Shinkansen Water Sharpener

Email from Shelley:

"Hi,
found your article the secrets of easy knife sharpening useful. i had settled on the Shinkansen Water Sharpener but have heard that it is only suitable for japanese knives which have a different angle of cutting blade to european knives. is this the case or is the water sharpener ok?

regards
Shelley"

Comments

[Andrew & Babette Bluett-Duncan]

Dear Shelley

First apologies for the lateness of my reply, but we’ve been away on holiday.

You do not need to be concerned about the differences in my experience (European’s sharpen their knives at 22.5degrees and the Japanese at approx 10-15degrees). I have the “Mino Sharp” as its now called at home and use it on both European and oriental knives without any problem. The only knives I would think twice about using it on would be the type of Japanese knife that requires sharpening predominantly on one side only. If you think you have ones of these let me know and I’ll show you how to identify it and how to sharpen it as well.

So yes the Shinkansen Mino Sharp is perfectly ok.

Best wishes

Andrew Duncan