HONING RODS: Are They Good For Japanese Steel?

[@lawrenceragnarok1186]

I have bought at least a dozen knives from knife merchant over the years and saw the first two videos with David and now this one. Always so stoked to get dealer insight on trade tools

[@DutchClawz]

Oh man, as a knife enthusiast for years and years its so good to hear from someone that knows their shit.

[@creo420]

Extremist? You mean enthusiast ?

[@natedogg1777]

I, too, identify as a knife extremist.

[@DutchClawz]

@@creo420 No, I am an extremist that likes knives😅 Yes I ment enthusiast, dont know what happened there.

[@suzannes5888]

I bought a 10 piece Miyabi Black knife set (plus other items) from The Knife Merchant - they were excellent! I highly recommend them. 😊

[@NASFullFlavor]

I've worked at a few restaurants, not as a professional or anything, but definitely not versed at all in knifes nor the rods. This was very informative though, I've learned a lot. And you can tell the gentleman in the video is very enthusiastic about his work. Great to learn from someone who really enjoys doing what they do! Thanks for the video guys!

[@jrk1666]

always a pleasure to see a knife merchant collab video

[@davidtatro7457]

Awesome video. It has been far too long since we have gotten to see Dave dispensing his copious knowledge of all things knife related! Look forward to the next chapters of your partnership.

[@alexyeung7745]

Well done David. I have learned so much about the rods and the knives from this video. Thank you.

[@protopigeon]

Knife Merchant is always a pleasure to watch, so much knowledge, he's forgotten more than I'll ever know

[@Garth2011]

I purchased an F Dick 6" utility knife years ago and found it very difficult to get a good edge on it after the factory edge wore down. I tried everything except a stone or a professional knife sharpening shop. I ended up gifting it to a friend and then purchased Miyabi brands to replace it. There was no comparison ! Miyabi is now my favorite knife even though I have a complete set of Henckels Four Star from the 1980's. I now use the whetstones to get back the edge now and then and in between hones with an long oval F Dick steel.

[@DrJuan-ev8lu]

An incredible wealth of knowledge and experience so clearly presented. This has got to be one of the best videos on the internet concerning best practices for truing up chef knives. This shed so much light on such a surprisingly overlooked area.

[@SuperSteelSteve]

I'm a knife maker and former chef of 15+ years. The reason they say not to use a STEEL honing rod on a Japanese knife is the hardness. Japanese knives are usually 63+ HRC Your Standard German knife is 56-58 HRC Because of the hardness a 63+ HRC steel edge, will Not roll. It will simply round over and dull. So a steel rod won't do anything Another reason is most Japanese knives are in carbon steel, most German are stainless steel. Carbon steel has much much less Retained austenite in the steel matrix so the burrs that form on carbon steel are only formed from abrasives, and pop off cleanly when sharpening. With cheap, soft stainless steel have alot of retained austenite and the burrs are much much larger and are difficult to remove. The fact you can use a steel honing rod to "stand up the burr" is by definition the result of a poor heat treat on that steel.

[@billsmutz6999]

Wonderful, clearly presented and very useful information. Reminded me of on of Dave's earlier videos done with you. Thanks

[@DrDoohickey]

While leading edge honing worked fine on my VG10 knives, it never quite worked on SG2. The trailing edge tip helped immeasurably. Thank you!

[@kurtisgillen7658]

Great episode. Learned a lot. I feel ignorant. I got a honing rod and thought it was a sharpener. Thanks. Arigatou.

[@biscuitkitchentreviews]

My local knife shop. Love this place, always super helpful staff.

[@kristofwanderer1]

Wonderful wonderful!!!! I'll be adding to my collection after this video! Thank you

[@-RONNIE]

Thank you all for the video it was very educational and entertaining

[@acoppola]

As a life long chef by trade, with an abnormal obsession with knife steels, grinds, and owning and using every different knife, eastern $ western and striving to master the knowledge of each and their traditional uses. The only style of knife in would ever, but rarely, touch to a honing rod is a cheap fillet knife. Get a good 3000-5000 stone and spend 2-5 minutes when they need a touch up based on your daily use followed by a strop. It keeps a much more consistent and even edge. A good Japanese whetstone can easily be found for $60-$80. Would you rather your edge be dragged along an unstable hand held wobbly piece of metal or a stationary flat surface?

[@acoppola]

The lowest grit you should have to use to bring back the edge of pretty much any steel at any Rockwell, if you treat your knives as you should is a 1000-1500 grit stone. Shapton 1500 is my most recommended

[@markturner9459]

This was an awesome video! So informative and interesting. Thank you!

[@thb77955]

Hiro, my friend, g11d aftern11n!!! This video reminds me the good old times of your YT-channel!!! Dave is not only a knife MERCHANT but an ingenious knife EXPERT! Very informative video... Looking forward to the episodes when you show your knife skills with these new knives... ❤️🇯🇵❤️🇩🇪❤️🇺🇸❤️ 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

[@andersv20]

Coming straight from the OUTDOORS55 video on honing rods, I'm super confused by this one. He claims 1) Non abrasive honing rods *can* streighten a rolled burr 2) However a burr left on a knife indicates incomplete sharpening, as the burr should be removed, leaving only the true apex at the very edge 3) The de-burred apex of a knife is very difficult to actually roll, and does not normally happen with regular use. He uses a lot of force with a copper pipe to get an actually rolled edge 4) it is almost impossible to straighten such a ruled edge using only a honing rod. It also require a lot of force. 5) besides if you intend to straighten a rolled edge without removing metal, how do you intend to do that cutting *into* rather than trailing strokes? How will the cutting into the rod not only fold that edge over even more? 6) it is of course possible to use an *abrasive* diamond grit rod to actually remove metal and *sharpen* rather than *honing* the knife, but in this case is seems better to just use a flat sharpening stone in the first place, as it's very difficult to maintain a consistent angle with a hand held rod. He uses a microscope to demonstrate that happens at a microscopic level, and seems quite convincing. However this seems to negate the entire practice of using honing rods all together. So as a beginning knife sharpener, I'm super confused as to what to believe. Would anyone care to explain that's wrong any of the claims above?

[@mikew.1902]

So great that you got back to visiting David. He made a world of difference for me in my sharpening technique. He is also very accessible for information. Where in TN is he?

[@KnifeMerchant]

Thank you for the kind feedback! We'll pass it along to David. We are in East Tennessee. Alcoa to be specific, just outside of Knoxville

[@Stargazer80able]

The rapid steels from Cozzini in chicago is superb. If you have many hours of knifework to do, it will cut a lot of frustration out of the work. Works great with Victorinox or Frosts or Raadvaad knives.

[@NwinDii]

What a pleasure to see david again. Will sefinitely take a peak at a masahiro knife and a ceramic rod sometime in the future.

[@davidmatke248]

Good afternoon!

[@Mandip332]

One of the best Japanese inspirations sushi chef 🫶🏼🍀

[@HodgeStanford]

I just keep hearing the Wall of Voodoo song in my head

[@SunJigglet]

OMG it's Knifemerchant!

[@cindyyuan4155]

Great info

[@MrAcuta73]

I have been slowly building a set of Minonokuni, I absolutely love them. I started with white steel because I was afraid of destroying blue in my ignorance, but have a clad blue steel Gyuto now that I both love and sorta fear. Just wish the Saya were in stock more often. Don't know if I'm missing the availability or they are just never in stock. 😢 Edit: Meant to add that I also have a number of Shun Premier blades, I definitely think I need to add a good honing rod to the mix. Maybe 2, one for the VG-MAX and one for the Gyuto!

[@pino_de_vogel]

I love my ceramic one. Bin using it for 8 years and still great. If you have really hard steel knifes like VG10 and up these metal rods really just ruin your blade where ceramic gives them a new edge. The hard steel will chip on these rods where ceramic works more as a 2000 grid sharpener. i havent used my wetstones for years and my ceramic rod still gets the jb done. you just really have to watch your angle. Keep the angle at 12 degrees or you will ruin the edge and you need to grab the wetstones.

[@roospike]

Good video a lot of information. I had to actually do a deep dive of research to figure out the progression stages and actual usage of all the honing and sharpening rods did before I bought the steels. Seems to be a lot of overseas video and information but not enough clear information on the Frederick Dick lineup and differences. As far as Japanese knives and honing steel / rods there's about 10 million opinions on the internet and that you also makes it confusing. A lot of good information cleared up in this video.

[@masaharumorimoto4761]

Well I gotta watch Zoolander now, need some Blue Steel :)

[@patrickrichardson4765]

A Manhattan drinker! A man after my own heart!

[@lonecrapshooter6197]

Miyabi birchwood 8'' chef's knife, what rod do I need ceramic or steel, or leather strop, coarse or fine........ please recommend brand and model number for me if this is enough information. I doubt I need stones yet, should not be that dull for a year or two but if you think I do recommend them too, I'll just get it all in one order. I prefer quality, I'm a buy once cry once type of consumer.

[@DATAK1LL]

YES!🙂

[@jazmingonzalez3227]

I still prefer a stone to sharpen the knife. Does knife are amazing I wish I could afford a excellent cooking knife like does.

[@AlexPedersen123]

Great video!

[@manuelbousquet]

Oh yeah that’s the good stuff ! ❤

[@chuckschillingvideos]

320Z??????? This guy never worked on a Z car in his life.

[@joecomelately]

Please stop having David on. Every time you do it costs me money. 😄

[@El_Guap]

With Japanese style knives and pseudo western Japanese knives… where does the leather strope fit into all this?

[@KnifeMerchant]

Leather strops are really a foolproof honing method. They can be used after honing with a steel or instead of using a honing rod.

honing rod is the stupidest think ever. It does nothing except destroy the apex... @@KnifeMerchant

[@hermanblinkhoven1856]

How nice the car did not break down on your way there

[@georgek9307]

🔥

[@LuchoTiz1]

honing rods are not a good tool.....we all know now thanks to another youtuber 😊👍

[@wayneessar7489]

Why is that?

Because they do nothing except stand up the burr, which you shouldnt have anyway... @@wayneessar7489

[@DrJuan-ev8lu]

@@wayneessar7489 Outdoors55 said so.

[@ChairmanKimchi]

Watching him hone at such a high angle like that hurts my soul lol.