Controlling Space

Hi Folks,
     I know that my articles are not as frequent as they were but I am running out of things to talk about, I don't want to write something just for the sake of writing it. I want to wait until I find a subject that I think, and hope will be useful and interesting.

    To that end, this article is about finding a sharpening angle and learning to maintain that angle and once you can do that, everything gets easier, and sharper.

   Years ago I fretted about choosing the right angle to sharpen a knife at. I was afraid chefs would know that I sharpened their knife at a different angle than they were used to. That worrying was all for nothing, thousands of knives later and a decade passing by, not one chef has commented on angles, they never will.

    There is a simple method to find a good sharpening angle that you can use to start your sharpening journey, the PINKY ANGLE. (You can continue your sharpening journey with this angle as well)

(I saw this on a video by Shun, I didn't come up with it but I have used it to teach many novices)

    All you need to do is place the tip of your pinky between the spine and stone and you will create an angle of about 16 deg, it's approximate but it's good enough. Remember, it's not the actual angle, it's the ability to maintain that angle, whether it is 15 deg or 17. 5 deg, your goal is to be able to keep that angle stable, to control the space between the spine of the knife and the stone. You control that space and sharpness follows.

    Once your muscles have adapted to this angle, once muscle memory has been achieved,  than you can easily manipulate that space to arrive at and maintain different angles. I only use two angle so sharpen at, a Dream Knife angle of about 12 deg per side and an Average Knife Angle of about 19 deg but again, sharpening your knives, all of them at the pinky angle is fine, use to to build muscle memory.


   

    Learning to sharpen a knife by hand isn't difficult but it is not easy, if it was, everyone would do it.

The process itself is easy to learn. The hard part is actually committing yourself to practising, to creating muscle memory.  You need to learn to control that space, sharp knives are inevitable after that.

Manage your expectations though, we all learn at different rates. 

Always remember the four Pillars

Passion,

Practice,

Patience, and

Persistence.

Peter