TNG Ep. 5: Pro Tips Sharpening a Chef Knife on an Edge Pro Apex 

You bet, Dave. Thanks for watching!

You are very welcome!

Thank you for that, Randy. I appreciate it!

No such thing as too long a presentation/tutorial from Cap'n Matt!

Thanks Doug! That was fun, thank you for the inspiration and for the kind feedback.

Thanks Zach!

Sweet! Thanks! Hope you love it.

You're welcome!

Nice! Thanks John.

That's awesome, Dan! Where are you, geographically speaking? Keep in touch along your journey and reach out if you get stuck anywhere.

@@capnmatt41 I'm in Jacksonville, FL can't wait till your next video.

@@rtdan Awesome. No shortage of biz or opportunity there.

Thanks Golf Lima! Here's a link to it and if it's not on amazon you can usually find it direct from Ruland by searching QCL-5-A. amzn.to/3pCsMaT

Awesome. Thank you

I bet I forgot. The guide arm height should be set for each stone so if I missed it, it was a mistake. Nice catch!

@@capnmatt41 thanks!

Hey Mike, the equation for providing constructive feedback is to say something nice, illustrate your place for improvement, and close with something nice. You watched the whole video to stroke your ego on that relatively insignificant point? It makes me hate RU-vid which might be why I don't post much content now. So if you derive any value from what people do for free please consider being a kind commenter.

@capnmatt41 You took that wrong Matt. I was giving constructive criticism not telling you that you were doing it wrong. That's what stinks about the written word, things are misconstrued. Sorry if that came across wrong, maybe I should have explained better what I was trying to convey. I'm at work so I was obviously too quick to post that without more explanation. Thanks for the video I have the same Edge Pro Apex and like it a lot.

@@michaelvanbuskirk8845 fair enough, thanks for letting me know.

@capnmatt41 Merry Christmas Matt. Hope your business and the Guild are doing well. Followed many of your videos a couple of years back when I was getting into sharpening more but couldn't seem to find many people here in the San Francisco Bay area that wants their knives sharpened so I gave up.

Merry Christmas to you as well. There's plenty of business there if you ever want to try again, you just might need some help figuring out how to get it.

Reach me at Matt@Americanedgesharpening.com

I'll stop by next Wednesday

Super, it would still be best to coordinate on a sidebar, if you don't mind. Thank you!

Yes, totally. This remains my preferred way to sharpen high end cutlery to include Japanese chef knives. Please let me know if you have any other questions!

Matthew may have other ideas about this, but you really shouldn't use the Edge pro on Single Bevel Japanese style knives unless you are quite the dab hand on an EP. You need to match the angle of the bevel exactly, or you end up making a micro bevel instead - which will be sharp, but you are changing the profile of the bevel. Free handing is the best way to go with these knives, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can't give it a crack. If your courageous enough, have a go, but check out some forums on how to go about it first...

@@cheffy1799 Thanks for weighing in. I agree with your logic, but maybe not your conclusion. Holding that angle on a single bevel knife is important and if you go over you'll put on a secondary bevel, or sometimes called a micro bevel (which some people use to name something else). However, to hold that angle exactly you'll have to be even more of a dab hand to do it free hand. The advantage of any guided sharpening system is that you can set the angle and match the knife angle for every stroke on every stone. I think that's actually a driving point for using a guided sharpening system. The EP has something like a 10 - 30 degree range, so you should be able to match most knives. Let me know if there's another point that I'm missing with regard to single bevel Japanese style knives. Some single bevel knives are sharpened down the whole face of the knife, maybe that's where you're coming from, where there is just so much steel that needs to be cut to form a burr? In that case I would like to propose an advantage of putting a secondary bevel on the knife. A minor increase in angle (and perhaps a sacrifice in cutting experience) can make it markedly easier to maintain the knife. I welcome your thoughts on that too. Thanks again!

@@capnmatt41 I agree Matthew, you can use the EP for single bevels if you are experienced at the nuances of the device, but if you are a novice you should take extreme care and get some advice from sharpening forums, where there will be a lot of negative feedback on the EP for singles from people that know. I've had my Edge Pro (professional) for 10 years and I still freehand my single bevels, as I don't want to alter the unique characteristics of my Yanagiba and Usaba. My point is, they will sharpen singles, but not correctly, no matter how you want to put it. Your advice on micro bevels is correct, and the benefits with these are clear for double bevel knives... but I'm not sure this is how the Artisan knife makers intended their singles to be. All my single bevels are sharpened down to the point of the bevel from the top of the grind, with a slight grind/hone on the flat side to remove the burr - exactly the way they were all delivered to me. It all comes down to experience and skill and if you don't have it, my advice would be to err on the side of caution...

@@cheffy1799 Right on. So if I'm reading you right, you lay the whole face of the knife on the bench stone so hand control is really to keep the face in contact with the stone. Sound right? If so, for that design, I agree that the EP isn't the best fit. It would be real easy to come off the face of the knife as you work around any curved portion. Would it be fair to suggest that some people amplify that single use case to cast shadow on the EP even though it's an outstanding tool for many other blade designs? The original question was 'can you sharpen Japanese knives on this system?' My gut is that the question was with regard to Shun's, MAC's, Tojiro, etc and I'm concerned that by highlighting this single use case where it isn't the best fit we continue to cloud the answer that this person is looking for. That said, it's always good to point out that there is no perfect sharpening tool and I appreciate you bringing this into the discussion.

Are you sharing that from a place to try to help people out or just make yourself feel good? If the former, please elaborate. If the latter please let me know so I can block you from my channel. Thank you, Matt