# How to sharpen my new Yanagiba



## zw359 (Jan 9, 2015)

I've got a new Masamoto Yanagi yesterday and tried to sharpen it with DMT green stone (1200#?) and King S-1 6000#
I felt so different from my experience on cheap stainless steel knife, even the Youtube video looks quite srtraight forward .

Previously, I sharpen the second small bevel on cheap knives and easily feel the burrs coming on the other other side.
For this new knife, I can't really touch the burrs. 
After starting from the back, I just did 90% on the front and 10% on the back, for 20 minutes on each stone.
I feel it's just slightly sharper than my KIWI knife :O Anyway, I haven't tried on tender raw fish yet.

Should I press harder for the harder steel? Should I change a stone? 
I am not sure what is going wrong. Any suggestions? Thanks.


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## heldentenor (Jan 9, 2015)

Have you seen Jon Broida of Japanese Knife Imports' series on single-bevel sharpening? It sounds like you might not be quite hitting the edge. Jon's videos are an outstanding guide.


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## psfred (Jan 9, 2015)

typically one grinds the whole bevel for each sharpening, then raises the knife just a bit to put the edge on. You should only de-burr on the flat side, never grind unless you have to fix a chip or something (and you should never get chips because you should only cut raw protein with one of these). You do not want to screw up the ura on the back.

If it is not as sharp as you think it should be, raise the spine a couple degrees off the bevel and take a few passes on your 1200 grit stone the length of the edge. This should raise a very small burr on the flat side. Might take the fingernail test to find it, it should be small.

When you find that small burr, switch to your 6000 grit stone at the same angle and polish the edge, which should not take more than a dozen strokes, and flip the knife over and de-burr the flat side. Strop on your 6000 grit stone a few times to make sure you have the burr off, then strop on leather or wood charged with chromium oxide or something similar, and you should have a screaming sharp edge. 

I also suggest you get a magnifier to verify that you are working the edge. It's common, I think, for these knives to have a stepped bevel on the beveled side, and just grinding the large one will take a very long time to grind to the edge.

Again, you should only de-burr on the ura side with a very fine stone, you do NOT want to grind any more on that side than it takes to sharpen the edge. 

The edge will be quite fragile since it's very steep, use it with care. No bones, ever, and don't cut cooked meat with a crust, the likelyhood either of those will leave the edge intact is just about nil.

And watch Jon's videos! They are much better than a verbal description.

Peter


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## zw359 (Jan 9, 2015)

Thanks heldentenor& psfred. I need more practice to lift a few degrees to get the burrs. I was a bit scared to lift the knife in the first try and I just pressed the edge a bit harder.
I will keep it on raw fish because other ingredients can survive my old knives.


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## mhlee (Jan 10, 2015)

psfred said:


> typically one grinds the whole bevel for each sharpening, then raises the knife just a bit to put the edge on. You should only de-burr on the flat side, never grind unless you have to fix a chip or something (and you should never get chips because you should only cut raw protein with one of these). You do not want to screw up the ura on the back.
> 
> If it is not as sharp as you think it should be, raise the spine a couple degrees off the bevel and take a few passes on your 1200 grit stone the length of the edge. This should raise a very small burr on the flat side. Might take the fingernail test to find it, it should be small.
> 
> ...



There's a lot of bad information here. 

First, new yanagibas have 2 bevels on the non-ura side. If the ura side has not had uraoshi sharpening, it will need that. Raising the spine when sharpening the bevel/non-ura side will create a microbevel. Raising the spine when doing uraoshi will potentially screw up your ura because you will put a bevel on the ura side and correct uraoshi sharpening will then not hit the edge because the back of the knife is no longer flat. 

Uraoshi is pushing - do not put pressure on both the push and pull; you could completely flatten the ura if you use either a lower grit stone or enough pressure. 

Watch Jon's videos first, and then come back and ask questions.


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## zw359 (Jan 10, 2015)

Thanks mhlee. I did watch the video. I notice it didn't mention lifting the knife up, other than the final micro bevel.
Jon got burrs quickly but I just can't feel the burrs on my knife.


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## Dardeau (Jan 10, 2015)

Patience. My KS yanagiba sharpens very quickly, you might be psyching yourself out. Maybe send it out for initial sharpening from Jon, Dave, Korin, or someone else that knows what they are doing to give you a) bevels to follow and b) an idea of the potential of your knife. Then you have a solid foundation to start working on.


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