Love at first chop is not uncommon with a Masamoto. Great choice.
Knife Lore, E-Tailers, Ordering:
By the way, it's a "VG," and not a "VG-10." Masamoto used to engrave the blades with "...cobalt steel," (i.e., VG-10) but since "discovering" they were not using cobalt steel afterall, changed the engraving to "hyper molybdenum" (don't worry, it's in Japanese and looks cool), which is more than likely VG-5 (another excellent Takefu alloy).
While it's true Korin still calls them VG-10, Korin is (a) wrong; and (b) is responsible for a lot of other BS. Despite that they are an excellent brick and mortar and e-tailer. It's just that a lot of the information they transmit with great assurance and authority is, shall we say, not bankable.
Three excellent e-tailers:
Chef's Knives to Go,
JapaneseChefKnives, and
Korin. They're all very good, At the moment I favor CK2Go for their incredibly good customer service (owner's name is Mark) and for the likelihood of getting a knife with good F&F.
Remember to communicate the importance of good "fit and finish" especially as that concerns the handle. Say that you've heard that sometimes Masamoto ships some really bad handles and you Insist on handle scales that fit well. This may actually be a lot less of an issue since Masamoto switched from magnolia "stamina wood" to "Duracon" (POM) handles, but bring it up anyway. At the least, the e-tailer will search through his or her
Steeling:
As a preliminary to sharpening, we might as well get the issue of a "steel" out of the way. There's a lot of propaganda on the web about never steeling a Japanese made knife. More BS.
Some knives actually cannot(or at least should not) be steeled because they are too hard (rebound hardness), or profiled too asymmetrically. Many of these knives are, in fact, Japanese. Unless you choose to create a highly asymmetric edge, a Masamoto VG is not among them.
Masamoto not only manufactures excellent steels, they include them with their professional western type knife sets.
Anyway, I think the Idahone fine ceramic is among the best rod hones available and very inexpensive. It's the way to go unless you want to get hyper into it, and own a ridiculously expensive two hone system. In that case, you want the Idahone AND a HandAmerican borosilicate rod (if you can find one).
If your largest knife is 8" get the 10" hone. Otherwise, get the 12".
Sharpening:
All things considered, you're probably choosing between two disparate systems, freehand on stones and EdgePro (excellent rod guided jig and tool).
If you're not already a competent freehander, and you can afford it, the EP makes a lot of sense. As a long term freehander (forever) who doesn't think it's freehanding is all that difficult to learn, and who has taught a bunch of people, I'm wrestling with the idea that the EP may be the option which make the most sense by far for noobies with enough cash. But I'm not there yet.
You can use the EP produce very good results with a lot less learning than freehanding. Also, I think that EP tapes (their standard abrasives are called tapes) do well enough on the type of alloys used in Japanese knives and the types used in ordinary western made knives that they're at least "good enough" for both, if not optimal.
On the other hand, you can get into freehanding with a much lower initial investment; have a much wider choice of stones; and it's not really all that hard to master. It's not eye surgery.
I'm a freehander, have been forever, and am currently using two complete sets of stones. The oilstones (two manmade Norton Indias for the coarser grits, two Arkansas for the finer), works better and more efficiently on common "German" type stainless than my very expensive and very carefully chosen (okay, I fell into some great deals) waterstone kit.
A very common recommendation is to begin with an inexpensive, 1K/6K King (or other manufacturer) combination stone. It's cheap,not a bad platform for learning, just adequate for typical maintenance, less polish than the knife should have, not up to bevel flattening (once a year or so) or other profiling -- including opening the knife -- and totally inadequate for repair.
A cheap combi is one thing for an inexpensive entry level knife, but quite another for a knife like your new Masamoto. You should buy better if you can.
I highly recommend starting out with Naniwa 10mm SS stones (from Sharpening Supplies), either beginning with or building toward putting together a 4 stone kit as fast as you can afford it. Even if the knife left scorch marks on your credit card, a couple of 10mm stones (1K and 3 or 5K) won't cost much more than a King combi, and they are much, much better. A a 400#, which is up to the heavy-duty work is also cheap. It's only the polishing grits, 8K or 10K that will set you back. You really should have one though, because the knife will actually perform better with that level of polish.
An optimal 4 stone set (400, 1K, 5K, 10K) runs $170 at
Sharpening Supplies. A 400, 1K and 5K would be about $110, while the 1K and 5K alone would cost $100 (you lose some discounts). On the other hand, an EdgePro "Kit 3" goes for $200 at
Chef's Knives To Go.
Let me know what you think,
BDL