Glad you liked the knives, yeah for some of the Hezhen and a few Xinzuo series the handles look very unique but at the same time it does take away comfort based on what kind of grip is being used. The newer series seems to have solved the comfort aspect while being unique. (not sure what series exactly I think the Hezhen X01 series is one of the select few that they did a good job on, improving on the Lan series handle design that I find a tad too big for some hand sizes). that being said there will be another review that will be uploaded soon, the F2 Series where they missed the boat again in the comfort department (on paper and on the pictures it looked so promising....).

Hopefully I can get a better upload schedule, it has been very busy. And the flu got to me too when I was about to finish some videos.

Thank you! 😊 Glad to be back! Did you decide on a wall block yet?

Using any lubrication like just water for example will produce a slightly finer surface finish for the whetstones (not for the diamonds disks). The reason for a ''soapy'' water is that it dries out less fast so the surface stay longer wet, less need to re-apply water. Since you have a layer of water there is also less need (less often) to clean the disk occasionally. (they however do need some cleaning after a while, you can use an eraser to clean it, some will even suggest rust erasers but a regular normal pencil eraser will do the trick too). Ideally for an ease of use perspective, use them without any water/lubrication. The same applies for ceramic honing rods, those can also be used wet or dry for a different surface finish (do make sure they are completely dry before storing, same for the rolling disks). I'm looking forward to what, all the others can do with the Rolling knife sharpeners category.

@@chefpanko wow Thanks for the detailed response.

The full review will be published this week with the exact points of those styled handles. Unfortunatly the many Japanese knife handles I tried are all miles better in terms of comfort due to better contours compared to the F2 Zhen series. But you will all see it in the full review where I showcase that you can even pop a balloon with the Diamond shaped handle of the F2 series. The same with the Master series which I had multiple in my hands where some had a pronounced belly and some don't due to the hand finishing. The only change for the full review of the YM3L Chinese Cleaver is that I grew to love the handle and it is one of my favorite knives so far when it comes to the Chinese Vegetable Cleaver. Keep in mind that in this video it is just a ''first impression'' wich may change once the full review is published (wich it did for some, and vise versa). Full review covering: Hezhen Master Chef's knife, YM3L Chinese Cleaver, Xinzuo and Hezhen F2 Zhen Series Nakiri and Chef's knife will be published shortly within a week or 2.

I wish I had taken sponsorship money lol. But no none of the videos I had made in the past and now and in the future include sponsorship money. I never got paid to make any of the videos for the brands, however, I did get review samples also as shown or told at the beginning of every single video with a ''Disclosure'' if I got a review sample or paid for it myself. And I also did get blacklisted after I did a review from certain brands for which I got a review sample (The review did not go in their favor). I never signed an NDA before publishing a video that silences bad reviews. And none of the brands get to see a preview before publishing a video, they see it when it gets uploaded with no voice to change the outcome. I have seen some and those basically say if they don't like the review I can't upload it, need to pay them back and send the product back. (and for those you get paid, which I declined to work with those brands and it astonishes me how many other channels got paid to cover those brands).

The rolling sharpeners are not suitable for scissors. A whetstone for manual grinding is needed or an precision angle guided sharpener with a scissor attachment to get the correct steep angle. It will be easier if you take the scissors apart. With a whetstone you need more practice, and I recommend a high grit stone like an #8000 grit for barber scissors.

@@chefpanko thank you very much 🫡

Yeah, hopefully more good quality competitors comes into the Rolling sharpening market so that the prices can come down. We are going in the right Direction, other one I also recommend besides the Horl 2, is the Work Sharp Rolling sharpeners. If we can get more competitors with that kind of quality, then I'm certain we will get a roller that is both good in functionality and quality along with an affordable price point.

Full bolsers will eventually hinder the sharpening process. If you hone the knife multiple times eventually there will be an indent between the sharpened heel side and the bolder. This will also hinder the whettone manual sharpening process, you need to do more to level the full bolster out with the cutting edge. This also means you are wearing out your whetstone a lot faster and it takes more time. If you send the knife to a professional sharpener then it does not matter as all the burden is by the professional sharpener who will most likely use a powertool to level the bolster with the cutting edge.

I have not tested a lot of ceramic rods, but the ones I have were all fine. What rods do you have? I know from my personal experience that I could not hone the knife no matter what until I got the correct feel (pressure) and angle. Over time I developed more techniques to postpone a full sharpening session. While in theory, it is the simple, correct angle (they say consistent angle), there will always be angle variations since we are humans and not robots. To compensate for the errors we can apply various pressure to level the errors out. For softer steel for example there is just a limited amount you can get until the effect is less effective on a denser-rated ceramic rod.

@@chefpanko With sub 60 hrc knives I just love the steel honing rods. Victorinox and Wusthof work well. Other brands too but I don't own those.

For home use I prefer my Asahi cutting board. It is lighter to move around for smaller and bigger task. For the videos I use the edge-grain boards mainly for aesthetic purposes, and only take them out when I need to prepare a lot of food for a bday etc. In the end it depends on the use case scenario, but generally speaking softer would be better but the softer it is the less smooth the glide feel might be.

I unfortunately have not tried any, so I can't say much about those.

The F208-2? If you search for F208 Shibazi do you get any results? I will keep an eye on the price it has gone up since I made this video. Hezhen 440C or X9 version is alsop good priced higher than Shibazi but better finished (definitely hunt for a discounted one).

@@chefpanko thank you so much for these recommendations! Unfortunately I searched AliExpress for all of these but no results :(