Sharpening my Yusuke

Aw'ight guys, I need some help with this...

I need to sharpen my Yusuke, and I don't know what to do with it.

A little back ground – as a couple of you know, I kinda made a mess of my Heiji 240. I thought I knew what I was doing with that knife when I sharpened it, but I didn’t understand the geometry and how to deal with it properly. I made a combination of errors. (Jon has since fixed the knife, and it’s stunning – he has amazing skills!)

I’ve never had these problems on any of my other knives, but they are not like the Heiji in most regards. But, I have seen evidence of these bad habits/poor techniques showing signs in my other knives, and I don’t want to mess up another knife, especially my beloved Yusuke KS-clone.

Where I’m stuck is what to do with the factory grind. There’s no visible bevels at all – the blade face just tapers down the sides right to the edge. I have no understanding of how they created the knife nor how to deal with it. My other Yusuke knives came this way as well and all were very sharp OOTB. I’ve since cut my own bevels at about 12-15d angles or so, and done my best to keep the bevel width consistent around the curve towards the tip. But I can see that they have changed shape over time.

I’m not sure this is the right thing to do with this knife. I’m thinking I should lay it flat on the stone and not worry about cutting a new bevel in. At least with the Heiji there is a distinct shinogi line to follow and a hamaguri edge. This Yusuke has nothing like that and I don’t know where to start.

Have you sharpened it before? Does it require thinning already?

I should have clarified - I have not sharpened this knife yet. I've had it since mid June 2012. I've only touched up the edge on a MAC black rod, and stropped on Boron, Chro, and leather. This has consistently given a very sharp edge, but it's not effective any more. I wouldn't say it requires thinning - it's an amazing cutter even when dull - but I wonder if I should treat it like a hamaguri edge.

I think you can follow the factory edge bevels. You dont have to touch the blade faces at all.

mpukas said:

I should have clarified - I have not sharpened this knife yet. I've had it since mid June 2012. I've only touched up the edge on a MAC black rod, and stropped on Boron, Chro, and leather. This has consistently given a very sharp edge, but it's not effective any more. I wouldn't say it requires thinning - it's an amazing cutter even when dull - but I wonder if I should treat it like a hamaguri edge.

Click to expand...

Can you post a close up of each side so we can see what the bevels look like? From what I read you seem to imply there is no bevel on the front side but I think a pic will help a lot with the advise.

Check out the pics I posted in the review, and let me know if you need more.

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/7825-Gisele-(wanring-long-winded-and-pic-heavy)

Where I'm stuck is there are no apparent factory bevels. It's ground 50/50.

mpukas, ive been patiently waiting for a new batch, hopefully with some 270mms ever since your review.

+1 - I'd love a 270 too!

Pick your favorite 1k and a nice steep angle and go to town on the right side. It shouldn't take more than a minute of careful grinding. Repeat on the left side. Don't use too much pressure. Thin blades will flex on your stone and give you very weak edges.

To sharpen just pick an angle like 10 or 15 degrees per side, and go at it. For thinning, its just like sharpening, but at 3-6 degrees per side. The longer you thin, the narrower it becomes behind the edge. Just be careful not to go too low and scratch up the side of the blade if you don't want a couple of hours of extra work :biggrin:

The Yusuke's do have bevels, they're just really tiny and feather like. I haven't sharpened my KS clone yet, but i have done with a friends standard profile knife. I decided to use the sharpie trick and start with a quite conservative 15-20 degree angles using a chosera 400 to begin with. It only needed 3 to 4 strokes on the stone before i felt a lite burr. After giving it a quick rinse and dry, I could see that the most of the ink had gone (there was some on the side of the knife as the edge was so thin) and i had the tiny bevels i were looking for.

Like tk59 said if thinning don't do it too long or wt. excess finger pad pressure.I have the Yusuke thin white steel,it's one of my favorite knives.It does come wt. that feather like bevel,mine was close to 50/50.The steel is so thin at the edge.How I do it-shallow angle both sides 1K,burr raised after one pass,flip it over do the same,remove burr lite sweep on stone--4K polish original bevel,then kick in final bevel(how high you like your final bevel is up to you)it adds strength to that fine blade road.

On the Yusuke I put final bevel on both sides,on more assem. edges I might put it on just one side.

I put a hard/steep bevel on my left side (I'm a lefty) and have found the knife to be a better cutter now without any any ill side effects. Mine may have needed thinning more than yours.