Hey there guys, welcome back Ryky here.
So, I want to take a few minutes and talk about the five biggest myths I have come by on my channel.
Myth number one: you have to use fancy equipment to sharpen a knife properly.
Oh, this is... This drives me crazy
Look, I have fancy you come in here because I've invested a lot in my channel and a lot in my just my equipment that I use.
If you guys watch many of my videos you'll see I use a brick quite often to actually elevate my whetstones.
And that's really all you need. And to catch water you don't really need a whole lot.
You can buy a food tray like a plastic food tray for $3 to $4.
I use a silicon mat because the silicon mat is
really nice and portable. And then all you need is some sort of rubber lining or a towel
between your brick and your whetstone.
That is it. That is all you need in terms of a sharpening base.
And certainly look there's nothing wrong with going out and buying a $25 bin plus $100 bridge
or a, you know, a $200 sharpening pond from Shapton
plus another $20 rubber base.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you have the finances to go and do that, please do so. There's it's all good.
So, the myth of fancy equipment - no. Busted. You don't need fancy equipment to sharpen your knives with.
Myth number two is a funny one because I've gotten a comment recently that says:
"Pro's sharpen on whetstones, and non pro's sharpen on electric sharpeners."
It's almost like saying unless you are a chef you shouldn't cook.
And if you're not a chef you should have TV dinners or frozen dinners.
I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to me.
There are many comments on my channel saying that knife sharpening is 90% technique and 10%,
you know, accessories or goods.
I want to take that even a little bit deeper and say
that knife sharpening It's all about willingness to try.
Right, if you are willing to try and to experiment you will be able to sharpen your knife.
So, I'm not downplaying technique at all, please understand that.
But what I am saying that in my personal opinion, what's even more important and what's even deeper than technique
is your willingness.
I will leave that there you can extrapolate whatever you want from that little comment, but
I will leave it there.
Myth number three is: you have to thin a knife at every sharpening.
Oh, this drives me crazy.
Oh.
The whole topic of thinning a knife...
I think it's one of the most over debated argument from knife enthusiasts.
And there are circumstances that you need to thin your knife,
but for 99% of the people who are sharpening knives who are watching my videos, who are cooks in the kitchen,
knife thinning is not something you have to worry about for a very very long time.
If you guys have seen my channel in the last, you know, six months or so, you have seen me restore a number of knives.
And two of the occasions I've restored two Shun's.
They actually had about 3 to 3.5 millimeter gouges on them.
And so even, you know, me shaving down 3 millimeters of edge
I still didn't feel like those edges need to be thinned.
So, think about this for a second: how many years do you think it would take
for an average knife user to actually grind down 3 to 4 millimeters
of their knife's edge.
I mean that takes like a decade if not longer.
I have spoken to many chefs who have been using the same Wüsthof
for 20 plus years. And they've never thin their knives. As a matter of fact - they've never sharpen their knives.
Listen to the chef who actually makes a living using knives. You don't need to thin your knife out.
It adds a whole different layer of complication. A number of these chefs tell me that all they do is hone their knives every
three to four meals. And that's all they do. They've been doing it for decades.
When I asked him: "How do they thin their knives?" They look at me and just laugh or they kind of just look at me in...
Myth number four. This one also drives me crazy.
Is that you have to flatten your stones before or after every sharpening.
If I get a nickel... Well, maybe not a nickel.
I want to make it very clear - I'm not trying to say that this is not important.
If you are a sushi chef and you are sharpening Yanagiba's for a living to make a living from it...
This doesn't apply to you. You don't need to flatten your stone every single time.
Now look there are certain cases that you need to do that such as sharpening a Yanagiba or Deba or single bevel knife,
where that is kind of important. But for those of us, we just sharpening knives in the kitchen
chef's knives,
western chef's knives or even Japanese chefs knives...
You don't have to worry about flattening your stone.
And just last week I sharpen a Masamoto
KS, that was been dull on the brick, on the Chosera #3000. And I stropped it. And I was able to get
a score on a edge-on up.
PT50A according to edge-on up's, you know, sharpness level
sheet. Anything under 200 is considered razor sharp.
So, I was able to get a knife razor sharp using one stone
that has not been flattened in over 60 sharpenings and a strop.
If you are just a hobbyist or a home cook
you really do not have to worry about getting a stone super flat because it doesn't make a difference.
So, myth number five is kind of a big one. It's this one.
It's people saying that you have to sharpen a knife a certain way or it won't get sharp or it won't get sharpened properly.
Oh...
The point of my videos, the point of what I do here is I am experimenting with different techniques with different processes
and I
simply report what works for me. This is how my channel started.
Three or four years ago I was researching knives and sharpening techniques.
And so, I went to the forums like most people did. I googled knife sharpening techniques.
And I'm going to YouTube. And I watched the number of videos and I read a bunch of forum threads.
And they're all really saying the same thing. There are three or four
authorities out there that are kind of
preaching this... these, you know, processes that you have to follow: you have to flatten your stone,
you have to sharpen at 12 degrees,
you have to thin your knife. And when I went and bought certain stones...
I went to buy certain knives and I tried different things.
None of what I was finding out on my own time was actually matching up with what people were saying.
So, what does the take home from all of this?
Well, the really I want to just press the point is: knife sharpening is not that difficult.
I'm being completely honest if you can get over the fear of cutting yourself and scratching your knife.
And I know the emotion of fear is very strong and I don't want to downplay that.
My only suggestion to you is - start very slow and take your time.
Don't rush it, don't try anything crazy.
And over time you will get over that fear of cutting yourself.
Physically It is different. For most of us we don't have
anything we do in normal life where we hold a knife in a certain manner and we push and pull.
So, this movement may not be very natural for a lot of people.
If you are able to text on your phone, if you're able to do a word search on YouTube
you can sharpen a knife. It's that easy.
If there's one thing I want you to take from this video -
is that it doesn't take a special person to learn how to sharpen a knife.
Anyone can learn to sharpen a knife if you are willing to try.
Here is a question for you: "Do you feel strongly for or against any of the arguments I have brought up in this video?"
If you do, please leave a comment. You guys know that I read all my comments.
I know that this video gonna get a lot of heat, but that's the truth of it all.