Media Introducing Japanese Knife Society

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JBroida

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For quite some time now, we have been working in the background to try to make some educational knife skills videos for people trying to learn how to use Japanese knives. We have teamed up with Tatsuya Aoki and Mitsunori Ueda to produce these videos and finally have a few that are ready for you. We will be adding in English notes or voiceovers to these videos as they are produced to make the skill sets more accessible to you.

If you have questions about specific knives, techniques, skills, etc., please don’t hesitate to ask. We will do our best to respond to these requests with videos and/or detailed explanations.

Anyways, without any further delay, allow me to introduce Japanese Knife Society.

www.JapaneseKnifeSociety.com

http://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeSociety

http://www.youtube.com/user/japaneseknifesociety

Japanese Knife Society Mission

Can you use Japanese knives?
Japanese knives, or Wa-bocho, have been increasing in popularity over the past few years. Wa-bocho are some of the sharpest knives in the world, however, there are so few professional chefs outside of Japan that understand the knives’ potential and how to properly use them.

Japanese Knife Society (JKS) is an educationally oriented society. Working through the skill and experience of Chef Mitsunori Ueda, JKS aims to teach people about the different styles of Wa-bocho, how to use them, how to care for them, and what makes them special.

JKS hopes to positively contribute to the education of aspiring chefs, experienced chefs, and interested home cooks alike, through educational literature, pictures, blogs, videos, and events. Through JKS gears its educational material towards working chefs, it will be assessable to anyone with an interest in learning about Wa-bocho.


And now some videos:

First up, Ueda-san demonstrates how to break down Fugu (the type of fugu in this video is torafugu):
[video=youtube;JmCzfeiqjj4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmCzfeiqjj4[/video]

Here, Ueda-san shows how to use a Kamagata usuba to cut long onions (and chives for that matter):
[video=youtube;HaEYZZapaTs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaEYZZapaTs[/video]

And, in this last video, Ueda-san covers some of the basics of katsuramuki, using a cucumber and yanagiba (he used a yanagiba despite the fact that the proper knife is an usuba or kamagata usuba... he explained that often times sushi chefs do this as a matter of convenience and he was just concerned with demonstrating the proper techniques here... he will do another video covering the same with an usuba):
[video=youtube;AEjt3608-pM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEjt3608-pM[/video]
 
The title screen for the fugu and negi videos read "janese knife society".


Great videos. Camera work is great, really shows all the little intricacies of each technique. And the text points out things I wouldn't otherwise notice. And I like that the text bubbles rather than voice over preserve the original sound as well.
 
The title screen for the fugu video reads "janese knife society".


Great videos. Camera work is great, really shows all the little intricacies of each technique. And the text points out things I wouldn't otherwise notice. And I like that the text bubbles rather than voice over preserve the original sound as well.



lol... working with japanese guys... cant help it with the title. I'll let them know though. I'm glad the text bubbles worked out welll... i was trying to decide wheter voice or text would be better and ended up going with text. I realized toay that the text bubbles dont show up on the youtube mobile app though... kind of a small setback.


Anyways, are there any videos you guys would really like to see?
 
Breaking down tuna or salmon would be nice. I have very little experience doing this.
 
Second on the Salmon, if I get back to AK I will be doing alot if it lol.
 
Anyways, are there any videos you guys would really like to see?

I'm with the others on salmon. There may be an itasan video already (can't remember), but one with descriptions would be really nice. The other things I'm really curious to see are the different cuts for making sashimi or sushi with different fish. So...how they cut the blocks of fish, how they slice the fish, and how those cuts differ for different fish.
 
Great videos. I second the idea of a video showing the different cuts for sushi. Many of the I have never seen before and I think it would be cool to see how different fish are cut in different ways depending on their texture
 
I'm with the others on salmon. There may be an itasan video already (can't remember), but one with descriptions would be really nice. The other things I'm really curious to see are the different cuts for making sashimi or sushi with different fish. So...how they cut the blocks of fish, how they slice the fish, and how those cuts differ for different fish.

I'm with you on showing if different cuts are used on different fishes and is so what are the effects.
 
Alright... so i see where you guys are coming from and i think we can get to that eventually... however, after talking it over, we feel its best to start from the basics and work from there. We want to focus on things like knife grips, proper stance, the basic skills with each type of knife, etc. Then, we will probably move more into the specialized stuff. Is that ok with you guys?
 
I'm good :)

How about the differences in use between "similar" styles. Single bevel and double bevels slicers, ajikiris, and such
 
Alright... so i see where you guys are coming from and i think we can get to that eventually... however, after talking it over, we feel its best to start from the basics and work from there. We want to focus on things like knife grips, proper stance, the basic skills with each type of knife, etc. Then, we will probably move more into the specialized stuff. Is that ok with you guys?

Given that you know a lot more than I do (and lots of other guys here), this sounds great to me.
 
Newest video... Katsuramuki with Carrots (also, Yokoken and Tateken cuts)
[video=youtube;2MT7PRopK08]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MT7PRopK08[/video]

This time, he uses the proper knife for katsuramuki... a kamagata usuba or usuba.
 
In the carrot katsuramuki video, would he normally continue the katsuramuki farther, but stops early to keep the video short? Or, is the rest of the carrot just normally used for other things?
 
great question... he stops early just for the video... you can go much more with it. However, that carrot can be used for other things in that condition.

It would be pretty boring to watch him do the whole carrot for a video like this... he's going pretty slow to make sure the techniques are easy to see
 
Great, thanks Jon. I used to be a member of the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society, but this may almost be as good :)

Stefan
 
Jon, I've watched these videos a few time now and I am confused (a LOT) about the knives he is using. They are all Inox honyako knives, right? I swear all of the knives look like they are laminated... there is clearly a contrast between the metal toward the upper half of the blade road and the lower half of the blade road. But the Inox honyaki knives are monosteel, so I don't understand what is going on. Is this just an artifact of the way he sharpens the knives?
 
yeah they are all inox honyaki... they are sharpened intentionally to look like kasumi knives... it was done just for fun
 
Okay, well that leads to the next obvious question... How was that pulled off???
 
a very talented sharpener and one of the guys i've spent time training with did that... the edge of those knives is hamaguri... he sharpened the top part of the bevel with a stone that gave that finish and the bottom with something that leaves a mirror finish.
 
a very talented sharpener and one of the guys i've spent time training with did that... the edge of those knives is hamaguri... he sharpened the top part of the bevel with a stone that gave that finish and the bottom with something that leaves a mirror finish.

That's what I figured but I wanted to confirm it. As a side note, I've been working a lot on getting that nice contrast on my kasumi knives, and I can get a pretty even finish and good contrast between hagane and jigane, but I can't really get it to POP like some of the pics I've seen from guys in Japan, like what was done on the knife in this video and how some of the Densyo knives are as well. Any advice? Maybe off topic here, sorry.
 
That's what I figured but I wanted to confirm it. As a side note, I've been working a lot on getting that nice contrast on my kasumi knives, and I can get a pretty even finish and good contrast between hagane and jigane, but I can't really get it to POP like some of the pics I've seen from guys in Japan, like what was done on the knife in this video and how some of the Densyo knives are as well. Any advice? Maybe off topic here, sorry.

i find that maruka and uchigomori fingerstones do the job very well.
 
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