Achieving a Mirror Finish with a Whetstone

There’s a whetstone called Kitayama. This stone is gentle on the blade and, in my personal experience, it feels like it almost grabs the steel as you sharpen. When you sharpen a sticky knife (or soft iron), it tends to clog and lose its abrasive power. But if you continue sharpening with a clogged stone, the knife starts to shine.

*Be careful, though, as the friction with the stone can make the knife hot.

Even without clogging, this stone can make the knife shine, but it seems to happen faster when it’s clogged. With a Kasumi knife that has hard soft iron, the soft iron will shine too! It feels more like polishing than sharpening.

When you really want to put an edge on the knife, you need to completely remove the clogging and refresh the surface of the stone; otherwise, you’ll only get a slippery edge. So, be careful!

• 2010-06-10