Poor Kasumi

Here is a nice little Kasumi that has seen better days:

Now all it takes is some time, patience and some wonderful Japanese Water Stones to restore this beautiful knife back to what I think is better than new. This is now quite possibly the sharpest knife in Canada. It is at least the sharpest knife in my house  :)

Here it is all fixed up, damage repaired and then sharpened.

OH SORRY, wrong picture.

Here it is:

You should be able to scroll to the right and left to see the entire blade.

KASUMI Reborn

Thanks for reading my Blog.

Extreme Knife Sharpening

Anyone can sharpen a knife and get it to the point where it will work in the hands of a professional Chef. If my knife sharpening experience has taught me anything, especially over the last year, some Chefs works with very dull knives. They are just too busy to look after the many knives they need in their daily life. It only makes sense, most of of use a knife or two a day for a short period of time to prepare daily meals. A chef is using 5 or 10 knives very frequently, all day long so it is only natural that their knives get dull. It doesn't mean they don't take care of them or worry about them when they are dull, they are just too busy, they don't have the luxury of putting a dull knife on the top of their priority list. Instead, they will go home and think, "ok, I need to get my knives sharpened" but because of their daily life, and also the fact that until now they may have not had the ability to just make a call and have someone come, pick up the poor neglected yet loved knives and take care of them.  Those days are over,  I have an obsession for sharpening knives, chefs who are kind enough to trust me with their knives feed that obsession. Trust is another huge barrier that I have to overcome, why would someone give me their tools that they have paid a lot of money for, it's asking a lot.
GET OVER IT folks, I have all the respect in the world for what chefs can do with food, that is their passion and God love them for it. My passion is knives and making them ridiculously sharp, so you need to get over that little issue and do your knives a favour :)
I'm only joking  of course, I get the fact that turning over a $400.00 knife to Peter Nowlan, (who the heck is he anyway).

Well you are reading the lines of a man who has been fascinated with knives and making them sharp for over 30 years. Now that alone doesn't make one a good sharpener, definitely not, but it could be one of the ingredients.
Practice, knowledge, asking questions, practice, having some nice Japanese Water Stones, being able to reach out and talk to a world class sharpener. I have these things, does it make one a good sharpener?
Heck no, I could go out and buy the best golf clubs in the world, drool over them for years, practice daily but I could still suck at playing golf......I do suck at playing golf.
There is only way to find out, give me a knife and if you are not thrilled with the edge I will buy you a new knife.

How do I get it sharper than it really needs to be you ask, what is my secret?

I think it really back down to the obsession thing, I have a network of highly skilled and respected knife sharpeners in places like South Africa, Taiwan, California, Netherlands and Canada, these people, fellow OCD folks have taught me things that 99% of people would never even ask. None of that is important to you, you just need to know that when you give me a knife I will make it sharper than any knife you have ever used.

Here are some knives owned by a very good chef at  the Westin Hotel in Nova Scotia. How do I know he is a good chef, easy, he has given me his knives to sharpen and the food at the restaurant in the Westin is exceptional.

I sharpened his knives over a period of 6 hours and it took several steps to get to the stage where I was satisfied with them.  I established a Relief Face on them at 14 degrees for some and 12 deg for others. Give or take 10 degrees.......just kidding, the measurements are precise. (OCD remember :) )
The Relief takes about 30-45 minutes and involves the use of Diamond plates, 8-10 Japanese Water Stones and a lot of polishing. The Relief Face creates a beautiful mirror polish on the bevels, it enhances the cutting process, and looks pretty dang nice. After this, I start to actually sharpen the micro cutting edge by shifting the angle to 19 degrees or 17 deg and then I it is matter of drawing the exquisite Shapton and Chosera stones over the edge at the exact spot I need to reach to get them to what is for the pinnacle of sharpness. The final process is a 3 stage stropping with balsa, and leather including kangaroo hide with is absolutely amazing for stropping, who would of thought eh.

I test every single knife for sharpness on my fingers, I can just tell when they are sharp an with telephone book paper.

Did I tell you I love to sharpen knives. If you don't believe me or trust me, bring your knives to another sharpener, go for it, there must be tons of them out there like me :)

Seriously, if in doubt, I will do a knife for free or give you a knife to try.  If you still don't ever let me sharpen your knives I still like you, you are here reading this and for that I salute you.

Sharp Knives - Why the fuss?

Ever wonder why some people, Chefs, me and my colleagues who also have the knife sharpening OCD, make a big deal about having a sharp knife. Besides the obvious fact that a nice sharp edge enhances the food preparation process, besides that, is it important to have a sharp knife or is it just for certain people?


YES there is a reason that a sharp knife will not just make your time in the kitchen more pleasant, but it will make your food taste better. You don't believe me, how is that even possible you ask?

If you give me a dull knife for sharpening, and believe me, your knives are dull if I haven't sharpened them:), if you allow me the pleasure of sharpening your knives I can promise you several things, these extras are just part of the whole sharpening process, all bonuses.
1. Your knife will be sharper than any knife you have ever used, how can I say that you ask? Unless you have had it sharpened by someone using the same stones that I use and not a machine, then I will stick to my word. Remember, the sharpest knife most people have seen is when it was purchased, the factory edge.  Well, we can take it beyond that my friends, that is what people like me strive for and obsess over.
2. You will love to use your "new" knife in the kitchen, you will find yourself cutting vegetables just for the sake of cutting them because it feels so cool, you will be slicing your food instead of sawing it.
3. Your knife will stay sharp for some time if you maintain it with a steel or ceramic hone, if you don't, I can guarantee that in a few months it will lose that extremely sharp edge that I put on it for you. This is normal, the good news is that I can get it back again very quickly. Maintain that edge with a Hone.

Now how does a sharp knife improve the flavour of your food?

Have you ever cut yourself with a dull knife, it really hurts and it bleeds a lot right. Conversely, if you have every cut yourself with a very sharp knife, it doesn't hurt quite as bad and it doesn't bleed for as long. It heals quickly.

Now take a filet of salmon or other fish or a nice steak or any other food. When you cut that food with a dull knife you are cutting through the cell structure of the food and leaving an open grain, tearing the cell structure apart at the molecular level. Now, as a result,  the food is more open to oxidation, certain liquids, sauces, soy sauce for example will be absorbed by the food at a faster rate than desired. Your dull knife has created an open source for anything to be absorbed by the freshly torn and open cells. This is bad and yet almost everyone does this daily.

A very sharp knife, and I mean sharp like, razor sharp will slice through the food and leave very a tiny and tight, cohesive cell structure behind, there is no damage so to speak and the foods like soy sauce for example, lemon juice etc. will not be absorbed in such an extent so as to change the flavour of the food to a degree beyond what is intended.  This slicing action is just what you want. Japanese Sushi Chefs sharpen their knives daily, they get this and we can learn from it, I  certainly have.

This is yet another very important reason to use a sharp knife, you can't argue with this logic. I didn't make this stuff up. 


Pictures of my new stones coming soon, these are the pinnacle of Japanese Water Stones, here in my hands, purchased just to make your knives sharper. You are going to re-take that kitchen of yours. 

Thank you for being here.

Peter.