Thanks for the clarification on strops vs rods. Very helpful!

Awesome! Thank you so much for taking my suggestion into consideration and making a video on honing steels! 🥳🥳🥳

The fuddy duddys who learned to sharpen on a norton stone blocked up with 3in1 oil from their uncles and won't let go of what little they know, won't agree but I am subscribed to this channel as it reflects my actual real experience sharpening. When I was younger I never stropped. WHAT A DIFFERENCE it makes! I have to admit though that I use a 1 by 2 by 24 inch piece of oak with green compound on it if I'm rushed. I also hold the knife still and run the oak over the edge like a file. AND this is the only video I have seen that mentions it is not good enough to grind a knife mercilessly against a stone till it is sharp but that the removal of the LEAST metal is the true sign of a craftsman. Good job Gage!

My favorite honing rod is a smooth steel rod.

Lol all the objects jumping around by themselves, that knife on the wall just disappearing and reappearing😂

Agree in every way!!!

Which honing rod would you recommend for yu kurosakis r2 steel? The white or the black one? I am considering buying one that is best suitable for my yu kurosaki sg2 gyuto

Amazing Video 👌👌👏👏👏👏

As a former straight razor shaver, that seems like a HUGE angle for the strop. It seems you take quite a risk of rolling the edge with that angle. Also, when changing direction on the strop try rolling the knife the other direction. It prevents tyros from dragging the edge across the leather if they lift too slowly.

I didn’t realize that honing took metal off the knife. I thought it just arranged the metal back to a point. But then again just how much honing would you have to do to take metal off? I would imagine a lot.

Nice video once again! Quick question about leather stropping. Which angle is it better to strop at for edge refinement? Are higher angles better for burr removal and same angle that you sharpened for edge refinement?

I appreciate that you have a clear rationale for your assessments on sharpening. It seems like for every food there might be a "dulling quotient" for every cut, and once you've reached a certain threshold (say, a tomato might be 0.1 and a beef chuck might be 1.0 and thus 1000 might be the honing stage and 10,000 might be the sharpening stone stage) a quantifiable scientific metric might be useful. Realistically, this is a pipe dream, I'm sure.

First here for Gage! =)

I use a steel rod on my German knives often For my Japanese blades, I'll use a rod from time to time, your 8000 grit in fact, for a quick and easy fix but not often. I prefer a strop. I use a cork strop with a 1-micron stropping compound and do it "almost" daily. I'm a home cook.

If you have a quality steel, you can hone. If you do it properly.

Could you possibly keep your whetstone stored in water? Or use a vacuum pump to quickly saturate your stone?

you mentiones a 5000 grit stone for daily maintainance. I have a 1000 grit stone, should I follow up with a ceramic honing rod? I own both black and white

It's when I go out and smooch wit da honies...

If I end my sharpening with a microbevel on a 5k stone then a leather strop, how would you recommend I hone? Would I hone at that high, microbevel angle?

I don’t really get why we sharpen and polish our knives moving away from the edge but honing towards it. Wouldn’t it be better to hone away to not break the burr but just align it?

can I hone a VG-10 using ceramic rod?

you're right, audio's definitely better

Coffee mug just appeared at 12:02.

Please let me slightly disagree. Honing rod never is the way to go. As you mention, later on, paddle with leather strop + compound is the only way to respect/maintain your knife, apart from super fine stone.

What is happening with Gyuto in the right top corner all the time?🤨

Second.

The information in this video is incorrect. A steel straightens the blade, which is honing. To do this effectively, the steel needs to be softer than the blade. A diamond rod is a sharpening steel. Ceramic works the same. Japanese knives are beveled only on one side, to keep the relief on the outside, making the slicing motion smoother. That's all. It's at the expense of easy maintenance. Japanese style blades are a matter of taste, nothing more. Gordon Ramsay is a television personality. He's only a mediocre chef. Low mediocre. You can straighten the edge on the cutting board. I've done that quite a lot. A countertop works too, if you use the edge. All that's necessary is a way to bend the teeth back to straight. The finer the edge, the more often the edge needs to be straightened.