C.Morris

I just finished sharpening my Takeda with a 1000/8000 grit Norton waterstone, and finished stropping on legal pads loaded with 1 micron boron carbide and 0.5 micron chromium oxide pastes. I'm glad I took the recommendation to do it. I did a quick paper test, and my knife will now push cut paper (after a little slice to get it started). I just wanted to post this to let everyone know how much I appreciate their recommendations. Thanks again everyone. I will spend many happy years with this knife. Carl

I got an email advertisement for gifts from Amazon, and I stumbled across this interesting indoor garden for growing herbs (here's the product on Amazon). Is a kit like this useful, or is it just as effective to by standard potting equipment? I like the idea of having a few common fresh herbs handy, since I always end up buying herbs and wasting them as they don't hold well in the refrigerator. I figure that Christmas is coming up soon, so a slight frivolous cooking purchase seems in order, since the rest of Christmas is going to be knife sharpening stuff .

I can't give you too much advice, other than I loved my 10" Global Chef's knife that I had for a little while, and I still love my Shun Chinese Cleaver. I must admit that I am super happy with my Takeda, but it is carbon steel, which everyone else has already ruled out. I heard that Devin Thomas makes a brilliant stainless steel gyuto, but I've never used one so this recommendation comes from other's recommendations. As for a storage method, I love these magnetic covers, readily available from amazon called Edge-Mag. They keep the edge nice and protected so you can put the knife in a drawer and not lose an edge or a finger. Best of a luck! A good knife is definitely worth the investment. A good knife should hold a nice edge for a while, so you'll have plenty of time to learn to sharpen in the mean time.

I guess I'll have to be sure I give the purchases some thought, but I guess if I'm willing the strop, then it won't be too large of a leap to free-hand the edge, although I know the processes are different. I'm sure I'll still get a lot of use out of my Edge Pro. I might also consider using a shim if necessary, because, as Scubadoo97 mentioned, the evenness of the Edge Pro is tough to match.

The Devin Thomas Knives both look beautiful. I'm sure that will be great knives. In the end I got the Takeda 240mm Gyuto, and I love it. I will still consider a DT knife in the future, perhaps for a petty knife. I have a good Victorinox paring knife that is awesome for what it does, but I'm sure a petty would be good to have now and again. Thanks for posting the pictures!

Thanks for the encouragement! I look forward to Christmas when the inevitable splurge for sharpening supplies will occur .

Thanks for the recommendation of materials; I'll take it slowly for sure. I found a Norton double sided stone 1000/8000 which might work well when combined with the felt and or leather strops and paste. I find it slightly ironic that I'm going from sharpening freehand using a Japanese water stone then with some Norton diamond stones (which I unfortunately no longer possess) to an Edge Pro, only to return back to free hand with water stones. I'm sure that I will like the results, though.

Sean, Thanks for the heads up about the bevel. The moment that you said 7 degrees I realized that the Edge Pro wouldn't work. I'm amazed the blade can hold such an acute angle. How difficult is it to hold such a shallow angle steady?

Do you have a recommendation on the grit for the paste?

A dual paste setup sounds nice, especially since I'll be going straight from a fine stone to stropping without anything in between. I can't wait until I get the chance to see how it feels after stropping with some paste.

Thanks Prawncrackers for the additional advice. I'll be sure to avoid the bones, even the fine fish bones. I love my knife so much right now. I made an egg and tomato soup tonight to complement a chicken and bok choy stir fry in a hoisin based sauce. I love being able to cut chicken into nice thin slices without so much effort (using a sushi chef inspires draw cut on the bias). Dakki, The legal pad encouraging a light touch seems like a good idea to me. Do you recommend a particular brand of paste, or are they mostly created equal?

Dakki, The legal pad seems like an interesting idea. Do you just apply the diamond paste to the cardboard of a legal pad? I've used the magic marker trick a few times. Thanks for the reminder. It's easy to forget that trick, since I don't often have to re-bevel an edge. Prawncracker, It's pretty cool that we both took the same path. How long have you owned your Takeda? I will certainly be wary of the crusty bread. Can you think of any other problematic food items? I would guess most fruits and veggies are fine. What about roast meat?

I had wondered whether a diamond paste strop would work. Thanks for the recommendation! I've done some stropping before with a straight razor, so it should be the same principle, except that the spine of the knife is narrower in profile and the edge is longer than a straight razor. Any recommendations for a place to buy a strop? The coarse stone also makes sense to me since re-profiling a knife is quite tedious without appropriately coarse stones. Now I just need to figure out how steep of a bevel my Takeda has right now. It has pretty subtle edge geometry.

I'm very excited by the prospect of an even better edge. I have an Edge Pro, but with only the basic medium and fine stones. Do you think those two stones will work well enough until I can get a finer stone? I was amazingly pleased when I split a head of cauliflower and a cantaloupe. Both were very effortless. I personally would like to try and cut a head of white or savoy cabbage, because they have always been more difficult than they should be with the Shun. I will protect this knife with my life. This knife will be my baby .

Thanks Dakki! I haven't tried sharpening it yet. I look forward to seeing how it is it to sharpen, though, since it has a carbon steel blade rather than stainless. I think I'm little scared that I won't be able to put such a nice edge on it, but it'll be a fun experience. Maybe I'll try sharpening it closer to Christmas after I have time to break it in a little more .