After 12 years in a cooking school, how can this Miyabi Birchwood knife still work?

We've taught people how to cook for over 12 years and 1 thing that has been constant in our classroom is our Miyabi Birchwood 5000 MCD 8" Chef's Knife. It's been used in thousands of cooking classes by countless people.

In this video, I'm examining the wear and tear on this knife and how it compares to a brand new Birchwood 5000 MCD 8" Chef's Knife

[k.ahnung]

Seems like I made the right decision in buying one of these some weeks ago 🙂
It's no wonder that the old one needs a tiny bit longer when cutting through the tomato. Even though the edge might be razor sharp the blade itself is a little bit thicker behind the cutting edge as a lot of material was removed during the resharpening over the years and the blade becomes thicker towards the spine.
I can understand that you prefer the electric sharpener as it makes life easy for you and delivers reproducible results. However there are two things an amateur home cook should take into consideration
1) if it's done wrong an electric sharpener might ruin the heat treatment if a single spot is sharpened for too long without cooling
2) with an electric sharpener you tend to remove more material than actually necessary. From my personal experience with powder metallurgical steel (like the 5000MCD has as core steel) I tend to believe that even with hard use regular stropping is enough. Those steels are so hard and abrasive resistant that there is almost no loss of material from the use itself. Therefore stropping on a high quality leather with diamond compound should be enough. However, this surely is more work if it needs to be done for several knifes quite often.

I hope you will enjoy the old Miyabi for a lot of years to come.

[dmkiii]

Good to know they're not just for show. I have a near complete set of the Birchwood knivves: 9.5" Kiritsuke, 7" Santoku, 7" Nikiri, 9" Slicer {Sujihiki}, 9" Chef's Knife {Gyuto} and 5" Utility Paring / Petty Knife. Glad to hear they hold up well over time under heavy use. They are beautiful and superbly well made knives that hold amazingly sharp edges. They are a bit of a costly investment to get the ones I have, but worth it. I've had them for less than a year now and they've only required occasional light, steel rod, edge tune up, honing and light ceramic plate touch up sharpening on a Work Sharp Precision Pro hand sharpener, followed with stropping on leather to maintain a RAZOR sharp edge. I would NEVER, EVER use a powered grind stone / belt sharpener or pull through type sharpener [SACRILEGE} on even a cheap knife, much less my Birchwoods. I LOVE my Birchwood 5000MCD set and am pleased to know they're going to outlast me. hahah Especially because I'm not grinding they're useful life away with powered grinder sharpeners and only use a precise angle control, stand sharpener using interchangeable diamond plates of various grits, from 360 to 10, 000, all HAND sharpened as befitting knives of this quality level. I can't believe you use power grinding sharpeners on that knife. Boggles the mind. That's like using sandpaper to wax your Lamborghini. UGH!!!

[chrishall]

As a knife nerd i heard babies crying when you said mechanical sharpener😂 The part of the knife that has been ground off means that the knife will never be as slicey as a new one. It can be every bit as sharp, but the thickness of the blade is more at the beginning in the old knife vs the new one. I appreciate seeing long use knives like this. Thanks for the video.

[elperuanoclandestino]

Congrats on the video. I was convinced to get a Miyabi, but I just saw a video reporting manufacturing issues in all the series, including the 5000, except for the 4000. A lack of part of the forging process makes the knife very easy to bend, with no recovery, like in some other Japanese brands. Did you hear about this issue?

[bobekdj]

I think the analogy of commercial use to home was a great point. Question for you is how have you maintained the birchwood handle on the older knife? (Or have you don’t anything to maintain the handle?)

[mfsj]

Hi, I have the same Miyabi Gyutoh at what angle do you sharpen it at?

[lukeywalsh]

Recently got a Miyabi Birchwood and a Miyabi Artisan. Miyabi sharpening tools are expensive. Hoping there are less pricey brands of strops and whetstones. Recommend any brand of strops, honing tools or other items that help them stay sharp?

[jeronimomacias]

Beautiful knife. The knife being that old and sharpened often it may need to be thinned a bit. Great video.

[pentapandamusic]

How about the Mizu series sir, are they also good or should I invest in the 5000 mcd?

[devlifedotnet]

Honestly, the main difference here on the no pressure test, may well just be geometry. If you send the knife to a pro sharpener and have the knife thinned out slightly, you should get equal performance... Mechanical sharpeners won't help with geometry either

[eductase_ceo]

Great video! I have a question - as the old knife got ground down more and more and the damascus layers began to "touch" the bevel (and therefore started to be part of the knife bevel) - did you notice any difference in the cutting performance or in how long the knife holds its edge? Or is there no difference? Thanks in advance!

[nguyenp.nguyen]

I think you should use a Miyabi black. It's a tad less sharp than the birchwood but the edge retention is superior. After 1-2 weeks of use and honed with a ceramic rod it would be even sharper than a birchwood and it also last 2-3 months more (maybe 3-4 weeks in culinary schools) more before needing to be properly sharpened. I think with the miyabi black the sharpening service at your local knife shop is worth it. Just ask them to not go past the #10000 grit

[joseramirez-hhsw]

You can always thin out the old knife and get it as 'slicy' as knew. It's a pretty thin knife, less than 2mm thick, so thinning the edges should not take as long. And polishing would be the most time consuming since it sorta has that mirror like finish. But ofc you don't have to match the finishing.

Anyways tldr: yes you can get it back to slicy if you want

[Papa_O.A.M]

I just bought a Miyabi 8 inch knife online and was wondering where would be the best place to have it sharpened? I live in South Florida, Boynton Beach to be exact, and was wondering where I can take my knife to be sharpened when needed? I'm new to this and have no idea of how to even search up for this online. So any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance and thanks for all your video's!

[TdSharp]

The thickness behind the edge can be fixed by getting the knife thinned. Make sure you get the right person to do this for you. A piece like this would require a quality polishing following thinning.

[jrlaudio]

With Miyabi sharpness, it is more about the angle than the depth of the blade. The new knife is sharpened at a 9 degree angle on the primary face (the faces are asymmetrical). If you are using a mechanical sharpener you may only be able to get an angle of about 12 degrees minimum and only symmetrical. This makes a huge difference for the renowned Miyabi sharpness. I hand sharpen my Birchwoods; however, this is after years of refining my technique and it is not easy to sharpen at such shallow asymmetric angles by hand. My 13 year old knives are equally as sharp as the new one I recently purchased. Try a 9 degree asymmetric angle on the edge and I guarantee the old knife will feel as sharp as the new one.

[einundsiebenziger]

Great to see the old knife in such a relatively good shape. Yet, it looks like the blade has developed a little recurve, with the heel a little higher up than the middle of the edge. This is probably due to what you call a "mechanical" sharpener. Since all sharpening, i.e. abrasion, is technically "mechanic", do you perhaps mean an electric sharpener or a drag-through sharpener? And what do you mean by "cuts like butter"? Butter cannot cut, and cutting butter is a bad test for sharpness as even hard, cold butter is much too ductile.

[jonasbusse]

Thanks for this Great Video .

what angle for grinding would you suggest

[erik]

I have a miyabi koh gyuto and a long slicer. Love them both. They aren't Damascus, but they are less than half the cost of a Birchwood. If I were to spend $300 on a new gyuto, I'd get a VG-10 locally for less. I love the look of the Birchwood line, but I don't think they are a good value.

[dorothyclaygardner]

I'm a home cook. I appreciate a sharp knife. I have mine sharpen professionaly first; and I maintain with a stone. Like my Big Daddy did😊❤