Kitchen Knife Sharpening Video Using Pastes at the End

This is my typical routine for my Japanese knives. Here I'm sharpening up my white steel vegetable cleaver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcQcFqDNr88

Details are in the video description. It's actually a little too sharp for the first 4-5 uses, as it digs into the cutting board, but it's my standard as it sharp enough for sashimi knives (yanagiba).

Feel free to ask any questions!

Nice video. What is that huge green stone?

Nice! Thank you!

Although, I have to say i was initially confused as I read the thread title as:
"Kitchen Knife Sharpening Video Using PASTIES at the End"
And was a little afraid to click on it at work! LOL

Without question, one of the best sharpening videos I have ever seen.

Alacrity59 said:

Nice video. What is that huge green stone?

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For english people, it's just called the Naniwa "green brick of joy". I love this stone. It will erase your bevel setting scratches for straights, and put you at the 4k level.

ouch said:

Without question, one of the best sharpening videos I have ever seen.

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Thanks, that means a lot!!

I wasn't kidding. Cleavers can be quite a handful when it comes to maintaining a low angle consistently, and one only has to watch you do a few strokes to tell that you have a very accomplished and effortless sharpening motion.

ouch said:

I wasn't kidding. Cleavers can be quite a handful when it comes to maintaining a low angle consistently, and one only has to watch you do a few strokes to tell that you have a very accomplished and effortless sharpening motion.

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If I can help just one person with holding a consistent angle, that's 90% of the battle. I find that most videos have a more "overhead" camera angle, which I always found frustrating when I was learning.

wetshaveyyc said:

If I can help just one person with holding a consistent angle, that's 90% of the battle. I find that most videos have a more "overhead" camera angle, which I always found frustrating when I was learning.

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Agreed. It's hard to illustrate the shallowness of the angle any other way.

I think sharpening boils down to two things, neither of which has anything to do with tools.

1) Consistency of angle. Even if you don't use the "correct" angle, a consistent angle will create a uniform edge. I believe this should be the first goal for novices. Much trickier, but ultimately the most important factor is.....
2) Learning to lay only the bevel, or "blade road", on the stone. Too steep an angle only grinds away the very edge of the blade- that's not the goal of sharpening. Too shallow an angle and you only grind away the "shinogi line" where the bevel ends at the transition point between the bevel and the body of the knife. When you go too shallow, the very edge of the blade won't even contact the stone at all.

Your video has it all- nice knife, beautiful stones, great technique and terrific explanation.

Never used any paste but I have gone up to 600 wet dry using sand paper.

Deltaboy said:

Never used any paste but I have gone up to 600 wet dry using sand paper.

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Do you mean 6000?

A coworker of mine asked me to hone his Shun knife today. I took it up to an extra fine stone, then stropped on a hanging strop with CrOx, and then plain leather. It is now tree topping hairs. I'm pretty impressed with those knives.

Nice video and technique. I might be able to shave off my Shun cleaver. They really take and hold a good edge.

Legion said:

A coworker of mine asked me to hone his Shun knife today. I took it up to an extra fine stone, then stropped on a hanging strop with CrOx, and then plain leather. It is now tree topping hairs. I'm pretty impressed with those knives.

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Nice! I hope he doesn't cut himself!

So what else ya gots there, wetshaveyyc?

ouch said:

So what else ya gots there, wetshaveyyc?

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What?! No deba? jk Nice picture, I can clearly see the same bevel on every knife! What is your favorite, and what's its steel type? What are your favorite top 3 stones there?

I don't have a huge collection like that (though I'm close with stones). I'll take a picture this weekend for the thread, but for knives, I just have the cleaver from the video, a 300mm white steel yanagiba, and a gyoto, blue steel. All of them are Sakai Takayuki. (I also have a full henckels set/knife block that I barely use). Deba is my next purchase, but I have to give it time because my wife is still anxious from my last impatient purchase, which was ski sharpening and ski waxing gear.

wetshaveyyc said:

What?! No deba? jk Nice picture, I can clearly see the same bevel on every knife! What is your favorite, and what's its steel type? What are your favorite top 3 stones there?

I don't have a huge collection like that (though I'm close with stones). I'll take a picture this weekend for the thread, but for knives, I just have the cleaver from the video, a 300mm white steel yanagiba, and a gyoto, blue steel. All of them are Sakai Takayuki. (I also have a full henckels set/knife block that I barely use). Deba is my next purchase, but I have to give it time because my wife is still anxious from my last impatient purchase, which was ski sharpening and ski waxing gear.

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I can't recommend the Hiromoto gyuto enough, and I have long been a huge fan of Tojiro knives. They're without doubt the best buy in the business and perform way past their price point. Of those stones, the ones I enjoy the most are the Beston 500 for rough work, the Mizuyama 1200 as a great medium stone, and the Kitayama 8K for polishing. Still, I find uses for all of them. For a super quick refreshening, I'll grab the 2K and 12K Shaptons and can get a mirror finish in a minute. The GlassStones and Naniwa Chocera are also great. I think I like the stones more than the knives!


Like you, I also have a ton of Henckels that never get used.

Thanks for sharing.
I recently purchased a contemporary calphalon 17 pcs set like http://jonsguide.org/best-top-calphalon-knife-set-reviews/ and I love it. great balance, easy to align the secondary edge. I'm no pro but I can take the steel to them and have them easily shave hairs off of my arm. All but the steak knives are full forged from german steel and feel very nice in my hand. They perform very nice as well. For the price I am extremely happy. The reason these quality german steel knives are so affordable is that although the steel is german they are worked in china. I just purchased a 5 inch santoku and am waiting for the tomato/bagel knife to completely fill my block.