Chef'sChoice EdgeCraft E1520 Manuel page 9

Stage 2. The small bevel developed by the two pair of pulls will make a micro-arch at the
very tip of the primary edge facet and leave you with a stronger edge without a noticable
change in sharpness of the knife.
Proceed to Stage 3 and follow the instructions in the proceeding section for Stropping/
Polishing in Stage 3.
SHARPENING THE TRADITIONAL (SINGLE SIDED)
JAPANESE BLADE
Traditional Japanese knives such as the sashimi blade shown above are single sided and
have a large factory bevel (Bevel A, Figure 6) on the front side of the blade. There are a
large number of manufacturers of knives of this type used widely to prepare sashimi. The
factory bevel (Bevel A) is commonly ground at about 10 degrees, but there are exceptions
as that angle is not standardized at the Asian factories. Designs of the traditional
Japanese knives and the detailed structure of the cutting edges likewise varies widely from
one manufacturer to the next, however there are some similarities. The cutting edge
consists of a small primary facet on the front face of the blade below the large factory
bevel and includes a much smaller secondary microfacet along the back face. Commonly
the back side microfacet (Figure 7) can be easily seen only with a hand magnifier. The
back face is ground flat at the factory or more commonly it is slightly hollow ground to
ensure that an effective microfacet can be formed there as part of the cutting edge.
Because of the lack of standardization, the manual approach is commonly used to sharpen
these knives in Asia. Consequently sharpening these knives continues to be difficult,
®
laborious and time consuming. The EdgeCraft Model E1520 Sharpener is designed to
sharpen virtually all traditional Asian blades and to create a factory-quality edge.
Before you start to sharpen a traditional Japanese blade, examine it carefully in order to
confirm that you have the traditional single bevel blade and to determine whether you
have a right or left handed type as described on page 6, Figure 6. It is essential that you
follow carefully the sharpening procedure and sequence as described below in order to
achieve the optimum edge on your traditional blade.
Confirm which side of the blade has the large factory Bevel A. Hold the blade in your
hand (as when you are cutting) and if the large factory bevel is on the right side of the
blade, the blade is right handed. For the right handed blades sharpen only in the left slot
of Stage 1 so that only the beveled side (right side) of the edge will contact the honing
wheel. Proceed as described below.
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