Knives

I need to get new cutting boards and I can’t find anything like a sani tuff here in Australia and shipping one in is heinously expensive. The Japanese equivalent appears to be an Asahi so i’ll have to pick one up in January.

My gyutou and Santoku are really good and I got the same Santoku for my sister. Nothing overly fancy but really easy to keep a good edge on. I’d really like a Usuba and an kitrisuke next.

How are you sharpening your knives? I think I am going to just buy a 800 or 1000 grit King block to start and practice on my friends' crappy knives first.

Yeah, I that enso I ordered (it had an additional 20% off) supposedly is useful to use as a paring and utility knife while looking like a small kiriitsuke.

according to my knife/metal guru acquaintance (whose house in Paradise didn't burn!) this is what to get for actual sharpening: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004WFU7/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
he gave me a little demo once and seemed to like to push his knife away from himself in his sharpening motion, which i'd never seen anybody do before. he had some theory about why he thought sharpening was more effective that way.

bonus: it'll get you high

oh, and aforementioned friend recommended using oil and not water or dry

I care for my knives with this guy; probably not going to spend the time learning to use stones in this lifetime

https://brodandtaylor.com/knife-sharpener/

Yeah, I was watching a ton of videos on different sharpening stones, grits, methods. Some need to be water soaked, perma soaked, oiled, or splash and go. It's a whole thing.

'burrfection' was the youtube channel I was watching where he has tons of videos of different sharpening stones/methods, stropping methods and how to sharpen different types of knives. He's not a professional chef, I think he just became ocd about knives. But I like how he wings it a bit.

I have a diamond coated steel from ikea for day to day and a global 1000 grit stone for more serious sharpening. I can get a fierce edge with these, I’ve taken my knives in for sharpeneing I once or twice along the way.

i like 'burrfection,' he's got a lot of enthusiasm and his sang froid about destroying extremely nice knives is...bracing

i use a wusthof 800/2000 and it's fine, but i'd really like some proper japanese waterstones and a sink bridge

I was going to get something to hold the stone then realized that I could just use the sanituff board with towels and maybe a brick on top.

I am very into sharpening knives on the whetstone now. I think I have the touch.

I did a knife sharpening class yesterday and it was somewhat revelatory. I didn’t think I was that bad at it but I got so much better at in a few hours.

Biggest revelation, which I feel dumb for not knowing about, is that your whetstone becomes less than flat very easily. We were to to bring our stones to the class we went over them with a flattener and the difference is remarkable.

I guess I should watch more sharpening stuff on YouTube or whatever.

oh yeah, did they make you do the sharpie grid on top to see how not flat it is? I haven't flattened mine yet. I have just been trying to be good about using the entire thing.

my newest knife is an Enso Bunka.

It was a 6B pencil but the effect is much the same.

Interesting how much work it took to sharpen my 15+ year old global vs my kamata (basic stainless one). Both professionally done not so long ago but the softer global took a lot more work than the harder kamata.

I suspect I’m going to get very nerdy about this. Sharpening knives is very relaxing.

Only available till the end of today (Sunday) but this documentary about master knife sharpener, Katsunobu Sakashita is fantastic. Some next level techniques on display here and his arch shaped stone is really interesting.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4003127/

oh yeah pencil not sharpie. I don't know if I find sharpening relaxing yet. The time does fly by though and I am shocked that I spend an hour on a couple of knives. I am thinking of getting a splash and go whetstone because having to soak is something that I sometimes don't want to prepare just for 1 or 2 knives. I have only been honing on cardboard and want to try something else.

oh wow his fingers!

ugh stropping on cardboard I mean, not honing.

It’s kangaroo leather down here or nothing.

But yes, his fingers! I am astounded he can still hold chopsticks or do anything that isn’t sharpen knives

You both will enjoy this:

https://youtu.be/_jb1jNDQ-Bw

Oh wait that’s the kimono episode even though it’s titled as the Sumurai sword episode. Very weird.

all i can find to view are these clips:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p055p54d

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p055p54d

although i did obtain a torrent of the episode.