Edgecraft Chef's Choice 15 - Manual (Page 8)

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detailed structure of the cutting edges likewise vary widely from one manufacturer to the next,
however there are some similarities. The cutting edge consists of a small primary facet on the
front face of the blade below the large bevel and a much smaller secondary microfacet along the
back face. Commonly the back side microfacet (Figure 10d) can be easily seen only with a hand
magnifier. The back face is ground flat at the factory or more commonly it is slightly hollow
ground to ensure that an effective microfacet can be formed there as part of the cutting edge.
Because of the lack of standardization, the manual approach used to sharpen these knives in
Asia has proven difficult, laborious and time consuming. The Chef’sChoice
® Model15 Sharpener
is designed to sharpen all traditional Asian blades and to create a factory-quality edge.
Before you start to sharpen a traditional blade, examine it carefully in order to confirm that you
have the traditional single bevel blade and to determine whether you have a right or left handed
type as described on page 10 and 11, Figure 10c. It is essential that you follow carefully the
sharpening procedure and sequence as described below in order to achieve the optimum edge
on your traditional blade.
Again confirm which side of the blade has the large factory Bevel A. Hold the blade in your hand
(as when you are cutting) and if the large factory bevel is on the right side of the blade, the blade
is right handed. For the right handed blades start sharpening in the left slot of Stage 2 so that
only the beveled side (right side) of the edge will contact the honing wheel.
Step 1
Start honIng tradItIonal JapaneSe knIVeS In Stage 2
(rIght handed BladeS)
In this example which assumes your traditional blade is right handed, you must hone only in the
left slot of Stage 2 (see Figure 8). The number of pulls that you need to make depends on the
factory angle of Bevel A (Figure 10c and 10d) and how dull your blade may be.
Make five (5) to ten (10) pulls in only the left slot of Stage 2 and then check for a burr along the
back side of the blade edge. (The burr created in Stage 2 will be small but easily felt as shown in
Figure 8. Honing a right-handed traditional Japanese
knife in Stage 2. Figure 9. Stropping/Polishing a traditional Japanese
knife in Stage 3.