Thread: recommended kitchen knives?

Back on track, My daughter gas some Japanese Ceramics,They are very nice blades,also very spendy,how do you sharpen them??

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Back on track, My daughter gas some Japanese Ceramics,They are very nice blades,also very spendy,how do you sharpen them??

It's tricky but with diamond you can, best to have some jig to get the angle, really hard to do it by hand!
I like Ceramics for fruit, with a little lime juice on the blade they keep fresh for a long time!

Originally Posted by Lemur

It's tricky but with diamond you can, best to have some jig to get the angle, really hard to do it by hand!
I like Ceramics for fruit, with a little lime juice on the blade they keep fresh for a long time!

Shes had them for two yrs,are I believe still shave sharp,have all the diamond plates,but will not mess with them.

The ones I've seen including Kyocera haven't been so sharp, not compared to good white steel yanagiba and the like.
Still sharper than what most people use in their kitchens.

I've been very pleased for 12 years with my set of Messermeister no-stain X50 CrMo V15 knives.

I've never owned a Damascus knife in the kitchen. Is it worth having or just a lot of extra money for show?

Originally Posted by broger

I've never owned a Damascus knife in the kitchen. Is it worth having or just a lot of extra money for show?

It's purely an aesthetic thing, I've got some and like them, it's up to you.

As with handles, I use the pinch grip so I don't care much about it as long as it's there for support and not in the way like some big ergonomic ones are,
if you're not holding the knife as a hammer they don't really matter.

Smaller knives like pettys I don't use at all, if I need to cut inner walls from a small chili I grip the blade of my Gyuto and use the tip or use the heel part of it.

What are some tips to help keep blade angle when putting knives on a stone?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Back on track, My daughter gas some Japanese Ceramics,They are very nice blades,also very spendy,how do you sharpen them??

Diamonds for Kyocera methinks, Tom got one shaving sharp recently:


I picked up a Kochi 210mm carbon gyuto as a first decent kitchen knife about 18 months ago, it still makes me smile with every cut and takes a wicked edge. It's a great all purpose knife but I will pick up something petty-ish in the future.

Only picture I have to hand, it's the one in the middle:

Originally Posted by broger

What are some tips to help keep blade angle when putting knives on a stone?

There is lots of gadgets for that and new ones invented all the time.
I'd say spend lots of time on the stones is the trick.
Check the angles with coins (2-3 10 yen coins is classic) and magic marker to see where the stone is eating the steel.
Training is the main thing, once you built a muscle memory of how to hone you can almost do it while sleeping.

A 1K stone is a good start, not to fast to mess things up but still will get it sharp.