If you own a Kiritsuke knife in Australia or any other type of Japanese knife, it is important to take good care of your knife to avoid chipping and breaking. To make Japanese knives sharp, there are a few things you need to know about how they are made, how to take good care of them and how to use them to avoid accidents. Japanese knives are very sharp and if you don’t take good care of them, you can end up damaging the knife or hurting yourself.
If you have bought a brand-new Japanese knife then we assume that you love using sharp knives. However, to get the best life out of your knife, you should remember that you cannot treat them the same way you treat western knives. Some adjustment of your cutting technique is required so that you can enjoy a happy and long life of your knife in the kitchen.
What to know about chipped knives?
Nearly every time your knife gets chipped is an accident. It is very easy to identify faulty steel. Your knife might be hitting a bone or a slight twist as you cut. This can stress the blade in a particular way. Once you use your Japanese kitchen knife in the kitchen, the seller can’t know how you cut and what you are using your knife for so that they can give you appropriate advice.
If you have chipped your Japanese knives, do not worry. Most chips can be fixed. It is an unfortunate accident in the same way as the dents you get in your car while driving.
Causes of chipping
It is important to remember that Japanese knives are made in an entirely different way to western knives. To achieve razor blade sharpness, some compromises have to be made.
Thinner blades
Japanese knives have thinner blades than western knives. The spine of a Japanese knife may appear about the same width as of a western knife but the cutting edge of a Japanese knife is thinner. The thinness allows the knife to cut better. It is dragging or pushing less through the ingredient.
Thinner blades mean that your knife cuts better but the con is that the thinner the edge, the more careful you have to be to avoid chipping your knife.
Sharpened to a high angle
Japanese knives are sharpened at 15 to 16 degrees on each side while western knives are 20 to 22 degrees. This might not sound like a great difference but it makes a great impact on how sharp the knife feels. At the end of the day, a knife is a sharp wedge. The wider the edge of the knife, the more effort one is required to push the blade through the ingredient. Japanese knives are smaller wedges and that is why they cut through ingredients easier.
However, since Kiritsuke knife Australia and other Japanese knives have a lower edge angle, it means a sharper edge and this means that you need to refine your cutting to get the most benefit.
