System Use FAQ

Welcome to the W.E. Forum Iceshiver.  There are so many different grinds in knives, in general.  In Japanese knives that’s taken even further with all the specialized artisan knife styles and grinds. It’d be very difficult to address all the different knives in the FAQs. Once you learn how to sharpen knives, in general, with your W.E. and you develop your sharpening technique that works well for you, sometimes intuitiveness is your best asset.  (Even though you found the process was counter-intuitive). The W.E. is simply a handtool.  It’s a bench clamp with precisely adjustable angle jigs that allows us to slide our sharpening stones across our knife edges repeatedly, and consistently, at angles of our determination.

In the case of your Usuba it’s really up to you to figure out how to use the W.E. to make it work for you to match the knife maker’s grinds. Even within the Usuba style, each knifemaker’s grinds may be somewhat different within that same style.  We need to use our W.E. and our experience to figure out how best to sharpen it.  There may be some some specification data available for some of the more popular brands but for the most part it’s up to us to just figure it out and work with it.

It appears this is just what you did. You achieved good sharp results.  It really doesn’t matter what angle you ended up using other than to record this angle for future touch-ups.  As long as the knife cuts well that’s all that really matters. With this single edged knife there are several different angle grinds along the knife’s length and down the knife’s height.  Even with these different angles, overall it’s a single bevel knife like a “chisel” grind.  We are really just sharpening the small, almost tiny edge bevel, relative to the almost vertical backside bevel.  As long as these bevels meet keenly at the apex you should be good to go.  Only after a lot of use and time will you need to work on the the next grind up to restore and thin down the angled edge profile.  The Usuba is a much thicker more stout knife than it’s cousin,  the much thinner profiled, double beveled Nakiri.  The heavier Usuba should stand up well used on a proper cutting board.

As “tcmeyer” suggested after using the sharpened knife and experiencing how the edge wears and stands up, you may learn next time to narrow or widen tthe edge’s bevel angle.  This is a trial-and-error thing done over time.

Here is a video made by Clay Allison sharpening a Shun Usuba knife.  Clay, as did tcmeyer has called the knife a Nakiri.  Whereas this single-sided grind style vegetable knife is more specifically called a Usuba.  The knife Clay is sharpening is a thinner style Usuba knife, almost like a Naikiri, compared with your thicker style Usuba.