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MarleyMan

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Hello all,

I have been lurking for a couple of days and decided to join up, wealth of knowledge here!

I am just a home cook and backyard bbq'er, but appreciate good tools that make the tasks at hand a much more enjoyable experience.

Recently I had a relative come by and give me the CUTCO:eek2: demo. I was inititally impressed by the demo and the lifetime warranty & sharpening. She did not have any of the single edged blades with her at the demo but she and her mother both praised the knives highly.

I trusted their judgement from their previous experience with the knives as her grandparents owned a set for 50 years. I ended up picking up a set and tried to cut a potato with the Santoku and my low end Henckels that has been abused made clean cuts where the Cutco knife did not follow through on the cuts.

The only other knives I had really heard of (until I did some google research) as "good" knives were Henckel & Wusthoff.

Well I ended up packing up the Cutco knives to send back for a refund and after my research ended up purchasing a 7 pc set of the Tojiro DP knives.
They looked like a nice entry into a decent set of knives from other reviews and the price point was MUCH cheaper than the Cutcos.

I usually have only used a steel and occasional sharpening with a Chef's Choice Hand Held Double Stage Sharpener on my previous knives (low end Henckel chef knife and a set of 15 yr old Farberware Professional series).

From reading info on here, it looks like I need to purchase some whetstones and learn how to properly sharpen my knives. I plan on practicing on my current "old" knives until I build up my skills and feel confident in sharpening the Tojiros.

The Tojiro set comes with a hand held whetsone sharpener, but I would like to learn how to sharpen on proper stones. What stones are recommended as a "starter set"?

In addition, do you steel Japanese knives as well or is this a no-no? Should I use a ceramic rod if so or a normal steel?


Looking forward to learning more at this forum and my new Tojiros!!!

:hungry:
 
Welcome aboard, and be prepared to have your head start to spin!
 
Welcome!

To answer a few questions offhandedly, Tojiro DPs are VG10 steel, which is a bit brittle, so don't use a very aggressive rod--I use a 1200 grit ceramic on it from Idahone and it works fine, but any coarser than that, it will chip the edge. I would use a finer steel on it, but the way I use my DP at work, I like the aggressive, toothy edge.

You can totally learn to sharpen on a DP. I did! I learned to sharpen with no teachers in person, and some really bad examples of what not to do at the sushi bar I worked at. I had a Tojiro DP 210 gyuto and a Shapton Pro 2k. I still have both, and both have lived. Sure I made mistakes, but I can't think of much you can do sharpening a DP that will ruin it beyond repair.

As far as stones, My suggestion is to buy something medium to high grit, but aggressive(my current favorite for this is the Suehiro Rika 5k, but not only is it personal preference, it almost doesn't matter which stone you use). Don't try to build a new edge yet, just match the factory angle using the Marker Trick and maintain what you've got. Deburr into a cork, or rubber, something cheap.


Have fun! Don't be afraid to ask questions and post some pictures.
 
Welcome!

And to give you a tip on simple and fast sharpening, the Spyderco sharpmaker is a cheap and easy way with great results. I use that, with the extra fine stones (which actually isn't worth their buck, but i wanted that little extra) before going on to stropping them.
 
Thanks for the welcome and tips. I am sure I will have more questions once my knives arrive in a day or two.

That spyderco sharpener looks nice and is a decent price on Amazon...thanks!
 
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