Sharpening with a whetstone | How to get started
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- Опубликовано: 24 ноя 2024
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Thanks to Chef Davis Wells, @wellsharpened on Instagram: / wellsharpened
To get started sharpening chef's knives with stones using the methods demonstrated by Davis here, you will need a medium-grit whetstone (about 1000) for making a new edge, a fine-grit stone (4000-6000) for finishing the edge, and a coarse leveling stone/plate for keeping your other stones flat.
The harder the steel of your knife, the finer the grit you want to use for finishing. Davis recommends soaking stones, not splash-n-go stones. He also recommends buying a sink bridge to hold your stones, so you can work over your sink.
Here are example products Davis picked. They're just examples, not endorsements.
Medium stone: amzn.to/3xAUPvA
Fine stone: amzn.to/3tSsmyU
Diamond plate for leveling: amzn.to/3aJbLpE
Sink bridge: amzn.to/3dPTOrE
Basic 10-step instructions:
1) Soak your stones until they've stopped bubbling.
2) Position your coarse stone on a stable surface (like a damp towel), wet it, and use the leveling plate to re-level the stone and work up some "mud" with which to sharpen.
3) Hold the knife in your dominant hand with the blade facing toward you. The face of the blade should be at a 15-20º angle relative to the surface of the stone, and the length of the blade should be at a 45º angle relative to the length of the stone. Put the fingers of your other hand on the face of the blade and use them to push the edge down into the stone.
4) Work the blade back and forth at an angle that feels like you're shaving little bits of sand off the stone surface. As you push the knife back and forth, slowly draw it perpendicularly across the stone to make sure the whole length of the edge gets sharpened. Re-wet the stone as needed to keep the edge moving smoothly, and wipe the blade clean occasionally.
5) When you can feel a consistent burr across the the whole edge, it's time to sharpen the opposite side. Rotate the handle of the knife in your hand so the edge is now facing away from you, and this time hold the length of the blade at a 90º angle perpendicular to the length of the stone. Do what you did to the first side.
6) Once you feel a burr on the second side, go back to the first side and repeat the process a few times with progressively fewer passes and lighter pressure. Be sure to work both sides of the knife equally, to keep the edge geometry symmetrical.
7) Switch to your fine stone for finishing. Wet it and level it with your leveling plate.
8) Do the basic motions all over again on the finer stone, but use lighter pressure. You're done when you can't feel the burr.
9) Strop both sides of the blade by doing the same motion one-way-only, moving the knife away from the direction of the edge.
10) Clean the knife and test it by cutting a hanging sheet of paper. If the cuts are clean and don't have any tears, that means the whole length of the blade is well sharpened. If you get some tears, that's an indication you have some dull spots or chips.
Adam's face at 16:22 is priceless. He looks like he is enjoying learning all this so much.
why is he enjoying knives....
@@_a_v_j Cus hes a chef
@@orpheus9098 pro home cook. Chefs run kitchens.
@@_a_v_j How else is he gonna butcher a shepherd
oh my god why is he so cute
Apart from whetstone sharpening being an incredible skill to have, I believe it is the most meditative practice I currently partake in. When you have a nice knife you don't want to scratch up (after learning the basics), you truly get laser focused while sharpening. If I'm stressed and my knives are getting dull, that is a beautiful coincidence
I agree. Sadly i have a lot of stress and a rack of sharp knives. I don't use often enough for them to dull before i need to meditate/sharpen.
@@theq3500 maybe focus on using a single chef’s knife for the rest of your cooking for a month. You’ll probably need to touch it up on a stone by the end of the month. Hopefully that helps you relieve some of this stress too
It's also a great thing to be doing while you're talking to someone you want to have take you very. seriously. 😅
if you dont want scratches on your blades then do this one thing.. take some masking tape and cover both sides with a triple wrap .. after that warm it up really good with a hair dryer then let it cool in the fridge for around 15 minutes.. this sets the masking tape so it doest start peeling off like it usually does around oil and wd 40.
for a skill it's one of the easiest things you could ever learn. the real issue is almost no one actually bothers to try and most who do seem to give in after one short feeble attempt then declare that its something so difficult. its such a myth and such a silly and idiotic myth at that, the idea that it's something complex or difficult in the slightest. with correct instruction based on actual empirical evidence and not just knife bro mythology you could easily teach anyone, a 12 year old even, how to use a whetstone to make a dull knife razor sharp within like dozens of minutes. MINUTES. By far the most common issue I see if folks don't have a sense of how much to grind so they dont grind nearly enough and don't grind to a burr before they switch sides and thus they never correctly apex and thus no matter what they do from there they just can't get it right. if they'd just follow that one very simple step then everything would become instantly clear and easy. ofc later on when you have a sense for things you will figure out how to sharpen and apex just fine first by creating smaller and smaller burrs, and then eventually none at all. And that's a good sign that you've reached a level of proficiency is when you can do it to a high level without generating much if any burr at all. Beginners are going to be making huge burrs that just a fact of life, either that or not making burrs at all and frustrating themselves to failure.
One of the reasons I like Adam so much is that it never feels like he's pontificating or lecturing to me. He's sharing his knowledge because he likes to share knowledge, but also because he wants me to come to my own conclussions. Other youtubers would probably made a video talking about how whetstones are the only right way and all others are terrible and invalid.
He explains all the options, the pros and cons of each. Then he shares his preference and why.
I hate to point fingers, but Josh Weissman does that so much. Everything he does is "my way is right, your way is wrong"
@@johnhuerta9683 Alton Brown is also very guilty of this. His whole hate of "unitaskers". Sure some kitchen items only do one thing, but they do it well and I like it.
exactly!
Yea he's come a long way from verbally assaulting his critics in the comment section
I co-own and operate a small knife factory in Vancouver Canada and roll my eyes at most knife related videos. This video is spectacularly on point in every detail.
would you rather recommend soft bound Japanese whetstones or hard bound European style stones for European cheap stainless steel kitchen knives? Thank you
@@theMuritz For years we used the brand of stone he is showing (King). These are soaking stones and have a pretty soft bond. Recently we bought 4 of the Japan-made Shapton Kuromaku series of stones and they are s nice step up from the King stones. The Shapton Kuromakus are spritz-only stones; no pre-soaking required, and they are both hard wearing and crisp cutting stones. They are far nicer to use as water stays on the surface and floats away metal swarf, yet the stone keeps cutting. The stones we bought are the 220, 1000, 2000, and 5000 grits. If your knives are very dull to start with (you can see light reflecting off the cutting edge apex), there's no danger in using a low grit and it is much faster to get a burr. Then once you have the burr, you go to finer grit. With regular maintenance, you should not need the 220 stone very often. I don't think it matters what your knife steel is (all knife steels should be in the Rockwell C range of about 54-64 anyway); more important is the stone, the grit and the technique. The higher the grit, the more polished and smooth-feeling the cuts will be. 5000 grit may be a luxury, but if you can afford it, I'd add it to your set. A set like this will last a lifetime.
Hey John, thank's for your experience shared. I appreciate that a lot. Our European stones are measured in a FEPA standard and are soaking, even though they are harder and wear down slower, but also seem to grind a bit slower. I see your point with the harder Shapton stones as an analogy. But the key take-away for me is that the knife material doesn't play a big role other than it's hardness ... I can relate to that as an engineer myself. Thank you again very much for your time .. Greetings from Germany
@@theMuritz Sharpening is definitively a rabbit hole and there are tons of sharpening stone products out there. It would be wonderful to have the budget and time to assess which stones work best with which steels, but there is also a danger in overthinking things. As Adam says in the video, the sharpening system that you actually use is probably the best one for most people. We often recommend the Chef's Choice electric sharpeners because they're relatively gentle and almost totally foolproof. By no means do they produce a lovely polished edge, but they get the job done quickly for people who do not sharpen as a hobby. BTW, as you indicate, the resistance to wear of a steel does determine how long sharpening takes. The rich alloy steels high in vanadium, for example, have lots of hard carbides that resist wear like the pebbles in asphalt do on roads, even if the steel matrix itself may not be that hard. Fortunately, the abrasives used for steel are always harder than those carbides. However, we have noticed while switching from S35VN (3% vanadium) to Magnacut (4% vanadium) steel in our products that the MagnaCut wears sharpening belts about 2 times faster. Greetings back to you from Canada!
“That’s what we do when we’re shaving, right?”
Oh god, my RaguseADS sense kicked in, I thought he was about to segue to a dollar shave club sponsor
13:35 Was the moment for me. 😂 I thought he was gonna say "just like how Hello Fresh can make your mouth wet with their simple, DIY meals."
The classic promotion fake out. You're on the edge of your seat the whole time not knowing when it'll come.
Or the lawnmower ad
honestly surprised the sponsor wasn't Misen knives, i was waiting for the drop the whole time
There’s so many ways he can segue in this one.
“This is how chefs sharpen their knifes. Just like how Warby Parker can help you sharpen your vision”
“Many of the techniques have been kept in secrets. The same way you can keep you internet privacy sharp with surf shark”
“Now look at how thin this blade is. You too can become just a little thinner, with the help of this weeks sponsor, Magic Spoon”
“Look at how sharp this blade is. Almost as sharp as the blades featured in Raids shadow legends”
As a professional chef that's been professionally chef-ing for 15 some odd years now, and has sharpened many many knives of my own and other fellow chefs, This is a spot on explanation. Well done!
mate you are no chef 😅, but you do play Warframe so i respect you
@@adrianwon4192 can a chef not be a gamer😭
@@captainpancake8177 i mean yeah you got a point but it's just hard to believe
@@adrianwon4192 especially because most chefs are not good knife sharpeners. They get it done professionally.
@@captainpancake8177 Usually rare. Unless extremely dedicated. After all, most chefs work for 12 hours and more.
This video, first of all, is absolutely incredible, the best you've made by far in my opinion. I had a huge moment of clarity about how goddamn lucky we are to live in this era of human progress. You can literally capture the essence of a craftsman teaching his trade and just replicate the experience for millions of people as it gets streamed to our devices. Still not as good as learning in person, but very comparable. Our present access to knowledge is infinitely greater than it was even 30 years ago, and we should be taking advantage! Thank you for what you do Adam!
Amen, Guy. Don't you just wish there was an Adam Ragusea for every subject?
Don't get me wrong there are lots of great educators on YT ... I just love the way this guy communicates science.
Progress? That's a very narrow minded view point.
What exactly are we 'progressing' towards?
The entire planet is miserable, how exactly is that progress.
The fact you are so excited about watching a video on RUclips shows that the brain washing is working a treat 👌🏼
@@PrimeMatt people like you worry me. you so obviously misinterpreted what he said that i wonder if it's a mistake or intentional.
@@PrimeMatt unless you just came here to come comment on how bad ur life is, I would like to say ur watching the exact same video
@@PrimeMatt In this video's case, we're probably progressing to a point where most people will be able to sharpen their knives well and improve their cooking a bit.
I've been sharpening with Japanese Whetstones for over 30+ years and this is one of the better videos on sharpening by hand. I wouldn't use a steel on a high end Japanese blade. I use a leather strop with sharpening compound. The rabbit hole can get very deep.
I just got my first pair of Japanese knives and I could make an amazing setup with suehiro cerax 1000/3000 and and aliexpress 200/600 diamond plate with leather and compound , roughly 50usd… if I ever get a knife for fish I will get the 8000 stone but that’s it
Finally, a whetstone tutorial for the layman. I have been struggling to find a good one, and this makes so much more sense than any others I have seen. Also I finally understand what the burr is. Thank you for this.
Check out burrfection’s early vids. Adam low key references burrfection by showing his store. It really helped me get started sharpening, and all the equipment reviews helped as well, though what I use and recommend haven’t been reviewed by him. They still helped guide me very well.
burrfection is the best imo- also recommends actual whetstones. I first started 2 years ago, and I literally just sharpened a razor to shape up my beard . I absolutely love my whetstones. I recommend Naniwa (they're a little more expensive, but worth the price. Last a long long time)
To get window nerdy on this, the bit about the rockwell hardness of glass vs various steels is actually used frequently in window manufacturing. We use razor blades that are very sharp but usually pretty soft to clean or scrape things (dirt, marker ink, silicone, butyl) off of windows and it doesn't scratch the glass because the glass is harder
To get appreciative if window nerds like you, I'm very grateful that you do because I use razor blades on my windows fairly frequently because I'm a professional driver and I absolutely hate dirty windows. I also make my own window cleaner.
So that might be a trick for a glass dry erase board
@@jasonsanchez0
I am also a professional driver, and I find vodka makes the dirty marks on the window more evenly spread and less noticeable. I take a swig every few hours, which seems enough.
Small with stone countertops. Natural stone can have small pits. Superglue is used to fill the pit. (Which surprised me when I was first being trained to install countertops.)
Once dry, you use a razor blade angled around 90* and quickly scape back and forth to make it flush...
@@VaughanMcCue You remind me of my CDL trainer when we were driving cross country. Always had a good dad joke or a dry joke to keep things lighthearted. Well played.
I swear there is so much new anatomy to a knife that I just learned from this one video, face, burr, teeth? Amazing
The rabbit hole is deep.
Haha knife go burrrrr
@@stinkytoy
Haha😂👍
Then you get Outdoors55 in your recommended and you really jump down the knife rabbithole
@@mems9953
Yep!
Excellent overview with all the most important bits explained. I'd add one piece of advice, as a guy who's out of the beginning stages and is self-taught in a lot of things: The first time you try this, just _try_ it. Don't stress over finger placement and angles and so forth. Just try holding the knife at some sort of angle and gently moving the edge (use an old knife) over the stone. Get a feel for the basic move. It's really not that hard. _Then_ start refining it, but realize it'll take some practice to get to where you have a razor edge and so forth. As you learn just follow the advice of Murray Carter, another name you should know, and see if you can simply improve that edge. Pro tip: Now and then hold the edge straight up under a light and seesaw it back and forth. If you have a burr you've missed or a dull spot (often near the tip) you'll see light reflecting from it. A sharp edge reflects no light. Have fun! This is a very cool skill to learn.
Seems like you have some experience with knife sharpening. I always wonder, how do you know when to sharpen a knife? Is it when you can’t cut onions without crying or can you see that the edge is dull when you comparing it to a sharp knife?
I’m afraid of sharpening my knifes to often and waste some lifespan of this expensive knifes.
@@benmuller9968 I am no expert but for me, when my knife has a hard time cutting the somewhat tough plastic wrap over an english cucumber when I want to remove it from the inside (spine of the blade against the cucumber), it's getting frustrating and I know I need to sharpen it.
I've been a professional woodworker most of my life, and I use wet-or-dry sand paper stuck down with water to a conveniently sized block of granite. For a few decades, I used traditional water stones, but as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate the ease and disposability of paper without any need for dressing.
I love the paper tack on micron mesh stuff on a piece of float glass!
That's actually how I first learned to sharpen knives! Picked up a set of whetstones after sandpaper got me some solid results.
Thanks. I love outside the box ideas!
I tried using sandpaper before but I always shaved a piece of it, which is why I gave up on the sandpaper technique. Do you have a way to avoid that?
@@nikkoa.3639 I'm not sure what you are doing differently. Maybe using too much pressure? Poor quality paper? I use the 3M automotive wet or dry sheets on an old granite reference plate. I adhere the paper to the granite with water first, and stay clear of the edges of the abrasive sheet.
A perhaps underrated aspect of this video is how you use pencil drawings and hand motions to explain a complicated topic. I think I might have struggled even if I had a really good animation to work with!
Dude that Squarespace transition was MASTERFUL.
I actually said 'WOW' out loud from that transition. I swear Adam is the transition master.
he can't keep getting away with this
I'm too lazy to watch whole video. I guess I will just seek and skip to the ads.
Was just laughing out loud at this as well. THAT'S how product ads should be done. Sunscribed.
I was just thinking, "DAMN, that was smooth."
I've been trying to get into stone sharpening for a couple of years and watched countless videos on it. None have given me the confidence to really go for it like this one has. Little bits like "shaving sand off the stone" really helped me visualise what I'm supposed to be doing. Thanks so much.
Man when Adam taps the knife in his head I had a heart stoke
I couldn't stop thinking "why would you do that"
I literally went to look at the comments immediately after seeing that
Tf is a heart stroke? you mean a heart attack
What?
It's at around 19:13
Adam Ragusea you are such an elite level teacher of things you're interested in, and so so good at finding patient professionals to talk us through the process. What a joy. What a time to be alive that this is available on demand, in life-like quality.
I thought this was going to be another sharpening video, but you touched on a lot of points that a lot of other RUclipsrs haven't
What really sets adam apart from most content creators is that he doesn't just show us how to sharpen knives, but also explains what exactly happens physically when you sharpen a knife. Same thing applies to the rest of his videos. He doesn't brush off any steps he takes in order to achieve something, he actively explains why he does certain things and what happens at the microscopic scale.
Notice the endoscope he used in this particular video? I really enjoy adam raguseas attention to detail.
“Points” huh? 😂
I agree, I’ve watched a lot of sharpening content on RUclips and this is definitely one of the better absolute beginner vids on the topic.
A thorough coverage for the beginner or intermediate sharpener - detailed yet not complicated, and chock full of the fascinating, sufficient, and necessary details of this craft - Adam at his finest. I've been honing blades for 50 years, and Adam, you nailed it.
This reminded me so much of Jun (Jun's Kitchen) cleaning/sharpening a rusty knife. Very soothing and informative.
Knowing the 1 Grit from Dankpods helps with the understanding of grit :D
A true connoisseur. I salute you my fellow Crazy Musical Aussie enjoyer
I personally sharpen my knives with a bottle of white wine
Why I sharpen my cutting board, not my knife
Why I sharpen my food and not my knife
Why I sharpen my stomach and not my food
Personally, i sharpen my stone, not my knife
I like to sharpen my bowls and plates, not my utensils
Interviewing people has to be his best form. He really resonates off of people. Love your work.
Knife collector and sharpener here.
The type of stones being used in this video are Japanese Waterstones. They require soaking and flattening before use, and use water as lubricant.
If you end up buying Arkansas stones, you still need to flatten them, but you don't need to soak them and they use oil as lubricant instead of water. Very messy, but typically the cheapest kind of stones you can buy.
If you get diamond stones, no flattening, no soaking, and you can use water as lubricant. Least effort, but usually quite expensive.
I was hoping someone would comment this!
People have probably seen stones that use oil instead of water if they've looked into buying stones (like me.)
Both seem good, but I do like the idea of just using water and three stones, instead of having to keep three stones and a little bottle of oil.
The funny thing Evan is that I've been splashing water on oil stones for the past 5 years and it works fine. Not sure why they specify you have to use oil to be honest.
Not all Japanese stones need soaking
A combination oil stone is probably the cheapest way to experiment with sharpening for a beginner and see if this is a thing you'd actually do before investing in more expensive gear.
As a home cook using german knives, I've found that using a three-sided stone (2 diamond, 1 Arkansas) every several months is adequate for me, even after cutting up a ton of chicken carcasses. I hardly ever use the coarse diamond unless there's visible damage.
As a longtime knife aficionado, I'll say this is one of THE best and most informative knife sharpening videos I've ever watched! 😳 This vlog should be pinned to the top of the search algorithm due to no unnecessary information, along with a VERY knowledgeable, straightforward and scientific explanation, completely void of marketing bias. I was ESPECIALLY impressed with the extra information about using a stone that's too fine for the hardness of the blade. A novice might think, if you just use a finer 10,000+ Grit stone long enough even on scrap metal, it HAS to get sharp as a scalpel eventually, right? Wrong! 🤗 As for future content ideas, maybe delve deeper into the different stones like Translucent Arkansas and also, honing with leather and the three colors of Stropping paste, green, white and red before going ALL the way down the rabbit hole with Diamond/Poly-Diamond Emulsion sprays? I've never used them but I can't be the only curious knife owner. Keep up the good work. *Liked & Subscribed
There's a point where every cooking channel will post a video about sharpening knives. Its like a milestone!
I have watched a ton of pop science youtubers in all kinds of categories but I have never come across one that explains things in a way that fits so perfectly with my level of knowledge and understanding.
That squarespace transition was godlike
I want to thank you and your friend David Wells for the great instructional video on knife sharpening. It has greatly improved my whetstone skills.
The fact that Adam is growing really well without asking for subscribers or likes is astonishing
I don't think so. He makes quality content that's applicable to anyone who cooks, or wants to.
He clearly relies heavily on sponsors
He deserves it he has a very informative channel it's hard not to enjoy it!
@@slimy6316 I mean, dude's trying to support a family and RUclips monetization is notoriously fickle. I've got no problem with sponsors, and I don't see why they'd boost channel growth significantly more than his content alone would.
@@DiabetoDan i never said i had an issue with that i was just pointing it out
I love how dense your videos are with actually useful information. So many other videos are just a way for people to show off.
I’ve wanted to sharpen knives this way ever since I first found that guy that makes knives out of weird stuff. I’ll definitely be rewatching this multiple times.
good ol' kiwami japan ( ruclips.net/channel/UCg3qsVzHeUt5_cPpcRtoaJQ )
Just purchased a set of whetstones. Only video that mentioned, to a newb, that going without a knife angle guide is the best way to start
It's a LOT easier than people make it out to be, at least unless you want to be a super fancy sushi master. As Adam says, a lot of the angles and whatnot are pretty intuitive, so trust your intuition and give it a try. You'll almost certainly end up with a knife that's plenty sharp. If you don't, THAT'S when you go and read (or watch, in this case) the instructions :P
@@petermalone8879 I'd recommend you check out "Burrfection"'s youtube channel, i found his sharpening tutorials extremely helpful when i first started sharpening :)
Oh, yeah, the prison-shank channel! Like that guy!
A cabinetmaker by trade, it it was was obvious to use my chisel sharpening skills and the tools I'm accustomed to when I sharpened knived in the kitchen. For years now, I've been using diamond stones and love them.
I just sharpened my knife yesterday, I was following Ethan Chlebowski's video but I think I want to go back and try again following this one.
Check out Carter Cutlery too.
If I'm looking up a topic on YT and Adam has a video about it i know it is the best one. This is the 4th video i have watched on whetstone sharpening and it is the one that resonates.
Journalism plus educator plus humility is the best mix for content.
So glad i clicked the link about seasoning a cutting board and not the steak on Reddit years ago. When Adam moved to more longform videos and not that no nonsense walkthrough style i thought we were losing something but I was dead wrong. Thanks
"Why I sharpen my whetstone, not my knife" comments incoming
I hope you win 6MOTY
Why I cut my food on my knife, not on my cutting board
I like to whack my knife edge randomly on the stones. HETEROGENEITY!
why i wet my food not my whetstone
Joe you should leave utag
I know nothing about knife sharpening. Watching this breaks it down without needing the years of background knowledge.
Excellent presentation, thank you kindly for sharing this!
Take a shot everytime you feel Adam will cut his hand while pointing at the knife
No thanks don't want to spend a night in the hospital
or when he held it up to his head oof
Never.... knife is an extension of the body.
Naa, he's a professional! He'd edit that out. 😄
If you cut yourself pointing at your knife then you probably shouldn't be using knives
I bought whet stone on amazon.. only half knowing what I'm doing after watching some youtube, on my first attempt my dull knives are now much sharper.
i just sharpened my kitchen knife with a stone and was trying to find an adam video on whetstone sharpening. This video is well scheduled. Thank you!
I started getting into knives a couple of years ago. I had cheap supermarket knives and at first I used a tool sharpening stone which was pretty rough but gave a taste so that I started to buy slightly better knives and a Japanese combo stone. I find I prefer European knives to Asian or rather they prefer me - I'm left-handed and the single edged Asian knives are overwhelmingly right-handed. My only instruction in all this was from RUclips and I always struggled with getting the correct positioning for the opposite side of the blade. This video is the first to talk about the 45 degree hold and the 90 degree hold. The other thing I learned is that a knife that is too sharp can have trouble cutting just like a dull knife. These two things have totally changed my understanding. Thank you! This is without question the more helpful video on the subject I have ever watched.
23:25 “all the mess is contained in the stink” the YTPs are gonna have fun with that.
I'm a bit of a knife/sharpening geek with a small fortune in Japanese stones, strops and compounds. I've enjoyed sharpening for years as a geeky hobby. Anyway, I have a bit of an idea of how to sharpen. This is a GREAT video explaining sharpening, good job Adam! (And I never knew where whet came from!) Thank you
Man, I just love to listen to an expert talking about his or her stuff...
You can just say their
The internet frustrates me, infuriates me, bums me out, and makes me feel bad about not controlling my consumption of it better. BUT Adam, your channel is like an oasis. I never regret time spent in your channel. This channel is literally one of the few genuinely GOOD places on the internet. You’re helping people love their food more, helping people understand cool things, and you’re doing it in such a succinct and entertaining way. I hope your videos make you a millionaire, because you deserve it.
Thank you, I’ve been looking for a proper guide on how to use whetstones properly. Your explanations are great and I really appreciate you explaining why whetstones work the way they do.
first video ive come across explaining german/french knives... i bought my first whetstone and was making brilliant progress. got the burr, nice and sharp so went up to 6000 and it just went blunt... watched another video, tried again, 6000 blunt again!
I've gone to 4000 very lightly and its pretty sharp! a pro could probably get it sharper but from how it was rubber banding on a steak, and now actually cleanly slicing through it its a massive transformation! Thanks!
If you are on a budget, the leveling stone is not required for purchase right, right away. If you're just doing your own knives at home, and now starting out, it's unlikely that you'll need to level off the go with new whetstone. (What I learnt from the store where I got mine)
If you’re brand new, just get a nice-ish 2k or 1.8k grit stone and practice on a nice-ish knife. That’s all you really need to start IMO.
Yeah that’s a ridiculous suggestion. You’d be way better off with a good stop and some medium and fine compound
@@Matt-xc6sp I assume you meant "strop". I use one for finishing, just a wide leather strap glued to a board as wide as the strap. Rub on some fine compound and finish my knives to get a very sharp knife.
Yes, unless you're going crazy it will take a long time to need a leveling stone.
Instead of a leveling stone, just use the sidewalk or concrete brick.
The quintessential informative min-do on sharpening.
O% filler
100% useful
You're kidding me Adam. I just had my first whetstone delivered to my door today, and was planning on trying it later.
Mine was delivered last week so almost perfect timing for me.
@@matthewwall5296 ratio
Just to tell you my 2 cents:
if you ordered a stone because you got annoyed at your really dull knife you're going to make an improvement either way. Even if you don't hit the right angle all the time etc. Try and improve, but you're very likely going to be happy that your knife got way sharper than after years of abuse.
Hey, if you get super frustrated it’s probably your knife. I got super frustrated sharpening freehand, but once I got a better knife, it was a whole ‘nother experience.
You should check out Burrfection's YT channel, his sharpening tutorials are super helpful :)
I've been wanting to do this for years and this is the most useful video I've found.
Combo stones are great. The effect of uneven surfaces is a) absolutely minor for amateurs and practically non existent and b) you should always secure your stone with a wet towel or rubber or whatever, which takes the surface on the bottom completely out of the equation. I've been using them since forever and I've never had an issue with unevenness
If you want a perfect apex... you HAVE TO HAVE A FLAT STONE. A dished stone will cause your bevel to vary down the length of it.
You should be lapping the stone in any event (as the expert demonstrates in the video), so I do not understand the expert's point about a combo stone ever getting wobbly, because it wouldn't.
@@EDCandLace nah bro. u dont need to flatten your stone everytime you use it. you will need to do it eventually, but that depends on how often you use it, and even how you use it. most homecooks only use a single knife and sharpen it like 3-4 times a year (which is a reasonable amount for a homecook). most stones get noticeably out of shapr from that, let alone so much that it would have any negative effect or imapct on your knife sharpening. after another year of use, you should think about flattening your stone.
@@EDCandLace Dishing is only a problem if you're grinding away at expensive japanese waterstones, as Adam's friend does. Arkansas-type stones will only dish very very slowly over a period of many years. Diamond plates will shed diamonds (also very very slowly if you have a quality plate) but not dish at all. Even those waterstones will only need infrequent lapping if you're only sharpening the few knives in your own kitchen rather than running a sharpening business.
@@JohnSmith-oe5kxThe advice comes from a guy who used to sharpen 60 stones. So it makes sense from that perspective
Well done,,Adam. Thank you for taking such an important culinary ritual seriously enough to offer this most dynamic documentary to the art of blade honing. Bravo
Wow I had no idea that knife sharpening ran so deep
Missed opportunity to use "cut so deep" smh
Ever since we discovered obsidian, humankind strive to achieve that perfect edge.
I fell down the sharpening rabbit hole years ago and I still learn new things very frequently. Also this holds true for every single thing you can learn. It all looks like one single thing from the outside, but once you start looking for the details there's no end to it.
Definitely! But it doesn’t have to be complicated. If you want a good edge without worrying about skill, look at fixed angle systems. I’d be happy to rec if you’d like. I use freehand now, but used a fixed angle after an initial frustration with freehand.
@@mfaizsyahmi An expertly knapped edge of obsidian is still used for niche reasons as you can obtain an edge many times sharper than a metal blade. Some cosmetic surgeons use obsidian scalpels as they claim it causes less tissue damage and scarring compared to a regular stainless scalpel.
I love that you also have the sharpening instruction in the description. So considerate. Thanks chef!
I don't even cook. this is just fun to watch!
It's a useful skill one you can use to sharpen literally anyting.
How does one live without cooking.
@@sarahwessels7020
Right?
I studied Metallurgic at University.
What you shows is simple and specific, a high valuable information.
Very practical.
Thank you.
My terrible puns sometimes draw *cutting remarks.*
But it's good to stay *grounded.*
You need to hone those punning skills.
in this case, the appropriate phrase would be: to stay stoned.
Edgy crowd here
Also quite sharp wit here too
I know it was two years ago but thank you for posting this. You are a good teacher and Davis knows what he's doing.
Adam has made a fantastic point here, a lot of the advice here can be felt out! I've been getting a remarkably sharp edge just by intuitively feeling what the blade needs based on the existing edgework. Also, this got mentioned in another comment, but if you have appropriate grit wet/dry sandpaper, that's stuck on an appropriately flat surface (glass is a good one!) is a great way to test out whether the effort is worth the results!
Sandpaper on a flat surface works great honestly. I use that when I don't feel like soaking my stones or just need to quickly touch up some knives after using them.
This video got me into whet stones and knife sharpening. I've been happier since.
A trick to cut onions with a duller knife without crying is to not form an emotional bond with the onions.
I keep swimming goggles in my drawer
Sad to see this comment doesn't have more likes
Easily the most comprehensive tutorial on knife sharpening I've ever seen. Thank you!
I know this video is a year old, but good video. I've sharpened for a while and hadn't thought of the 45 --> 90 degree setup like he was doing. Also LOVE the sink bridge! I'm totally building one of those for myself.
Man, that was one of the smoothest ad segways I have ever seen. Bravo!
That ad transition at the end was as sharp as his knife had been made before.
im going to sharpen everything now! Even my spoons!
I appreciate the bananas in some of the shots. Turns your setting from generic house to "chef's kitchen." Very clever!
I wonder how long he spent agonizing over the "ideal" placement.
@@joshs2958 Lol, harsh but fair! He probably did put some thought into it.
Lmao I just noticed. Cute banana
Pretty well done video on sharpening. For most people a 1200-2000 grit stone will create an edge that is scary sharp compared to what they are used to using. All that other stuff is advanced in comparison. In fact after 20 years in kitchens from bakeries to fine dining, I have never met a chef with more than one or two stones. Its the rare chef that is a nerd for truly sharpening their blades.
You forgot the main reason to sharpen with whetstones.
It feels very nice when you get it right. Very soothing, very satisfying.
Thank you so much, Sir! My knifes are razor sharp on the first attempt with whet stones. There is a loot of room for improvement, obviously, but thanks to you I'm extremely happy with the result!
Watching JunsKitchen has finally prepared me for this
edit: that Squarespace transition really caught me off guard but it was perfect how dare you Adam
Damn, I love Jun
I've been a butcher for two decades and have always sharpened my own knives on a three stone and still found this video informative.
To anybody worried about ruining their expensive steel or family heirlooms, just go to a flea market and buy the crappiest dollar bin knife you can find that isn't going to give you tetanus. Practice on that until you're comfy.
i started sharping knife as a hobby about 2 years ago and this video is the best!!! no BS straight to the deal. thanks
I've been waiting for this for a long time
How do you get that double accent on the e?
@@phillipwalk3r that's the Vietnamese keyboard. Those are actually two different marks, one for the letter and one for the stress. Our language is full of those if you're interested 🙂
@@ministig63ace Sounds interesting, I love learning about languages in school they are so unique.
@@phillipwalk3r It's really nice to know that you're interested. Our alphabet is base off of the Latin one, though we exclude f, j, w and z; and add in ă, â, đ, ê, ư, ô, ơ. The 5 different sound marks are the ones on top of these a's: á, à, ả, ã, ạ
@@ministig63ace On the standard GBoard keyboard, out of those letters the only ones missing are the the u and o with the little 90° upwards curve on the right of it. And of the a's there are 2 a's missing, the one with the dot under it and the one with the > sign on top of it.
Not only is the video very informative, but I also really like the pacing of the video, the cadence of your voice and the expert's parts are also spaced out perfectly. I couldn't ask for more from this video.
this video is so perfectly timed, as i was just beginning to look for stones myself
This is one of the best videos I've seen for beginner sharpeners. Thanks Adam.
why do i get goosebumps when the knife is sharpened?
I'd suspect your brain doesn't like the sound/the high frequencies. our brains are primed to hurt when hearing certain sounds when the pitch is about as high as a baby screaming, which our ape brain recognizes as bad
@@ingwerschorle_ thanks for the insight mate
@@ingwerschorle_ Ah
ASMR?
cuz ur a goose
It's so chill sharpening your own knife.
Long live the empire! We shall conquer with our sharpened knives!
Tell babushka hi
@@georgeamesfort3408 hi.
Those are in some situations more dangerous than guns.
This had been a class which you cant attend in Oxford, Cambridge, MITS, Stanford or Havard. Thank you for such a life skill learning 35 minutes.
I'm really pleased with this! It works like a charm ruclips.net/user/postUgkxDcr-y2Pf6xdnrFHrSP7dl9kpKaCozcSQ Takes less time than my old electric sharpener because it can take more off the knife faster, and then it smooths out nicely with the finer grit polisher. I don't know how long it will last before the grit wears away, but I wouldn't mind having to replace it every once in a while.
It was a joy to watch this video. Before I got my stones I checked the market just to realize there are different standards for grit and some give way different numbers. ASA for the USA, FEPA for Europe and JIS for Japan and Asia. The grit numbers in the video were JIS. So when one buys stones rated in ASA or FEPA-F numbers for similar grain size will be different.
12:34 -- This is the moment in the video that proved the pro is a pro.
SO MANY HACKS on RUclips "demonstrating" how to use a whetstone never even mention flattening their work stone with a lapping stone. Drawing a grid on your work stone with a #2 pencil helps you lap more evenly, by the way: just keep lapping until the grid is evenly removed.
This really depends on the stones. I have been using the same stones for 5 plus years and not once have I ever flattened them.
Really nice basic overview without getting too into the weeds. Sharpening, good lord, anyone and everyone has their own way of doing it.
I enjoy whetstone, but when I took knife skills in culinary schools, they sharpen their knives once a year, and hone their blades every 4 hours of use. Honing and sharpening are very different, if you sharpen every time you think your blade is dull you will not have a blade to sharpen after 4 years. So i find it so much more simpler to take my knives once a year to a professional who has professional sharpeners
If you sharpen more often you remove less metal every time you sharpen because the edge isnt as damaged. It also depends on how hard your knife is. Softer blades need sharpening more often as the edge will roll over more easily
@@fulsame1 Blade roll over is mitigated with frequent honing as it will re-straighten the blade profile. I will admit my experience has been with Japanese blades with 58+ hrc and stay sharper for much longer. Though I still think it's good to point out that there is a culture of sharpening your knives rather than keeping your blade sharp. I've seen people's chef blades turn into filet knives bc they sharpened their knife every month for five years.
@@robertelliot8383 most of my experience is with relatively softer blades not necesarily intended for kitchen use.I use a bowie style 6 inch blade for meats. Honing frequently keeps a soft blade usable but ive found it quickly lose the "effortless" quality of a freshly sharpened edge. This could also be due to the profile of the blade having a much more aggresive curvature than a kitchen knife that a quick honing just doesnt work the blade as cleanly as with straighter kitchen knives. I get a much nicer edge with just a dozen or so passes over a high grit diamond plate and then a strop on a leather belt.
@@robertelliot8383 I know this is an old thread, but around here the knife grinder who dealt with pro kitchens and butchers,fishmongers etc used to come round once a fortnight, nobody expected their knives to last forever they just had to be very sharp, you touch a knife up on the steel about every half hour, less if your having to deal with bone and gristle. I see Chefs on RUclips cut vegetables and then scrape them into a heap with the edge,what’s that all about then ?
I absolutely love the respect and reverence for craft and and detail in this video. It doesn't sound preachy to me at all. Thoroughly eye opening for me. Great video!
Hi Adam! After learning how to sharpen using a whetstone, will you be switching to this method for keeping your cutlery sharp or does the ease of your pull-through sharpener outweigh the whetstone's benefits? Or will hiring a professional like Davis be your preferred method? Just interested in your personal opinion!
I'd be interested to hear as well. I actually started with whetstones, but it took me a few weeks before I could sharpen knives in any reasonable amount of time like less than 20 minutes. I've been using whetstones for a few years now, and now it only takes me 5 minutes to sharpen a knife from dull to razor sharp like actually being able to shave with em. I personally think it's worth learning as it's not too difficult to get the hang of.
I'm someone that has used pull-through sharpeners and whetstones and imo it is worth learning the whetstone way. Takes a few tries to get down (and multiple watches of this video) but in the end you get pretty fast at it and a way better edge than you could ever get with the pull-through kind.
I worked with Davis Wells years ago at Grits Cafe. Nice guy. Good cook. Nice to see him here.
The Ragusea/Chlebowski rivalry is ever sharpening!
Came looking for this comment.
I love all this knife sharpening info! I have a beautiful Japanese knife that was my 25th birthday gift. I love it so much, I use it every single day. It’s an awesome beginner knife for the intermediate home cook. The edge of the knife out of the box was fantastic, cut onions and tomatoes beautifully. Got it sharpened after about a year of constant use at a fancy cooking supply chain that has a sharpening service that gets you your first sharpening for free, was not impressed and now want to do it myself!
The segway into the sponsor was nearly as smooth as the edge of the knife.
This may be one of your best videos yet! Full of that trademark approachable presentation, super informative content, and backed by a healthy serving of science & history. Personal story, I bought a 1,000/6,000 grit combo stone a couple years back, and got amazing results the first time... Then less good results, worse, then terrible. There's so much info in this video that the guides didn't cover - I think everything you and Davis went over so much that will really make the difference for people who (pun intended) want to whet their appetite for home sharpening. Thanks Adam!
Why did you get less good results?
@@zoulzopan I believe my technique wasn't great, and my whetstone developed a divot which I needed a correction stone to fix. Haven't been bothered yet, but I just got one in the mail so watch this space.
@@Schizmatizmify I also have a 1000/6000 double sided stone and idk why for some reason I can't get a burr going even tho I can see the metal being shaved off and I've been working it for like 20 mins. I watch Ethan Chlebowski's video on this too and for some reason he can get a burr with just the 1000 grit stone after a few mins.
This video does so good job in explaning this, that I'm moved. It actually feels like Adam cares, if this guide could actually help you and is enough to get started, whereas most of youtube content focuses mostly on grabing attention.
Best video to transfer the knowledge & hand technique on sharpening knifes to someone far away.
One warning: there are various standards about sharpening stone grits. In this video they are talking about the Japanese standard (jis). You can tell for the brands that appeared in the video (king, naniwa).
Other popular standards are ANSI or fepa that uses lower numbers. And some manufactures uses their own grit classification. Smith stones uses the fepa or ANSI, I don't remember. So an 800 smith stone is similar to a 4000 king (or so, I don't have the charts at hand). That's why you won't find a 10000 Smith stones.
I think that if you are buying your first stones, try to get a set from the same manufacturer or sold as a bundle.
The transition into square space was beautiful. Ain't gonna use it but BEAUTIFUL.