buzzard767
golfaknifeaholic
Excerpted from zknives.com, embellished by me. This is from the conclusions on a review of a certain brand of knives, Akifusa, but it applies to any quality Japanese knife.
Well, there are several made, since this was my first hi-end Japanese gyuto. One, the most important after longish cutting session described above was that highly polished, very thin edge works wonders in the kitchen. Before, using lower end kitchen knives (namely Globals and Henckel/Wusthofs) I was unable to grind the edge that thin and hold it for that long. Simply because the steel is much softer compared to SRS-15 at 64HRC. Other, quality knifes
I've experimented with in the kitchen weren't kitchen knives altogether
Mainly their thickness was the problem, I'm referring to both, the edge and blade thickness. Thus, for a while I've favored rougher edges on my kitchen knives, 600 grit (25 mic) being the final. With better and harder steel, much thinner edges are possible and to get there you need finer abrasives. Which eventually gives mirror polished edge. Like I said, it's not really necessary to go all the way to 0.3 micron, but somewhere around 4000 grit (3 mic) things are already dramatically improving. Improvement here is even in slicing performance over aggressive and rough 600 grit edges. To a certain point rougher edges have the advantage since they work more like saws during slicing motion. However, once you get to 4000-6000 grit the edge is so fine that the pressure it produces on the medium is much greater than 600 grit edge, and the knife just glides through anything you need to cut, much less effort than rough edges and no more sliding over the tomato skin .
That is a convincing argument over the "I want a toothy edge" statements so often found on cooking sites. Generally, the authors of similar words might be great cooks but know precious little about sharpening, knife geometry, or steel. Two things come into play, pressure per square inch and the amount of polish for the reduction of friction. The difference in pressure with cutting edge bevels of 22-25 degrees per side as found on German and French knives compared to a Japanese knife beveled at 10 degrees or less is astronomical. German and French knives can be vastly improved by beveling at 15 degrees but this is seriously pushing the capability limits of the steels from which they are made. At anything less than 15 degrees the large carbon particles literally start to fall off the edge when the cutting begins and the edge degrades immediately. The large carbon particles are also one of the reasons that these knives cannot be very highly polished.
Properly sharpened knives cut effortlessly and are an absolute joy to use. A good example is the tomato cutting demo in this old post of mine.
Another important lesson is that there is no need to have thick and heavy knife as your primary knife in the kitchen. Western type chef's knives are quite heavy compared to their Japanese counterparts, gyutos. Mainly due to their thickness, since blade length and width are pretty much the same. Popular opinion is that heavy knife will do the job for you, or at least part of it, but frankly the difference in weight is easily overshadowed by the edge sharpness. Considering that Japanese knives use better steel compared to western knives in the same price range you can grind much thinner edge and it's not gonna roll or chip with proper use.
Very well put, but expressed in another way, the steels used in German and French knives is relatively inexpensive. Quality Japanese knives use the best steels available in Japan as well as Swedish steels by Sandvik and Uddeholm. In the preceding paragraph knife thickness is not well enough explained. The thicker the knife, the more the friction, the greater the wedging effect. This is the geometry difference above the edge bevel and why the Europeans don't make thinner knives is beyond me as they would be making better knives and use less steel therefore saving money.
Well, there are several made, since this was my first hi-end Japanese gyuto. One, the most important after longish cutting session described above was that highly polished, very thin edge works wonders in the kitchen. Before, using lower end kitchen knives (namely Globals and Henckel/Wusthofs) I was unable to grind the edge that thin and hold it for that long. Simply because the steel is much softer compared to SRS-15 at 64HRC. Other, quality knifes
I've experimented with in the kitchen weren't kitchen knives altogether
Mainly their thickness was the problem, I'm referring to both, the edge and blade thickness. Thus, for a while I've favored rougher edges on my kitchen knives, 600 grit (25 mic) being the final. With better and harder steel, much thinner edges are possible and to get there you need finer abrasives. Which eventually gives mirror polished edge. Like I said, it's not really necessary to go all the way to 0.3 micron, but somewhere around 4000 grit (3 mic) things are already dramatically improving. Improvement here is even in slicing performance over aggressive and rough 600 grit edges. To a certain point rougher edges have the advantage since they work more like saws during slicing motion. However, once you get to 4000-6000 grit the edge is so fine that the pressure it produces on the medium is much greater than 600 grit edge, and the knife just glides through anything you need to cut, much less effort than rough edges and no more sliding over the tomato skin . That is a convincing argument over the "I want a toothy edge" statements so often found on cooking sites. Generally, the authors of similar words might be great cooks but know precious little about sharpening, knife geometry, or steel. Two things come into play, pressure per square inch and the amount of polish for the reduction of friction. The difference in pressure with cutting edge bevels of 22-25 degrees per side as found on German and French knives compared to a Japanese knife beveled at 10 degrees or less is astronomical. German and French knives can be vastly improved by beveling at 15 degrees but this is seriously pushing the capability limits of the steels from which they are made. At anything less than 15 degrees the large carbon particles literally start to fall off the edge when the cutting begins and the edge degrades immediately. The large carbon particles are also one of the reasons that these knives cannot be very highly polished.
Properly sharpened knives cut effortlessly and are an absolute joy to use. A good example is the tomato cutting demo in this old post of mine.
Another important lesson is that there is no need to have thick and heavy knife as your primary knife in the kitchen. Western type chef's knives are quite heavy compared to their Japanese counterparts, gyutos. Mainly due to their thickness, since blade length and width are pretty much the same. Popular opinion is that heavy knife will do the job for you, or at least part of it, but frankly the difference in weight is easily overshadowed by the edge sharpness. Considering that Japanese knives use better steel compared to western knives in the same price range you can grind much thinner edge and it's not gonna roll or chip with proper use.
Very well put, but expressed in another way, the steels used in German and French knives is relatively inexpensive. Quality Japanese knives use the best steels available in Japan as well as Swedish steels by Sandvik and Uddeholm. In the preceding paragraph knife thickness is not well enough explained. The thicker the knife, the more the friction, the greater the wedging effect. This is the geometry difference above the edge bevel and why the Europeans don't make thinner knives is beyond me as they would be making better knives and use less steel therefore saving money.
