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After 12 years in a cooking school, how can this Miyabi Birchwood knife still work?
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- Опубликовано: 23 авг 2023
- We've taught people how to cook for over 12 years and 1 thing that has been constant in our classroom is our Miyabi Birchwood 5000 MCD 8" Chef's Knife. It's been used in thousands of cooking classes by countless people.
In this video, I'm examining the wear and tear on this knife and how it compares to a brand new Birchwood 5000 MCD 8" Chef's Knife
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As a knife nerd i heard babies crying when you said mechanical sharpener😂 The part of the knife that has been ground off means that the knife will never be as slicey as a new one. It can be every bit as sharp, but the thickness of the blade is more at the beginning in the old knife vs the new one. I appreciate seeing long use knives like this. Thanks for the video.
Yes, being this knife is used in a commercial kitchen by amateur cooks, the most practical way to maintain this knife is to use an electrical sharpener. In reality, most people have their knives sharpened by the local guy with an electric sharpener, so it's a good long-term test. Glad you enjoyed it!
Just hone it with a strop and knive compound. The knives will most likely won't get chipped if taken care of , so they don't need any sharpening stones or diamond sharpeners to re-work the steel. Therefore, a strop that microscopically realigns the burs in the knife is the best choice as it doesn't change the knife.
@@Cook-Culture just buy a whetstone and learn to sharpen
That's the reality of commercial use, esp. for classes teaching new kids. I'd say 90% of the cooks/chefs I've worked with over the past 20 years of my culinary career have done the same. I don't let them touch my knives ofc, but I don't hold it against them for using a pull/electric sharpener.
Good to know they're not just for show. I have a near complete set of the Birchwood knivves: 9.5" Kiritsuke, 7" Santoku, 7" Nikiri, 9" Slicer {Sujihiki}, 9" Chef's Knife {Gyuto} and 5" Utility Paring / Petty Knife. Glad to hear they hold up well over time under heavy use. They are beautiful and superbly well made knives that hold amazingly sharp edges. They are a bit of a costly investment to get the ones I have, but worth it. I've had them for less than a year now and they've only required occasional light, steel rod, edge tune up, honing and light ceramic plate touch up sharpening on a Work Sharp Precision Pro hand sharpener, followed with stropping on leather to maintain a RAZOR sharp edge. I would NEVER, EVER use a powered grind stone / belt sharpener or pull through type sharpener [SACRILEGE} on even a cheap knife, much less my Birchwoods. I LOVE my Birchwood 5000MCD set and am pleased to know they're going to outlast me. hahah Especially because I'm not grinding they're useful life away with powered grinder sharpeners and only use a precise angle control, stand sharpener using interchangeable diamond plates of various grits, from 360 to 10,000, all HAND sharpened as befitting knives of this quality level. I can't believe you use power grinding sharpeners on that knife. Boggles the mind. That's like using sandpaper to wax your Lamborghini. UGH!!!
Seems like I made the right decision in buying one of these some weeks ago 🙂
It's no wonder that the old one needs a tiny bit longer when cutting through the tomato. Even though the edge might be razor sharp the blade itself is a little bit thicker behind the cutting edge as a lot of material was removed during the resharpening over the years and the blade becomes thicker towards the spine.
I can understand that you prefer the electric sharpener as it makes life easy for you and delivers reproducible results. However there are two things an amateur home cook should take into consideration
1) if it's done wrong an electric sharpener might ruin the heat treatment if a single spot is sharpened for too long without cooling
2) with an electric sharpener you tend to remove more material than actually necessary. From my personal experience with powder metallurgical steel (like the 5000MCD has as core steel) I tend to believe that even with hard use regular stropping is enough. Those steels are so hard and abrasive resistant that there is almost no loss of material from the use itself. Therefore stropping on a high quality leather with diamond compound should be enough. However, this surely is more work if it needs to be done for several knifes quite often.
I hope you will enjoy the old Miyabi for a lot of years to come.
Hi, I have the same Miyabi Gyutoh at what angle do you sharpen it at?
I think you should use a Miyabi black. It's a tad less sharp than the birchwood but the edge retention is superior. After 1-2 weeks of use and honed with a ceramic rod it would be even sharper than a birchwood and it also last 2-3 months more (maybe 3-4 weeks in culinary schools) more before needing to be properly sharpened. I think with the miyabi black the sharpening service at your local knife shop is worth it. Just ask them to not go past the #10000 grit
You can always thin out the old knife and get it as 'slicy' as knew. It's a pretty thin knife, less than 2mm thick, so thinning the edges should not take as long. And polishing would be the most time consuming since it sorta has that mirror like finish. But ofc you don't have to match the finishing.
Anyways tldr: yes you can get it back to slicy if you want
Beautiful knife. The knife being that old and sharpened often it may need to be thinned a bit. Great video.
I'm a home cook. I appreciate a sharp knife. I have mine sharpen professionaly first; and I maintain with a stone. Like my Big Daddy did😊❤
If you are planning on buying a miyabi knife , get one from the artisan line. Better bang for the buck. Still sg2 but with less Damascus layers.
With Miyabi sharpness, it is more about the angle than the depth of the blade. The new knife is sharpened at a 9 degree angle on the primary face (the faces are asymmetrical). If you are using a mechanical sharpener you may only be able to get an angle of about 12 degrees minimum and only symmetrical. This makes a huge difference for the renowned Miyabi sharpness. I hand sharpen my Birchwoods; however, this is after years of refining my technique and it is not easy to sharpen at such shallow asymmetric angles by hand. My 13 year old knives are equally as sharp as the new one I recently purchased. Try a 9 degree asymmetric angle on the edge and I guarantee the old knife will feel as sharp as the new one.
Question! So when you sharpen this knife you do so at a 9 degree angle? Also are you using a whetstone?
Those are beautiful knives! I've always wanted a Miyabi. Now if I can just talk my wife into getting just one more knife. 🙂
Haha! Good on you, Geoff!
Cool experiment
Thanks. It was interesting!
What Ferrari and Lamborghini is to the world of cars, Miyabi is to knives! I think they’re that good.
In any of the companies websites where these knives are are sold,, are there any dissatisfied customers?
Not counting products damaged in transit, or something unusual, these knives are masterful works of art and there’s no way anyone who is of sound mind can call them bad. This is not a knock on the artistry of master blacksmiths in Japan making handcrafted knives. That’s another thing entirely.
Honestly, the main difference here on the no pressure test, may well just be geometry. If you send the knife to a pro sharpener and have the knife thinned out slightly, you should get equal performance... Mechanical sharpeners won't help with geometry either
How about the Mizu series sir, are they also good or should I invest in the 5000 mcd?
I have a miyabi koh gyuto and a long slicer. Love them both. They aren't Damascus, but they are less than half the cost of a Birchwood. If I were to spend $300 on a new gyuto, I'd get a VG-10 locally for less. I love the look of the Birchwood line, but I don't think they are a good value.
The KOH is excellent! My first choice is the Kaizen II
Congrats on the video. I was convinced to get a Miyabi, but I just saw a video reporting manufacturing issues in all the series, including the 5000, except for the 4000. A lack of part of the forging process makes the knife very easy to bend, with no recovery, like in some other Japanese brands. Did you hear about this issue?
ruclips.net/video/qad3NzWQuCs/видео.html
This video is in Spanish, but addresses the bending problem you're pointing to. This bending problem kept me from buying a Miyabi.
Recently got a Miyabi Birchwood and a Miyabi Artisan. Miyabi sharpening tools are expensive. Hoping there are less pricey brands of strops and whetstones. Recommend any brand of strops, honing tools or other items that help them stay sharp?
Waiting on my supreme version of this kinfe🖤
Thanks for this Great Video .
what angle for grinding would you suggest
The Miyabi knives have a 10 degree bevel per edge. Most EU ...Wustof, Zwilling / Henkles are 17-20 degrees per edge. Their Santoku's are 15 degrees and Wutof's Ikon classic Nakiri is set to 10 degrees as well.
I would NEVER use powered grinders on these knives. Wet stones if you're good with them or get a Work Sharp Precision Pro stand sharpener that allows you to dial in precise edge angles using a digital inclinometer to then precisely sharpen with various, interchangeable diamond plate grits. These knives are worth investing in sharpening gear that won't "grind" the life out of them and permanently damage the cutting edge.
Great to see the old knife in such a relatively good shape. Yet, it looks like the blade has developed a little recurve, with the heel a little higher up than the middle of the edge. This is probably due to what you call a "mechanical" sharpener. Since all sharpening, i.e. abrasion, is technically "mechanic", do you perhaps mean an electric sharpener or a drag-through sharpener? And what do you mean by "cuts like butter"? Butter cannot cut, and cutting butter is a bad test for sharpness as even hard, cold butter is much too ductile.
Haha. Yes, cuts like butter!
Great video! I have a question - as the old knife got ground down more and more and the damascus layers began to "touch" the bevel (and therefore started to be part of the knife bevel) - did you notice any difference in the cutting performance or in how long the knife holds its edge? Or is there no difference? Thanks in advance!
Hi, no real difference
I think the analogy of commercial use to home was a great point. Question for you is how have you maintained the birchwood handle on the older knife? (Or have you don’t anything to maintain the handle?)
A bit of mineral oil once in a while.
I just bought a Miyabi 8 inch knife online and was wondering where would be the best place to have it sharpened? I live in South Florida, Boynton Beach to be exact, and was wondering where I can take my knife to be sharpened when needed? I'm new to this and have no idea of how to even search up for this online. So any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance and thanks for all your video's!
Hi, find somewhere that sells high end knives. They should be able to help
I have a couple of birchwoods. I think I fell for the RUclips creator ads. I wish I had known about Masamoto at the time. The birchwood is for showoffs. I’m kinda surprised that your knife was used so much and the logo hasn’t worn off.
It's looking aged, for sure!
12yr old knife used in a cooking school and definitely has had decent care....No Chips in the Blade and enough of the core steel still there too put edge on...
Quality knives last a near or a lifetime ❤ and if you thin em also the last until they are toothpicks. I always thin my knives so they keep there performance up its so important to keep the geometry nice and thin
Good point
How do you thin them?
@@Kmuggle just sharpening at a good bit lower angle than you make your edge. So you are removing steel behind the edge to make it thinner
Looked like the edge angle was more shallow on the old knife, that would explain why it cuts significantly worse.
Howdy, I wouldn't say it was significant, maybe slightly!
Whats more likely is that the thickness is tapered from the top of the blade to the knife’s edge. The more you sharpen a tapered blade the thicker the cutting edge becomes, and thicker blades have a harder time slicing without putting pressure.
What mechanical sharpener do you use
The Chefs Choice 2100
Impressive, can't get a better recommendation than twelve years of hard use compared to a new one out of the box.
Curious, what kind of mechanical sharpening system do you use? Thanks!
Hi, we use the Chefs Choice 2100
@@Cook-Culture Thanks!
What mechanical sharpener was used?
Chefs Choice
@@Cook-Culture If it's marked as a "15" model then that could explain why the older knife feels a little harder to cut with. My understanding is the Miyabi Birchwood are cut to a 9 degree angle. The Chef's Choice sharpeners cut to a 15 degree angle. That could be the slight difference you're feeling.
Which mechanical sharpener do you recommend for this knife?
We use Chef's Choice
How do the handles hold up?
Very well.
@@Cook-Culture thanks, did you treat the handles too?
@@DietPizza1 a bit of wood oil every once in a while
I don't like Gyutos. If I am going to have only one knife, it'll be a Nakiri.
I lean that way too.
@@Cook-Culture 😀My dream knife is a 6~7" double bevel Nakiri (with or without decorative pattern welded sanmai) but with the core steel being CPM Magnacut heat treated to about 63~64 HRC. High end Japanese knives these days are far too biased towards ZDP189/CowryX which are terrible steels -- too hard, too brittle and NOT really stainless.
So the old knife has never been properly sharpend gotcha..
Only an elitist knife snob would make that statement.
It was a horrible choice to buy a knife that is only meant to be hand sharpened. You could have gotten like 5 plastic handle Henkels, for the price of that one. Those electronic sharpening devices are a death sentence if you can't use it properly. My first knife was ruined by a belt, took off the heel pretty bad. Thanks goodness it was cheap knife.
On the video despite what you can feel the new knife is clearly much sharper.Your lack of not looking after the the old knife is a disgrace as the users have not been taught how to care for their most important tool.
Please don't be a knife snob. The knife was well maintained, and that's why it's in such good shape. Knives are important, but not more than a good pan or a good cutting surface.
Because it is a $300 Japanese chefs knife, not a cheap $50 stamped piece of crap
miyabis are fancy looking and terribly engineered knives. just look at the giant edge bevels on them. why is that? because they are thick asf behind the edge and cut like dung. fancy steel can't solve terrible thick grinds. Shuns on the other hand are lighter, better balanced and noticably thinner behind the edge. same for yaxell. basically only miyabi can't figure out how to make a decent knife. i feel ashamed for buying 3 of these when I first got into this stuff. by far the most overriced and over rated knives I own.