Knife Care & Maintenance

The Emperor Series is engineered with super premium AUS-10V Japanese steel with an incredible rockwell hardness scale level of 62+. That’s seriously hard steel! Additionally, this blade was hand finished using the traditional 3-step Japanese Honbazuke Method to ensure razor sharpness. As such, this blade will hold its edge for longer than most any other knife.

It isn’t recommended to hone this blade too often but if necessary, it is advised to use a medium-fine ceramic honing rod that is around a #1200 grit, and follow the following instructions.

1. With the tip of the honing rod facing downward and resting on a flat and stable surface at a comfortable height in relation to your body, hold the handle securely with your non-dominant hand.
2. Hold the knife in your dominant hand, with the sharp edge of the blade touching the honing rod.
3. Ideally, one should hold the blade at a 22.5-degree angle to the honing rod. To get this angle, first hold the knife at a 90-degree angle (horizontally). Then, rotate the knife so that it halves that imaginary 90-degree angle to 45-degrees. Rotate once more to half that and you are at 22.5 degrees.

1. Start with the heel of the knife, and draw the blade downward along the rod toward the counter, maintaining light pressure. Be sure to pull the handle back toward you, so that you make contact with the entire length of the blade's edge.
2. Repeat on alternating sides until desired edge is attained.

Sharpening serrated knives.

For sharpening serrated knives such as our Regalia™ Emperor Series Bread knife, a sharpening rod is required. This should indeed be a rare occurrence if it is EVER necessary at all. If it is ever needed, you should choose as sharpening rod with a diameter that matches the serrations of your knife. For the Regalia™ Imperator Series bread knife, choose a sharpening rod which is between 8-13mm in diameter.

1. Lay the sharpening rod in the serrations and tooth by tooth, move the rod back and forth in an even manner.
2. Make sure you hit the full length of the serration. You may have to hold the sharpening rod slightly at an angle.

A great safe way to achieve a perfect and even sharpness is to lay the knife flat on the end of a table with the serrated edge slightly over the edge of the table and move the sharpening rod back and forth over each serration.

Whetstone Sharpening

For sharpening Regalia™ Emperor Series knives with non-serrated blades it is strongly recommended to use a whetstone for sharpening. This takes a bit of practice but the effort is worth it to attain a ridiculously sharp edge. You should not have to sharpen your Regalia™ knives often, if ever, as they are crafted for ultimate edge retention. However, with heavy use, this may periodically be recommended from time to time as with all knives.

We recommend using a medium-grit stone (#1000-#2000) for sharpening and a fine-grit (#6000- #8000) stone for finishing.

• Start by soaking your stones in water for 5-10 minutes (some stones may require longer soaking). Ensure that no more air bubbles arise from the submerged stone which indicates that the stone has absorbed the maximum amount of water.
• Place the stone on a flat surface on top of a slip free material such as a towel.
• Continually wet with water while sharpening. The water combines with small particles released from the stone’s surface to form an abrasive substance, which allows the sharpening to take place.
• While sharpening, avoid bumping or rubbing the bolster or handle on the whetstone which can cause scratches. You may want to wrap these areas with tape or some other material to prevent accidental scratching.
• Starting with the more course #1000 stone, place the knife blade’s cutting edge on the stone at a 15 degree angle and move the knife on the stone with light pressure to and from your body. 

• Start at the tip of the blade. Pull the blade over the stone through to the middle and down to the base of the blade. After a short time, a fine edge will have developed.
• Repeat with the other side of the blade, and repeat as many times as necessary.
• Be sure to always use the same angle while sharpening to get clean straight edges.
• When sharpness has been acquired switch to the fine-grit #6000 stone and repeat process for ultimate smoothness.
• To remove and burr that might have resulted from sharpening, lay a piece of newspaper on a flat surface and rub the knife’s edge as if spreading butter on the paper. Do this on both sides until burr is removed.
• Rinse off stones and knives and pat knives dry with absorbent towel.