Kitchen Knife Glossary

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steeley said:
The most important secret of sharpening : To this point, the blade has been ground to form a secondary edge face. But for a really sharp edge, you must form the primary-edge faces that come together to form the actual cutting edge. The secondary faces were formed on a coarse hone, since a good bit of metal might have had to be removed. Now, for the primary edge, switch to a fine hone and increase the angle. This is called double edging and is the secret of a really fine edge
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Is this what your are referring to Dave.
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Yes sir
 
Aren't hagane and jigane mixed up here? Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought hagane referred to the harder core steel.
 
Somehow, I knew that was going to happen with the Japanese stuff. Thanks!

Could you double check my definitions for Kasumi, etc, Jon? I certainly don't speak Japanese, and try to avoid it even when talking cutlery.
 
hagane- hard core steel
jigane- softer cladding
hamon-the line that shows up on honyaki knives when they have been deferentially hardened by coating the spine with a proprietary clay mixture
Kasumi- means mist. Often refers to a type of finish on clad japanese knives. Contrary to your definition, it ideal is NOT mirror hagane and misty jigane. Rather, they should both be misty, but with contrast between the hagane and jigane. Often the jigane will be either whiteish or darker than the hagange.
damascus- can also be called suminagashi (refers to ink swirl patterns), tamamoku (refers to wood grain patterns), or just plain old "damasukasu" ;)
kataba- single bevel knife
ryoba- double bevel knife
migaki- polished
yaki-ire- heat treatment
san-mai- type of cladding that looks like 3 sheets... 2 sheets of softer steel around 1 sheet of harder steel
warikomi-a type of cladding in which the harder steel is jacketed by the softer steel
arato/aratoishi- coarse stone
nakato/nakatoishi- medium stone
shiageto/shiagetoishi- finishing stone
choshiageto/choshiagetoishi- super finishing stone (extremely fine grit)
toishi- sharpening stone
kissaki- the tip area of a blade's edge
shinogi- this the the line between the table/face of a balde and the bevel
ura- back side of a knife (hollow ground on single bevel knives)


Just a few to start with.. i'll add more when i have some more free time
 
Yeah, I don't know enough about Japanese to keep up with a list of Japanese Terms...Have you had a look at Gator's Japanese term glossary at zknives.com? I usually just go by that when I get confused by Japanese words.

I'll edit the Kasumi definition when I get home!
 
spaceconvoy said:
This is getting OT, and I don't know what Eamon is planning, but I agree. A guide focusing on specific knives would never be complete, and would be worthless if the noobs don't know what they're looking for in the first place.

I think the main purpose of a noob's guide should be to explain the dis/advantages of different knife types and sizes, carbon vs stainless, soft vs hard steels, clad vs unclad, yo vs wa handles, etc. Those types of questions are timeless, and would cut down on the 'I want an all purpose knife, should I get a gyuto or a kiritsuke?' type of threads.
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The objection I've had to the knife buying questionnaire at ITK and here, is that its tailored for experienced knife users, i.e. those who work in restaurants. Those of us, who are home cooks, which I am one, when we discover a knife site, its a whole new world.

German knives don't hold the top spot. The amazing number of Japanese companies, and the variety of their knives. People on the forum are encouraged to learn how to sharpen, when the typical advice is send out your knives to be sharpened.

Maybe a series of beginner faqs. European knife style compared to the Japanese style. A list of Japanese knifes, differentiating between the commonly used knives, and the specialized ones. Sharpening, the different types of stones, to prepping them for the first time, to holding a knife over the stones.

I'd be willing to take on one of the faqs/guides.

Jay
 
jaybett said:
Maybe a series of beginner faqs. European knife style compared to the Japanese style. A list of Japanese knifes, differentiating between the commonly used knives, and the specialized ones. Sharpening, the different types of stones, to prepping them for the first time, to holding a knife over the stones.

I'd be willing to take on one of the faqs/guides.
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You definitely should! I can see why that would be useful, but I don't know enough about all the traditional Japanese knives and language to be comfortable doing a list like that.
 
Gator said:
Minor correction, Aogami Super != Aogami 2, or Hitachi blue 2, those are 2 different alloys - Aogami Super vs. Aogami 2 steel composition comparison. Alternate names and aliases are included for each steel in their respective reference files.
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Yes! I have already fixed this, and am sending a version 2.0 to DAve soon enough. I actually amended them to be not only correct, but more to defer to your site. I don't know much about different steel compositions by rote memory, mostly because of your fantastic chart!
 
Cool. Happy to help. I've had a lot of help on my site contents form a lot of people here too.
 
Now I know what is Distal taper!

Was looking for itk which is associated with Devin?

Great work and much appreciated. Eventhough we generally know the gist or the rough intended meaning, reading it makes it very clear .

rgds D
 
ITK is "In the Kitchen". It is a line of knives a certain internet chef knives vendor commissioned. Not all of the knives are made by DT (i.e., there is a 'special' Tojiro bread knife). But the best known is probably the line of 'production' chef knives made by DT. He also produced some cleavers and pettys as part of that series.
 
WildBoar said:
ITK is "In the Kitchen". It is a line of knives a certain internet chef knives vendor commissioned. Not all of the knives are made by DT (i.e., there is a 'special' Tojiro bread knife). But the best known is probably the line of 'production' chef knives made by DT. He also produced some cleavers and pettys as part of that series.
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thanks.. now I am getting the picture. I thought that it was some special steel or design!

rgds D
 
zitangy said:
thanks.. now I am getting the picture. I thought that it was some special steel or design!

rgds D
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Yeah, I didn't include that one because it is essentially just a loose product line name. Googling "Devin Thomas ITK" brings up the line you are talking about.

I didn't want to have to go through the rigors of evenly and completely compiling a list of all the DP, FKH, SFGZ, etc designations and their roots, and googling works for them, so I left them all out.
 
Very Impressive! I have always thought I knew a little bit about kitchen knives in general and sharpening in particular, and that I was a knife nut. I yeild to you and many others on this site! Great to find contemporaries! CLAVERS RULE!!!!:D
 
As this forum is about kitchen knives, there are some terms which can have meaning in both the foodie world and the knife world. For example, accordion has the meaning in the food world that you listed. In the custom knife world, it is used to describe the process of taking a bar of "mosaic" damascus where the desired pattern appears on the end of the bar and cutting or grinding out wedge shaped pieces or grooves on the long axis so that the billet can be heated, opened up and the forged out flat to expose the pattern on the new faces of the billet. The method of laddering a billet by cutting or grinding grooves and then forging the billet out flat is a simpler version of this process where you don't need to fully expose the "end grain"
 
******* said:
As this forum is about kitchen knives, there are some terms which can have meaning in both the foodie world and the knife world. For example, accordion has the meaning in the food world that you listed. In the custom knife world, it is used to describe the process of taking a bar of "mosaic" damascus where the desired pattern appears on the end of the bar and cutting or grinding out wedge shaped pieces or grooves on the long axis so that the billet can be heated, opened up and the forged out flat to expose the pattern on the new faces of the billet. The method of laddering a billet by cutting or grinding grooves and then forging the billet out flat is a simpler version of this process where you don't need to fully expose the "end grain"
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That's interesting to know, but I don't think I've ever seen the word accordion used that way here. Since the glossary is to help members understand the discussion I don't think Eamon needs to add it.
 
Perhaps not, but you have seen the end product. i just mentioned because there seem to be a fair number of folks on here who have expressed an interest in making knives.
Andrew H said:
That's interesting to know, but I don't think I've ever seen the word accordion used that way here. Since the glossary is to help members understand the discussion I don't think Eamon needs to add it.
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This is so useful - thank you so much :) !

I wonder if adding some Japanese vocabulary would be helpful (ie. machi, nakago, etc). I know it takes a lot of time to develop a list like yours, so let me know if there's anything I can do if you decide to put more Japanese terms in this list.
 
Thanks! I have trouble because I do not speak a word of Japanese, so even the words I know well, I second-guess myself when using them.

I just might make a list of these and send them to you for revision. I need SOMETHING to do on sleepless nights like this one.
 
BurkeCutlery said:
Thanks! I have trouble because I do not speak a word of Japanese, so even the words I know well, I second-guess myself when using them.

I just might make a list of these and send them to you for revision. I need SOMETHING to do on sleepless nights like this one.
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yes, that will be really nice... It's useful for me to also know what words should be defined. I sometime use them without thinking those Japanese terms might confuse them. Let me know when you have the list. Maybe I can also add some terms as well (and you can pick the ones you think are useful).

Sara
 
What is the purpose/reasoning behind having a machi? On the Wanatabi website he mentions some knife styles have it and others do not -why is this? It seems to me to be a weak point and a place where food/bacteria could collect.
 
I don't know if it has been commented on, but there seems to be a small error in the SUN definition.
1,19 inches is not 3.03 millimeters.
3.03 centimeters or 30,3 millimeters are the correct conversion.
 
You shared very good information about glossary of kitchen knife. I get help from your this post.
Thank for your sharing
 
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