[Music] so i'm kind of afraid of custom knives just because i was sharpening on um on the wheels as i was sharpening the knife snapped and a piece of it flew by my face caught my cheek just slightly blood started dripping down i went to my uh my manager i was like i'm not sharpening anymore today i need i need my mental health break right now [Music] hello my name is vincent and we're here at corn japanese trading and today we're going to be doing some basic knife sharpening we're going to be using water stones or whetstones this is the way that knives haven't sharpened japan for many many years and it's become a very popular way of sharpening in the culinary industry around the world a stone is grinding metal off to create a new edge whereas a honing steel is used to realign your edge and provide a temporary fix i just want to go through the different water stones that are available so the first group are what i consider medium stones now medium stones range from around 800 grit to 2000 grit i think the 1000 is the best all-around stone if you have a good knife it's really recommended to get a good quality stone that matches your knife we're gonna soak these stone in water for about 15 to 20 minutes prior to use the last group of stones i got are considered finishing or fine stones these start at around 3000 grit this one is an 8 000 but i've seen 15 or even 30 000 grit stones so now that we got through all the stones we can go ahead and start talking about knife sharpening so the first thing that's very important is to make sure you know what kind of knife you're going to be sharpening specifically you want to know the ratio of the bevels i have a japanese style chef knife that's sharpened at a 70 to 30 ratio and i'm right handed so holding the knife my outer edge or my right side facing down is the dominant side that's the side i'm going to sharpen more so the first stone i have here this is a 1000 grit stone this is going to do most of the work now when i sharpen this knife i like to get him to have it or starting on the back side that's my left side facing down when i do this the grip i use my thumb is on the spine my index finger is on the heel and i like to hold the knife diagonally this position really allows my wrist to be in control of the angle and really keep it steady now the next step is to find the proper angle and this is probably the most difficult part of sharpening every single knife has a slightly different angle the way i do this i lay my knife flat on the stone i take two fingers and place it half on the stone half on the knife right on the edge and i'm gonna slowly lift my knife up until i feel the edge flush with the stone but i do have a little trick that makes it a little bit easier i take three pennies stack them up and place it on the stone lay the spine of the knife onto those three pennies now my edge is flush with the stone this three pennies is acting as a perfect guideline now that we've found the proper angle and you know how to hold the knife we can start sharpening so i'm going to place two fingers right on the tip and press firmly as i pull straight down let go of pressure as i go up then i move my fingers slightly over and i work my way down in sections and apply the same amount of pressure in each little sections now i'm going to repeat this process several times on the back side now the reason why it's very important to sharpen your knife is because your knife is going to cut the ingredients much easier and it's just going to be that much safer after a couple of passes on the backside we're ready to flip over and work on the dominant side of the knife with this i changed my grip a little bit my thumb is on the heel and my index finger is on the spine now just like before i'm gonna hold the knife right around a four o'clock position and use my left fingers to feel for that proper angle we're working on the dominant side of this knife if we wanted to use the penny trick what we're going to do differently is use two pennies rather than the three pennies this is going to give us a shallower angle and as you can see just like before that edge is nice and flush with the stone i'm going to start by sharpening the tip and working my wing down however this time the edge is facing me so there's one thing i'm going to do differently place two fingers right on the tip and press firmly as i push straight up let go when i come down and repeat then move my fingers slightly over and just like before i'm working my way down the knife in sections now we're working on the dominant side of this knife which means we're going to work on the side a lot longer and eventually there comes a point where that edge will fold over and cause a ridge or what we call a bur to form the whole point of this sharpening is to get a burr evenly from the heel all the way to the tip when you're using a water stone you're going to start to see this mud or sediment build up this is metal that's being taken off of your knife so that means your stone is working properly but try to keep as much of that sediment on there and use it as you're sharpening your knife [Music] and now that i'm checking for a burr and i feel it all along the edge evenly i'm done with my first stone and i can move on to my finishing or polishing stone i don't have them soaking i actually have them dry finishing stones can be a little bit more delicate if you leave them in water for too long they can actually crack as i'm sharpening i'm just constantly adding water but once i'm done i'm gonna make sure i pat it dry and set it aside to air dry fully before i put it away so just like before i'm gonna start on the back feel for the proper angle and from the tip i work my way down the knife in sections but this time i'm being very careful not to press too hard and even though i'm not pressing very hard at all you can see all this sediment starting to build up which means the stone is doing all the work and this is actually going to refine the edge make it smoother make it sharper same thing on the other side and work from the tip all the way down in sections to the heel now when you're using a polishing or finishing stone the longer you work on the stone the more reflective and polished that edge will become just along the edge it's going to look almost like a mirror finish for me that usually takes maybe five or ten minutes now once you're happy with the polish on your knife you've made sure that there's no burrs remaining we're gonna take a piece of paper and test the knife there's very little resistance as i push the knife through make sure you test the whole length of your knife so you always want to start at the heel all the way to that tip if there's a dull spot this paper is going to drag if there's any chips or burrs remaining it's just going to snag the thinner the paper the better of a test it is for your knife challenge yourself use thinner paper and if you can cut through that your knife is going to be pristine now the last thing i want to get into is this little guy right here this is called a stone fixer every single stone as you use it will eventually start to wear down and this flat surface will start to bowl so it's very important to use a stone fixer to resurface your stone work the surface as evenly as possible and make sure that you have a nice and flat surface to work on take care of your knives if you take care of them they'll last a long time [Music]