How to Repair and Thin a Chipped Japanese Kitchen Knife

Oh no, you chipped your knife! Worry not, sharpening wizard Naoto is here to show you the secrets to repairing and thinning your kitchen knife yourself, just like one of the Knifewear pros. In this video Naoto walks you through grinding the chip out of your blade, maintaining the blade profile, thinning your Japanese knife, and finally sharpening your blade so it cuts like new!

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Products used in this video
Knifewear 220 grit stone:

Knifewear 1,000 grit stone:

Knifewear 4,000 grit stone:

Knifewear truing stone:

Knifewear paddle strop:

Knifewear Sink Bridge:

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[BuddhaB]

his was the first video i watched that gave me the confidence to try and remove the chip in my knife

[Hein]

Dude.. this is the best video on this topic. Thank you 🙏

[ilcomendante]

Great tips! Reshaped my folding knife today for the first time (but watched this only afterwards lol). Learning by doing ! Much love

[DazCanada]

Let me express my sincere gratitude for all your help. I have a beautiful Japanese knife that was in pretty rough shape. This video helped very much. Thank you!

[trevor]

Fingers crossed, I don’t chip a knife but I’m glad I’ve got this for a reference if I do. Great video, super informative!!

[davesmith]

Really good trick with the Sharpie! Love it. Also, the tip about grinding a very steep bevel - like 45 degrees. I repaired [sharpened] a set of chipped knives (a friend), and opted for a belt sander. It leaves an enormous burr, but it's much faster (careful with the heat, don't let it get above warm). Then a 220 or whatever is just about removing the burr, checking to see that you got all the chips. Edit: beautiful work on that knife!

[andrewm]

Great video Naoto! Going to purchase my first set of stones as a result and try this out. I'm sure you make it look a lot easier than it actually is but .. we try!

[TheBushape]

Very much enjoyed Naoto, please send me some damaged knives to practice on.

[frostcorgi]

if you have just a small chip can you skip straight to the thinning step?

[greekveteran]

Nice tips, Important note: DO NOT let your leather strop laying by water. you don't want any water splash on the leather, because it will harden the surface of the strop and ruin it's function!

[esmerillia]

Agreed with the top comment, this is the first vid that gave me the confidence to fix my chipped knife as well. It was a $450 Gyuto.

[WormyLeWorm]

During the thinning step, is it also important to put pressure closer to the edge for part of it to ensure that area just behind the edge also gets thinned? I was thinking since a bevel might not be entirely flat and may have high/low spots, it may first require thinning with pressure closer to the shinogi, then closer to the edge.

[dirkh]

Thx for sharing. Do you also thin the upper part towards the spine? This knife looks like to beveled grind and thinning looks like only the lower one is worked on?

[ravenmooore]

3:24 Do I put pressure on the push or pull stroke? or both? :) I just started my sharpening learning and the sharpening method I follow is only apply pressure during a pull stroke to create burrs. Is it similar here?

[PapawKnows]

With a Sharpton or Chosera how hard of a steel can you sharpen? Will they have a problem with the super steels like Magnacut, K390, s110v, s90v, 20v, 15v, 3V, Cruwear, and other steel with a high Rockwell Hardness? A hardness above 62 or a bit higher?

[alanshaw]

How would you restore a Yu Kurosaki Senco to make it look completely factory new. I think if you thin that knife out it will never look right again. That would be a great video.

[sonkekoster]

So you switch the hand for the thinning to gain a similair scratch pattern on the primary bevel for booth sides of the blade - right?! Because if you use the dominat hand the scratch pattern is different. You simply have to move the blade in a different pattern over the stone.

[CatalinAdler]

Wouldn't the bevel thining also have fixed the chips? Isn't the same metal removed in the end?

[oneputtguru]

I only have a 1000/6000 combo stone. Can I remove chips with 1000 grit?

[oneputtguru]

Ok. I've got a Tojiro DP 220mm chef knife. I've got 220, 1000, and 6000 stones. I've have successfully ground the micro chips out, but I'm struggling to get the edge thinned and sharpened. I laid the knife flat on each stone and worked it for at least 20 mins per stone, then proceeded to sharpen, but the edge is still not quite there. Any tips? Something I'm missing on the Tojiro?