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(Mostly) kitchen knives free hand sharpening videos

Two yanagiba, one slicer, one deba, and Strider SnG all in one afternoon


Here’s how I sharpen five knives in one afternoon. Took about 45 minutes or so.
Keep in mind that “45 minutes” includes the time to set up the camera, tripod, audio recorder, microphone & boom pole, all these crap.

Also, keep in mind that I’m NOT some sort of knife / sharpening expert.
I’m just a guy who work in the restaurant business.
(Or, at least that’s what I tell people. You’ll never know my true identity. I’m like an iceberg, 90% of me is hidden underwater.)
 
Pro Sushi Chef's Ultimate Knife Edge "Test"
Cutting something softer that easily falls apart is more challenging



Cutting manila rope doesn’t tell you anything you need to know about your knives.
You can press down as hard as you can, if the edge doesn’t have enough bite, the blade just slips.
Cutting paper doesn’t tell you anything worth, either.
It just means the apex's nose radius is small enough to catch the grain of paper.

Cutting sushi roll, especially the ones that are rolled up softly, is far, FAR more challenging.
If you force, the roll just falls apart.
If the edge doesn’t have enough bite, you’ll have to do “sawing’ motion, which, again, makes the roll to fall apart.
 
Pro Sushi Chef’s knife mod, from Double bevel to Single bevel Part2, Why, Dos and Don’ts



With "Pro Tip" on how to cut sashimi.
The difference between single-bevel, double-bevel, modified to single bevel.
What you SHOULDN’T do.
When you want to do.
More cutting demo in the next video.


Don’t do this mod to laminated construction blade.
The reason is simple.
 
Pro Sushi Chef’s Maguro cutting (with Sugimoto 2524)


The footage of cutting 8 lb. of Big Eye Tuna at work, with Sugimoto Slicer 2524 and Masamoto Deba.

I'll take some break.

I won't be making knife / knife sharpening video for a while, until I feel like it is fun, again.
 
SK, White, Blue, the truth of Edge Retention that nobody talked about


Short story of “Edge retention”
 
Pro Sushi Chef’s Yanagiba online shopping -Sukenari R2 has arrived


So, how do I shop Yanagiba when online shopping is the only option?
[NOTE] This is NOT a “How to” video. Everything I described in this video works for me, but ONLY for me.
Don’t try to find an easy answer on the internet.
You have to find your own way to walk, and have to find the way to ignore false info floating around.

Sukenari R2 (aka SG-2) Yanagiba 270mm

How I buy Yanagiba / Deba / Usuba
 
Ginza Watari Original 255mm Kiritsuke Sujihiki White#2, Day One


Moving a blade toward you while the edge facing you on rather hard materials such as carrot requires some real confidence inspiring edge geometry.
This knife is so much fun.
Build quality is really high. (You get a lot more for the money you pay, compare to the similarly priced artisans knives. I’m NOT bashing artisan knives, but they’re novelty items. This is a professional’s working tool.)
 
The most comprehensive (and controversial) knife sharpening video, by Pro Sushi Chef #1


NOT a tutorial. NOT for someone who’s looking for quick tip.
BUT for someone who can enjoy “tung in cheek” humor and homage to classic films.
 
Yanagiba Horror story

DSCF2878 by T K, on Flickr

So, there’s a new guy at the restaurant I currently work.
A polite, quiet guy with 3-4 years of experience, eager to learn more professional advanced type of work, which is a good thing.

He brought a couple of knives to work.
And, one of them caught my eyes.

Look at the photos.

It’s HORRIBLE !

This Yanagiba is DEAD. There’s no way you can fix it.

I asked him if he did it himself.

He said, someone (at one of the places he previously worked) sold this to him.
Said this is a very high end, expensive knife. (It is NOT.)
Said the recurve near the heal is easy to fix. (It is NOT. Said so most probably he couldn’t hide it.)

DSCF2877 by T K, on Flickr

When I heard the amount of money he paid for this knife, I felt so sad. I told him NEVER, ever, buy “used” Yanagiba. Doesn’t matter who the seller is. Just don’t.

Look at the entire pictures. You’ll know why it is unrepairable.

The fatal damage is back bevel, and entire backside is totally rounded, as if it were double beveled knife.

DSCF2879 by T K, on Flickr

And because of this, there’s no steel left.
You can’t restore the back side. This knife is dead.

DSCF2880 by T K, on Flickr

DSCF2881 by T K, on Flickr


Another thing I want all of you to keep in mind is the signature sort of thing chiseled on the blade.
It says “Itto-sai, Kotetsu (一刀斎　虎徹)”.

”Kotetsu (虎徹)" is a very famous sword smith in mid 1600.
"Itto-sai(一刀斎)" is a very famous sword master in mid - late 1500.

A kitchen knife maker who’d put that sort of name on his / their knives are … sort of stupid.
(Notice there’s no relation between “Itto-sai” and “Kotetsu”?

This is like naming your kitchen knife as “Jim Bowie Excalibur”, or “John Rambo Bowie”.
Just plain stupid.
I personally avoid this type of people, 100%.
 
Pro Sushi Chef’s John Wick 2 moment, Sukenari R2 Yanagiba (Comprehensive/Controversial Sharpening Video#1.5)


A man of focus, commitment, sheer will... something YouTube knife experts know very little about.
Sukenari R2 Yanagiba sharpening talk
 
The most comprehensive (and controversial) knife sharpening video by Pro Sushi Chef #2


I talk about the stones and angles in this video.
Keep in mind, this is NOT a tutorial video.
 
Real world edge retention check ! , Pro Sushi Chef’s Comprehensive knife sharpening video#3


I monitored the cutting performance drop of my work knives for three days.
How much cutting performance gets lost in one day, in a professional environment?
Does steel type matter? Single bevel vs double bevel?
Very unscientific but entertaining "edge retention" check.
Oh, and it's a real world experience.
 
Uraoshi controversy, Pro Sushi Chef’s comprehensive sharpening video#4



[WARNING] NOT for sensitive people, knife sharpening experts, gurus, YouTube knife video fans and creators.
You have been warned.

Inspiration
Phil Collins “In the air tonight”

MIAMI VICE season1 episode 1 “Brother’s keeper”

John Wick chapter 4 Donnie Yen’s acting as “Caine”
 
Regular maintenance!

Ginza Watari Sujihiki sharpening, UNCUT, Pro Sushi Chef's comprehensive knife video#5


How long does it take to do "routine maintenance" sharpening?
Let's see the REAL WORLD sharpening sequence, UNCUT.
You will watch the every single moment of the sharpening.
 
Naniwa Chosera 3k cracked

Just a heads up.
I found my Chosera 3k has multiple hairline cracks.

Chosera3k cracked_1_edit by T K, on Flickr

Chosera3k cracked_2_edit by T K, on Flickr


I heavily edited the photo with LUTs, so that you can clearly see them.
(In other words, they look a lot worse than they actually are. Also, if I don’t edit the photo, those cracks are almost invisible. If your stones have this type of crack, you may not notice.)

This is nothing new.
People have been reporting Chosera cracking for years.
And some of them were really upset, they ditched their entire Chosera collection and switched to other brand.
(Me? I’m not that upset. Of course I’m not happy about the cracks, though.)
FYI, my other Chosera stones, 400 and 800 are perfectly fine, there are no cracks at all.

I just recently changed my “dedicated Ura Oshi stone”, to Shapton M15 5000, and M15 1500 is on the way from Japan.
I’m looking for a stone at 3000 range currently.
 
Sukenarı R2 Yanagiba on Kitayama 8k, Pro Sushi Chef’s comprehensive sharpening movie #6



“In an investigation, assumption kills.”
“Never trust a weapon you haven’t personally test fired.”
What do these Jack Reacher quotes mean, when you are sharpening your knives?

Never trust an info from Social Media (which, of course, includes YouTUbe) WITHOUT trying, by yourself.
Don’t “assume” info is legit, just because it was told by someone famous, well known on “internet”.

I, just out of curiosity, sharpened Sukenari R2 Yanagiba on Kitayama 8000.
The result is shown in the video.

Is it worth taking extra step?
That’s something you’ll have to decide.

I also showed the realistic way to “test” the edge.
 
The easiest to understand yanagiba sharpening demo & explanation, by Pro Sushi Chef #7


[WARNING] Contain some graphic. Also likely to be controversial, to some.
UNCUT footage of Sukenari R2 Yanagiba quick touch-up AND FULL SHARPENING.
 
Pro Sushi Chef's New (portable) Sharpening station/stone storage set up, comprehensive video #8



New set up for the new year !
It wasn’t planned that way. Our sink developed a major leak at the end of the year, rendering itself pretty much unusable.
So, I had to think some other way to do whet stone sharpening.

The idea came from Japanese Katana sword sharpener’s set up.
Luckily, I didn’t have to buy anything.

I already had Milwaukee Packout crate 44-22-8440, organizer 48-22-8432, work top 48-22-8488, and Naniwa sink bridge.

In this video, I’m showing how to reset kiriha.
Also showing the effectiveness of Natural stones.
 
Why I don’t buy stones based on YouTube/Online reviews, MOST CONTROVERSIAL Pro Sushi Chef’s video#9


Here’s a quick explanation how I choose sharpening stones.
And why YouTube stone review videos are useless “to me”.
(It may be worth watching, to you. But, for me, they are time wasters.)
 
The end of the thread, as I no longer make (knife) sharpening related videos anymore.

 
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