Knife Knowledge: Sharpening Shibata style
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 5. 09. 2024
- Shibata Takayuki is incredibly well known for his ability to put a keen edge on a knife. His line of knives are world-famous. His claim to fame is the level of sharpness that he achieves. We have never met. He has been witnessed many times putting different edges on each side of a knife. We are going to demonstrate several different techniques that were known to be used by him so that we can get you thinking about the type of knife you're using and it's purpose. Different knives need different edges for different reasons. Using sharpening differentials, we are able to achieve a semi toothy edge. We explore the reasons why you will not do this technique as well as some reasons why you will do the technique. We will also show you many different variations of the technique. Enjoy this exploration into a different attitude towards your sharpening goals. Let's have some fun!
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Do your thing Greg! Love it!
Thanks! Will do!
This concept has been around ar least as long as I've been in this (12 years)
The idea was to use synthetic stones to mimic Jnat stones.
Jnats don't have a real defined grit. There is always basically a mix of grits in the stone (stones change grit through the life if tye stone) and they given a general range.
This "mix" of grits causes an irregular scratch pattern at the apex. This give a kind of "multi grit" edge.
It's why guys swear knives sharpened on jnats hold there edge longer than on synthetic stones.
Because of the irregular scratch pattern, the edge breaks down at different rates.
You also edge up with a polished edge with some random rough parts.
Kinda the "perfect " edge
I will agree with you but Iâll also elaborate that there are many other reasons why you should use a Japanese natural stone. Not necessarily just for the irregularity of the texture of the stone. But you and I are on the same page. We had to sell show people that this exist. Not everyone comes in with all of the knowledge of everything and then has a discussion. Some people are being introduced to concepts and we have to introduce it the best way we can for them to understand. After theyâve been in the knife community for a long time then you can get into much sharper details. Iâm sure your acquisition of knowledge is lead you down the biggest rabbit hole and you know things that you never thought you would have to learn. Iâm glad to have you looking in on us.
@@nadm oh 100% jnats are borderline mythical in there reasons for use lol.
I wasn't trying to downplay this technique or anything. Sorry if it came off that way.Just didn't see anyone talk about the reasoning (at least what I was taught) behind the dual or multi grit edge and just thought I'd chime in.
Yes sharpening is a deep deep rabbit hole that'll have you rating your sharpness by how many curls off a hair you can get, and rating the health of your edge by how many chops on a end grain board it takes before you lose that hair whittling edge đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
Thereâs so many ways to look at it. If you make the edge so thin that itâs super sharp and itâs probably gonna be more brittle. Thereâs just a place that you have to find thatâs sharp enough and it last for a long time. I do love the natural stones but I think itâs because itâs more romantic do you something from the earth
This is an interesting technique. Iâm guilty of sharpening all my Japanese knives to 6000 and 9000 grit stones, I know most of them donât need it but I got it so I use it. It might benefit me to rough up one side.
Iâm telling you that it really does help to bite into the skin of the fruit or vegetable that youâre dealing with but if you were doing fish I will stay away from it. If youâre doing regular cuts of meat you donât really have to but you might if itâs a fatty piece of meat to have a little teeth in it. I donât want the teeth too big because teeth fall out
Very interesting Greg aloha brother đ€đ„
Thanks buddy. I didn't invent it I'm just sharing it with you.
Still climbing subscribers greg :) keep it up
Yes sir! We are grinding. Itâs just a time game. Weâre just trying to put out good content
Shibata is a wise man!
Thatâs why he gets the big box
This is kinda similar to the dual grit sharpening that Pete and scienceofsharp dicussed, however they sharpened one side with a low grit and one side to a high grit, Shibata is sharpening both sides to a high grit and strop one side with a low grit, interested to see the difference.
Now that you mention it, it would
Actually I'm pretty sure Shibata uses the same dual grit sharpening technique. When I looked on my two Koutetsu Gyuto edges under the microscope, one side was sharpened under ~800 grit and the other with ~5000 grit. The scratches were consistent under the same angle on both sides of the edge using two grits. If you sharpen under higher grit stone and then strop on a lower grit, there should be a very prominent scratch pattern from the lower grit which was not the case on my Koutetsu knives (one knife I bought a year ago, second couple of months back).
The idea is the same, just stropping would not make the edge as "toothier" as from a dual grit sharpening.
@@sonecborec When he was visiting knifewear in Canada and sharpening his knives that customers brought in to re-sharpen then he was doing the techniques that I had showed and I did the two specific ones that were quoted to me by the people who hung out with him and what he did to their knives. Thatâs what I stated at the very beginning of the video
@@sonecborec iâll also mention that itâs quite well-known amongst the knife shop owners that he does this. Iâve had lengthy discussions with several knife shop owners who know him personally and I will say that Dustin from real sharp knife has always gone into great links to tell me about his different sharpening edges on each side of the knife. I also stated in the video that I donât believe he does it for every knife. I think it has to do with the knifeâs purpose. In the video I re-created the scenario in which he had sharpened my friends knives. I try to use the exact same knife and I tried to re-create exactly what he did to their knives. I stated that I only had one difference for the Sujihiki. That he used in 800 grit first dropping and I had to use the 1000 because I didnât have an 800
@@sonecborec try it yourself, sharpening different # on either side, compared to sharpening both to the highest #, and then stropping with a lower # - the latter will absolutely blow you away in performance!
Hey my friend, that was really interesting. And you have inspired me to try this technique on one of my asymmetrical sujis that l know well and use often. I would not do this for raw fish but am very curious how it would perform for slicing chicken and beef. In fact, l think l will try it right now! Going to do the right side super polished and the tiny left side bevel with 1k only and then slice up some chicken.
Sounds great! Go for it!
Have you watched "Coarse & Smooth!?! Hand Sharpening Dual Grit Edge" by The Home Slice?
I have not but youâre more than welcome to put a link and I will check it out
Wondering why you don't deburr the other side after applying those edge trailing strokes with a coarser stone.
There are different people who do actually do it that way. Iâm not saying that itâs wrong. If you saw the other video I posted then you would see that we did a test about deburring. We found not only was it not better but really if you look at the scores it was actually slightly worse. I do believe in the science of it. I ended up being mean the entire experiment completely even
Thanks for your time! I'll have a look.
I know this technique. I remember you replied to some comments on your channel before about this "shibata style" technique of sharpening and you said uou would like to try them out. Is this it? đ
So this is the technique yes and I donât think you need to apply it to everything. I requested in the video that you learned this theory and then apply in different ways to different types of steel and different knife shapes on different materials that youâre cutting. I think in the end you will find different winning combinations that best suits you
Im a comercial sharpener my self and in my opinion 6k or 8k or even higher is only for Fish you eat raw like sushi. most chefs i sharpen for like a coarser grit better im in Germany and many knifes i come across didnt benefit from a edge above 4k in Japan it would be difrent. Its a very interesting technique i will experiment with that in the next time.
I agree with you that in most situations you donât really need to go above a threeK. Have fun playing around with that. God bless you
What length is your Kurosaki? Thanks!
170mm
@@nadm Thanks!
Murray Carter says that a knife canât be thin enough.
I practice thinning with my Daovua knives.
That's a good spot but at the same time, those are already pretty thin. I definitely understand because of the price point.
I'll have to give this a try, and put it against my go to which is an 800 grit stone finished on leather with 1micron diamond spray. Very aggressive edge that will still pop hair off your arm. I find that edge lasts much longer in tomatoes, peppers etc than a more highly polished edge.
Nice!!!
Would'nt you say that if the knife's purpose being a slicer, is to cut meat, would be more relevant if you actually cut fatty meat, in order to see if there is a noticeable difference with this technique ?
I mean it's obvious you can cut anything you want with a sharp blade, but everything in this video is just for show off, when the best way of testing a blade is cutting what was meant to cut in actual use.
Other than that when it comes to high carbon blades take this in consideration:
-a knife finished with any stone higher in grit like 6000+ will remove scratches from lower grits and by polishing the edge will be less prone to rust so why ruin that?;
-a lower grit as medium stones will leave an edge more prone to rust because of the deeper scratches
-so you want a polished edge wich you ruin going back to 800 grit to get a toothier edge (wich you can have by finishing on a 3000 grit for this type of knife)
Makes no sense to me!
So depending on the type of blade material and the purpose of the knife, and the type of grit finish needed, i find many times a contradiction between all of these techniques and also complicating things too much to an extreme where most people are just confused.
I also find many other sharpening/techniques/accessories/ things out there on public just for show off and nothing more.
Thatâs the exact statement that we made in the video itself. We literally stated in the video that you must consider the knifes purpose. I would never think that having scratches in the Apex would make it prone to rusting. That has more to do with the acidity or the moisture that is left on the edge itself. If youâre properly cleansing and drying before you put it away then you should not have that problem. A smooth edge Apex will always have longer edge retention. If you actually sharpen a knife with a toothy edge than you are prone to having the teeth fall out. This will shorten the lifespan of the edge. That is not the goal. In this instance, using certain knives that are doing a specific task, you are stropping just 2 to 3 passes which will barely create a roughness on one side of the Apex but youâre not really sharpening. The roughness just allows you to penetrate the fattiness or the skin of a vegetable or fruit or a piece of fatty meat. I would only do this technique on a knife that needs that type of edge for that type of purpose. Thatâs why we explain that you need to experiment on the different types of material as well as the different knife shape and for the purpose youâre using it. With fish, we stated, that you would not want to do this at all so that way you have a very clean edge on the fish that youâre cutting. As you stated, we had already agreed with you and it is proven to be true that all knives cut if theyâre sharp and a clean Apex last for a very long time. And doing the different test, I had a knife sharpened to an 8k finished edge and could not slice the blueberry until I had put the slightly rougher edge on the one side. Thatâs not something you and I normally need to do in food prep. If the steaks or prime rib had fattiness that was exposed that it also might be beneficial. If it was a tenderloin, I probably wouldnât need it. Thatâs why we stated that you should consider what youâre cutting. I would not use it for butchering poultry but I would probably want it for skinning a deer. Carbon steel knives are going to get a patina and youâre really not going to have a Rusty edge anymore from this technique if youâre probably cleaning the blade. If youâre going to be constantly in moisture and itâs not going to matter if there are scratches on one side of the edge. Youâre either going to make the knife rusty or youâre going to use a stainless steel knife anyway. We just showed you that this is out there and you are more than welcome to play around with the contrasting edges to see whatâs best for you. Some people would never consider this. If youâre using powdered steel like I did with the longer knife then rust would never be a factor. When I was dropping with the 2K after being on the 6K then the scratches are microscopic but yet were able to have some bite into the skin of the blueberry. This could be helpful with tomatoes to not leave any juice on the cutting board.
rewatching this video to look at your Shibata style, and I will give you another "thumbs-down" - this is not up to your normal quality of videos
Iâll have to ask you, I donât understand the statement that this is not up to our normal quality of videos. Itâs an individual video with knowledge acquired from him sharpening knives in Canada at knifewear. All we can do is tell what weâve learned from the individual when he sharpened to Knives. I donât understand if youâre talking about the camera angle or if you just think they were lying or something like that but I donât really understand your statement.
The INSIDE (left-side), should always be the higher # for a right-handed knife (assuming there is an asymmetrical bevel on the knife - 60/40@30', 70/30@30', or 80/20@30' for example, I personally use 80/20@20'), this is how Shibata-San does it.
If the bevel is 50/50@ whatever, then it doesn't matter - the reason being, an asymmetrical bevel for a right-handed knife, will always have a greater cutting surface to "overcome" on the LEFT SIDE than the right, so a higher # will give a smoother cutting action.
And yes, he (Shibata-San), currently uses #800/#8000, however, I have used #1000/#10000 with even better performance - stone & steel depending... . .
I was doing this on a 50-50 bevel. I just like a little bit of teeth on the inside. I was not doing this on a single bevel knife. We were not trying to make it a symmetrical. We were just doing a stropping technique on the inside to give a teeth but not to grind it more. I wanted to keep the 50-50 bubble, but just barely put a separation on the edge with 2 to 3 passes. This is what he did on two knives at knife, where in Canada. One was a Gyuto, and the other was a Sujuhiki. Thank you for the comment. I always take more information. I only have the experience on the two knives that he did.