Donnie’s Blog

Over a year ago I got a really nice set of kitchen knives from the Misono UX10 line. They are really nice; I really enjoy using them for cooking. (I even take them on trips when I expect to be cooking! I use this set of knife-safes to transport them safely.) However, over time they have gotten noticeably duller, so it was about time to get them sharpened. I could have taken them to someone to get them sharpened, but I decided it would be more fun to learn to sharpen them myself, so I went ahead and bought a couple of water stones.

There are a variety of different water stones available, and I really didn’t know what to pick. Here is one website that has a selection of water stones. The Chosera stones looked really appealing, but the ones I wanted were out of stock, so I went ahead with the Shapton professional line of water stones. I chose a 1000-grit stone and a 5000-grit stone, which hopefully will be good to start with.

I also need to learn the proper technique for sharpening my knives, which is complicated slightly by the fact that Misono knives have more of a bevel on one side of the knife than on the other. This aids in making very accurate cuts. I enjoyed this feature of the knife, so I want to preserve that in my sharpening efforts; some people restore this to a 50/50 bevel, but that’s just not for me. Here is one website that describes how to sharpen knives; I will have to look for more when I get my water stones.