How to SHARPEN JAPANESE KNIVES with The Sushi Man

what's up everyone Jun with the sushiman

and in this video I'll show you the

basics on sharpening Japanese knives

using a wet stone the knife is arguably

the most important tool in cooking and

maintaining it properly is crucial for

its performance a sharp knife will

obviously cut things better but it's

also safer to use since you don't have

to exert extra Force when cutting so if

your knife tends to make tomato juice

rather than tomato slices then you'll

definitely want to watch this video all

right now let's Jump Right In

[Music]

now first let's go over the equipment

we'll need obviously we'll need a knife

I'll be using my Mis noo for this

tutorial which is a Japanese double

bevel chef knife double bevel means it's

angled from both sides and meets

together to create the knife edge single

bevel knives like the yanagiba or deba

are sharpened a bit differently which I

plan to cover in a separate video but

the techniques I'll show you in this

video can be used for any type of double

beveled knives this is kind of my beater

knife that I use for most of my

day-to-day cooking I've also tested some

different sharpening products with this

which is the reason why I have all these

marks on it the original plan was to try

a full-on mirror finish but I just

haven't had the time and just a note

this is a stainless steel knife which is

what I recommend starting with when

learning how to sharpen a knife high

carbon steel is not necessarily harder

in fact it's actually easier to sharpen

but it's also more brittle and the edge

can be easily damaged if not done

properly plus it rusts very fast so

there's just more things you need to be

aware of okay next we have our wet stone

I have a few different stones but the

one that I use most often and really the

only one you need is this King KDs

combination Stone one side is a th000

grit and the other side is 6,000 the

1,000 is considered a medium grit while

the 6,000 is a fine finishing Stone so

you can pretty much sharpen any knife

with just this one combination Stone

which makes it super convenient and King

is my go-to brand they're made in Japan

high quality and an extremely reputable

company in the knife sharpening world

now you can find cheaper wet stones but

you get what you pay for and if you have

a high quality knife then you want to

use a high quality wetstone as long as

you take care of it properly this can

last you a lifetime just like a quality

knife so I highly recommend this to

anyone starting to sharpen their own

knives now technically these two are the

only things you need to start sharpening

but I have some other tools here that

make knife sharpening much easier and

safer this is a wet stone holder and

basically what it does is hold the stone

in place these black rubber Parts

prevent it from slipping and it also

raises it up a bit which gives you more

clearance now that said you can just use

a wet towel or rubber mat to keep the

stone in place but these are much more

efficient and they're not too expensive

Amazon carries a bunch for around 20 25

bucks and I'll have links to all these

items in the description below next we

have the sink Bridge which goes across

your sink and holds the Wet Stone in

place this allows me to sharpen right

over the sink which is a lot less messy

and I have instant access to the water

it's kind of a luxury item though so

unless you're serious about knife

sharpening then you probably don't need

this plus this particular one is pretty

pricey since it's imported from Japan

that said it's made really well and one

that I recommend if you're planning on

sharpening knives a lot okay next we

have this small stone called a nagura

it's used to clean up the Wet Stone and

also to create a slurry when using a

finer Stone which enhances the

sharpening process you don't really need

it to start but it helps provide a

smoother and more polished Edge when

working with the finishing

Stones lastly a regular kitchen towel

that you don't mind getting dirty all

right now let's move on to our

setup first thing we want to do is Soak

our wet stone for about 10 to 15 minutes

however not all wet Stones need to be

soaked especially the finer grit ones so

just make sure to follow the

instructions that came with it because

every stone is different with mine here

I like to soak just the 1,000 side for

about 10 minutes or so you do not have

to soak the 6000 side so I just get a

little Tupperware and fill it up until

the 1,000 side is fully

covered now while that soaks let's place

our sink Bridge onto the top of our sink

and adjust it so that it fits there nice

and secure with this particular one

there's an adjustment bolt on the bottom

that allows it to extend and

shorten so all we do is just fit it onto

the

sink and tighten the

bolt and then now it's

secure all right once it's done soaking

we're going to place this onto our

wetstone holder and we always want to

start with the coarser grit first so

we'll put the 1,00 side on

top just fits in there like that and

then we tighten

these so now it's not moving anywhere

okay now we're going to put this onto

our sink bridge and if you see here we

have a little adjustable

latch so we put the bottom part against

that and then the other side has these

two Stoppers with some bolts and all we

do is just tighten the small bolt on the

bottom side

here and then tighten these

two now just check to make sure

everything is secure and not moving

around and that's it now we can start

sharpening

so first let's cover how to hold the

knife I'm right-handed so I hold the

handle with my right hand while my left

will guide and apply slight pressure

onto the blade while we sharpen I like

to start with the outer side of the

blade so if you're holding the knife

like this this side is the outer side

and this is the inside and then we lay

this down onto our West Stone but

diagonally you don't want your wrist to

be at an uncomfortable position here

this wrist needs to be steady the whole

time so get it at a nice angle where

it's comfortable for you now from here

we need to Det determine the angle that

we sharpen and this is the trickiest

part as you sharpen more knives and get

more experience you'll be able to just

feel what the right angle is but in the

beginning you might need a little

guidance and they tell angle guides that

you can clip onto your knife but I've

personally never used them so not sure

how well they work a general rule of

thumb is that you want to sharpen at

about a 12 to 15° Angle now that's more

so for Japanese style knives Western

Knives tend to be at a higher angle but

for this video we're focusing on

Japanese knives so a couple different

ways you can find this correct angle one

is to place your knife onto the West

Stone and feel right where the edge of

the blade hits the surface and then

start angling it up slowly until you

feel the blade Edge is as flushed to the

surface as possible meaning there's no

bump and it just kind of flows onto each

other that's the optimum angle which

should be right around 15° now this

again takes practice and experience but

it's good to start getting a feel of it

now another easier way but not the most

accurate is to put three pennies down

onto the wet Stone and then lay the

spine of your knife on

it and that should be roughly around

that 15° and you could feel how that's

flush as well so once you find the

correct angle the most important part is

to keep that angle consistent that's why

it's important to have a good

comfortable grip so that you could keep

it at that same angle all throughout the

process I like to place my thumb on the

heel of the blade while my index

supports the spine like this and then

starting from the tip place your other

fingers onto the blade right above where

it meets the West Stone and you can use

two or three whichever is more

comfortable for you and then Glide the

knife up and away from you while

applying some light pressure and when

you bring it back don't apply any

pressure at all so again pressure when

you go away no pressure on the way back

you never want to add pressure when the

blade is going against the stone so in

this case when it's going back towards

me okay now add a little bit of water

and then keeping that same angle we

start sharpening from the tip to the

heel

and we want to slowly move our guide

fingers down the

blade and once you get to the heel of

the blade start back again from the

top now be very cautious here that

you're not applying any pressure where

the knife is off the stone if you apply

pressure where the knife is hanging off

it'll bend the blade and will ruin the

edge as you're trying to sharpen it so

just make sure that your support fingers

are always on top of the Wet Stone and

if you start to notice the stone getting

dry just splash some water onto it but

try not to wash off too much of this

slurry this slurry actually helps

sharpen the knife and will give you a

better result

now you'll see me keep touching the edge

what I'm doing here is checking for

what's called a burr a burr is when the

sharpened metal forms a small overhang

onto the other side of the blade so

imagine this is the edge of the blade

and we sharpen it from one side till it

eventually creates a small overhang onto

the other and you can feel it by running

your thumb or finger across the edge

like this you should feel a slight catch

and we want the that all the way from

the tip of the knife to the

heel and then once you feel the Burr all

the way from the top to the bottom it's

time to flip it over now we have the

blade Edge facing away from us but the

same concept applies I like to support

the spine with my thumb and index finger

is placed on the heel then with the same

exact angle as the other side we can

start to sharpen

now remember you don't want to put any

pressure going against The Cutting Edge

so in this case we apply pressure when

we pull the blade towards us and no

pressure when we go back up basically

the opposite of what we were just doing

keep the angle constant and we do this

again from tip to heel for several

passes until we get that nice Bur

[Music]

all right good we have a nice Burr going

on all the way down now we can move on

to our finishing Stone which is the 6000

side

now remember we didn't soak this side of

the stone and typically these finishing

stones with higher grit don't have to

but we do have to lubricate it a little

bit by splashing some water onto

it and if you have a nagura stone then

this is when you want to use it you

simply rub it on there to get rid of any

marks and more importantly you create

this slurry that you see here this

slurry helps in enhance the sharpness

and overall give you a better

finish okay now the same exact concept

applies here start from one end and

sharpen it with the same angle and

motion as we did with the 1,00 side

however you don't want to apply as much

pressure here since this is a finishing

Stone we're really just getting rid of

that Burr and polishing it to get that

really fine Edge

okay now let's switch over to the other

side

all right that feels really good now the

knife is extremely sharp and it's good

to go as is here but I like to add one

last Finishing Touch which is called

stopping stopping is basically the last

refining of the edge to make sure that

there's no bur left and we get it as

close to that razor sharp edge as

possible and they have leather shops

specially made for this but I just use a

finishing Stone like this one here and

all we do is give it a nice clean stroke

going from the tip to the heel and one

smooth motion again at the same angle

that we've been Sharpening at no

pressure just let it Glide really

smooth I do this maybe six seven times

and then flip it over now this side can

be a little tricky because the handle

gets in the way so I like to start the

blade horizontal like this and then

swoop down in one motion like that while

you turn the knife

now check to see if you feel any Burr

which at this point you shouldn't and

that's when you know you're

finished now we're just going to rinse

this off and wipe it nice and

clean and that's it now I'm sure you

want to see how sharp it is right so

let's do a good old paper test see how

clean it could cut some sheets of

paper ooh that feels so

[Applause]

nice all right enough of that this video

is already longer than I was originally

planning but I hope that you were able

to learn the basics of sharpening with

the wet stone and can start applying

these techniques to your own knives and

over time as you practice you'll start

to develop your own style and see what

works best for you the important thing

is to just start I understand it can be

a little intimidating but it's very rare

to mess up a knife so bad where it can't

be fixed so start off by getting the

right tools and then just keep

practicing all right I hope you enjoyed

the video and as always feel free to

leave me any questions or comments below

and don't forget to hit that like And

subscribe button if you found it helpful

thanks for watching and I'll see you on

the next one