Thursday 29 November 2012

Gift Certificates

 A few days ago I got an email from a nice lady asking if I had Gift Certificates.
I thought,  now that is  a great idea.

So I will create Gift Certificates for knife sharpening that will be available immediately.

My Certificates will be for a specific number of knives to be sharpened rather than a dollar amount.

So you can purchase a certificate for your loved one, friend, partner, (loved ones like I said) based on how many knives that they have. I can create the certificates based on your individual needs.

If you want to give someone a certificate to get his/her three knives sharpened, you just let me know if they are small or large or a mix and I'll make it happen and charge accordingly. No left over money this way.

How cool is that.

Even my cat thinks it is a great idea.

Saturday 24 November 2012

Does Size Matter

Hell yeah.


While sharpening a cleaver of this size free-hand is a little different than sharpening a paring knife, the principles remain the same.
Raise a burr on both sides and then remove the burr. All the heavy lifting was done on my Shapton Glass 500 stone, from there, the refinement process on a 1k Chosera, 2K Shapton Glass, 3K Sigma, 4K Imanishi and finally an 8K Imanishi. 
A little overkill yes..........we love overkill.





The Big Kahuna
Leave it to Cleaver

Let's Talk Sharpening

Some Basics

I wish I had known some of the things I will mention here when I got started.  First of all, one does NOT need all the stones in the picture below. I need them, and this is not all of them, but I need them because of my obsession with sharpening knives, I don't need them all to get a sharp knife though. A golfer could play a round of golf with 3 or 4 clubs but over time he/she gathers more. (You get the picture)

You should have 3 stones, Coarse, Medium and Fine.  

A Coarse stone, anywhere from 30 grit up to about 800 is excellent for setting the bevels, removing nicks and just getting started on a very dull knife. Now if you are starting with relatively sharp knives, or knives that are new you can get by without a coarse stone.

( I get knives that are so dull, if I closed my eyes and felt the edge, it would sometimes be difficult to differentiate between the cutting edge and the spine of the knife)


A Medium stone, 800-2000 is essential, you could get buy with just one stone, a 1200 King Deluxe for example and with that one stone you could get your knives sharper than when new. However, if the knife you are sharpening is dull, it will be a long road ahead of you, i.e. a lot of grinding on that stone. 

A Fine stone, (Finishing Stone) 3,000 - 30,000 is also important to have for refining your edges/bevels. So if you have  a choice and only get one finishing stone, a 4k stone, such as the Imanishi stone at Lee Valley is a good choice or a King 4k as well. There are many many different brands of stones, don't get hung up on the brand name. 

Naturally, there are different qualities of stones just like everything else, just because I have Naniwa Chosera or Shapton stones, does not mean you have to. I started with a King 800 when I first entered the world of Japanese Water Stones. TECHNIQUE is the key, not the brand of stones you have.

OK......you have a stone or two, let's say you have an 800 King stone and a 4,000 Imanishi and you have a dull knife or two or 24. Get yourself situated with some good light, a few drying rags to wipe off the blades and some water to soak the stones. You need to soak your whetstones until the bubbles stop. Then you can just keep them lubricated with water as you proceed. I use those bottles that you see on cooking shows that people put olive oil in or something. 




Japanese Water Stones

Basics Only here to get you started, the videos in the blog entries below by Jon Broida are really excellent and better than any video I can make. These are just a few tricks and essentials. So watch the videos as well.

STEP ONE:

 Put your coarse stone on rag or stone holder on the table so that it doesn't slip and put a little water on it, the water should remain on the surface and not be absorbed into the stone by this stage.

Use the sharpie trick to mark the edge and to guide you towards that edge when you start sharpening. Now as seen in the videos.

Double bevel sharpening by Jon

You need to raise a BURR, the formation of the burr on both sides of the blade is essential, it is the key element to successful sharpening. You also need to remove the burr.

Understand that the creation of the burr on both sides of the edge, along the entire edge is your goal. If you have done this, you have a sharp knife. You have removed all the dull metal and now have a fresh clean start. Picture an avalanche of metal sliding down the bevel of your knife, this is the metal that you are moving to the edge with that Coarse Stone. It means you have reached the edge correctly, now flip the blade and repeat. DO NOT keep grinding on one side of the knife until you have created the burr. It could take a while depending on how dull the knife is and how coarse the stone is. Be patient here, flip often if necessary. The burr will come eventually and when it does, you just remove it by decreasing the pressure on the stone and eventually just using the weight of the knife to keep the knife on the stone.
Do not mindlessly grind away metal, this is surgery folks, knife surgery, take care and focus. 

Remember-Technique is what will help  you reach your goal, don't sweat the angle, maintain the angle you started with throughout the process that's all. If your knife came from the factory with a 20 degree angle, you don't need to resharpen that knife at exactly 20 degrees, without a guided system or one of those hideous knife grinders that you can by, how the hell are you going to keep it at exactly 20 degrees anyway. Nobody can do that, but you CAN maintain the same angle by practising and focusing.  It could be 18 degrees or 21 degrees.

 Don't worry the ANGLE POLICE are not about to break your door down.

Here is something important.....stay with me with me here.

Once you have achieved and subsequently removed the burr with your first stone, you have sharpened the knife. So now your goal IS NOT TO RAISE ADDITIONAL BURRS but to refine the edge, your are removing the scratches created by your first stone from this point on.  You don't need to grind away to create a  burr because by doing so, you are just removing metal needlessly. You already did that, you reached your goal with the first stone.

STEP TWO:
With your next lubricated (water) stone, you repeat the process. Now you will create burrs and that is fine, over time, i.e. a hundred knives down the road, you will learn to make those burrs smaller and smaller. Think of the the burr at this stage as removed metal,  but as long as  you remove any burrs that have formed, you are golden. I still form additional burrs, it just happens as your refine the edge, it's OK, in fact when moving from a 240 grit stone in my case to a 400 stone, it is quite difficult not to form a Burr, I do it every time.

MY point to you is that you know that YOU DON'T NEED to raise the burrs on your other stones, it just happens, it is a result of the process and further confirmation that you are hitting the edge correctly. I am not saying these burrs are harmful at all, I just want you to understand that removing them is the goal as you refine your edge.

When you have used your 4,000 grit stone, or 10,000 grit stone, those burrs are very hard to feel, so don't think you are not sharpening correctly if you cannot feel them. Just go through the motion of removing them anyway though.

If you only have the one finishing stone, just lightly go over the edge on both sides, evenly and just  monitor your progress.

Now that you have a sharp knife, keep it sharp, do this weekly and use the 4K stone only, i.e. you don't need to always go back to the coarse stone.

Don't be disappointed if your knife isn't razor sharp, remember to be patient on that first stone. You need to remove the burr, you can run the edge through a cork to do this as well. I guarantee that if you keep practising you can get your knife sharper than it was when you first got it. You will get better, keep at it and don't be discouraged.

PRACTICE/PATIENCE/PERSISTENCE.


COMMENCE SHARPENING 

Always available for some tutoring folks.

WATCH THOSE VIDEOS

Remember LEE VALLEY - you can pick everything you need to have the sharpest knives that you have ever seen from Lee Valley. They have a very selection of Japanese Water Stones.
Do an Item Search for Sigma, Bester, and King.

Thursday 22 November 2012

BEHOLD-NANIWA CHOSERA



Friends, it is not everyday a man gets hold of Japanese Water Stones of this calibre.

I ordered these from Paul's Finest on Saturday evening. He replied to me in 10 minutes and told me he would get them ready for shipping immediately and they would go out on Monday. They were Halifax on Wednesday and in my arms Thursday.
Now that is exceptional service.



As they first arrived.


Note the Nagura (cleaning stone) that came with each of them, this is first time I've received those with the stones. 





Now you can tell they are Naniwa Chosera, it says so right here:

So what does this mean to you,?

 If you are reading this Blog you probably can appreciate what it means for me to have these stones in my possession. Just give me your dull knives, it would be like bringing them  a very exclusive spa. 


I strongly  recommend Paul's Finest if you are interested in Japanese Water Stones, and Kitchen Knives and, it is right here in Canada too.

Here is a link:







Monday 12 November 2012

Japanese Knives




For a truly exceptional edge, you need to use a Japanese hand made knife. I am not aware of anywhere in Nova Scotia where you can walk into a store and buy one. However, there are some really great, trustworthy online sites.

Knifewear in Calgary is one such place, take a look at the knives that Kevin has there for sale and you will see a wide variety. I have sharpened these knives and in terms of sharpness, they can achieve a very sharp edge at quite an acute angle. These knives are much sharper than our Henckels and Wusthof  and even Globals and Shun knives. However, many of them,  the ones I like are high carbon content and require a little extra care. Basically, you need to make sure that they are dry, completely dried off after use of rust will form on the blade. 
One of the knives from Knifewear will definitely be on my Christmas list.

Chef knives to go is another great spot, however, Knifewear is Canadian so you won't be dealing with any customs issues, however, I have ordered from CKtG and there has never been an issue with customs. Mark Richmond, owner of Chef Knives to Go is great to deal with.

Another Canadian online store is Paul's Finest, I have shared emails with Paul, his reputation is well known and it's another good spot. 

Just use the table on left side to find a great assortment of knives and Paul is very quick to respond to questions. I am going there next for any of my Japanese Water Stones. 

You can buy one of these great knives for a couple hundred knives and I guarantee you that you will be startled by the sharpness. ALSO.....they are very easy to sharpen.

Peter

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Great Sharpening Videos

Sharpening Videos by Jon

I often thought of making some videos on how to sharpen knives and then fortunately I found these.

Folks, this is about the best videos that I have seen on sharpening, and I have seen many.
These are created by the owner of Japanese Knife Imports and are just great.

This is how I sharpen your knives, I use different brands of Japanese Water Stones for the most part but the technique is the same. You can see for yourself that it is not rocket science and Jon does a fantastic job of showing us.

Although these videos are made sharpening traditional Japanese knives, it is applicable to all knives that I sharpen, except for serrated.

Enjoy.

Thursday 1 November 2012

The OTHER GUY

The other sharpening service


Folks, if you are hesitant about letting me sharpen your kitchen knives you can always bring them to a different sharpener. I know you will pay a little more than I charge but at least you won't have to wait very long.

I will admit freely that I do not own any of the machines shown in the video.


Good luck friends.


( It is hard to watch isn't it?)