Miyabi Birchwood Chef’s Knife Sharpening Tips for Newbie???
- This topic has 15 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 10/04/2022 at 8:04 am by
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It dose not matter what your good, valuable or important knife is.
Make your honest learning mistakes with knives that have low value.
I was sharpening a long time before I got my first “Wicked Edge” sharpener.
I did not learn any of this fast and I might still be doing some things the hard way.
Some people think we should sharpen 10 or 20 “Junk” knives before try to sharpen A good knife.
All the abrasives will effect the metal on the blade. give your self some time be patient with your self and do not wreck your good Knife.
good luck Andrei
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Andrei,
See the posts in the thread below. Still visible on the “Recent” posts 03/25/21.
MarcH has a lot of experience with expensive Japanese knives.
Ed K.
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Andrei, welcome to the Wicked Edge Forum. I was in your shoes maybe 5 years ago when I purchased a collection of Miyabi Birchwood knives after reading them touted as “the world’s sharpest knives” on the internet and YouTube. I learned this lesson, then, that you are wondering about, now.
I thought I’d done my practicing and learning as Dwight suggested in his response above using my W.E. diamond stones and all the rest of the mediums they had available at that time. I was ready to venture forward with “better, harder, more expensive, Japanese Steels.” That pinnacle I wanted to reach.
I did ruin those Miyabi Birchwwod knives! I destroyed the thin edges through repeated sharpening and repeated edge failure as I tried to figure out how to go about sharpening that steel. I watched the edges get better and better as I went through the grits then simply fall away viewing it wth my USB microscope. One second the apex was there and I was making good progress and the next moment the apex was gone. Like it just fell off! Eventually I was able to trade those Miyabi knives in on a new, different collection of knives offered to me by Zwilling.
I learned the tough, difficult lesson, that many of the harder, supposedly better, super Japanese Steels cannot be sharpened well with the W.E diamond stone medium. That drove me to invest in my first full set of Shapton (Kuromaku) Pro Stones at that time. There were just the Shapton Pros stones and the Naniwa Choseras stones cut and mounted on Wicked Edge paddles available to choose between at that time. I chose the Shapton brand because of their “splash and go” character. I though it would be easier and less messy to use this type of whetstones with the W.E. compared with the whetstones requiring soaking and a muddy surface slurry to do their cutting. The Shapton Pro stones worked well for me.
That was just a part of the sharpening adventure that I entered into with these “super steels”. I developed through practice, trial and error, the sharpening technique or method that worked well for me with these steels. I increased the variety of knife brands and knife styles along with the variety of steels these knives are made with, in my chef’s knife collection. I apply my mostly perpendicular direction, edge leading stroke method I have come to put into practice for all these steels and varieties. I’m still using this method today with every knife I sharpen.
I have gone on to make various custom modifications to my W.E. set-ups and employ various accessories to help me to sharpen these thin narrow bevel knife apexes while using my whetstones.
I am currently in the process of expanding my whetstone medium collection to include more brands, and types of whetstones. I’m looking to learn which mediums work best on which steels as I continue this adventure down the “rabbit hole” of knife sharpening with the Wicked Edge.
I will add…. at this point in my whetstone experiences my favorite whetstones are the Shapton Glass Stones. I recently found a source for these coveted stones and a man who can cut and mount these stones for W.E. I have acquired more new brands of whetstones some of which I have yet to even use. I don’t know yet what the future lessons will hold. I enjoy the process.
I’m sorry I sacrificed the Miyabi Birchwood knives for the sharpening lessons I learned back then. They were truly beautiful knives. I do have the whetstones now and the effective methods I learned to use to sharpen those steels correctly and well, today.
Marc
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Thank you gents for the responses, the main concern was the Diamond Stones ruining the Miyabi knife. I have plenty of other knives that are everyday work horses that I’ll be able to use the diamond stones on. It just reaffirmed the notion that I’ll need to invest in wet stones.
I will be checking out the thread link that I didn’t see about the other Japanese’s knives. Lastly what grits would you recommend if it’s not in that forum thread for the Miyabi. The knife is still brand new, this is my first premium knife. I’m used to using Costco’s Cangshan S1 as my everyday knives. 58 hardness German steel but Chinese made so not sure how they’ll hold up on the WE system. But I didn’t pay a lot for them so won’t mind if I don’t get perfect results with them either. I believe I got those on a Black Friday discount for an entire block set for $150.
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