Scary sharp chicken knife

monty3777

monty3777

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My scores went up dramatically once I switched to a japanese knife to trim my chicken. My theory is that on raw meat a sharp knife does less cell damage and the result is better tenderness and flavor. I made this video to show you how I tune my chicken knife, and show you how sharp it can get. Keep in mind I stopped at 8000x. I could have used even finer stones but I want a little teeth to keep the blade from running.

Since youtube has been blocking any soundtrack I try and use to make the videos more interesting I simply left the background sounds in the video. I know it sucks, but that's all the juice I got in the music biz. Anyway, check this out. If you want your knife this sharp, let me know :) I can get western knives close to this sharp too and still leave enough edge to keep it from rolling.

‪scary sharp chicken knife‬‏ - YouTube
 
Cuts like a brand new scapel.
Congrats on the sharpening job!
 
Very nice! :thumb: Instead of the paper slice can we see an arm hair trim? :p

So how do you keep the blade at the correct angle while running across the stone?
 
After watching the video I was going to ask you to sharpen my knifes but I think I'd be better off if you just trimed chicken for me. :)

Nice job Nate, wish I had the skills to do that. The pro Edge I used to ruin my knifes now sits unused in a drawer.
 
Trucky1008 said:
Very nice! :thumb: Instead of the paper slice can we see an arm hair trim? :p

So how do you keep the blade at the correct angle while running across the stone?
Click to expand...

Muscle memory. I sharpen every night and it has become almost second nature. I did edit out a lot of the footage where I check the edge with a lens to make sure I'm on target. The trick with Japanese knives is that they are asymmetrical - so there is a different angle one each side of the blade.
 
Balls Casten said:
Nice job Nate, wish I had the skills to do that. The pro Edge I used to ruin my knifes now sits unused in a drawer.
Click to expand...

Do you have an Edge Pro? If so, that's an awesome tool - I use on all the time. If you want I can show you how to get great edges with it.
 
Just curious, do you use the same sectional sharpening technique on longer blades such as 300mm?

I used to use that same technique, to the point that my thumbs would get raw from my style of holding. Since doing Murray Carter's course I do long single strokes and found I got MUCH better results. Both methods work well, but I had noticed the sectional sharpening slowly wore down my knives unequally. Easy enough to correct, but the style change alone prevented that from happening to start with.

In any case, that's a nice sharp blade you have there.
 
If I understand Carter correctly, I believe he does use a sectional style of sharpening, then he does what he calls stropping by doing the long single strokes (here's an example. Listen for him to call the long single strokes "stropping". Is this video representative of what he teaches in class? Check out 3:30 and following where he is using a sectional technique. At around 4:50 he "strops" with single strokes. ‪Carter Cutlery - Push Cutting Toilet Paper‬‏ - YouTube). I'd certainly go with what he taught you :)

There are ways of making sure that the grind is even. I've never had trouble with uneven wear. I'm not sure what to say about your thumbs. Were you dragging them across the stone to hold the angle? I used to do that, but the pain wasn't worth it :)
 
monty3777 said:
If I understand Carter correctly, I believe he does use a sectional style of sharpening, then he does what he calls stropping by doing the long single strokes (here's an example. Listen for him to call the long single strokes "stropping". Is this video representative of what he teaches in class? Check out 3:30 and following where he is using a sectional technique. At around 4:50 he "strops" with single strokes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozZF2EgnYm0
Click to expand...

Yup this is basically the style he taught. Not sure why he says "strop" when using the same stone, but yes, he demonstrates that long (corner to corner) honing using long single strokes. I use the long stroke from start to finish now, but never really tried a hybrid approach of both sectional and long strokes. Something I'll look into.

Moving from German steel to Japanese, I struggled for awhile with angles. My thumbs suffered while I tried to maintain angles. I'll admit, I was scared of scratching the spine. Some of my knives are really nice and have beautiful Kanji or designs on them. Last thing I wanted to do was mess that up.
 
Nice video Nate, I know you do a great job on my knives. Let me know if you are cooking Nevada this year, will probably need a tune up.
 
Thats sharp! thanks for the video!

I usually just take my knifes in to get sharpened,, but that gets costly.

do you know a beginners set of stones and videos to get started on? or get the edge pro and learn doing that way? do you guys that just started out , practice on cheap "drawer" knifes, or does it matter?

TIA,

Mike
 
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