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sharpening time.
What's up guys, this is Alex. This week I am in New York City. I'm here for many reasons including one super important one
I'm about to meet a
sharpening master, somebody who has been
sharpening knives all his life, and he
accepted to meet me to show me around his shop, here in New York City, and also, (and this is a bit more embarrassing, to
review my own
sharpening skills.) Right,
this is the place. I'm a little bit not straight if you know what I mean.
Very nice to meet you. Thank you for coming so I kind of grew up with the company
The owner is a close family friend, you know, this was my playground when I was little I started selling knives
They said oh you want to try sharpening? Sure. Of course. I want to try. I'm interested
So that was the beginning and then a lot of people ask me. Oh, so when are you done learning?
But for me, there's no such thing master Mizuyama in Tokyo, Nenohi, Misono, Masamoto
These are some of the companies that we work with I get to learn from some of the best in Japan
Take it home to New York and then teach in English, you know my teacher he was doing it for over 20 years
He still went to Japan to learn to improve that sound like a very Japanese thing. There's no end to the learning. Oh wow
This is actually what the knife makers used in Japan to make knife
But we use this for sharpening knives. It seems like the coarse
Sharpening. So this makes your process a bit easier but faster not easier
Okay faster if you mess up it messes up very quickly your knife gets very small
So we have two walls of knives
Generally this side is what we call
Western nice it's double edged and
Then that side we have the the Japanese or traditional Japanese knives they are single edged
So, let's start here your standard chef's knife the double edge with the Western shaped handle next
We have something a little bit more special western blades with a double edge chef knife with the Japanese handle
One-of-a-kind. It was made by mr. Ikeda blacksmith Ikeda and you can see the design that he put in for the blade pattern
It's actually representing Mount Fuji and the moon
this isn't drawn on this is actually the design of the Forge and then the pattern that shows and the last we have here this
Is a very traditional single edge Japanese knife. So this is called a Yanagi
You can tell it's a single edge because the front and the back look completely different
So I heard that only on Japanese there is a recess. Yes. The back is actually hollowed out. There's less friction
Yeah
The food sticks less the food sticks less if you love cooking and if you buy yourself a good knife and you can't sharpen it
That's sad because then you will have a beautiful knife. That is just useless. I share that feeling as well
So I brought my my own knife with me. I sharpened it to the best of my ability
But I would love to get your opinion on it can you take a look at mine. Oh super
Okay guys, so this is me again, but Alex from the past this time. I'm about to go to New York City
But before I do that, I need to sharpen my knife
Let's get to it
When the edge shines like a mirror
Wow, I'm proud of this I
Obviously don't know if Vincent is gonna be proud of this
I seriously doubt this but I'm sure I'm gonna learn very much also
I'm really looking forward to seeing his face when he reads the title of my first video the day I
Mastered sharpening master pack in all up. I'm gonna protect this blade and off we go
Here we go. be without any filter just be as rough as you can possibly be
So, you know, touch the edge and you can kind of feel it whether it's sharp or not
It should feel almost like a very tight guitar string
So another thing you can do is use your fingernail when you lay it on it should catch on the fingernail
So if it's a dull knife, that's gonna slip right off. Those are sketching by the way, it should cut through
Very very smoothly. If you have a very sharp knife, it's gonna be more quiet. The bevel It's very good
but if you look very carefully there's kind of
It's almost
like you're
Rocking a little bit. So when you're sharpening it very very subtly. You're probably
Rocking a little bit. So if you're a little bit more careful with that you get a more crisp edge
Definitely feels like you did a very good job if you want to go upstairs so we can actually work on the stone. Oh, I love to.
Let's get everything together. Oh, yeah, let's get geared for sure. I'm gonna get a private lesson
Super excited about it.
Watch your head. Yes.
I would do it like this. Okay.
I eyeballed the angle. Then I am going to just smooth
Like this then I would slowly move my way up I feel the great amount of pressure
No pressure
But there's a couple things that I would do a little bit differently. That's interesting.
You kind of eyeball the angle ideally you want to feel the proper angle two fingers half on the knife half on the stone
Right, and then I lift until I feel that edge
Is touching the stone properly if you don't find the proper angle and you're too high
You're gonna make your knife very small. If you're too low. You're not gonna sharpen any. yeah. You're not doing anything
I like to start by sharpening the tip use your elbow and shoulder
So you find the angle and then you just make a contact you make it touch
Exactly. You can see where the metal is taking off, right? Oh, wow, so slowly
I lift up I lift up I lift up and now you can see that the tip is what's being taken off. Yes
So now this angle you remember it it's easier to do it
You sharpens two fingers here your thumb down here. You did the whole knife. I do it in sections. I start at the tip
And I continue to work my way down
slowly working
In sections same pressure in each point and you want to keep doing this until you build up the burr
It happens to me that the blade just goes in in the stone. Instead of pushing toward the stone
Pull wherever the edge is facing away from the edge
Actually one more thing is that this mud this is actually metal that's coming off of your knife
Mixing with the stone don't wash the mud off
It's like an abrasive paste. It's like an abrasive paste.
Yeah, you want to use it and it's gonna sharpen more efficiently. I would get my burr on one side
I would flip the plate get the burr on the other side and once I get it on the other side
I just go to another stone. Yes. That's what I do.
Ok. very assuring. That's what I teach in the video, so.
So on the finishing stone, we do everything the same as the first stone. Find the angle
Lift it to the tip
I mean, I noticed immediately. There is no sound
The sound is very clean.
I'm just using the weight of my hand guiding the knife along the surface of the stone. I don't need to press very hard
so basically as the action gets
More gentle more subtle and so does the pressure right?
Exactly. Because
If you keep pushing at the same amount or harder
You sharpen it and then you dull it you sharpen it and dull it. so you would basically be
Ruining what you just did. Exactly. You've been
Sharpening like what? I've been doing it for almost 10 years 10 years
Yes, so lots of life. So I'm guessing you have built some muscle memory
So your body knows when it's right and when it's wrong
It's a nice moment when you do this. This is my favorite part
Oh, this is your favorite part.
That's mine as well
But it can also be the worst part because if you see a chip
You have to start all over. Usually when I see chip
I just close my eyes put it in in the drawer and just move on something else.
Thank you so much man. That was a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you man. Cool.
Thank you so much Vincent. Thank you so much. Bye Bye. I'll see you man
Right guys, I think that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed
Meeting Vincent as much as I did. I hope you learned as many tips as I did. I feel like sharpening
I'm just barely
Scratching the surface. It was a bit of a relief working when he said that my knife was
Properly sharpened. He also commented that there were a few things that I could improve with my technique and I'm fine with this
It's even even further that I'm just fine with I love this
I would be pissed to have nothing to improve on on my technique. I'm so glad that
He found plenty mistakes in my work
I'm gonna keep working on them and I'm gonna keep honing my skills if you allow me
Okay
If you enjoyed this video then please spread this everywhere share that on social
you know the deal and if you enjoy the channel if you enjoy the product if you enjoy
The fascination for learning and please subscribe to this channel and I'll make sure to keep the fire on. Okay, so take care
Bye. Bye. Salut.
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