How to Sharpen a Santoku - Naoto's Nerdy Power Hour

This is a fan-requested topic, a deep-dive into the best way to sharpen specific shapes of Japanese kitchen knives. Today, we're covering the best way to sharpen a santoku! Bring your questions!
You can grab the sharpening gear in the video at knifewear.com/collections/sha...
For all of your knife, sharpening, and kitchen related needs, head to knifewear.com/​
Or visit Knifewear stores in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, or Vancouver.
Join our community:
▶ Instagram / knifewear​
▶ Facebook: / knifewear​
▶ Twitter: / knifewear
▶ Discord: / discord

[@robertmooretruro]

I lived in a small apartment that had very minimal counter space. I had a countertop dishwasher and my cutting board was in front of the dishwasher. When using a 240mm gyuto it was difficult to avoid banging the tip into the dishwasher but I literally had no where else to do my cutting. So a smaller Santoku was a better option most of the time.

[@jeffmacrae4633]

Great as always... amazing how much knowledge can be fit into an hour.
I greatly appreciate the new studio....the camera angle and video quality are a huge improvement...
Take care

[@KnifewearKnives]

Thanks man! We're very happy to finally have a dedicated space for this stuff.

[@GrantHendrick]

The new studio looks great and adds to the quality of the video.

[@sonkekoster3105]

Thanks for the good video!

[@Doodle-.Snoozel]

Thanks for the stream

[@KnifewearKnives]

Thanks for tuning in!

[@bruucunha]

This video is an utter masterpiece. My favorite and most used knife is a santoku and I usually have quite a hard time sharpening mine. Every minute here was enlightening; I actually ooh'ed with Nathan at 57:15. lol

[@KnifewearKnives]

Hahaha thanks man!

[@robertmooretruro]

To cover the handle you could try heat shrink. It is for insulating wire. You can get large tubes for big cables which would fit over a knife handle, then use a heat gun or hair drier to shrink the tube onto the handle. Then you can cut it off later. More expensive than plastic wrap but a better seal and grip I think.

[@KnifewearKnives]

Good to know, thank you!

[@GrantHendrick]

Thank you Naoto and Nathan for another great video. I appreciate the thoughts on Masashi having a flatter Santoku. As I am figuring out that I prefer flatter blades I wonder about kiritsuke vs ynagiba. The later would work better for meat but I recall Nathan had a video in which it looked like kiritsuke are also very handy for slicing meat and may have broader applications?

[@GrantHendrick]

Maybe a better question would be sujihiki vs kiritsuke?

[@KnifewearKnives]

Good question! In that video I mostly just used a double bevel kiritsuke, as opposed to a single bevel one. The single bevel kiritsuke was originally designed to combine the usuba and yanagiba, the flatter edge allowing it to handle veggies better. Really, it just comes down to style preference for me!

[@madmax68684351]

Hi
Very nice Video.
What would you recommend pressure on trailing or leading edge or both ?
Thanks

[@KnifewearKnives]

We get this question a lot! We almost always use equal pressure in both directions, it works great.