How-to-Knife Sharpening and Restoration!

Before i get into the nerdy stuff that i love (which i'm sure you will too!) i thought i'd share something else i love in life first, Cooking!

I first started cooking when i was 5 and my obsession only grew as i incorporated it more whilst i was learning and experimenting with my fitness, nutrition and health knowledge. I've been cooking for just under 2 decades now and i can definitely tell you that its been full of learning experiences within itself. Skills grew but have also had a fair few accidents...

I wanted to talk about how to look after one of the most important tools you need in a kitchen, the Knife!

Now i don't know about you, but i love a sharp knife. I believe it can make or break a dish, so i try to keep the ones i use as sharp as possible.

But just like a pair of shoes or a golf club, everyone has their preferences on what they call the 'Perfect Knife'.
In the past i've used a number of knives, ranging in different sizes, plastic handles, wooden handles, light, heavy, straight blade, curved blade and even a ceramic one! Which is probably the most unusual as the sounds it makes, the weight and precision are worlds apart to metal based knives.

However the knife i am using right now, has got to be the knife that was made for me.
It's a handmade Japanese knife i received from my family in Japan, which they found it in their storage.

As you can see, its as bad ass as it gets being a Japanese knife. The size is almost double what i had been using previously, and it weighs nearly 6 times it, so you also get a great forearm workout during your chef sessions!
It also has a slight curve on the blade as it gets to the tip, which makes it easier to slice diagonally.

The blade is made from Blue Carbon Steel which is called Ao-Hagane. With some standard carbon steel welded for the neck and a natural and burnt variant of Japanese Chestnut wood for the handle.

After some research i found out that Blue carbon steel, is alloying an already Sharp, Hard and Expensive standard carbon steel, with Chromium and Tungsten to boost toughness, the only weakness of Carbon steel. This makes this knife the strongest and sharpest kind of steel for cutting. There's also White steel, which uses Phosphorus and Sulfur to unalloyed steel becoming easier to create a sharper finer edge but more brittle, which is fine for precision work like creating sushi and sashimi.

The stone used to sharpen it is a slightly more recent variant of a sharpening stone, made of Whetstone and rubber mouldings to grip on the bottom for slide prevention but of course, it never works the way they promise does it!

I usually let the stone soak in water for about 5 to 10 minutes before hand, this helps with getting the stone to fill the air pockets and prevent it from cracking whilst you sharpen your knife. Its also a good idea to have the edges of the knife soaked in water as well for a smoother feel when you start sharpening.

Before you start sharpening you want to make sure you have plenty of room for your arms and the knife as you move up and down the blade. Having extra water to pour onto the grinding stone is also a good idea.

This is how the blade looked at the start.

When you sharpen the blade, try and find a speed and rhythm you can stick to that allows you to keep control of the knife over the stone but also so that you can put consistent pressure on the edge. I did about 30-50 individual passes per Inch on the blade, before finishing with a light full blade buff, so all up around 250-300 passes.

After polishing the finished blade, here's how it came out!

This knife really is the most well crafted blade. You can see where the Super Blue steel core starts with the waves you often see on samurai swords.

In the end the edge of the blade came out alright. But i would have preferred a little finer grade of stone so i could really get it to a super sharp state but in saying that i realise this blade wont go as sharp as a more refined steeled knife.

I will post some 'how-to-cook' content of some of my best recipes!

Till then, thanks for reading!