advice on knife storage

[halmstad]

i have sold my 5" wusthof santoku and 8" shun classic chef knives for $150 to a fellow cook to fund taking the leap into a better knife. i have decided to go with the 240mm misono ux10 after so many glowing reviews here and other knife and cooking forums.

my question is do i buy the wooden saya for $23 or just go with the plastic blade guard for around $5? does it make that much difference other than looks? I have always used the plastic guards with no problems, but that was always with my wusthofs. do japanese knives demand better storage because of the super fine edges?

i have a week to decide as i will be purchasing the knife next friday through korin. does anyone have a better source for knives? i have always heard nothing but good things about korin. how is their customer service?

a side note: i read on japanesechefknivestogo.com that the price of misonos is going to go up by around 50-60% by march 1, 2011.

thanks for any help ya'll can provide

halmstad

 

[halmstad]

one other thing. 

i always read that you shouldn't use a honing steel with japanese knives, but rather a super fine grit whetstone. i have an 8000 grit stone. is that fine enough? what is recommended?

 

[chrislehrer]

Guards: it's just a question of safety, for people and knives. Every high-end professional Japanese kitchen I've ever been in has some wooden racks with pegs holding bare knives, blade-up, just out of the way of someone stabbing himself in the head. So it's up to you.

The one thing to beware of with guards, especially with sayas, is that you must never, ever put an even slightly damp knife into the guard, as this will strongly encourage rust. With a saya it's a particular problem, as the saya itself can absorb a tad of moisture and then encourage rust even on dry knives for quite a while.

Honing: that's largely a measure of how you grind your knives and whether you hone effectively. If you grind your knives symmetrical, or close to it, honing can work, but you must be a little bit less brutal about it than you can get away with on softer steel. BDL is the expert here: if you want to keep honing, get him to explain the principles.

If you do want to maintain on a fine stone, an 8k is fine (as it were). Just don't think that by stropping or whatever on this stone you will avoid periodic regular sharpening on coarser stones. In the same way as honing doesn't keep your edge forever, neither will this. Same deal.

 

[kmr54]

Chris,

Do you have a good source for the Japanese knife racks you spoke of?  I have found only a couple.

Thanks,

Ken