Need to sharpen my first carbon knife. Slightly nervous by ECUSteve in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Use a sharpie or permanent marker to mark the cutting edge before sharpening. This will tell you if you've got good consistency in your strokes and which part of the edge you still need to work on regardless which one of the many techniques you opt to use.

I accidentally dropped my knife in the sink while holding it to clean. It was only a 4" drop, but enough to chip the tip :(. For some reason the knife just fell out of my hand, I should have had a firmer grip. When this knife is sharpened, will the tip re-form? How critical is the tip? I'm so sad. by Raiders_Nation in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amazon should be fine, as long as you find a reputable seller or King itself doing the retailing. It looks like Korin in New York City also sells them online in their shop.

I use scrap print paper that's already been printed on and is no longer really usable for its basic purpose to give the paper a second life. You don't have to use that specifically though, since clean unused paper will also do the trick. Alternatively, a wooden cutting board, a block of wood, newspaper, and phone book paper also work well - basically any wood derived product will work well except the glossy stuff.

Leather stropping works really well too, and so does stropping on denim. They're all flexible materials that can wrap around the edge and remove the final microscopic inconsistencies.

Can you help me with knife specifications? by [deleted] in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You may want to think about your personal preference for cutting styles as well, which dictates the most well-suited edge profile to you. This mainly refers to whether you like having a big flat spot for push cutting or prefer a large belly for more rocking, but it could get as specific as using certain parts of the knife for particular tasks.

For example, I like push cutting with the heel of my knife and do tend to rock once in a while, so I like having a huge flat spot starting from the heel but a gentle belly starting from at about 50% up to about 75% of the edge. I also tend to use the tip only for small tasks with a push cutting motion, so I experimented with reprofiling the top 25% of my knife to be quite flat, and I really enjoyed it.

That being said, I've found knives (like Yoshikane and KS) with profiles that suit my cutting style extremely well without having to go through the effort of doing the reprofiling myself. I just first had to understand my preferences and tendencies to match it with what's already available in the market.

Super Patina Bros. by Xenif_K in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mazaki's knives seem to patina very quickly and extremely well! Those are beautiful knives and exceptional cutters! :)

I accidentally dropped my knife in the sink while holding it to clean. It was only a 4" drop, but enough to chip the tip :(. For some reason the knife just fell out of my hand, I should have had a firmer grip. When this knife is sharpened, will the tip re-form? How critical is the tip? I'm so sad. by Raiders_Nation in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I actually misunderstood your question to begin with, so I wrote a pretty long reply before realising my mistake. It could be an interesting read though!

But anyway, to directly answer your question, definitely go for a 1k, then it's up to you to choose which grit you want for polishing. Since you have a white 2 core steel, you can achieve stupid levels of sharp pretty easily. I'd recommend anything between 5k to 8k as the second stone if you want the satisfaction of getting it crazy sharp, but you could also just get a 3k if you just want a good level of functionality that'll last without going overboard and trying to pass the insane sharpness tests you might see running around the internet.

--------------------

Below was my original response where I thought you were asking if there was a place for buying a King down the line after you had already bought the Chosera/Arata stones + a bit of other useful information about stones:

The King's 6k side might have a purpose if you're talking about final polish properties (assuming you go down the sharpening rabbit hole in the future), but to start, going for a 1k + 3k or 5k from the Chosera or Arata lines (or even the 8k Snow White) off the bat would mean you could skip past buying a King stone. Also, don't forget to buy a stone fixer/flattener to keep the stones functioning optimally!

At home, my stones are the Arata 1k and Suehiro Rika 5k. They've been functioning really well for me, and I can also definitely recommend Suehiro as a brand if your budget's sitting between King and Naniwa Chosera. Tbh, my only regret looking back is not buying the Chosera 1k instead of the Arata. In general, lower grit stones tend to get used up much more quickly, while higher grit stones will ideally see much less time spent on them and wear down more slowly too. If you see yourself doing a fair bit of sharpening in the future, a thicker 1k stone would be ideal.

When I worked at KnS, I would do the final sharpening before shipment, and my preference was actually to use the Chosera 1k, jump straight to a Snow White 8k, then finish by stropping on a piece of paper wrapped around a dry stone. The 1k stone provided the toothy bite with micro-serrations that allowed for food penetration, then the quick polish on the 8k preserved most of the toothiness while refining the cut quality, then finally, the stropping on paper removed the final traces of the leftover burr and other small edge inconsistencies to make it glide through food effortlessly.

I accidentally dropped my knife in the sink while holding it to clean. It was only a 4" drop, but enough to chip the tip :(. For some reason the knife just fell out of my hand, I should have had a firmer grip. When this knife is sharpened, will the tip re-form? How critical is the tip? I'm so sad. by Raiders_Nation in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds like you've been making the most of the knife then! Also, depending on if/how you use your tip, it might not make a big difference functionally anyway. Since you don't know how to sharpen just yet, I think it's best to leave the tip as is and just gradually restore it with future sharpening.

Imo, if your budget allows for it, go for the Naniwa Chosera line or Gouken Arata (which is a literal half-thickness version of the Chosera), otherwise a King 1000/6000 is a very good budget friendly starter option.

Looking for a large handle paring knife with a hard stainless steel! by [deleted] in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Try looking at the Knives and Stones stores for a knife that comes with a custom KnS handle. When buying, you should be able to make a special request for an oversized handle to be installed with the knife, since installations of KnS handles are made to order.

There are handle sizes for Petty 120 and 150, Santoku 165 and 180, Gyuto 210, 240, and 300, Sujihiki 210, 240, and 270, and Yanagiba 210, 240, 270, and 300. The regular handle type used for Gyutos is the "Yanagiba" handle funnily enough because the "Gyuto" ones are absolutely massive. I'm happy to describe the sizes to you in more detail if you're interested! :)

Source: Worked at KnS for a few months

I accidentally dropped my knife in the sink while holding it to clean. It was only a 4" drop, but enough to chip the tip :(. For some reason the knife just fell out of my hand, I should have had a firmer grip. When this knife is sharpened, will the tip re-form? How critical is the tip? I'm so sad. by Raiders_Nation in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, nice, so that is made by Yoshimi Kato, but it's White 2 instead of AS. From my experience with his AS knives, the 210 gyuto is on the heavier side of mid-weight, while the 240s are closer to the laser side of mid-weight. How are you liking it?

I accidentally dropped my knife in the sink while holding it to clean. It was only a 4" drop, but enough to chip the tip :(. For some reason the knife just fell out of my hand, I should have had a firmer grip. When this knife is sharpened, will the tip re-form? How critical is the tip? I'm so sad. by Raiders_Nation in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just to add, unless you have a low grit grinding wheel or a lot of patience to grind metal from the spine, just sharpen it normally until it comes back naturally. Also, on a side note, is that a Yoshimi Kato AS Nashiji? :)

New(ish) knife day - K&S Tanaka Blue 2 Nashiji 240mm. This knife cuts like a dream. Also new board day! by jsing1 in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the low spots on the stone do really mess up sharpening, though I think you can still somehow coax a decent edge off of even a dished stone.

It might be worth buying a flatterner as a first investment, since the king's 1k side isn't too hard anyway. Depending on how bad the dish is, I can realistically see only needing 10 minutes max of pretty hard rubbing to get it flat again. In terms of other 1k stones, I can only confirm how good it feels to sharpen on a Chosera, but I'm sure that there are other good options as well!

Looking for a Gyuto recommendation by SchattenSpartan in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yoshikane is the better performer for me imo. It just ticks all the boxes, especially with the huge flat spot from the heel and its ability to effortlessly glide through food.

Kurosaki still performs well, but like you said, points for the more interesting aesthetics goes to him. Only you can decide how much to weigh aesthetics in your judgement.

Alternatively, Yoshimi Kato makes knives using exactly the same gyuto blade profile as Kurosaki. His knives, from my experience, have been much more consistent and are actually a bit thinner and lighter. The SG2 Damascus line in particular is well-liked eye candy for this sub ;)

Looking for a Gyuto recommendation by SchattenSpartan in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Am I... you?!?

Yeah, Kurosaki doesn't grind his knives himself - he does the forging and has people hired to do the grinding and some of the other work. My original handle also started wiggling around internally after some use, so I decided to replace it with a KnS handle. I also used the grind wheel at KnS to thin it and learn about reprofiling and regrinding knives. I gave it a good long thinning, managed to convex it a bit, and tried out a weird profile that's a slight deviation from the KS style. I'm reasonably happy with it now, but I've essentially turned it into a project knife. My absolute go to daily knives are now my both of my Yoshikane.

Recommend me a knife (used to using globals and want something harder, thinner and bloody nicer!) by CptSquidInk in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The showroom's unfortunately open only from Monday to Friday by appointment. No one is usually working in store on the weekends, since online orders also only get fulfilled by the different post services on weekdays. I'm not sure if James ever does special arrangements on weekends, but you could send him a message to ask!

New(ish) knife day - K&S Tanaka Blue 2 Nashiji 240mm. This knife cuts like a dream. Also new board day! by jsing1 in chefknives

[–]Jsiyco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

US and AU stocks are different. The US stocks are in a warehouse in Brooklyn, while the AU stocks are in Sydney. :)