Japanese knife sharpening videos

[Ken S]

Jan,

Good points. Using cigarette paper with whatever knives appear for sharpening is very risky! Copy paper would be much safer (less prone to failure). A very well known Tormek presenter used to use Tormek advertisement fliers, which are actually stiffer than copy paper. While the fliers were actually stiff, it made for crowd pleasing demonstrations.

My ceramic steel has the sound and feel of light, controlled cutting. I have never used a smooth butcher's steel. I can see where a smooth steel would realign the edge. My regular steel, which was part of the original Henckel set, looks very impressive. However, the rather coarse vertical file teeth are not very gentle on the blade edge. Perhaps the ideal setup is both a smooth butcher's steel and a ceramic steel.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

Back in the day, a Cheech and Chong album (can't remember which one) came with a giant cigarette paper enclosed. That's the size you'd need for show-stopping demonstrations!

[grepper]

Good memory there Herman!  I can't understand why my memory of that is a little foggy.

http://tinyurl.com/hbbq5cj

"You've smoked the rest, now smoke the best!"

http://tinyurl.com/z52eeqm

Apparently manufactured with some international "joint" effort.

http://tinyurl.com/z4y3wya

[grepper]

20 feet of rolling paper conveniently cut into 1 foot long manageable pieces for $3.99:
http://www.amazon.com/Foot-Long-Rolling-Paper-Pack/dp/B008XMU5MK

[Jan]

Ken, I have an alternative suggestion for your crowd pleasing demonstration, not so challenging as rolling paper test.

That Sharpening Guy noticed, that people like to see that you are recycling. 
http://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=2588.msg14111#msg14111
So simply use a sheet of an old newspaper as he is using for wrapping freshly sharpened knives.

Jan

[Ken S]

Jan,

I recently purchased a Kitchenaid Santoku knife. It cost $12.95 US at my local grocery store, so I am sure yours is a much better knife. I bought it to test the sharpness of a factory new knife and the same knife sharpened with a Tormek using the BESS scale. No surprise, the Tormek edge was much sharper.

After watching Dave Martell's videos, I wonder if I might have sharpened the bevels incorrectly. I sharpened both sides with a standard fifteen degree bevel. Since this was not a true Japanese knife, I wonder if the bevels might be identical or, like a Japanese knife, sharpened differently?

I must confess ignorance with Japanese knives. That's another hole in my background which needs more knowledge.

Ken