When you buy a Kiritsuke knife online or any other type of knife, you should ensure that the blade is thin enough to achieve optimal cutting. Most Japanese kitchen knives come with a perfect blade to do the desired task. However, in exceptional situations, this may not be true. When the blade is not thin enough to perform the designated task, you will need to thin it. Blade thinning involves thinning a blade of a knife to achieve the optimal cutting ability without compromising the structural integrity of the knife.
Why should you care?
It is important to care because if you want to achieve superior cutting ability then you will need to ensure that the blade is thin enough to do the task efficiently. However, you should be careful because if the blade is too thin, the apex can be damaged while using it.
What is the degree of the grand of the knife’s apex?
There is no use cutting hard frozen berries using a fine-edged Japanese kitchen knife or expecting the edge of a heavy-duty cleaver to carve through raw meat. Without each kitchen knife category, there is an optimal range for the thinness and shape of each bevel and the degree of your blade’s grind. In most cases, the blade of your knife should gradually taper down from the apex to the spine or vice versa.
The quality of steel is important
Your Kiritsuke knife may have the perfect steel since it is a special knife made by experienced knife makers. However, if you have any other type of knife, it is important to be careful when thinning. In determining whether you should thin your knife or not, you need to be aware of the type of steel your knife is made of. You should also understand that not all steels are made equal. If the steel of your knife cannot tolerate a thin blade, then it does not make sense to force it to become thin. You will harm the knife.
Allocated use is a very important factor
It is important to know what your knife is going to be used for before you start thinning it. A blade that is thinned specifically for cutting sashimi, fruit or carpaccio is going to struggle or even bend when you try to use it to cut through pumpkin or hard cheese. When a kitchen knife is at its optimal sharpness and bevel grind for its design, you will realise that you have to apply almost no pressure to make it cut as it should do.
It makes a difference
As you consider buying your Kiritsuke knife online, you should know that Japanese and western knives are very different. Most western knives are double bevel-shaped knives. This means that the apex of the knife is formed like a V-shape and it is the same on both sides. On the other hand, the Japanese knives have a more acute angle single bevel and are razor sharp. However, some Japanese knives can have a double bevel but single bevels are often a favourite with most experienced chefs.
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