Monday, September 30, 2013

kitchen knives

I was asked to take my guests  to some kitchen knife shops. The most famous shop is "Aritsugu" in Nishiki food market. But this time, I took them to really local shop owned by the expertise and artisan in that field.

Japanese kitchen knives has some kinds and we usually use one of them depending on what we will cut or cook. "Deba" is used to chop fish. "Nakiri" is used for cutting vegetables. "Santoku" is for general use. So the first knife to have is this.

Japanese kitchen knives consists of steel and stainless. Steel is sandwiched between stainless.
We visited Shigeharu, where the shop owner makes knives by himself., and Hayakawa which is located relatively near the main street Shijo. At these shops as well as Aritsugu, you can ask them to put your name on the purchased knives.

Along with knives, you should have whetstone to keep the knives in good condition. There are approximately three kinds of whetstone, depending on particle size.
The larger the number of particle is, the smaller one particle is. When the edge of the knife is nicked and very rusty, rough whetstone can fix it relatively quickly. Medium particle sized whetstone makes dull-edges  sharper. This process is most part of sharpening. Finishing whetstone eliminates tiny scratches caught during the sharpening process and finalizes the knife beautifully and keep the edge in good condition.

It is very interesting for me to know about this field.
Japanese kitchen knives has a good quality. If you are interested in cooking, why don't you drop in at such shops?