Recent content by oval99

After getting my Sugimoto 4030 cleaver I realized how much upsweep the knife has on both the heel and the tip. In fact, there’s less of a sweet/flat spot on it than my Takamura Hana, which has a more aggressive sweep than some other gyutos. I’ve always used my previous cleaver (CCK) for push...

Nope, I’m not tired of Chinese cleavers, but they sure are tiring me! I’ve always loved my small CCK slicer (KF1303). It would be my daily driver if it weren’t carbon — I’m a home cook who wants low maintenance. And I wanted better stainless steel than the CCK stainless. I now have a...

The avalanche of advice is frankly amazing! I’m blushing, truly. I particularly appreciated labor of love's, well, labor of love in his in-depth responses. But I also know when I’m in over my head; I feel like I have bees buzzing in my head from all the info. I think lemeneid has the right...

All, I have some results to report. They're pretty anticlimactic, really. After a long session on an Atoma 120 diamond plate, nothing really seemed to happen (other than taking off a metric ton of steel, of course). Profile didn't change much, and performance perhaps improved a tad, but it...

Wow, that will take a long long time! Thanks for the tip though

OK, so things are heading in the wrong direction :( I spent about an hour on my coarse 220 Shapton stone thinning the bottom 1/3 of the blade. I marked with a sharpie the bottom third and checked to see if I was removing it. I was. But instead of things getting better, they got progressively...

Yep, agreed. I definitely remember when I got it out of the box. It kept sticking to the board. That’s when I realized what sharp truly was. And it just shot through onions/tomatoes/whatever like they weren’t there. Also remember when I got it back from Dave — same Ferrari performance...

Wow, a lot of great advice here. After looking at all the comments, I think my best course of action is to moderately thin the knife using a 1500 stone and then sharpen it again on the 1500 and finish on the 5K, hopefully raising a tactile burr. If I can't feel the burr, I have a 30x loupe...

This is helpful, thanks. Perhaps I'll make a few swipes on my 1500 and then on my 5K and then sharpen. Do you find it necessary to thin at a coarse grit (I have a 220) for this thin a knife?

Thanks lemeneid. Certainly my technique needs improvement. I'm just a little confused by what you mean that I need more practice to "know what sharp is." I must be doing something right if it cuts much better than before, can flow through phone book paper like water, and once nearly stuck...

Hi Labor of love. I've actually had the Takamura for about 4 years now and it's been sharpened by myself and others about 5 times. I just started sharpening with stones not too long ago and just sharpened the Takamura this weekend on a 1500 Shapton Pro and then finished on a 5K Shapton Pro...

Verrry interesting. Been thinking about this topic a lot recently since I just started sharpening. I never felt the price of an end-grain board justified its price and hassle of cleaning/upkeep for its dubious edge-protective qualities. By no means is this study definitive (I too would like...

OK, sometimes it really is that simple! Thanks all.

Well, I’ve just started sharpening my Takamura Migaki on some Shaptons and am happy with my rookie results so far. I’d say it’s been sharpened six times between me and pro sharpeners. However, it occurred to me that when I looked at the choil that perhaps the shoulders looked a little thick and...

This knife is *sold*.