Anyone know about Japanese knives?

Hey guys! I recently got a fancy Japan-made cooking knife, and I'm not sure how to sharpen it. The diagram showed you how to run it up and down a sharpening stone, but it also looked like the stone had a little block on it, probably to tilt the knife so it's at the correct angle. I looked on eBay, but I didn't see any of these sharpening stones with the little block. Does anyone know what I'm looking for?

 

Gintsu!

 

Any good whetstone will be fine.
Look up for the right angle for sharpening, and it's just a matter of executing the stroke correctly.

Practice on some cheap butter knives beforehand so that you don't ruin it.


Alternatively there's handheld units that have the stones at the correct angle, and you just pull the blade through the unit.

And lastly there are sharpening rods, my step-father uses one for his Japanese knives. I can ask him for a quick tutorial on the use, I don't use one myself so I couldn't tell you right now.

 

何? :\

I'm looking on eBay, and there seems to be many different types, how do you know which are good? Do you know the ones I mentioned? They've got like a little block on them? What about the thingys you can attach to the back of the knife as a guide? Though I can probably get a feel for the correct angle myself eventually. Might pick up a knife from the $2.50 Japanese store that just opened up and practice on it. This place scares me a little, when I went in previously, I felt like I was back in Japan.

 

You'll have to send over a photo, I can't exact picture what you're explaining. From what I gather the block is to have just the right angle, so it's sort of like training wheels. Same deal with this "thingy on the back of the knife". Never heard of them but I'm sure they are useful for beginners with nobody to assist you in starting.

As for a whetsrone, grab one with two grits- like a 1000/5000. 1000 to start a new blade or refine a current, worn down one, 5000 to polish it to a razor sharp edge. Or, if you are careful with the blade and are always sharpening it, a higher grit block is fine, so long as you don't plan on doing any serious repair to an edge.

I'll look up the brand of the sharpening rod that we have, IIRC it's a very good brand.

Keep in mind that whetstones and sharpening rods use different techniques to achieve a new edge - one may seem easier than the other to you. I use both as I have a wide variety of blades on varying size.

 

It was a diagram on the packaging that I've thrown out. Basically, it showed a side view of the sharpening stone and at one end was a little square on top of the stone.

Oh, so the stone would be double-sided?

 

Yes, it's double sided if you need two different grits.

Honestly, you'll be fine with a single high grit block.