, if you want a large knife/blade buy an 8" or a 10" steak-knife-if you slice your own rib-eyes or strips steaks
these will last forever
You remind me of my dad, he's the knife sharpener in the family and I usually gather up all my knives and drive over to my parents' house when they get dull - but none of his knives have the single bevel like my sushi knife and I don't want to have to go to daddy each time my knife dulls. I'd never heard of Forschner but I have seen Victorinox at a department store. I'll have to check them out.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge and experiences with me, I truly appreciate it.
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