Made in West Germany

Today, I sharpened a Japanese-made petty knife and a Western-style cow knife that looks like a Kamagata Usuba (probably made with the Santoku knife in mind). Both of them had thick edges, so I attempted to thin them out and rebuild them, but the German-made one was quite a challenge… It had so much resilience! While it might have good edge retention, I felt it was difficult to put an edge on it when compared to sharpness. I tried thinning the edge and various other methods, but ultimately, giving it a two-stage edge was the best solution. It feels like the sharpness drops when you give it a two-stage edge, but overall, it’s good, I think. When you ask, “What’s difficult about knife sharpening?” 90% of people say, “What angle should I use?” There are various suggestions, like the angle of two 10-yen coins! Figuring out the angle is indeed a challenging issue (^^;

Hibishugyo

2007-06-20