When choosing a Japanese kitchen knife, it is inevitable that its steel becomes a part of the consideration. There are a few kinds of steels that are commonly used in modern knife making, and I will cover some that are widely available in stores.

Carbon Steels

The types of carbon steels used in blades are categorized based on their makers. Yasugi factory, owned by Hitachi Metals, Ltd., is located in Shima-ne prefecture, Yasugi city. The steel produced there is not only limited to making the kitchen knives, but also carpenter’s planes, chisels and even high-end knives. …

In Sakai city, there are craftsmen who specialize only in the knife handle making. A good knife should not cause fatigue after prolonged use; this owes to the handle (柄 e) that introduces good balance to the knife.

The Japanese knife handles are usually made of materials like Japanese cypress (檜 or 桧 hinoki), Ebony (黒檀 kokutan) or Japanese yew (櫟 ichi-i). Sakai handle-making craftsmen mostly uses hinoki . Hinoki is light-weight, does not crack easily or rot in water; it also is non-slip when held in hand. These characteristics make hinoki the best fitted material for knife handles.

Placed at one end of the handle, there is either 角巻 Kakumaki, made of buffalo horns, or 口金 Kuchigane, made of metals like copper and brass. In cheaper models, plastic is also used as kakumaki. …

We have covered the terminologies on the different parts of the western and Japanese kitchen knives in a previous article. Let’s talk about the blades.

Single Bevel vs. Double Bevel 片刄と諸刄

Modern kitchen knives can be roughly categorized under either Single-bevelled (片刄 Kataba) knives and Double-bevelled (諸刄 Moroba) knives. When you look at the the cross-section of a blade, if both sides are sharpened at a similar angle it is a double-bevelled knife; if one side of the blade is flat or concave, the opposite side is convex, then you are looking at a single-bevelled knife.

Knives used by professionals (eg., Sashimi knives, Deba knives, Usuba knives, Hamokiri knives and etc) are almost all single-bevelled ones. When making a cut, the single-bevelled blade does not cut straight and slightly turns in left (for right-handed knives). This feature makes the cut-out part of the ingredient separates easily from the blade so that cuts can be made quickly. Moreover, it is crucial in Japanese cuisine to display the perfectly sliced cross section of the ingredients; single-bevelled knives, capable of closely slicing through the tissue of the ingredients, are the most fitted for this job. …

Let’s get aligned on the terminologies before we continue any further.

Western Knives

Japanese Knives

A Bit of History

Sakai city of the Osaka prefecture is known for its forged knives (aka. 堺打刃物 sakai-uchi-hamono). It is fair to make the connection between Osaka, the famous “nation’s kitchen”/the food capital of Japan, to Sakai city, where the kitchen knives are produced; however, the history of blacksmithing in Sakai goes way back.

The tomb of Emperor Nintoku is situated in the eastern part of Sakai city. To build such large scale tomb, hoes and plows were produced in large quantities in Sakai city.

When the Portuguese brought guns into Japan in 1543, Sakai city started producing guns during the age of Warring States and quickly became the major supplier in Japan. …

Your knife may have the crazy expensive Japanese steel in its blade, have been sharpened with perfected skills and have been used with extreme care, but you still find it getting dull quickly. Why is that? Let’s look past the knife, and examine what’s underneath it — what cutting board are you using?

An ideal cutting board

• helps retain the sharp edge of your knife
• is gentle to your wrist
• is anti-bacterial
• should be easy to clean and maintain

Between materials, size, coatings and prices, there are a few trade-offs to consider when finding a good cutting board.

Cutting boards are made of all types of materials today. Since we are aiming for knife edge retention, the harder materials are out of question; avoid glass, ceramic, granite and marble, or you would be spending more time at the whetstones, and the knives’ life span could be shortened due to frequent sharpening. …

Note: This article is not about `rust-lang` but the actual rust that develops on knife blades

Your kitchen knife is very likely made of steel, an alloy that combines Iron, carbon, chromium, nickel and maybe even other metals. Chromium and nickel percentage affects the rust resistance property of the steel. The level of rust resistance is one of the major differences between the modern Western and Japanese kitchen knives and a common worry when some home cooks and professionals look to purchase their first Japanese knives.

Western chef knives are usually made of stainless steel. Higher chromium and nickel content makes western chef knives effectively resistant to rust. However, this high rust resistance property is no guarantee for a western knife to be free of rust; it is more accurate to interpret “stainless” as “stain less”. …

Regardless of the artificial stones or natural ones, whetstones are usually categorized based on their grits:

• Rough stone: #200 — #600
• Medium stone: #800 — #3000
• Finishing stone: #4000 and up

There are a few other types of stones that you use with the whetstones:

• A fixer stone: flattens the whetstone
• A Nagura-toishi: rubs against finishing stones to create a slurry (aka 砥汁) to help with sharpening (this is why the natural stones from Kyoto are called 合砥 awase-do, “awase” meaning “combine”; Nagura is used in combination with natural stone to create the slurry before sharpening.)

The smaller the grit number, the coarse the stone is, and the faster it scrapes away the metal from the blade. Therefore, rough stones are mainly used for repairing edge chip; finishing stones are good for daily maintenance; when the sharp edge cannot be restored by finishing stones alone, use medium stones to reset the bevel. …