welcome friends welcome back to the kitchen today i have my friend gage here
from sharper knife shop in hamilton yes sir pleasure to be here thank you so
much well thanks for coming in and so today we're gonna talk about Japanese
knives but first tell me a little bit about yourself how did you get into
knives and how did you arrive at this point so my journey into knives started
in the kitchen right out of high school I started cooking professionally my
first real kitchen job I call I've had dishwashing job yes yeah but my first
real kitchen cooking job was at a restaurant called origin which is what
are youup really now-defunct yes Claudio pre lays old spot so if you
go back through our channel you go back to like 2007 I did an interview with
Claudio in in that restaurant and but now you see him on MasterChef yeah he's
doing really well there he that was a real kitchen that's a real that was a
real kitchen yeah everything from scratch that was my first like scratch
kitchen for sure and I and I learned a ton not only just about food but also
about the importance of good tools right so I was very lucky that everyone at
that restaurant was very passionate about what they were doing and and
precision and efficiency were key and with that came a good sharp knife that
was going to allow you to make those precise accurate cuts and be efficient
doing so as well so now you're now you're selling those tools now I'm
selling them yeah so through my experiences in the kitchen and having
used all of these knives I've sort of curated a selection of knives that I
personally can can stand behind I've either used all of these knives or I've
had friends in the industry use them previously so let's talk about Japanese
knives because they're completely different than European knife they are
they're different and a number of different facets so I would say the the
steel that's used the the way that they're made
the the look and the feel are all completely different
so we'll start I'll start by talking about the the difference in steals so
okay while a lot of Japanese makers are using stainless steels traditionally
they would use carbon steel carbon steel is going to do a couple of things for
you it's going to give you better edge retention and it's going to be much
easier to sharpen and then some people would argue that it has a better cutting
feel okay I personally am of the belief that that
cutting feel and the ease of sharpening are kind of hand-in-hand so if it's an
easy steel to sharpen you're gonna get sharper and then it's gonna feel better
when you're cutting with it but carbon steel so I have a carbon steel yes takes
a lot more care it does you have to be much more diligent when you're using it
you've got to wipe it clean right away you do it right absolutely got it yeah
yeah it does it can be a little bit tough at the beginning but it is a
matter of building those those good habits so which you should have yes
should you should always be wiping and cleaning no matter what it's made from
absolutely right away if it's a five dollar knife if it's a five thousand
dollar knife it should get wiped down immediately after using it and you know
I was lucky to be to be screamed out about that when I was in the kitchen
starting out if my knife were my board or my station in general was askew at
all someone was gonna let me know about it
so and the once it you know I don't I don't like to tell people about the rust
and the the maintenance to scare them but just to make them aware of what
could happen could happen yeah once those habits are formed it's gonna be a
very easy easy knife to take care of so next we'll talk about the the forging
process so all of the knives that I carry are hand forged or if they're not
hand forged they're they're made in small factories where they're either
roll forged or or stamped but everything is always sharpened by hand and finished
by hand so that's why I make the claim that they're all handmade some are hand
forged some are not the hand forging process or the roll forging process
makes the steel more dense and it makes it harder and
therefore it gives you better edge retention so a German knife is stamped
from you know generic stainless steel there's a time in a place for a German
or European knife I still think like we affectionately refer to them as and I'm
sure you've heard this term before as well beaters you always can your you
know your beater knife around when you got a like Hawk a lobster in half or do
whatever with it you don't you don't want to worry about it getting damaged
or whatever that's the one you go with I have a beater okay let me get it amazing
yeah so this is my this is my beater No oh yeah
I bought this probably when I was in grade 9 okay it's in fantastic shape so
look at that I mean it is not a good knife by any stretch of the imagination
it's it doesn't look like very nice steel no not a fantastic handle on it no
but when it's sharp I can hack away at stuff it doesn't have to worry do
exactly what you're supposed to do yes so there is a place for absolutely and
there's also a place for these yes when you're trying to be very very precise
and and and accurate with what you're doing a good sharp knife is super
important and one that holds its edge a long time as well this is not know right
so like that that's that kind of leads into the the Rockwell scale conversation
or the or the HRC abbreviation if you've done any knife shopping before you've
probably seen the HRC abbreviation and maybe wondered but it means so like we
talked about a hand-forged knife more dense harder and the way they measure
that is by taking the steel they put it in this machine they use a control low
they make a little indentation they use a larger load measure the difference and
that gives you a number generally for for you know German knives
they're gonna come in around 52 to 56 and then most of what I carry is in the
60 and above range I got a couple that kick around like the 59 saw range but
that hardness is going to contribute to much better edge retention it does kind
of lead to some other not issues but but things you have to be
careful with so a harder steel is going to be more brittle right so you did you
have to be a little bit more mindful of what you're doing and how you're using
it yeah one of the big ones I see aside from the obvious ones like trying to cut
through bones or frozen foods or or any like hard nuts or cane users and stuff
like that is when people are using the the rocking motion like this a lot of
people have a tendency to sort of walk it walk it across and with a with a
stainless steel knife that's on the softer side that's not a huge deal when
you're getting into like the really really thin like very hard durable
Steel's it's gonna cause issues there so it's not to say that you can't do that
but you just have to kind of work on your technique a little bit make sure
you're going straight forward and back so some of my favorite blacksmiths are
from the 2k food knife village three examples are Christakis on Shiro camel
and and cat dos on three of the three of the blacksmith's that I work with from
that region there they're pretty amazing aren't they so they all they all hand
forge their knives using what's called a spring hammer and and in a forge so they
heat up the steel and in what is essentially a very hot oven and pull it
out and they have this giant machine in front of them runs on like belts and
controlled with a pedal on their foot that controls the hammer and they hammer
the steel out rearranges the the molecules of the steel and and gives it
that added edge retention hardness durability
they're also all hand sharpened as well and one of the other special things
about Japanese knives is their geometry these are all double bevel okay so I
carry primarily double beveled knives these are Japanese Japanese
western-style knives hybrid they are so they're sharpened from both sides angle
both sides I guess I can run through the shapes real quick here that that we see
so okay on the top here you've got a petty knife petty knives are just sort
of a general-purpose came from the French paring knife when the French went
over to Japan start trading it gets the name from being a
Appetit knife small knife a paring knife and Japanese just kind of took that and
turned it into petty knife yep next we've got a santoku this is probably the
most approachable knife for a home cook it's a familiar shape a very familiar
shape great size as well a lot of home cooks find this 210 or
8-inch quintessential chef's knife to be just a little bit too long I'm too much
for them so this guy coming in at 165 millimeters or roughly six and a half
inches is a very comfortable size for a lot of people next we've got the nakiri
vegetable chopper so these both of these knives are quite versatile the santoku a
little bit more so just because it has the tip on it yeah but if you're a
vegetarian or a vegan or you find yourself just using that up and down
chopping motion get for everything nakiri is great lots of height on the
blade so you've got lots of space for your guide fingers and that they're
there by not shaving off parts of your finger which is nice well and that's
that's something that a lot of people don't talk about when they talk about
knife what knife work and knife technique yeah is that this is the guide
oh absolutely yeah super important yeah yeah if you're not comfortable with your
with your knife and your and your fingers being connected at all times you
you're never gonna be as precise as you could be and then finally we've got a GU
toe or the Japanese equivalent of a chef's knife so very similar to again
very similar shape to a French style chef's knife a little bit of belly to it
or curved to the blade but not nearly as much as as a like a German Hinkle or
Wisthoff that they tend to curve way up right so what that does is again give a
little bit of ease of use to that that push end or pull chopping up and down
motion it's a very comfortable knife very comfortable knife yeah and if
you've never cut with a Japanese knife the first time you do it's absolutely
amazing it just feels like it wants to go through yes like that's what it's
supposed to do and that's what it wants to do and it feels fantastic and it's
because the the weights forward and the blade pulling the blade through
to be fighting your knife no no a sharp knife is a safe knife a dull knife is is
as dangerous yeah a little bit counterintuitive but like we've been
talking about that precision and accuracy means that you know where your
knife is going at all times and you're not worrying about it slipping off into
your fingers or you know whatever else that can happen and if you ever cut
yourself with a dull knife doesn't heal very well no no tell you something the
sharp knife you just smush it back together you're good to go a little bit
of crazy fluid yeah back on the line oh yeah you're ready you're back you're
back in it so if I was only gonna buy say three knives if I wanted to keep my
kitchen fairly sparse sure three knives which three would you think
No
you