KAMATA

2024.10.30

Does a knife have a life span?

Hello.

Today, I would like to talk about the life span of kitchen knives.

The kitchen knife in the photo is from Fujitake in Seki-shi, which I visited the other day.

V1 Slicer 180㎜ 12,000 yen (tax included)

The one on the left is a brand-new kitchen knife that we are selling, and the one on the right is a customer’s kitchen knife that he brought to us for polishing.

Even if you look at them side by side, it is hard to believe that they are the same knife.

This “V1” material is one of the hardest and highest quality materials among stainless steel knives.

We assume that it was quite difficult to sharpen and use it this much.

Thank you for using it for many years.

When the blade is sharpened this much, the thickness of the blade itself becomes quite thick, which affects the sharpness of the blade.

Also, the shape of the blade has been reduced to match your whetstone, so it has changed to a shape that it would not normally have.

A kitchen knife is a “tool” that needs to be sharpened, so it needs to be resharpened regularly to revive its sharpness.

However, knives become thicker as they get closer to the peak (back part).

Once sharpened to a certain point, the sharpness will not last as long even if sharpened in the same way.

There is a limit to how much you can sharpen a knife to reduce its thickness.

I think it is a little too frequent to sharpen and use knives every week.

So, the best solution is to use knives by resharpening them at a moderate frequency.

After a certain number of years, it would be better to purchase a new knife.

However, it takes quite a few years to use a knife this much,
If it is a kitchen knife for home use that is not sharpened very often, it can be used for more than 10 years.

This customer also purchased a new knife, but he wanted to have it sharpened because he had a lot of love for it.

We are very happy that he uses our kitchen knives with care.

See you soon.

Yosuke Kamata, 4th generation of Kappabashi Knife store Kamata Hakensha.

*This is a translation by a translation tool.