Soba knife
Yesterday, I received a phone call regarding sharpening a soba knife. It was from someone who enjoys making soba noodles as a hobby and was concerned about the stickiness when cutting soba. Despite trying different kneading methods and using other people’s knives, they couldn’t seem to solve the issue with this particular knife. From our conversation over the phone, I could roughly imagine the situation, so I suggested they send the knife to our company for inspection. And this morning, the knife arrived.
Even though the customer had done a good job sharpening it themselves… As expected, the edge still felt rounded. I initially thought it might be because it was too polished, but it turned out that the blunt angle of the edge was the main culprit. Just as the customer mentioned, “The only difference between my knife and the one borrowed from others is right here!” It seems this blunt angle is causing the stickiness.
They’re quite the diligent researcher. The letter they sent was very polite. Sharpening a soba knife is indeed quite challenging. One of the difficulties lies in achieving a straight edge. Another challenge, as we’ve seen in this case, is dealing with the obtuse angle. To eliminate this obtuse angle, you need to maintain a sharp angle when grinding on the whetstone!!! When doing this by hand, it requires quite a bit of concentration and force to stabilize the knife and wrist. This incident has shown us that a Hamaguri edge is unnecessary for a soba knife!! There are also considerations about where to set the Hamaguri’s curve, but I think aiming for a straight edge is generally the way to go for better results. For now, I’ll focus on carefully sharpening and repairing the knife.
We widened and sharpened the blade edge. I tried passing a newspaper through the edge, and the improvement in cutting ability was remarkable compared to before the repair. The sound as the paper is cut is different now. Although I’ve never made soba noodles myself, I imagine it will cut quite well. Now, we just have to wait for the customer’s feedback! The impression is that it has a cutting-through feeling, but we’ll have to see what the actual result will be… Apparently, this soba knife has been used for 8 years already…!
Hibishugyo
- 2009-02-24
