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Honing Japanese Knives

4K views 8 replies 2 participants last post by  foody518 
#1 ·
Hello
I am about to buy my first japanese knife and I am trying to figure out what other pieces of equipment I am going to need to maintain it. My method for keeping my current german knives sharp is to hone them about once a week with a steel rod and get them professionally sharpened about once a year. Since I can't use a rod on my japanese knife to hone it what should I use? I have tried to find more on this through google but I only ever read about sharpening and not honing..
 
#2 · (Edited)
What knife are you about to get? Depending on the steel and how hardened it is, the edge may microchip instead of rolling from repeated normal usage, thus there isn't much fatigued steel to realign with a rod.

Watch this video

Make sure your pro sharpener knows how to handle Japanese knives.
Since I can't use a rod on my japanese knife to hone it what should I use? I have tried to find more on this through google but I only ever read about sharpening and not honing..
There is probably a good reason why...
 
#7 · (Edited)
1k/6k is a good start. Hold off on using the 6k side until you have good consistency on using the 1k side to produce a decent edge.

Though, my understanding of the Sigma Select II line of stones is that they are made to grind challenging steels *really* quickly (I have the regular Sigma Power 400, 1k soft, and 6k stones, and they have good cutting speed already). The knife you're looking at is quite thin and this could be overkill. Use a light touch.
 
#9 · (Edited)
No, but stones can differ in relative abrasive density, type of abrasive used, and many other factors that can make for example one brand/line's 1k stone feel and cut differently than another brand/line's 1k stone. Read the description on this page http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=335_404_513

For a beginner to using stones, getting one that isn't super slow is a good idea, but I'm thinking too fast could result in far more than necessary metal removal. And the Konosuke should be a fairly thin knife. If you've got some existing knife to practice on with the 1k, that could be a good approach.
 
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