Misono Handmade Santoku

Hey everyone. So after a lot of thinking and reading throughout this forum, I bought my first Japanese knife after using German for so many years. I went to a well known and respected knife shop in Amsterdam, where I live, and did some talking with the people there. For my first dip into Japanese knives, I ended up getting the Misono Handmade Series Santoku. The guy helping me out told me that I don't need to use a ceramic honing rod and that I can use a diamond one instead. This helped me in my decision because I already own a diamond rod and I already have some equipment to help keep my new guy taken care of. I have a cheap 400/1000 stone I plan to practice on with my diamond rod to help keep my edge. I work as a vegan chef so on a daily basis I'm constantly choppin on hard vegetables.

Can anyone confirm that it's ok to use a diamond rod? If so or if not, can someone comment on this too? I forgot to ask him and I trust the advice and experience in this forum enough to educate me

Cheers to learning new things!
Thanks in adnvance for all your help

Don

I would say it's totally within the realm of reason but much less the desirable

Using a rod is an emergency solution. A diamond rod though is far too aggressive and will destroy your fine edge.
Best solution is getting a 3k or a Belgian Blue and strop and deburr on it as a daily maintenance. Please respect Misono's strongly asymmetric configuration.

Diamond rod no. Black ceramic from mac? Only for emergencies and only a few light swipes on each side. No Chinese sword fighting.

Benuser said:

Using a rod is an emergency solution. A diamond rod though is far too aggressive and will destroy your fine edge.
Best solution is getting a 3k or a Belgian Blue and strop and deburr on it as a daily maintenance. Please respect Misono's strongly asymmetric configuration.

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Thank you for your response! You've made me very curious as to what a Belgian Blue is? Is it something I can use to strop? I wasn't aware of their asymmetric configuration. Do you have any information on that before I destroy my blade? Thanks!

Don

I dont take my blades to steels. I use a strop for a quick honing, and only sharpen on stones.

donhoang14 said:

Thank you for your response! You've made me very curious as to what a Belgian Blue is? Is it something I can use to strop? I wasn't aware of their asymmetric configuration. Do you have any information on that before I destroy my blade? Thanks!

Don

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Belgian Blue is a natural stone, you may get it with knivesandtools.nl
I would suggest edge trailing strokes (=stropping) for refreshing an edge, and longitudinal ones (=along the edge) for deburring.
Misonos are quite asymmetric, having the right face convexed and the left one flat, and the edge off-centered to the left.
I sharpen them usuallly at some 12 degree for the right side and probably 18 degree or so for the left one. The left bevel is very small and straight, the right one large and convexed.
Normally one would suggest to stay with an existing edge and see if it requires adjustment.
Not so with a Misono factory edge, though.
It is overly convexed by buffering and quite weak. You better get rid of it.

A honing rod is still an abrasive device to remove a minute amt of steel....... thats the key...

A.on the rod... pressure is exerted at any point of time say 5mm wide and when mindlessly applied on with strength... pressure is more than the fine edge can take ... resulting in an immediate burr. Compared to stone... pressure is spread over say 2 inches and thus alot less.

B i wld use half my normal pressure and the last few strokes with just the weight of knife with alternating strokes and hopefully it culminates in a perfect apex.

C. I do it on my single bevel honyaki too.... all done on 800 and 1600 grit diamond rod with no harm... watch yr pressure

Rgds Z

A lot of rod users always cut with a wire-edge. Rods excel in creating one. Coarse rods abrade a lot and because there is no proper deburring taking place, some dependency occurs. Both geometry and life-time are at risk.
And using a rod with a single-bevel is just barbaric.

Don't use a diamond rod. In a pinch a fine ceramic or smooth borosilicate rod or smooth (not grooved) honing steel. The Misono stainless line will be OK with that as part of it's maintenance though that's not ideal. I recommend also getting a fine whetstone.

Ive been a huge fan of rods. I dont mind the hand sharpeners on cheap ss blades though

Im sure you can get away with using a rod on a j-knife, doesnt make it ideal.


And using a rod on your honyaki, yikes...

you could use rods on cheap knife...

richard said:

Don't use a diamond rod. In a pinch a ... smooth (not grooved) honing steel.

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I've seen that recommended before. Is that a reasonable thing to do? Use a smooth steel to "reset" the edge? Has anyone taken macro photos to see if that really works?

stuplarosa said:

I've seen that recommended before. Is that a reasonable thing to do? Use a smooth steel to "reset" the edge? Has anyone taken macro photos to see if that really works?

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Works well to reallign the edge with soft carbons like Sabs. Makes not much sense with harder ones. Better strop on newspaper or so. Grooved steels create a burr.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I've been stropping it daily and it's working just fine!

I also removed the factory edge and have been playing around with it often. This stuff is pretty fun!