If you are ever in Yaletown, it might be worth your while to drop by a recently opened Japanese knife shop called Santoku Equipment Office (www.santoku-office.com). They are located near the corner of Helmcken and Homer. The shop is run by a Japanese knife otaku by the name of Take. He sells a variety of Japanese kitchen knives. I myself dropped by to see if I could find some information on sharpening my Japanese knives. I discovered that Take-san offers a knife sharpening service (using the traditional method on the Japanese water stone), and also teaches a knife sharpening class. I signed up for the class and can say that hand sharpening a knife Japanese-style is something that will require a lot of practice… patrick
