YoshiThe blade of your knife must have a straight shape without any bend.
Having a good shape makes your knife cut well.
Other things that make a knife cut well are angles and edges.
Keep reading and you will find out…
1. You can cut ingredients with very littlte effort using a sharp knife
18 years ago, on a snowy day,
I used my friend Yota’s kitchen knife when we were preparing sukiyaki for another friend’s birthday party in his kitchen.
It was a shocking moment. His knife was super sharp and I felt really good when I cooked with the knife.
Since then, I haven’t been satisfied with knives that aren’t super keen.
2. A knife that cuts are Z fighters
In order to be Z fighters, you need to have martial art skills, strength, stamina, and willingness to save the Earth.
And you need to be a friend of Goku.
There are a lot of criteria right?
A kitchen knife needs to have some elements to be sharp.
3. The angle of the face of the blade
This part must have a sharp angle so that the edge can cut through ingredients easily.
The bevel of the blade must be thin but still durable.
This makes you feel good when you cut food.
4. Primary bevel makes a knife cut well
This is the edge that actually cuts food.
5. The edge on the secondary bevel has to have a micro zig-zag shape
And It shouldn’t have a smooth shape.
Imagine:
Do you think a saw that has no zig-zag edge can cut a tree well?
I don’t think so.
You must make the zig-zag shape on the edge of your kitchen knife too.
The shape goes away and it gets smooth after using a knife for a while.
So you need to maintain the edge.
Do you know how to make the zig-zag shape?
6. Sharpening your knife with a whetstone is important
Because it can make these zig-zag shapes on your kitchen knife.
Do you know how often you should use the whetstone?
For homecooks, it will be enough if you sharpen your knife once a month or once every 3 months.
If you are a professional chef or if you work at a fish store, probably everyday.
Because you use your knife a lot.
7. The blade has to have the right amount of thickness
It doesn’t happen to a new kitchen knife,
But sometimes it happens if you have been using the knife for a long time and you have been taking care of the knife using a sharpener or a whetstone.
And still the knife doesn’t cut well.
This happens because the blade is too thick.
[picture of new knife]
[picture of old knife]
As you can see in the pictures,
The blade gets thicker if you use the knife for a long time as the edge goes up, and it makes the bevel too thick.
That means it is harder to cut the food through.
In order to fix this problem,
You need to make a new bevel or make the blade thinner.
Like these pictures below…
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8. It shouldn’t have any rust or chips
These rust and chips make your cooking really difficult and stressful.
I recommend sharpening and cleaning them if it’s on your knife.
9. Fact: You can make almost all knives sharp.
I mean expensive ones and cheap ones.
But there are differences.
If you use your kitchen knife a lot, you have to think about the metal material because…
10. Cheap knives lose its keenness quickly while expensive ones stay sharp for longer
This is because usually cheap knives are made of softer metals.
And usually expensive ones are made of harder metals.
That means you have to sharpen frequently if you have a cheap knife.
And if you have an expensive knife, it will be less frequent.
But there are downsides to hard metals…
11. If the metal material is too hard, it is difficult to sharpen
Yes, you heard it right.
It takes more time to sharpen your expensive knife if it is made of hard material.
As we discussed, it will need less sharpening.
So it is your choice for the materials.
Sharpness goes like this…
Honyaki > Aokou > Shirokou > Stainless
12. If it is for homecooks, I recommend stainless steel
Because it doesn’t rust.
It is a fact that stainless steel knives are easy to take care of.
In addition, it is the cheapest material out of four.
And easy to sharpen too.
Stainless steel has its own level of hardness. That being said, there are soft stainless steel and hard stainless steel.
Make sure it is made of good quality stainless steel.
