Recent content by rennet

It's great to hear from both of you. It's reassuring to know that the crack is unlikely to grow and that nothing really needs to be done about it. The crack is already full of beeswax so I was thinking of just warming it up a little and forcing some more melted wax into the void. If the crack...

Thanks for the advice guys. I've contacted John and will wait for his input as well. In the meantime I'll see if I can find some penetrating epoxy. I looked for a while yesterday and it seems pretty hard to source in Canada.

I got a walnut carolina slab from Dave in February 2015 that arrived with what looked like a small scratch/defect in the corner and didn't think much of it. You can see it on the leftmost corner of the 2nd picture: This is a photo I took today of the defect. It doesn't seem to have...

The first photo says ヤスキ鋼 "yasuki hagane," referring to the type of steel. The second appears to say "常信作" or "Made by Tsunenobu." I'm not sure who the maker is; a quick search didn't turn up any results.

Yep, reaction of certain iron compounds with tannic acid results in an easily soluble product, but this reaction can also form stable, insoluble compounds. Here we'd be talking about a form of passivation that involves the reaction between iron compounds and tannic acid to form ferric tannates...

Plantain peels are rich in tannic acids which dissolve iron sulfates into solution. You can see the same sort of reaction if you soak patinated iron in anything rich in tannin and sulfur, such as over-extracted tea. People used to make ink with this reaction using the tannins in oak leaf...

Yup, I picked up some bits of uchigomori a couple years ago and have been splitting it for finger stones.

I cleaned up my 240mm gyuto with some fingerstones a few days ago.