For those who want to know how to sharpen a Japanese knife?
20th Feb 2024
We will respond to these question.
1.About the timing of sharpening Japanese knives.
2.What do you need to prepare when you sharpen Japanese knifves? What do you recommend for whetstones?
3.How to sharpen a knife that even beginners can do.
We will show you how to sharpen a knife.
If you read this article, you will learn how to sharpen Japanese knives such as Yanagi-ba, Deba, and Santoku.
This time, we will introduce how to sharpen popular kitchen knives in Tsukiji.
1.About the timing of sharpening Japanese knives.
When you feel your eyes sting after cutting the onion, it’s time to sharpen the knife.
Also when you cut sashimi(raw fish) , sashimi has no sharp edges. It’s time to sharpen the knife , too.
It depends on how often you use a knife , however I recommend you sharpen it once or twice a month.
2.What do you need to prepare when you sharpen Japanese knives? What do you recommend for whetstones?
You need to prepare a whetstone , a stand for a whetstone , towels and cleansers(neutral detergent).
A wet rag is fine instead of a stand for a whetstone.
The whetstone I recommend is “the middle whetstone #1000”. In addition, I will introduce the necessary whetstone in this video.
3.How to sharpen a knife that even beginners can do.
I will introduce how to sharpen a knife by Tsukiji Aritsugu, a knife maker in Tsukiji.
It is a knife maker that people around the world attract attention.
This time , we will introduce how to sharpen Japanese knives(single-edged knives), which are often used by professionals such as Yanagi-ba(willow blades) , Deba(kitchen knives) , Usu-ba(thin blades) and Santoku knives.
1. Remove the dirt from the kitchen knife.
2. Prepare a whetstone and soak it in water for 5 to 6 minutes
3. Sharpen the surface of the knife .
4. Sharpen the back of the knife.
5. Remove the burr.
6. Replace the whetstone if necessary.
7. Wash thoroughly with a cleanser.
8. Use a dry towel to wipe the handle as well as the blade of the knife.
1.Remove the dirt from the kitchen knife.
Clean the kitchen knife with a cleanser before sharpening.
2.Prepare a whetstone and soak it in water for 5 to 6 minutes.
Set the whetstone on the stand. If you don’t have a stand , fix it with a wet rag instead.
3.Sharpen the surface of the knife.
If you are a right-handed person , first , put your right index finger on the spine and your right thumb on the heel of a knife.
And grasp the handle of the knife with the remaining three fingers. If you are a left-handed person , put the middle finger , index finger and ring finger together and press the sharpning part of the knife.
When you sharpen a knife , the angle of the knife is about 50 degrees so you relax and sharpen it.
Press the knife so that it won’t wobble , and move the three fingres little by little from the tip to the blade end. Sharpen the whole until the edge of the blade has burrs.
Sharpen the surface about 10 times.
Sharpen carefully so that the width of the cutting edge and shinogi-line are not broken.
4. Sharpen the back of the knife.
When you sharpen the back , put it on the whetstone flatly. Sharpen the edge of the knife so that it doesn’t float. When you sharpen the blade , sharpen the knife laying flat.(down)
Sharpen two or three times.
Finally, please repeatedly sharpen both sides of the front and back several times. When the surface of the whetstone is dry, water it.
5. Remove the burr.
Put a knife horizontally on the whetstone and remove the edge of the blade so that it does not float. When you sharpen the edge of the blade, sharpen the knife laying flat down.
Moving from the tip to the blade end, lightly sharpen it twice or three times.
6. Replace the whetstone if necessary.
Change the whetstone if necessary while sharpening , change to coarse or fine whetstone.
Typically , use a middle whetstone (#800-1000). We’re going to use (#3000-#5000) whetstones. If the blade of the knife is chipped, sharpen it with a rough whetstone(#100-#200).
7. Put on a cleanser and wash well.
When you finish sharpening it, use a cleanser to wash thoroughly. Also remove the attached sharpening fluid.
8. Wipe the blade and handle of the knife well with a dry towel.
The kitchen knife is kept in a place where there is little moisture.
kitchen knife is an important tool that cannot be used in cooking. We always want to make delicious dishes with a sharp knife.
▼If you watch this video , you can see how to sharpen Tsukiji Aritsugu’s Japanese knife.
The video shows the type of whetstone and when to change it.
Aritsugu’s chef knife is easy for everyone to use and sharp.
That’s why , it’s not only supported by professional chefs , it’s also supported by a lot of people.
