When you want to master your Japanese cooking skills, you may as well invest in good Japanese knives and Japanese whetstones. Here, we will teach you the best Japanese knives and Japanese whetstones you need as a beginner chef.
Two Kinds of Best Japanese Knives for Beginners
If you want to be a Japanese chef, especially a sushi chef, these are the two best Japanese knives you need to practice – a sashimi knife and a Deba knife. These are the ones you would probably practice at most Japanese culinary schools. Before we get to the main point, we should briefly talk about the type of materials of knives – stainless steel knives and carbon steel knives.
Stainless Steel Knives: Stainless steel knives require less maintenance and care, so they are more suitable for beginners. However, they are softer than carbon steel knives, so you need to sharpen them more often.
Carbon Steel Knives: Carbon steel knives are usually more expensive and made of robust material, and they rust quickly. Thus, you have to give them good maintenance every day. If you are a chef and slice a lot of fish daily, you need hard materials like carbon steel.
Now that you know the materials of knives, we recommend the two best Japanese knives for beginners below.
Sashimi Knife
A sashimi knife, also known as a Yanagi-ba knife, is one of the best Japanese knives. It is the most suitable for slicing fish for sushi or sashimi because you can cut the fish in one stroke with its long blade.
You want to get a sashimi knife that is thinner and pointy towards the end. A rectangular-shaped sashimi knife, tako-biki, is challenging to handle for beginners.
The longer the blade is, the easier it is to slice a fish filet in one stroke. However, it is also harder to handle those knives. A 24-27 cm (9.5-10.6 inches) sashimi knife is probably the most common for beginners, as a 29+ cm (about 11.4 inches) sashimi knife is harder to handle.
Deba Knife
A deba knife is the other kind of the best Japanese knife we recommend. Deba is an all-purpose knife, but its best use is for filleting whole fish. It has a thick blade body and gives strong power to cut through the dense bones of the fish. Although it is heavy and robust, it has a fine blade. The blade prevents damaging the flesh of fish when slicing.
Japanese Whetstones for Beginners
Maintaining the sharpness of your knives is very important, and you need a whetstone to sharpen your knives. A whetstone is a fine-grained stone used for sharpening knives, and Japanese whetstones are great for beginners. They are also called water stones, and you only need water to sharpen your knives along with a whetstone.
Size
You need a big Japanese whetstone about 23 cm (about 9 inches) long, at least 20 cm (about 8 inches) at the minimum. Most of the Japanese whetstones available are smaller (17-18 cm/ about 7 inches), and those are difficult to sharpen long Japanese knives like sashimi knives.
Material
Whetstones with natural stones are more expensive. However, artificial materials are cheaper, and there is no problem using them. Since technology has advanced, the material is not necessarily essential for Japanese whetstones. So, please make sure to pay more attention to the size and range of grits than to the material.
Range of Grits
The bigger the grit number is, the finer the stone becomes. The range can be from around 80 to 8000 grit or even more. Depending on the purpose, it varies which whetstone you should use.
For example, a 400-grit whetstone has a coarse surface, and a 3000-grit whetstone has a fine surface. There are 6000 to 8000 grit Japanese whetstones, and they give the surface of the knife a “mirror-like” shining effect. Unless you need your knife to shine like a mirror, you need two Japanese whetstones, 800-1000 grit, and 3000 grit, for your regular sharpening.
These three aspects – size, material, and range of grits – are the most important when you select your Japanese whetstones. If you do not use the right Japanese whetstone, you might end up damaging your knives.
How to Sharpen Japanese Knives using Japanese Whetstones
Start sharpening your knives with a lower-grit Japanese whetstone (800-1000 grit). Then, finish up with a finer-grit whetstone (3000 grit). The lower grit whetstone will repair chipped or dull edges, and the higher grit whetstone will refine the knife.
You also want to buy a lower-grit Japanese whetstone (400 grit) for when the knife is really rough. A 400-grit whetstone will bring the sharpness back. Also, you can use the whetstone to sharpen a higher-grit whetstone that is out of shape from frequent use. Basically, you can rub the 400-grit whetstone with a higher-grit whetstone to smooth it out. Sometimes, a Japanese whetstone comes with a whetstone flattener. In this case, you might not need a lower-grit whetstone.
Learn More with Our Master Class!
Do you want to know more about the best Japanese knives and Japanese whetstones? We got you covered with our Japanese Knife & Sharpening Masterclass! In the course, you can learn the basic knowledge of Japanese knives and whetstones and complete steps for taking care of your knives.
Also, please check Japanese cuisine content on our Youtube channel if you want to learn more!
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