Japanese sharpening

Hi there,

    For those who sharpen professionally, we see all sorts of knives, every different brand out there and it is our responsibility to sharpen them with an edge that enhances retention, is sharp and excites the owner.

    Once in a while some gems come in, hand made Japanese knives that instil sharpening glory and compel us to make use of  all of our sharpening senses, those skills that we have picked up  over the years and years of sharpening knives.

This photo was sent from my friend who visited Japan recently.

   How do I treat a knife like a Fujiwara or Masakage or Kotetsu differently than I do a Henckels, Wusthof or Grohmann?

Local Restaurant sharpening and typical knives

      As someone who has spent a very long time sharpening freehand, I have developed certain instincts that kick in when I sharpen, these are mostly common sense for sharpeners,  they guide us along and help us choose the most appropriate sharpening method for each knife.

     First of all, the process itself is not any different, I don't use a different technique at all,  I use different angles and different water stones. Speaking of Angles:

     For me, there was a time, a long time ago that specific angles, i.e. feeling the need to sharpen a knife at a specific angle haunted me. In fact, I think it hindered my sharpening progress as I struggled to figure out how to hold the knife at exactly 19 degrees for example. This it took me some time to realize that I cannot hold an angle at EXACTLY 19 degrees, i.e. I cannot say to myself, "Okay, this one should be sharpened at 19 deg per side, so I will hold my wrist accordingly to achieve that precise angle" We are humans and that just isn't possible, here is what is important and I am sharing this so that you don't let something like angles be problematic.

     

Just a nice picture.

     Here is what I have come to learn and adopt as my Angle Philosophy:

     As we sharpen, and as I have mentioned, we develop a Sharpening Sense, we adapt and build muscle memory, confidence, skill and ability to make sharpening adjustments on the fly. It just happens intuitively, by osmosis, we get better. This enlightenment helps us choose an angle that is appropriate for each knife.  So instead of having the ability to sharpen at a specific numbered angle, we sharpen at what I call an INSTINCTIVE ANGLE, the angle that our brain tells us to sharpen at and that our muscle memory enables us to sharpen at.
    
    Now in most cases, these angles will be one of very typical sharpening angles such as 12, 15, 19, 20, 23 degrees.  What is far more important than the ability to hold the knife on a stone and raise the spine so that it is exactly 19 deg, is the ability to hold the angle you intend to sharpen at with consistency from heel to tip on both sides. If someone gives me a Shun and asks me if I can sharpen it at 16 degrees because that is the factory angle, I just say "yes" because my sharpening instincts have taught me to sharpen that Shun and an angle appropriate for Shun knives.  Yes, I could use the mathematical formula that will tell me exactly how far I have to raise the spine of the knife from the stone to get an angle of 20 deg for example. (Yes there is a formula for this). However, all that does is give me a visual clue, it will be about half and inch and that is a good thing to know. But......I have to move the knife back and forth so that visual guide is not a moveable thing that keeps the spine of my knife a half an inch off of the stone.
It is muscle memory that does this and that comes from practice.

    Don't sweat the angles but know that you should not sharpen every knife at the same angle and it will only be with practice and a build up of sharpening instinct that will allow you to see this clearly and adjust your angles easily.  You will know that you should sharpen a certain knife at a more acute angle than other knives, it will be common sense to you.

How do I sharpen the beautiful Fujiwara in the picture above differently than a Global for example or a 20 year old Henckels like the ones in the restaurant picture?

     I know that Fujiwara san sharpened this knife at approximately 12 degrees. Now when I say approximately,  it was very likely microns close to that angle, yes, we can do this ourselves with practice, achieve near perfection in terms of holding precise angles.  I know that I should sharpen this knife at MY 12 degrees per side.  

    What would happen if I sharpened my $75.00 Henckels at 12 deg per side?  
The edge would be extremely sharp, ridiculously sharp but it would fail quite rapidly because the steel is not hard enough, or it lacks certain alloys that would allow it to hold such an acute angle for any length of time.


     I would sharpen the Fujiwara at a very acute angle because I want to get the most from this knife as I can. I am aware that the steel used in the knife is probably the top steel in the world, or close to it and therefore the primary edge will be stronger and will last longer. My goal is to sharpen this the knife the way it is meant to be sharpened, to push the envelope so to speak but not overstep it's limits. 

     The stones I would use on this I knife, the grit choice that is would be slightly different than the grit choices made on that Henckels. 


     

     If the Fujiwara was dull,  (hey it could be someone else's knife, not mine),  if it was dull,  I would select the following stones and sharpen the knife in the order shown here:

Naniwa Chosera 400
Naniwa Chosera 1,000
Naniwa Chosera 5,000
Kityama 8,000
Leather Strop.

    Now since I have a Japanese Natural Stone in the 8-12k range I would substitute it with the Kityama. However, the point is that I can take the knife to a much higher level of refinement. Each stone would be used in the exact same way except for one thing, PRESSURE.  The manipulation of pressure is most important and that will come with experience. Basically though: After the burr is formed on the 400 grit stone, pressure is decreased with each subsequent stone. 


(Coarse, Medium and Fine water stones is the way to go here) Don't worry if you don't have Naniwa Stones, just use whatever you have, I have often used Shaptons to do the same thing.


    Now if I am going to sharpen my Henckels I would do the same thing except I would stop at 1,000 or 2,000 tops. The previous blog article explains why. Also, my sharpening angle would be more obtuse, up at "my" 19 degrees. 

   The cool thing about knife sharpening is that you can achieve fantastic results with just one stone, the 1k stone for example. If that is all you to work with than work with that. Even if you have one of these dream knives, don't think because you only have one stone you can't get it sharp. You can, believe me, with practice and patience that one stone will give you everything you need. It may not be as polished but that's okay, it will still be sharp.

Remember that a nice strong edge is one that is clean so burr removal is your goal after burr formation. If you just have the one stone, just manipulate your pressure from heavy (to get the ball rolling on a dull knife) to very light, almost impossibly light pressure and think "burr removal, clean edge"

Also, if the knife is not too bad, but still on the edge of being dull, you could start with a 1,000 grit stone easily or the coarser stone with a little less pressure when you begin.  Some folks don't use any stones that are coarser than 1,000 grit, that is perfectly fine.  If you sharpen your own knives, you shouldn't need to use anything lower anyway.




Thanks for being here, it is really important to me to know that I am not the only one who reads my Blog.

Peter Nowlan