Like many here, I like knives. I accumulate them haphazardly. Occasionally I may go looking for something specific, but more often then not I simply run across one I like and get it.

This one is from a knife maker in Sheffield, England, which was formerly world famous for its knives. Michael May: Michael May Knives | Hand Crafted Knives - Sheffield, England





01 tool steel and petrified beechwood, if I recall correctly, from a local source. I ordered it a couple of years ago, and it took a couple of months to show up. Elegant, as you can see. Very thin and light. Not good for heavy work, but perfect for slicing meat. The cutting edge is a bit over 8 1/2" or 23 cm.

I brought five knives for sharpening back to Japan on this visit. My local sharpening guy here is a Japanese sword sharpener/polisher by training, and sells swords and knives. His primary day-to-day business, though, is sharpening kitchen knives. He's getting older now, but has a son in his forties or so who is following in his footsteps.

I walked by his shop at dusk some years ago and saw him and his son through the shopfront window, kneeling side by side on their raised work platform, in a pool of light, sharpening together, moving their respective blades, two handed, back and forth, back and forth, across their respective stones in unison.

The image has stayed with me.

The knives they work on become incredibly sharp, much more so than any I have encountered in the US. (Even tried a place in Portland, OR, that sells high-end Japanese knives and advertises sharpening in the Japanese way. Not remotely close. To be fair, I haven't run across anyone else this good in Japan either, though others are surely here.)

Knives have many properties and characteristics: metallurgy, design, balance, purpose, etcetera and etcetera. But, on the most fundamental level, a knife is supposed to cut. While both terms are relative, a sharp knife cuts better than a dull one and thus fulfills the knife's intrinsic purpose better.

As long as I keep returning to Japan, I am sure I'll be bringing some knives along to get sharpened.

Nice knife I'm sure and a good story. Can you bring back a picture of the father and son at work next time? I'd love to see them in action the way you saw them that first time.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

I recently came across an old knife in one of our kitchen drawers that says Hand Honed Ventco on it. Have no idea where it came from but it is the sharpest knife I have ever used. I am pretty sure it came from Japan.

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Nice knife. They made some great blades in Sheffield. I have had a machete made there for some 50 years.

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No baby we aint

Jeff, if I see that scene again, I may try to take a pic. But, it's kind of against my nature to intrude, as it were. Here's a pic of the two from the net:



(For whatever reason, I can't make the link to that pic work.)

Here's the father:



（街の十八番）菊一伊助商店＠鎌倉　研ぎ師の手でよみがえる刃：朝日新聞デジタル

These videos are of the son sharpening, although I think they must be from some years ago: - YouTube and - YouTube

Here's a pic of the shop and pic of father below: http://www.kamashun.co.jp/shop/cat6/post_5.html

It's a special place.

Cool pictures, those will suffice nicely, thanks.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Very cool and interesting story. I can get my knives sharp enough, but never as sharp as they should be. Would like to watch these masters at work.

There are less than a dozen people world wide (THINK ABOUT THAT) who are as skilled as sharpening and restoring, relative to Japan. This isn't a topic I can post a peer-researched journal or empirically demonstrate; however, I assure you this is accurate.

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Rather be outdoors

About twenty years ago I dabbled briefly in Japanese swords. One of the things I learned is that traditionally it takes ten years of apprenticeship to become a sword smith.

A sword polisher/sharpener is a separate profession traditionally requiring an apprenticeship of 12 years.