Every now and then I get some truly exceptional Japanese knives in to sharpen including some sent from a great Chef in Montreal. Its' quite exciting actually and I really set aside the time to work on these so that I am completely undisturbed, which is what I do most of the time anyway.
As some know, Takeda San sharpens his Takeda knives differently than anyone else, he uses a hand held water stone that is attached to a wooden handle, so a coarse stone, 400 grit on one side and a 1200 grit stone on the other. I have one of these and have used it several times to sharpen Takeda knives. It is pretty cool actually and Takeda San produced a pretty good video demonstrating the process so it is just a matter of trying to mimic his actions, once you have the tools of course.
You basically just hold the stone in your hand and remove the sharpie marks, no need to worry about angles or burrs and believe me, it works. Back and Forth and Back and Forth as Takeda San illustrates in his video.
However, the stone tops out at 1200 grit (the brown side) so I figured I would just hold the regular sized stones that I have in my hand to see if I could further refine the bevels and edge.
I was thrilled with the results actually and I followed up with a Chosera 5k and Kityama 8k.
I did the other knives all by hand and they are quite something. Takeda, Fujiwara and Saji complete with Mammoth Tooth handle.
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Fujiwara on a Naniwa Chosera 400 |
I'm a lucky man. These knives will blow your cooking mind.
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