6
SharpenIng the tradItIonal (SIngle bevel)
JapaneSe blade
Traditional Japanese knives are single sided and have a large factory bevel (Bevel A, page 9) on
one side of the blade. There are a large number of manufacturers of knives of this type which
are used widely to prepare sashimi. The factory bevel (Bevel A) is commonly ground at about 10
degrees, but there are exceptions and that angle is not standardized at the factories. Designs of
the traditional Japanese knives and the detailed structure of the cutting edges likewise varies
widely from one manufacturer to the next, however there are some similarities. The cutting edge
consists of a small primary facet on the front face of the blade and a much smaller secondary
microfacet along the back face. Commonly the back side microfacet (Figure 10) can be easily
seen only with a hand magnifier. The back face is ground flat at the factory or more commonly
it is slightly hollow ground to ensure that an effective microfacet can be formed there as part of
the cutting edge. Because of the lack of standardization, commonly the manual approach used
to sharpen these knives has proven difficult, laborious and time consuming. The Chef’sChoice
®
Model 316 Sharpener is designed to sharpen all but the heaviest contemporary and traditional
Asian blades and to create a factory-like edge.
Before you start to sharpen a traditional blade, examine it carefully in order to confirm that
you have the traditional single bevel blade and to determine whether you have a right or left
handed type as described on page 9. It is important that you follow carefully the sharpening
procedure and sequence as described below in order to achieve the optimum edge on your
traditional blade.
Note:
Do not attempt to sharpen any traditional blade thicker than 1/8 inch (3 mm) in the Model
316 sharpener. (Control of the sharpening angle becomes difficult for such thick blades.)
Again confirm which side of the blade has the large factory Bevel A. Hold the blade in your hand
(as if you are cutting) and if the large factory bevel is on the right side of the blade, the blade is
right handed. For the right handed blades start sharpening in the left slot of Polishing Stage 2 so
that only the beveled side (right side) of the edge will contact the polishing wheel.
Step 1 - Start In polIShIng Stage 2 (rIght handed bladeS)
Pull the full length of the blade through the left slot of Stage 2 (Figure 5) about ten (10) times
(take about 3 seconds for each pull of a 5 inch (12 cm) blade and proportionally longer for lon-
ger blades). Feel for a burr on back side of blade edge as shown in Figure 4. (The burr will be
extremely small). If there is no burr, make ten (10) additional slow pulls through the left slot. If no
burr is formed after these pulls proceed to Step 2; otherwise omit Step 2 and go to Step 3.
Step 2 – uSIng the honIng Stage 1 (rIght handed bladeS)
If you were unable to develop a burr in Stage 2 as described in Step 1 you will need to hone the
edge in Stage 1 as follows: Since your traditional blade is right handed you must hone only in
the left slot of Stage 1 (see Figure 6). The number of pulls that you need to make depends on
how dull your blade is. Duller blades will require more pulls.
