I don't think the Japanese origin is so much a factor as the particular knife. I have a Gerber Silver Knight folder made in Seki City that responds well to ceramic rods. I don't use steels much, although I have an old Gerber steel from the 1970's.
The Fallkniven knives are designed in Sweden and sold from there, but are actually made to their specs by high grade cutlery firms in Japan. They're not cheap, but are handsome and rugged, and many models pass rigorous trials by both the Swedish and US governments and by the Technical University of Lulea in Sweden. Their F-1 model with optional black blade is the issue pilot survival knife in the Royal Swedish Air Force. If the pilot of a Draken or Viggen fighter has to punch out over an Arctic landscape, that's the knife he has to stay alive in sometimes frigid conditions
Fallkniven recommends using diamond hones. Their edge geometry on many models is what used to be called the Moran edge here or the Appleseed edge.
Their kitchen knives ere another matter and may require sharpening via another means.Their site may say:
www.fallkniven.com
Fallkniven has US dealers, but the prices on the home site are in Swedish kroner.
I can tell you that their kitchen items are so sharp that you can almost cut yourself by looking at them hard!
Their sheath knives are so nice that I just opened the shrink wrap on a box of tea with my NL-2. It is absurd to use a knife that large and heavy for the need, and I have knives better suited. A Henckels or a Wusthof kitchen knife normally gets the call for that duty. But I was just in the mood to use the NL-2 and was puttting it away after a monthly welfare check on it, so I used that 20CM (a bit over 8 inch) blade to open the tea. Hey, I need to handle the leather handle sometimes to get some skin oil into it so that it doesn't dry out. I did give it several coats of polish when it arrived a few years ago.
I don't know why more of you guys don't seem to use Fallkniven knives. They're exceptional. Look over the site and check out their folders. The only one I have is a U-2, with synthetic handle and a complex steel blade that is VERY sharp. I want several others. Work the buttons there and see the knives. I suppose that if I could only have one Fallkniven, it'd be a S-1 Forest Knife. But if you want a very light pocket knife that's sharper than a cutting remark, the U-2 is a good one, if you don't need larger. (My larger folders are from Gerber, Benchmade, and Puma.)
Japan is a place. You don't sharpen a knife a certain way because it's Japanese or German, or whatever. You sharpen it the way the blade is ground.
