welcome friends welcome back to the
kitchen today i have my friend gage here
from sharper knife shop in hamilton yes
sir pleasure to be here thank you so
much well thanks for coming in and so
today we're gonna talk about Japanese
knives but first tell me a little bit
about yourself how did you get into
knives and how did you arrive at this
point so my journey into knives started
in the kitchen right out of high school
I started cooking professionally my
first real kitchen job I call I've had
dishwashing job yes yeah but my first
real kitchen cooking job was at a
restaurant called origin which is what
are youup really now-defunct
yes Claudio pre lays old spot so if you
go back through our channel you go back
to like 2007 I did an interview with
Claudio in in that restaurant and but
now you see him on MasterChef yeah he's
doing really well there he that was a
real kitchen that's a real that was a
real kitchen yeah everything from
scratch that was my first like scratch
kitchen for sure and I and I learned a
ton not only just about food but also
about the importance of good tools right
so I was very lucky that everyone at
that restaurant was very passionate
about what they were doing and and
precision and efficiency were key and
with that came a good sharp knife that
was going to allow you to make those
precise accurate cuts and be efficient
doing so as well so now you're now
you're selling those tools now I'm
selling them yeah so through my
experiences in the kitchen and having
used all of these knives I've sort of
curated a selection of knives that I
personally can can stand behind I've
either used all of these knives or I've
had friends in the industry use them
previously so let's talk about Japanese
knives because they're completely
different than European knife they are
they're different and a number of
different facets so I would say the the
steel that's used the the way that
they're made
the the look and the feel are all
completely different
so we'll start I'll start by talking
about the the difference in steals so
okay while a lot of Japanese makers are
using stainless steels traditionally
they would use carbon steel carbon steel
is going to do a couple of things for
you it's going to give you better edge
retention and it's going to be much
easier to sharpen and then some people
would argue that it has a better cutting
feel okay
I personally am of the belief that that
cutting feel and the ease of sharpening
are kind of hand-in-hand so if it's an
easy steel to sharpen you're gonna get
sharper and then it's gonna feel better
when you're cutting with it but carbon
steel so I have a carbon steel yes takes
a lot more care it does you have to be
much more diligent when you're using it
you've got to wipe it clean right away
you do it right absolutely got it yeah
yeah it does it can be a little bit
tough at the beginning but it is a
matter of building those those good
habits so which you should have yes
should you should always be wiping and
cleaning no matter what it's made from
absolutely right away if it's a five
dollar knife if it's a five thousand
dollar knife it should get wiped down
immediately after using it and you know
I was lucky to be to be screamed out
about that when I was in the kitchen
starting out if my knife were my board
or my station in general was askew at
all
someone was gonna let me know about it
so and the once it you know I don't I
don't like to tell people about the rust
and the the maintenance to scare them
but just to make them aware of what
could happen could happen yeah once
those habits are formed it's gonna be a
very easy easy knife to take care of so
next we'll talk about the the forging
process so all of the knives that I
carry are hand forged or if they're not
hand forged they're they're made in
small factories where they're either
roll forged or or stamped but everything
is always sharpened by hand and finished
by hand so that's why I make the claim
that they're all handmade some are hand
forged some are not the hand forging
process or the roll forging process
makes the steel
more dense and it makes it harder and
therefore it gives you better edge
retention so a German knife is stamped
from you know generic stainless steel
there's a time in a place for a German
or European knife I still think like we
affectionately refer to them as and I'm
sure you've heard this term before as
well beaters you always can your you
know your beater knife around when you
got a like Hawk a lobster in half or do
whatever with it you don't you don't
want to worry about it getting damaged
or whatever that's the one you go with I
have a beater okay let me get it amazing
yeah so this is my this is my beater No
oh yeah
I bought this probably when I was in
grade 9 okay it's in fantastic shape so
look at that I mean it is not a good
knife by any stretch of the imagination
it's it doesn't look like very nice
steel no not a fantastic handle on it no
but when it's sharp I can hack away at
stuff it doesn't have to worry do
exactly what you're supposed to do yes
so there is a place for absolutely and
there's also a place for these yes when
you're trying to be very very precise
and and and accurate with what you're
doing a good sharp knife is super
important and one that holds its edge a
long time as well this is not know right
so like that that's that kind of leads
into the the Rockwell scale conversation
or the or the HRC abbreviation if you've
done any knife shopping before you've
probably seen the HRC abbreviation and
maybe wondered but it means so like we
talked about a hand-forged knife more
dense harder and the way they measure
that is by taking the steel they put it
in this machine they use a control low
they make a little indentation they use
a larger load measure the difference and
that gives you a number
generally for for you know German knives
they're gonna come in around 52 to 56
and then most of what I carry is in the
60 and above range I got a couple that
kick around like the 59 saw range but
that hardness is going to contribute to
much better edge retention it does kind
of lead to some other
not issues but but things you have to be
careful with so a harder steel is going
to be more brittle right so you did you
have to be a little bit more mindful of
what you're doing and how you're using
it yeah one of the big ones I see aside
from the obvious ones like trying to cut
through bones or frozen foods or or any
like hard nuts or cane users and stuff
like that is when people are using the
the rocking motion like this a lot of
people have a tendency to sort of walk
it walk it across and with a with a
stainless steel knife that's on the
softer side that's not a huge deal when
you're getting into like the really
really thin like very hard durable
Steel's it's gonna cause issues there so
it's not to say that you can't do that
but you just have to kind of work on
your technique a little bit make sure
you're going straight forward and back
so some of my favorite blacksmiths are
from the 2k food knife village three
examples are Christakis on Shiro camel
and and cat dos on three of the three of
the blacksmith's that I work with from
that region there they're pretty amazing
aren't they so they all they all hand
forge their knives using what's called a
spring hammer and and in a forge so they
heat up the steel and in what is
essentially a very hot oven and pull it
out and they have this giant machine in
front of them runs on like belts and
controlled with a pedal on their foot
that controls the hammer and they hammer
the steel out rearranges the the
molecules of the steel and and gives it
that added edge retention hardness
durability
they're also all hand sharpened as well
and one of the other special things
about Japanese knives is their geometry
these are all double bevel okay so I
carry primarily double beveled knives
these are Japanese Japanese
western-style knives hybrid they are so
they're sharpened from both sides angle
both sides I guess I can run through the
shapes real quick here that that we see
so okay on the top here you've got a
petty knife petty knives are just sort
of a general-purpose came from the
French paring knife when the French went
over to Japan start trading it gets the
name from being a
Appetit knife small knife a paring knife
and Japanese just kind of took that and
turned it into petty knife yep next
we've got a santoku this is probably the
most approachable knife for a home cook
it's a familiar shape a very familiar
shape great size as well
a lot of home cooks find this 210 or
8-inch quintessential chef's knife to be
just a little bit too long I'm too much
for them so this guy coming in at 165
millimeters or roughly six and a half
inches is a very comfortable size for a
lot of people next we've got the nakiri
vegetable chopper so these both of these
knives are quite versatile the santoku a
little bit more so just because it has
the tip on it yeah but if you're a
vegetarian or a vegan or you find
yourself just using that up and down
chopping motion get for everything
nakiri is great lots of height on the
blade so you've got lots of space for
your guide fingers and that they're
there by not shaving off parts of your
finger which is nice well and that's
that's something that a lot of people
don't talk about when they talk about
knife what knife work and knife
technique yeah is that this is the guide
oh absolutely yeah super important yeah
yeah if you're not comfortable with your
with your knife and your and your
fingers being connected at all times you
you're never gonna be as precise as you
could be and then finally we've got a GU
toe or the Japanese equivalent of a
chef's knife so very similar to again
very similar shape to a French style
chef's knife a little bit of belly to it
or curved to the blade but not nearly as
much as as a like a German Hinkle or
Wisthoff that they tend to curve way up
right so what that does is again give a
little bit of ease of use to that that
push end or pull chopping up and down
motion it's a very comfortable knife
very comfortable knife yeah and if
you've never cut with a Japanese knife
the first time you do it's absolutely
amazing it just feels like it wants to
go through yes like that's what it's
supposed to do and that's what it wants
to do and it feels fantastic and it's
because the the weights forward and the
blade pulling the blade through
to be fighting your knife no no a sharp
knife is a safe knife a dull knife is is
as dangerous yeah a little bit
counterintuitive but like we've been
talking about that precision and
accuracy means that you know where your
knife is going at all times and you're
not worrying about it slipping off into
your fingers or you know whatever else
that can happen and if you ever cut
yourself with a dull knife doesn't heal
very well no no tell you something the
sharp knife you just smush it back
together you're good to go a little bit
of crazy fluid yeah back on the line oh
yeah you're ready you're back you're
back in it so if I was only gonna buy
say three knives if I wanted to keep my
kitchen fairly sparse sure three knives
which three would you think
No
you
