How to Sharpen a Yoshikane Shirogami Kiritsuke Knife | Quick & Easy | Not an Expert Ep. 10

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]This is the Yoshikane Kurochi Shirogami 2 carbon steel kiritsuke.

[00:00:07]And the last time you may have seen this knife, and the last time I used it, was during the epic fail prep sash where I tried using the Yoshikane sujihiki as a regular gyuto.

[00:00:21]It did not go well for me at all.

[00:00:24]The height of the sujihiki was not there for me to be able to use it as I would a regular chef's knife or gyuto.

[00:00:33]So, having some challenges with that, I decided to grab this knife, and it couldn't get through, or hardly get through, or struggling to get through some bell pepper skin. So, I put this one down, and the little santoku by Yoshikane, the SKD, saved the day.

[00:00:51]So, this is relatively sharp in the sense that it'll cut some paper.

[00:01:00]Okay?

[00:01:02]It's decent.

[00:01:08]Little hang up at the edge there.

[00:01:15]It seems like it should be good to go, but it was struggling.

[00:01:20]Let's do a little tomato test.

[00:01:25]This is where you can really tell maybe it's too sharp, which is Jesus, that's a whole other world.

[00:01:33]Okay.

[00:01:38]That goes to show you that I don't use the very tip of this or the heel as much as I do as much as much as I do this much of the blade. So, that's where it needs some love, and we're going to give it a little bit of love. This is the Shapton splash and go medium stone, which is 1,000 grit. This is a 140 Atoma.

[00:02:10]I'm just going to lightly level this out, which will also create a little bit of a slurry.

[00:02:19]And by the way, welcome back to another episode of Not an Expert, where I, who is not the expert, I'm just showing you how I'm learning how to sharpen knives.

[00:02:30]Episode don't know.

[00:02:33]11? 12? Something like that.

[00:02:39]I learned the importance of flattening your stone because you get these really weird sounds and feelings when it's just not going well.

[00:02:53]And you don't have to go crazy if you do this often.

[00:02:58]What really messes your stone up is when you don't do it for multiple sessions and you're just like, "Ah, I'm good to go."

[00:03:06]That's [snorts] where things go south.

[00:03:08]Okay.

[00:03:10]When I am doing more maintenance sharpening, which is what I think this is going to need, I don't need to develop a burr. I'm hoping that this is going to respond beautifully and this is going to be a short video.

[00:03:26]If not, then I have a Shapton 320.

[00:03:30]I will grind it, develop burr on each side, alternate, deburr, go up to the 1,000, and then maybe I'll finish on the 3,000.

[00:03:40]I want this to be able to cut a tomato like I just showed you, but all the way through.

[00:03:45]I >> [sighs] >> just watched the Masakage video, the prep sesh.

[00:03:52]Learned a lot. There's such thing as a knife that's too sharp that won't cut that. But, for the ingredients that I prep and how I'm using it, I need it to cut that tomato skin. Cuz if it'll cut that, it'll cut a bell pepper, and it'll cut the majority of things that I'm working with. Here we go.

[00:04:07]I am just going to do a couple brief passes on each side.

[00:04:43]And now, I'm just going to go right into strop motion.

[00:05:00]There's a really good chance that I probably could have just done that. Ooh, just at the tip. Let me make sure I didn't do any damage there.

[00:05:07]Just doing the strop motion likely would have brought this blade back.

[00:05:16]Maybe. I just realized that I don't have my strop.

[00:05:22]Yes, I do. It's over here. I was going to say, I didn't have it downstairs cuz I didn't need it last night. Okay. You know, while I'm at it, let's take a little sip of iced coffee.

[00:05:30]Mhm.

[00:05:32]Yum.

[00:05:34]I'm going to go at this a little bit more.

[00:06:13]>> Into the strop.

[00:06:16]Alternating sides.

[00:06:22]Okay.

[00:06:23]Let's clean this up.

[00:06:27]Do a quick proper strop.

[00:06:45]And this really could be all this blade needs.

[00:06:48]I would like to take this up to the 3,000, which I'm going to.

[00:06:53]We'll see.

[00:06:55]Let's put my little Enso Hinoki board back.

[00:07:15]And there you have it.

[00:07:18]Feels great.

[00:07:20]This is really how easy sharpening can be.

[00:07:25]Couple passes, go into that strop motion.

[00:07:34]Much better.

[00:07:35]The curve. That's where you'll really feel if the blade is getting hung up on a little bit of the burr that you didn't remove right or areas of the blade that you may not have maintained your angle.

[00:07:57]Beautiful. Okay.

[00:07:59]I could stop right there, but I want to take this up to a 3,000.

[00:08:06]I'm just going to do the strop motion and I think it's just going to refine it a bit, but it's not going to be too sharp that it won't cut a tomato. That's what I learned with the Masakage video. I started my prep session and it wouldn't cut through the tomato like this just did. It was more like that first one.

[00:08:26]But it shaved my arm hair.

[00:08:29]And what I've learned is that a knife that is that sharp is fantastic for say cutting proteins or certain fruits and vegetables.

[00:08:40]But when it comes to the tooth the teeth that is needed that are needed to get through tomato skin and pepper skin that they just can't do it.

[00:08:50]It'll glide along. So think of it as the lower the grit, the more teeth that are going to be on the edge. So a 320 you've got a bunch like this and then you go to an 800 and they're like that. You go to a 1,000 and they're like this. You go to a 3,000 and they're more spread out like that, but if you go to a five eight 10 on a natural stone, your teeth are way apart and you just don't have that serration essentially to bite into the skin of certain things.

[00:09:26]That is bonkers to me that that's a thing.

[00:09:30]It makes sense.

[00:09:33]I think if I had a magnifier to really be able to look at an edge, it would make even more sense to me, but I don't.

[00:09:45]Who is it? The Outdoors 55 guy?

[00:09:48]Gosh, his videos are unbelievable.

[00:09:51]The way he talks about knife sharpening and burs and the Apex and pretty much everything involving sharpening, it's incredible. Okay, put this a little bit more water.

[00:10:07]By the way, testing out a fourth camera.

[00:10:11]I had two Sony. Well, actually I had three Lumix.

[00:10:15]Got rid of them, got two Sonys because they're a heck of a lot more. Ended up getting a third Sony.

[00:10:22]And decided I wanted to see how the color profile of a Lumix would be cuz it's pretty much half the price. So, that's this camera right here. Giving it a go. So, I have four cameras right now.

[00:10:32]Yeah. Okay, strop only.

[00:10:52]That feeling where you're just making perfect contact all the way through cuz the stone is nice and level. You're not getting hung up on the edge, which is generally what happens with me when I know that I'm not level. I can feel it and I can see the steel coming off right on the edge of the stone right on the top there.

[00:11:18]That just felt good.

[00:11:22]Developing that slurry with flattening the stone is also something that I didn't really understand or appreciate.

[00:11:32]I thought that the slurry aspect was just being created as you were sharpening and when you were to use a cleaning stone, but really it's leveling them out. That's a 140 grit Atoma that is making that magic happen.

[00:11:52]We'll strop.

[00:12:00]Anyway, the slurry makes a difference.

[00:12:07]The amount that I have learned about sharpening since the last video that I did.

[00:12:12]See, that feels great.

[00:12:14]All the way up.

[00:12:16]Let's Let's do a paper test first while my knife is dry.

[00:12:21]Why do I buy reams of paper?

[00:12:23]You're looking at it.

[00:12:31]>> [snorts] >> Uh How can I do this? I'll do it at the very end after this curve.

[00:12:43]Little tear at the end, but that was because of the angle.

[00:13:02]Feels good.

[00:13:04]I think we're I think we're set.

[00:13:08]It's sharp.

[00:13:09]But is it dull enough to get through tomato? We'll see. Am I in my focal zone? Yeah, I'm right on.

[00:13:16]How about that? This is what this little that right there is what we're saying, "Hey, aim here."

[00:13:34]>> No pressure, just a slight pull.

[00:13:44]Letting the weight of the blade do the work.

[00:13:49]I love this knife. I'm happy to have it back.

[00:13:52]It's weird how with all these knives and how I circulate through them depending on what videos I have upcoming and what I'm working with depends on what is on my block downstairs. And I had to get rid of this one cuz I had so many, but I used this for quite some time.

[00:14:13]Let's get rid of this. It's a little bit too much.

[00:14:20]So, there we have it, folks.

[00:14:22]A very simple way to maintain a knife that is slightly dull.

[00:14:30]If you're having trouble getting through tomato skin, pepper skin, or anything, and you have a fine edge like this.

[00:14:39]Sometimes all you need is a 1,000 grit.

[00:14:42]That's it. That could be the only stone if you get a new knife and you want to learn how to use a wet stone, you need You don't even need a a holder. You could put this down on a towel. You could just get a splash and go.

[00:14:56]Use your hand to put some water on it next to the sink and get a 1,000 grit stone. That's it. I don't care what brand. It doesn't matter. Splash and go makes life so much easier. So, get one of those. And then, when your knife feels dull, hone it.

[00:15:11]Or, even better, strop it.

[00:15:15]If you don't get the response from that, then you go to your stone. If If on camera and flapping my jaw, I would have been done this in 2 minutes, not even. Probably less than a minute. Pull out the stone, wet it, strop motion, boop boop boop, strop, done. That's how easy it is to maintain an edge like this.

[00:15:39]If you want to go up another stone, go for it. You don't have to. 1,000 grit for most knives and most prepping, that's I'm at the point where I've realized that that is all you need. Now, if your knife is dull dull and you need to completely develop a new edge and get your burr, then you need to go down to likely a 320, a 400, somewhere around there, and then up to your 1,000. So, you need two stones. If you want to go and get to the 3,000, great.

[00:16:11]As you can see, it'll cut a tomato skin.

[00:16:13]Easy.

[00:16:16]Very easy.

[00:16:20]Try not to cut myself here.

[00:16:29]That's it.

[00:16:30]Don't be intimidated by sharpening your own knives.

[00:16:36]Oh, you going to drop?

[00:16:37]Boop.

[00:16:38]All right, folks.

[00:16:40]I'm Chef Panko with Culinary Ambition.

[00:16:41]Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of Not an Expert. Stay tuned.

[00:16:45]And if you're new to this and you want to learn different methods, just check out some of the old videos where I have taken methods from certain people like Bob Kramer and I've followed them to the T. And other sharpeners out there. And then some videos I'm just trying things that are mixing them up on my own.

[00:17:04]And that's it.

[00:17:07]But what you just saw here is what I wish everyone would do to maintain their edge. That's it. It's maintenance sharpening. It's not full-blown sharpening. Okay, I flopped the jaw enough.

[00:17:20]See you.