# Honing Japanese Knives



## fibonaci (Feb 19, 2017)

Hello
I am about to buy my first japanese knife and I am trying to figure out what other pieces of equipment I am going to need to maintain it. My method for keeping my current german knives sharp is to hone them about once a week with a steel rod and get them professionally sharpened about once a year. Since I can't use a rod on my japanese knife to hone it what should I use? I have tried to find more on this through google but I only ever read about sharpening and not honing..


----------



## foody518 (Aug 6, 2015)

What knife are you about to get? Depending on the steel and how hardened it is, the edge may microchip instead of rolling from repeated normal usage, thus there isn't much fatigued steel to realign with a rod.

Watch this video 




Make sure your pro sharpener knows how to handle Japanese knives.


Fibonaci said:


> Since I can't use a rod on my japanese knife to hone it what should I use? I have tried to find more on this through google but I only ever read about sharpening and not honing..


There is probably a good reason why...


----------



## fibonaci (Feb 19, 2017)

I am looking to get the Konosuke Mirror 24cm Gyuto. It says the hardness is 60-62.


----------



## foody518 (Aug 6, 2015)

From Knifewear or from Tosho? In either case, send it back to those guys if you aren't going to be sharpening yourself. And if you cook daily or routinely prep for a family, be prepared to send it back more than once a year...the knife deserves it


----------



## fibonaci (Feb 19, 2017)

I am ordering from a swiss site, japanische-kochmesser.ch. What grit whestones do you think i will need?


----------



## fibonaci (Feb 19, 2017)

Would the 1000/6000 sigma select || combo stone be good/enough?


----------



## foody518 (Aug 6, 2015)

1k/6k is a good start. Hold off on using the 6k side until you have good consistency on using the 1k side to produce a decent edge.

Though, my understanding of the Sigma Select II line of stones is that they are made to grind challenging steels *really* quickly (I have the regular Sigma Power 400, 1k soft, and 6k stones, and they have good cutting speed already). The knife you're looking at is quite thin and this could be overkill. Use a light touch.


----------



## fibonaci (Feb 19, 2017)

What do you mean by overkill? Is the 1000 already to "rough"?


----------



## foody518 (Aug 6, 2015)

No, but stones can differ in relative abrasive density, type of abrasive used, and many other factors that can make for example one brand/line's 1k stone feel and cut differently than another brand/line's 1k stone. Read the description on this page http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=335_404_513

For a beginner to using stones, getting one that isn't super slow is a good idea, but I'm thinking too fast could result in far more than necessary metal removal. And the Konosuke should be a fairly thin knife. If you've got some existing knife to practice on with the 1k, that could be a good approach.


----------

