The Chosen One

I often get the "what is the best knife" question, I will give my answer here.

First of all, here is a list of the knives not to buy:

• KNIFE BLOCKS - Unless you paying a lot of money for  a block of knives, and I mean $700-$900.00, don't bother.  
• Ceramic Knives - I don't get the hype, I don't find them all that sharp and they are a bitch to sharpen.
• There is a brand of knives that used to be sold door to door and you can get them online now at ridiculously expensive prices, don't bother with them either.

I understand that the block of 9 knives that you see at Costco or Walmart or other places is tempting, you can get 9 freaking knives for 100 bucks.  Here are the facts, the knives themselves are not that good, they are cheap and very soon you will have a set of dull knives. You will be constantly reminded of that 100 dollars you wasted. It's a trap folks, don't fall for it.

Instead of purchasing a block of cool looking knives, buy ONE good knife.  A single Chef's Knife from MAC, Grohmann, Wusthof, Henckels, Shun and Global, is likely better than that entire set of knives. (Keep in mind that not all these brands are created equal).

The knife in picture above is a Nakiri, (veggie knife) hand made in Japan, brutally sharp and cheaper to purchase than most high end Global and Shun knives. 

When you go buy a knife, you should be thinking also of how you are going to sharpen it. That is the mistake people make and I've been there. Regardless of how much you pay for a knife, it will be dull before long, or at least lose that crisp edge that some new knives have. 

Note that many new knives are not sharp in my opinion.

So, instead of thinking you are saving money buy buying 8 or 10 knives at once for the price of 1 knife, you are not, you are punishing yourself because soon all those knives will be dull. Even if they weren't, you don't all of those anyway.

Here is a nice Global Chef knife, nothing special to be honest but this one knife is probably better than all of those knives in the block and isn't it easier to keep 1 knife sharp than a bunch of them. Globals are easy to sharpen and take a nice edge, they will hold the edge for quite a while but need to be re-sharpened 2-4 times a year depending on use. If this is the only knife you have, look at getting it sharpened 3 times a year at least and if that knife came to me for sharpening, that is $30.00...for the whole year. 

There are so many knives to choose from, I know it is difficult but the folks at Paderno or Cucina Moderna here are knowledgeable and will steer you in the right direction.

Now my next knife will come from Mr. Kevin Kent at Knifewear in Calgary and now in Ottawa. He sells exquisite Japanese hand made knives.
AWESOME KNIVES

BLING BLADES- Japanse Traditional Knives

Let's talk about Japanese knives and when say Japanese I am not referring to Shun, Global or MAC knives. Yes they are made in Japan but they not traditional Japanese knives.

The purpose of this Blog post is not to convince you that all your knives are inferior to these knives. At the end of the day, the best knife is a sharp knife. However, there is no doubt in my mind now after seeing these knives and using one, they can get an edge that few people have ever seen, especially in the Maritimes.

The Japanese knives I will speak of are the hand  made single bevel knives that are designed/used for a specific purpose. Paderno in Halifax is the only store that I personally know of where I can walk in and purchase one.

In Japan, there is trio of these knives that are the most common and most widely used, while there are many many different types, the Holy Trinity of Japanese Traditional Knives consists of:

• The Usuba;
• The Deba; and
• The Yanagiba. 

Japanese Chefs depend on all of these knives and they come a massive variety of names and quality. You can buy one online for less than $100.00 and take your chance or  you can purchase a $3,500 Yanagiba and know that it is a treasure. Meticulously forged by a family who has spent their entire lives perfecting their knives and following in their fathers and grandfathers steps.

I believe that only the best chefs in Japan or in other parts of the world truly know how to use these knives. They are exceptionally sharp, yes sharper than any European or Canadian made knife and I will explain that a little later.

The link here will take you to the Korin website, Korin is in New York City and specialises in high end  knives, the one here is over $7,000.

Exceptional Yanagiba


Let's talk about the three knives that are listed above. All of the images I have are from a wonderful book called Japanese Kitchen Knives Essential Techniques and Recipes by Hiromitsu Nozaki. I picked it up at The ikebana Shop on Quinpool Rd. (beautiful store). The book is awesome, beautiful illustrations and some very useful and interesting information.
Here it is:

The Usuba. 

This is a vegetable knife:

Picture from Japanese Kitchen Knives by Hiromitsu Nozaki

Now if you gave me this knife as a gift, I would have no idea how to use it properly, i.e. use it to it's full potential. The book explains how apprentices spend years practicing with this blade. It seems pretty simple to me, it's just single  bevel knife. Have you ever seen so impossibly thin slices of vegetables that  seem, well they seem impossibly thin. This is the knife that is used for that and again, don't think that if you had this knife you are going to pull off some ridiculously impressive cutting achievements. However, you are going to look very cool trying.   The Nakiri knife that is easy to find here, Wusthof, Shun, Global, MAC and others make them. They are double bevel knives designed to push cut through vegetables. I have one and it is my wife's favourite knife.

I have never even had a Usuba in my hands......more on that later and on sharpening this beauties. 

So this knife is for turning vegetables into works of art. Every Japanese dish is plated with purpose, the arrangement of the vegetables and protein is never haphazard, is is planned, it is art and does not come easily. 

Exquisite
Picture from Japanese Kitchen Knives by Hiromitsu Nozaki

Does the average Chef preparing traditional North American food need a Usuba. No, in fact I would say the average and above average chef doesn't know how to use a Usuba, just not a necessity. 

Ok lets move to the next knife.

The DEBA

The Deba is a fish cutter, to be more precise, it is for breaking down a fish, it is a very strong knife, this is beast and is designed for  a specific purpose, breaking down  fish and filleting . Now if you have ever seen a Japanese chef cutting up a fish, you will astounded. It is a science, years of training and hundreds and hundreds of fish with this wonderful knife is needed to become the artist that some chefs are. 

Picture from Japanese Kitchen Knives by Hiromitsu Nozaki

The first thing I noticed about the MAC Deba I had in my hands at Paderno was the spine. It will blow you away, extremely thick compared to other knives,  this is the hammer knife, the strong one, built to slice through bone. Again, the single bevel and steel (more on that later) leads to startling edge,  if sharpened properly of course. This is one cool knife. It is also used for dressing poultry.

Picture from Japanese Kitchen Knives by Hiromitsu Nozaki

I don't own  a Deba yet but I do have one coming. I don't intend to use it to break down a fish, I am getting it to learn how to sharpen it.


Now we get to what think is definitely the coolest knife in the world the Yanagiba.
Malcolm Smith, the Manager of Paderno and kitchen knife expert was kind enough to let me play with a quite expensive MAC Yangiba. I can tell you that I have seen many sharp knives, I have not seen anything sharper than that Yanagiba. (After I sharpened it of course :) )

The Yanagiba:

This is a very long and  slender knife, professionals use a 14inch Yanagiba and a very specialized cutting technique, in  fact, those "in the know" have many techniques to create jaw dropping food. Seriously, in the right hands, you would not believe what a pro can do with this knife.
The main purpose of this knife is to slice Sashimi, raw fish. The knife is pulled through the sashimi, it is delicate and purposeful motion. 

Picture from Japanese Kitchen Knives Essential Techniques and Recipes

Picture from Japanese Kitchen Knives Essential Techniques and Recipes

Now the picture above is absolutely stunning in the book, I only put it here to try and illustrate what the knife can do in the right hands.

MAC Yanagiba

What makes these knives so good and why would I want one?

While there are many factors when blended together create stunning and beautiful knives, I guess the key ingredient has to be the steel. Note of course that not all these knives are of the same quality. To get what I consider a decent one, a Yanagiba for example, the  minimum you would need to spend is $250.00.  

I won't bore you by talking about the steel but you need to know this is what makes the knives so special. I mean besides the fact that they are hand made by artisans and not mass produced like our Henckels and Globals. So besides that, the steel in these knives, and that is mostly all carbon is very hard. Our Wusthof and Global knives are quite soft in comparison. This does mean that they are inferior, I have Globals and Wusthof, I'm not putting these knives down. 

However because the steel is so hard, they can be sharpened and are sharpened at much acute angles and they can hold their edge much longer. So they are sharper and stay sharp longer.

The knives are thin, razor sharp and truly a joy to use.

Now these knives have not taken off in Canada like they have in the USA. Now I only know a couple of chefs, Peter Dewar, a gifted chef from the Valley has a couple and he was kind enough to let me sharpen them.

You will truly be amazed at how sharp these knives can get, I'm not kidding, remember, I couldn't care less if you had one, I'm not selling them, I just believe in them because I have seen them and used them.


There really is nothing like a sharp knife and when I say sharp, I don't mean out of the box, factory edge sharp, I mean water stone, hand sharpened sharp.

Does a sharp knife make you a better cook. Would having one of these knives, and you can get double beveled Japanese hand made knives somehow make you a better cook.

ABSOLUTELY.

Once you feel that thrill that a razor sharp knife can give you, it will enhance the joy of cooking for you, your senses will ignite, you'll be excited about cooking and that will motivate you to being a better cook.

Now.....you don't need one of these knives to feel that, I can sharpen your Grohmann and make it sharper than any knife that you likely have ever seen. You'll see what I mean.

I don't say this lightly, it's just science, it's the process of taking a knife edge over Japanese Water Stones, it just happens folks. 

I don't understand people, especially Chefs who use dull knives. There is no excuse, the food being served to people is effected by dull knives. 


I hope you enjoyed the little lesson on Japanese Traditional Knives. 

Yes, you can cut other things with a Yanagiba besides raw fish :)

Until next time.

I'm going to get started, what do I need?

Ok, congratulations, you have reached the point where you want to try sharpening your own knives.

I can promise you this, with just one water stone, you can can achieve at the very least, a factory edge on your knife, which means, as sharp as when you bought it, with just one stone.

If you are brand new to sharpening but you are interested and obviously you are or you wouldn't be here. You don't wont to pay to get a couple of knives sharpened and to be honest, I don't blame you.
Even though I have my own knife sharpening business and obviously I like to make some money from it, I will....your interest in sharpening is now going to shut me down.
No matter what, nobody can take my own interest away, I will always have that so good on you.
Let's get started.

Here is the  bare minimum you need to get a dull knife sharp. This is assuming the knife is not damaged, it is just dull.

It isn't the knife your Grandfather gave you 30 years ago that was dull when you got it. It is a good knife but it just doesn't cut it tears food, it's bad news.'

Now, having a water stone or 30 of them won't help,  you need to have some knowledge of what you are trying to achieve, some passion and some patience. Don't listen to much to the guy selling the water stones, listen to me.

1,000 grit Japanese Water Stone.

Also, I have already told you about the gadgets and why you don't want one of those. Did I tell you that if you already have one to throw it away?.....do that now.

So if you are on a budget like just about everyone one else, one 30 dollar stone will suffice. You can pick up a King 1,000 grit stone for 30 dollars at Lee Valley.

I do not recommend  you starting with a coarse stone, a 400 grit for example, while it happens to be the most important stone in my personal line up, it is a coarse stone, so not a good one to learn on.

Your goal right now is this:

• Technique
• Building confidence;
• Getting comfortable with the the technique
• Improving the edge a little.

Here is the sequence of steps you should follow:

1. Buy the stone, walk in there like you own the store and get a 1k or 1.2k King water stone or any brand of stone as long as it is 1,000 grit.

2. Drive home safely and know that just by getting that stone you are better than all those millions of people that have bought gadgets.....you threw yours out so it doesn't count, you're still cool because you have a water stone.

3. If applicable, tell your significant other you are busy and not to be disturbed.

4. Submerge the stone in room temperature water and observe the bubbles, start getting excited because when those bubbles stop, your world is going to change.

5. Now you need a place to put that stone, on something that won't slip, a wet towel but you need some knuckle room.  You can purchase a stone holder at Lee Valley for about 20 bucks, us cool people have one of those but if you don't have one yet that is OK, you have the stone. That is like find a dragons egg or something, very cool. Pat yourself on the back.

6. Have the knife ready and some rags maybe to wipe the blade every now and then and a little bowl of water to keep that stone lubricated.

7. Pat yourself on the back and know that just by having that stone, you're better than your neighbours. 

8. Have the bubbles stopped, OK now we can start sharpening.

HERE WE GO

Now remember, the knife is dull because the metal along the edge is fatigued, it has rolled over to the side or both sides and you need to remove that old edge,  take that old metal away that has done it's job and expose the fresh metal underneath.

Now take that saturated stone and put some water one the top, you can use the sharpie trick I taught you before to find the angle, if not watch this: (Jon Broida is a great man, a world class sharpener, his videos are top notch.)

Sharpie Trick

 You have watched the videos by Jon Broida at Japanese Knife Imports right, if not, you need to do that.

Start here:

Holding the Knife

Then this one:

Double Bevel lecture (Your knife is a double bevel knife)

Then this one:

Sharpening

Now that you have watched the videos, all you need to do is RAISE the BURR on both sides of the knife along the entire edge of the knife. Then you just need to remove the burr.

So it is up to you to be watching these videos first and then practise and practise. You just need to expose the new metal and then refine the edge a little with that 1K stone.

Now as you improve and get more comfortable you can add 2 stones, a coarse stone, (400-500 grit) and a fine stone, anything over 1,000 grit. 

You raise a burr which is basically the tired out metal that you have abraded away and then you refine the edge holding  a consistent angle for the entire process. Whether that angle is 17 or 22 degrees, just practise at holding the angle that you have chosen.

Patience is the key here and maintain light pressure at all times. 

Keep the stone wet and be patient.

Good luck and congratulations, you have just sharpened a knife, and when you have done this 100 times, that knife will be sharper than new. Do not be disappointed if after 10 minutes you don't seem to be going anywhere. Go back and watch the videos, I do all the time and I'm a knife sharpener.

Peter

The ikebana Shop

Hi,
I am now in a partnership with the beautiful little store on Quinpool Rd called The iKebana Shop.

I'm very excited about this, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.

Did I tell you this is a beautiful shop....you need to go and check it out.

Knife Handles

Here is a beautiful knife with a custom handle for sale.

The knife is a high carbon 8 inch chef knife out of China. I have sharpened it, and a similar blade has been used several times by different chefs who like the feel of it. It takes a great edge, it isn't anything special but it is thin, it is inexpensive and it works well. It is also very easy to maintain

The star of the show however is the handle which is zebra wood and custom designed for this knife. Made an engineer who excels at woodwork.

The handle is very comfortable and it's quite attractive.

The cost of this knife and custom handle is $100.00, no tax. It includes a free hand sharpening by me at anytime within 12 months of purchase.

Email me if interested.

We also offer re-handling starting at $30.00 and refurbishment of handles. In fact, I don't usually sell knives, but this one is new and I love it so I think someone will really enjoy it.

Peter

Gerber Reborn

I spent over 3 hours on this Gerber Folder.  The Edge, when I received it looked like it had been sharpened with a file. The owner was upset and it finally came into my loving and caring hands.

I truly hope the owner is pleased.

I started working on the Relief Face at 13 degrees exactly, I needed to go this low to hide the scratches and the polishing work began, from an Atoma 140 diamond plate up to the wondrous Shapton Pro 15,000 grit.

(MR are the initials of an amazing sharpener in South Africa named MadRookie, I admire his work and sent him this shot).

I used the Edge Pro Professional on this one.  The cutting edge is at 19 deg.

Nubatama Bamboo Japanese Water Stones

Friends,

I spend about 6 hours a day sharpening knives, I spend 12 hours a day thinking about sharpening knives and the rest of the time sleeping where I dream about sharpening knives.

In order to create edges that startle people, I use Japanese Water Stones and I spend a lot of time with different sharpeners in other parts of the world discussing the topic of water stones. I am obsessed with them, like my colleagues and we need to have the best and a whole lot of them.

(I'm talking about what I need, not what you need to sharpen a knife, remember, you think about cars, men, women, work, golf, friends, makeup, movies, Facebook, Twitter and sometimes knife sharpening. I think about knife sharpening, I don't care  about golfing or cars).

So imagine a person obsessed with something, cars for example and then, after years of dreaming about it, you get the car of your dreams and all of sudden, the all things just seem better.

Enter the Nubatama Bamboo Japanese Water Stone. These are the absolute pinnacle of whetstones, this is like going on a blind date, knocking on the door and Scarlett Johansson answering it.  This is like going out to shoot a few holes and Tiger Woods asking you if he minds if he joins you.

Now I didn't buy this stones for me, I bought them for you. You will be the one that gets to enjoy the edges they produce, I am just the guy in the back, using them. It's like me going on a blind date with Scarlett and asking you to come along.

Here they are......BEHOLD

Nubatama Bamboo 150, Nubatama Ume 1000 and Nubatama Bamboo 5000

The 150 above, the one on the bottom, dwarfs the Naniwa Chosera 1k. How cool is that, look at that thing....it's for you remember :)

The stunning Nubatama Ume 1K with a  beautiful MAC about to get the SPA treatment.

Finally the exquisite Nubatama Bamboo 5k pictured with Executive Chef M.C.'s nice little Misono Paring knife.

EXCITE YOUR KNIVES

Let them meet the Bamboo family.