A better mousetrap.

For an index of cooking articles on this blog click here.

Five years ago I pretty much gave up on my chef’s knife and transitioned to a cleaver. You can read about that here.

The upgrade demon reared his ugly head the other day and I resolved to try a Japanese edge cleaver for even better cutting. Japanese knives are sharpened to a 12-15 degree angle, much finer than the 20 degrees used in European hardware. Better cutting, the trade-off being faster wear of the finer edge.

A new sharpening tool and a Japanese cleaver – the Rambo. Click the image.

My electric knife sharpener – check the link above – is getting long in the tooth, the grinding wheels are now well worn and you cannot replace them. You have to buy the whole thing again. Boo!

So I thought I would try the Japanese Mitsumoto Sakari sharpener which comes with coarse and fine stones, as well as a scissor sharpener. But the real secret to this tool is that the sharpening angle is adjustable from 14 to 24 degrees. As for the cleaver, it’s a non-stainless forged steel one (I borrowed it from Sylvester Stallone when he was not making Rambo XLI) for a better edge and I immediately sharpened it to a 14 degree angle. First, however, I checked the angles on the Mitsumoto and can confirm they are dead accurate, the 14 degree setting yields a subtended angle of 28 degrees, the 20 degree yields 40 degrees and so on. Nice.

I gave the Rambo ten unidirectional swipes through the 14 degree coarse sharpener, then five more through the fine and can confirm that it’s scary sharp. The hole in the blade is for your forefinger and has nasty burrs when shipped. A few seconds with a Nicholson rat tail file saw those off. The forefinger is inserted there as a further precaution against your finger dipping into your workpiece. The Rambo comes with a sturdy leather belt pouch for those occasions when you feel it’s necessary to wreak havoc outdoors.

The sharpening rods in the Mitsumoto are fairly fine so only time will tell how well they wear. At $25 you can buy five for the price of one Kitchen Chef electrical tool, so it’s not a big concern. Recommended.

As for the Rambo, I have to do a lot more butchering before passing judgment. Suffice it to say that I feel empowered – and dangerous.