Sharpening Japanese knives

Every knife, no matter what steel it's made of and how much it's paid for, sooner or later will give out and need to be refinished. It is very important that you do the sharpening process properly so that your knife will serve you for many years. We will talk about everything important on this topic, as well as how to avoid mistakes that can cost you a ruined knife forever.

In order to sharpen the knife, it is necessary to remove a certain amount of steel with the help of abrasive action and establish a new working blade. The main question is what is the specific amount of steel? The answer is always the same, minimal and necessary. With proper sharpening, we remove only as much steel as is necessary to establish a new blade, anything beyond that means a direct shortening of the working life of the knife, and often a disturbance in the shape of the knife. The service life of a properly sharpened Japanese knife used in professional kitchens should be several decades, and most often between 35 and 40 years. If we don't sharpen the blade properly, it can be completely destroyed after just one sharpening, and that's why it's important to entrust this work to a reliable sharpener or to equip yourself with knowledge and the right tools if you want to sharpen your knives yourself.

Professional sharpening service

In Japan, knives are sharpened using water whetstones. This is the traditional, generally accepted and most correct way of sharpening knives. The blade moves in a very controlled manner over the surface of the stone, which is composed of abrasive grain that removes a very small amount of steel. An experienced sharpener can perfectly sharpen a knife that was previously in good condition in just a few minutes, while sharpening damaged knives can require several hours of engagement. It is important to say that when we talk about sharpening a knife, we are thinking exclusively about establishing the blade itself along the edge of the blade. If your blade is in bad condition or has started to lose performance after several years of use, a professional sharpener can advise you to sharpen your knife when the need arises, and this represents a completely different type of service than sharpening, which is much more demanding and expensive.

It is important to know that Japanese knives should not be sharpened using different types of grinding wheels that spin at a high number of revolutions and uncontrollably and unnecessarily remove the steel from the knife. In addition to the high number of revolutions, these grinders do not have any cooling systems, which is a deadly combination for any steel. Once tempered steel can never be a good knife blade again. In addition to not being properly sharpened on a spindle, some Japanese knife shapes cannot be sharpened on a spindle at all and any attempt will result in a permanently damaged blade.

Be Sharp provides a service of professional sharpening of knives on a water whetstone as well as repairs of damaged knives, which we are very proud of.

Independent sharpening of knives.

Using the right tools combined with basic knowledge and a little practice, anyone can sharpen their knife. It is very popular in the world that every chef, chef or cooking hobbyist sharpens his own knives, and this movement is slowly gaining popularity here as well. All you need is a stone for sharpening knives and a leather ceiling. Unlike other stone sellers whose goal is to sell as much as possible, we do not advise buying a large number of different granulations of stone, but recommend that you get one quality stone such as Shapton Glass stone #1000 as well as Leather Ceiling with Koyo Paste . This stone is perfect for sharpening knives while the leather cap serves to achieve a final sharpness that is more than satisfactory for 90% of everyday needs. In fact, for all knives of European manufacturers, it is by no means advised to switch to finer grits, while this stone is sufficient for sharpening all Japanese knives.

If you are a sushi master and use special Japanese knives, you will need a finer Shapton Glass stone #6000 , and if you have damaged or chipped knives, you will need a coarser granulation - Shapton Glass stone #320.

Guidelines for sharpening using Shapton stones look here . Pro tip: Before you start sharpening your perfect Japanese knife, always practice the technique on a less important and less expensive knife.

Also, if you are not sure how to sharpen a knife, you can schedule a sharpening class with us, where we will remove all doubts and achieve exactly what you need!