I’ve got a bit of a problem. The more I test knives, the more I’ve become addicted to the factory-sharp edge of a brand-new chef’s knife. There’s just nothing like it. There I am, holding the edge of a chef’s knife right against an onion. I let my forearm go slack; the weight of the knife drops straight down until it hits the cutting board. Klonk. The onion is split in two. Try that with your favorite three-year-old nakiri, and you’re lucky if it cuts through three layers, at best. The key to restoring that perfect onion split is maintaining a sharp knife, though for years, my attempts at using a whetstone were more likely to dull the edge more than sharpen it. And then I found the Shapton whetstone set.
My journey to the Shapton ran through professional knife sharpener Ryota Togishi and his work on Instagram. Spend about 10 minutes with it and it will leave you with some truly fantastical thoughts: What would I do if I needed to split four stacked lemons in one single blow? If my friend brings over some mold-aged tuna, will my tuna sword even be sharp enough? What if I need to open some bottled water and can’t unscrew the lid? It’s unlikely any of these situations will come to pass, but you don’t want to go through another tomato season with a knife glancing off the skin.
I noticed after watching Togishi, that he often name-checked Shapton as one of the whetstone brands he uses regularly. After reading a few reviews, I figured it was time to give the ol’ sharpening racket one more shot.
A quick note: Along with a new whetstone I opted to snag some angle guides, as well. That’s because using a whetsone can be tricky for novices. The process involves running your knife’s edge along a ceramic block at the perfect angle where you’re actually removing metal and reshaping the edge. And while a whetstone is the best way to sharpen your knives, it takes a bit of skill, practice, and patience. Hold the knife at too high an angle, and you’ll blunt the edge. Keep the angle too low, and you’ll struggle to get both sides to meet at a sharp point. Get the angle just right, however, and you’ll reset the knife’s overall geometry, making it perfectly razor sharp.
What sold me on the Shapton set was the process of wetting the whetstones. Shapton say you should only soak them for five minutes before the first use. After that it’s just a small splash of water before taking you knives to it, with some continued splashing as you go. That’s a huge departure from most whetstones, which require you to soak the stone for up to 15 minutes before they’re ready to use. That takes some forward planning. It also means that your stones are completely waterlogged and take forever to properly dry lest they start to mold or mildew after you put them away in their cases, which happened to my last set. I also found that you can soak your stones for too long, causing the finer grit side to become too soft. I learned this the hard way, too, when I watched a corner crumble as I went for one last pass with my old chef’s knife. Bummer.
These Shapton stones only require a few drops of water before they’re ready for sharpening, and that means you can re-sharpen your knives whenever you want. The other week, I wanted picture-perfect slices of carne asada to photograph, and I was able to touch up my blades in under a minute while the steak was cooling on the cutting board. Because the stones aren’t fully soaked to the core, they also dry quickly, and can be stored in their vented case right after use. My steak looked beautiful in perfectly pink, medium-rare strips, and no one was the wiser that I had a last-minute panicked sharpening session. Since the cases also double as rubber-footed stone holders and stack for easy storage, it took almost no time to set them up and put them away.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Sure, they’re low-maintenance and easy to store, but what about performance? With some assistance from the angle guides, I easily touched up my entire knife rack to near factory-edge perfection with just 10 strokes on both sides of the blade, first on the rougher grit stone to sharpen the edge, and then on the finer grit stone to set it. The surfaces glide smoothly, even with just a few drops of water, and the knives came out sharp. I really loved the sharp right angles of the stones as well, which helped me keep perfect surface contact with the edge on each pass of the blade.
I was elated. But I’m also a fiend for honing my blades. How well would these stones sharpen a less-maintained knife? Or, for that matter, a downright abused one? Like, say, if someone were to saw away at some patio brick in their backyard with a bonus knife they had from their last review?
So there I was, hunched over under a blue sky, wincing as each pass along the brick dug into the knife and grated away its edge. Next, I set up my station one more time: a 1000-grit “orange” stone to remove metal and sharpen the edge, next to the 5000-grit “wine” stone to polish and set it. A few splashes of water, some positioning of the blade, and I gave it 10 strokes per side, running the edge forward up the surface and back for each stroke. A few more splashes of water on the fine-grit stone, and 10 more passes on each side. As I held up a piece of paper, I ran the now-sharpened knife along the edge. It cut—or started to—and then tore the sheet in half. Okay, maybe just one pass wasn’t quite enough. I repeated the process, and the second sheet was sliced in two in one neat motion. All in all, it took about 45 seconds to go from “so dull it bent paper” to “just about as sharp as my lovingly tended knives.” It actually took longer to dull the knife on the brick than it did to reshape and hone the edge.
Now, just because you buy in a new set of whetstones doesn’t mean your knives will become magically sharper. There’s definitely a skill level required to get the most out of this set. And this set isn’t cheap, either—at around $100, these two stones will set you back the same price as our favorite moderately priced knives. But if you’re willing to learn, and you’ve got the budget, it’s definitely worth investing in these Shapton Ha No Kuromaku whetstones to keep your knives as sharp as the day you got them. Or, at the very least, sharper than they are right now—that factory-perfect edge might only be achievable by a pro, but it’s not like you need to peel off see-through slices of shokupan with your knife. You’re just looking to make your steak tacos look great for the ‘gram. And in life, it’s good to set achievable goals.