Master knife sharpener Vincent Kazuhiro Lau visits with Epicurious to demonstrate how he gives new life to tarnished, chipped and broken knives.
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00:00 (scraping)
00:01 Nice and sharp.
00:03 Today we're gonna be going over everything you need to know
00:05 about repairing your knives at home.
00:07 (upbeat music)
00:10 Tools I use for sharpening and repairing knives
00:13 are wet stones.
00:15 With the wet stones, you can match the angle of your knife.
00:17 Before you use your stones, you need to prep them.
00:20 All you need to properly use them is tap water right here.
00:23 The stones I'm soaking are the rough stones
00:26 and the medium stones.
00:27 And when you soak it in water at first,
00:29 you'll see like air bubbles start to form
00:31 and you wanna basically wait
00:32 till all the air bubbles have settled down.
00:34 That's when you know your stone is fully saturated
00:37 and ready for you to use for sharpening.
00:38 As you can see, I didn't soak the finishing stone
00:40 because those are a little bit more delicate.
00:42 And if I soak it in water for too long,
00:44 it can actually crack.
00:45 And I've cracked a few
00:46 'cause I've left it in water overnight,
00:48 come in the next day and I see two pieces.
00:51 Before we actually sharpen it,
00:52 I wanted to make sure that I don't miss any chips.
00:55 So I like to take the piece of paper
00:56 and cut through from heel all the way to the tip.
00:59 And every time it catches,
01:00 I know that's exactly where a chip in the knife is.
01:03 So I wanna make sure that I see and inspect
01:06 and make sure I'm aware of where all the chips are
01:08 so I don't miss anything when I grind it out.
01:10 The paper test shows that this has microscopic chips.
01:13 Obviously, there's some that's very noticeable,
01:15 but there's a lot of little ones all along the edge.
01:17 So I wanna make sure I don't miss any of that
01:19 when I grind on the rougher stone.
01:20 A lot of times people try to sharpen the knife
01:23 and fix the knife in one shot.
01:25 But I always say it's best to think of it
01:27 as two separate processes.
01:28 So the first thing we're gonna focus on
01:30 is just grinding out the chips.
01:31 For that, I'm gonna use the roughest stone I have.
01:34 This is the 220 grit rough stone.
01:36 I have here just the stone base.
01:38 This is just gonna secure the stone
01:40 and give a little bit more grip.
01:42 It also adds a little bit of height from the table
01:44 so it makes sure that my knuckle clears the table
01:47 when I'm sharpening.
01:48 This is not required to sharpen your knife,
01:50 but I just like to have a little extra height.
01:53 The goal right now is to just grind metal
01:55 so that all the chips are gone.
01:57 So the first side I'm gonna do is just work
01:58 on my left side facing down.
02:00 When I do this, my thumb is on the spine,
02:02 my index finger is on the heel,
02:04 three fingers around the handle for a nice firm grip.
02:07 I wanna have full control of the knife when I'm doing this.
02:10 This right here is a double beveled knife,
02:12 which means that I have to sharpen and grind both sides.
02:15 This particular knife is sharpened symmetrically,
02:18 so I wanna make sure that I grind the same amount
02:21 on both sides to keep everything even.
02:24 I'm just gonna use a very steep angle.
02:26 I like to hold a knife around four o'clock
02:28 or five o'clock in terms of position,
02:30 so I'm not wobbling around,
02:32 'cause if I wobble around, the angle's constantly changing.
02:35 That really affects the outcome of the edge.
02:38 My right hand is really focusing on the angle of the knife
02:42 and moving the knife up and down.
02:44 My left hand is really applying all the pressure.
02:47 When I flip over, I'm gonna change my grip a little bit.
02:49 My thumb is gonna be on the heel,
02:51 my index finger on the spine,
02:53 and just like before, I hold the knife
02:54 at a four o'clock or a five o'clock position.
02:57 I'm applying a good amount of pressure with my left hand.
03:00 I'm pressing firmly, but I'm not pressing with all my might,
03:03 because that could be dangerous.
03:04 If I slip, I can really hurt myself.
03:06 I actually prefer sharpening standing,
03:09 'cause I can use my body weight,
03:10 and that's gonna make it easier to grind faster,
03:13 apply a good amount of pressure.
03:15 So every now and then, I'm gonna wipe the knife
03:18 and check to see my progress.
03:20 You can see already that the chips are starting to come out.
03:23 There's only a few more pieces left.
03:25 So you see me constantly wiping my blade,
03:30 'cause a lot of times, if you have a high-carbon steel knife,
03:32 it can actually rust as you're sharpening.
03:34 If you leave the knife on the table
03:36 with a few drops of water,
03:38 you'll see little particles of rust.
03:40 If you cut anything acidic,
03:41 you can actually see discoloration almost immediately.
03:44 So with high-carbon steel,
03:45 the key is constantly wiping your blade,
03:47 even as you're sharpening, even as you're using it.
03:51 This particular one is stainless,
03:52 so I don't have to worry about it,
03:53 but since I'm so used to it,
03:55 I just like to constantly wipe my knife.
03:57 So as I'm sharpening on the stone,
03:59 the stone is actually wearing down,
04:00 and to make sure that I have this flat, even surface,
04:03 even as I'm sharpening,
04:04 I like to periodically stop and use a stone fixer.
04:07 If your stone looks like a half-pipe,
04:09 it's gonna be very hard to repair.
04:10 So to avoid that, I always say,
04:13 try to use this as frequently as you can.
04:15 So I worked on the stone a little bit with the fixer.
04:17 I can just continue grinding my knife.
04:20 (grinding)
04:22 And I think we're good to go.
04:23 Now that I've grinded all the chips out,
04:25 this knife is just a little bit smaller,
04:27 but for usage, for function,
04:29 it's not gonna make a difference,
04:30 and it's barely noticeable.
04:32 We can move on to sharpening
04:33 and creating an edge on this knife.
04:35 For that, I'm gonna use the same stone.
04:37 This is the rough stone that I've been using.
04:38 So I like to take two pennies,
04:40 stack them up, and place them on the stone.
04:42 And what I do is I lay the spine of the knife
04:45 onto these pennies,
04:46 and that's gonna give you a rough guideline
04:48 on what the angle should be.
04:50 By working on the two pennies on the backside,
04:52 I'm creating a plane on that side.
04:54 I'm gonna do the same amount on the other side,
04:56 and those two planes intersecting
04:58 will create a perfect edge.
05:00 I'm gonna place my two fingers right on that very tip,
05:02 and I'm gonna press firmly as I pull straight down.
05:06 When I go back up, I'm actually not applying pressure.
05:09 I'm gonna release pressure as I go back up,
05:12 apply pressure as I pull coming back towards me.
05:17 And when I go back up, I move my finger slightly over,
05:19 and I continue to work my way down the knife in sections.
05:25 If I apply pressure towards the edge,
05:32 my knife can actually cut into the stone.
05:34 I'm gonna flip over and do the same thing
05:36 for the other side.
05:37 However, this time, the edge is facing me.
05:40 I start at the bottom of the stone,
05:42 place two fingers right on the tip,
05:43 and I apply pressure as I push away.
05:47 Come back down, push away.
05:49 The angle that I'm using,
05:51 I'm making sure it's the same angle
05:52 as I did on the other side.
05:54 So two pennies under the spine
05:56 is gonna give me the proper angle.
05:58 So as you sharpen these two planes
06:02 and they start to intersect,
06:03 what's gonna happen is the very edge
06:05 is gonna start to curl over,
06:07 and it's gonna create what's called a burr.
06:10 This burr or little ridge is something that you can feel
06:12 just by touching the flat part of your knife
06:14 and running your fingers off.
06:16 And you wanna feel that burr or ridge catch on your finger.
06:20 If you don't feel that, your knife is just not sharp yet.
06:22 Depending on how dull your knife is,
06:24 this process can take five minutes.
06:26 This process can take half an hour,
06:28 so you just have to be patient and keep feeling
06:31 and keep checking for that burr.
06:33 Once I've gotten the burr to form on both sides,
06:39 I'm ready to move on to my second stone,
06:41 which is gonna be the medium stone.
06:43 With the medium stone, what I'm gonna do
06:45 is actually repeat the same process,
06:47 and that's gonna start to refine the edge.
06:49 You're gonna start to see this sediment build up.
06:51 There's this almost like mud.
06:53 You wanna make sure you see that
06:54 'cause that sediment is basically a mixture of the stone
06:58 and the metal that's being taken off of your knife.
07:01 This sediment's actually helping you
07:02 sharpen more efficiently,
07:04 so you don't wanna wash all that off.
07:06 If your stone starts to feel dry,
07:07 you can splash some water on it.
07:09 I'm gonna be constantly checking for the burr to form,
07:12 evenly from the tip all the way to the heel.
07:14 And once I get it on one side,
07:16 I wanna make sure that I get it on the other side as well.
07:19 The final step is to use this finishing stone,
07:24 and this is gonna really refine the edge
07:26 and get your knife nice and sharp.
07:28 Just a reminder, this one was the dry stone,
07:30 so the way we use a finishing stone
07:31 is by splashing water on it before you go ahead and sharpen.
07:35 I'm gonna also use this little dressing stone,
07:38 or in Japanese it's called a nagura stone.
07:40 I'm pre-creating a little bit of grit
07:43 so that it's gonna really help with the polish on the knife.
07:47 At this point, your knife is fairly sharp.
07:49 We've already worked through two stones,
07:51 and when you have a sharp edge on your knife,
07:53 a sharp edge is also delicate,
07:55 so you have to be a little careful.
07:57 A finishing stone like this is actually very hard,
08:01 and if you take this sharp edge,
08:03 press it really hard against this finishing stone,
08:05 you can actually crush the edge that you just created.
08:08 The key to using a finishing stone
08:09 is to press a lot lighter than the previous two stones.
08:13 I'm using the weight of the knife
08:14 and the weight of my hand to work on the knife.
08:18 I'm not pressing any harder than that,
08:20 but other than that, all the same techniques apply,
08:23 and even though I'm pressing very lightly,
08:25 you can see the sediments increasing.
08:27 There's much more now that I started sharpening.
08:29 Because the stone is so fine,
08:31 you're not gonna be able to feel for any burrs,
08:34 so what I like to do is take the knife,
08:36 pinch the edge of the blade, and run my fingers off,
08:39 and I wanna make sure when I do this,
08:41 I don't feel anything catch.
08:43 If I feel something catch,
08:45 that means there's still a burr remaining,
08:46 so I'm gonna work just a little longer
08:48 until the edge has nothing on it.
08:50 The other thing I'm looking for
08:52 is for the edge to get really nice and shiny.
08:56 It's gonna look almost like a mirror finish
08:57 if you shine it in the light.
08:59 I usually work on a finishing stone for five minutes,
09:02 maybe 10 minutes if I have time,
09:04 but the longer you work and get that edge nice and polished,
09:07 the smoother your edge will be.
09:09 We should be good to go with this knife.
09:11 You saw all the chips catching on the piece of paper,
09:13 so I'm gonna make sure that I didn't miss anything.
09:15 So heel to tip, all the way down.
09:17 It's a much cleaner cut.
09:19 In the beginning, this knife was really badly chipped.
09:21 It wasn't very sharp.
09:22 I used three stones, the rough stone to grind out the chips
09:25 and set the new bevel, the medium stone to refine,
09:28 and the finishing stone to really polish the edge up.
09:31 If you were to fix this at home,
09:32 this process from top to bottom
09:34 should have taken around 15 to 20 minutes,
09:36 and now this knife is ready for you to use in your kitchen
09:38 and cook delicious food.
09:40 Lastly, I wanna show you guys my personal knife right here.
09:43 I've had this for 13 years,
09:45 and this knife has gone with me
09:46 to many Michelin restaurants and culinary schools,
09:49 and this knife used to be a 9.4-inch chef knife.
09:53 As you can see, this is now about a six-inch utility knife,
09:56 but it still gets very sharp.
09:58 And the reason why I wanna show this to you
10:00 is because if you take care of your knives,
10:02 these knives can last you many, many years.
10:04 So if you feel that you're not able to fix your own knife
10:07 that is too far gone,
10:08 you can always send it to me at Corrin,
10:09 and I'll be more than happy to fix your knives for you.
10:12 (upbeat music)