A question for lefties

If you deal with a "normal", asymmetric blade, and want to convert it to a neutral, I understand that you recenter the edge, and convex the left face somewhat by thinning.
Do you flatten the right face?
Just curious.

i haven't had to. only if i experience asymmetric blade problems then i'll be able to chime in. hope someone else other than me would help. i'd like to know as well.

Well, despite reading through the "real deal assymetric" thread, i still basically just sharpen it closer to 50/50. when thinning i try to flatten it a bit more lefty style, but it's really not much.

I realize i might not get the full potential out of the knife, but that's what i am used to. Now all this may change as i will soon get a Tilman Leder with a 90/10 lefty assymetric....

I think it depends on the knife and how asymmetric it is. I have a Kono HD and it cuts awesome for me now, I thinned the left side a lot and the right a little, but there was a lot of steel to play with, it was fairly close to 50/50 so there was enough steel on the left side to make it convex. I also only ever sharpen the left side. I got a Carbonext recently however, and it is a lot more asymmetric, so I plan on just thinning/flattening the right side, because there isn't enough steel on the left side to make it convex

If you have room to play I the left side, I take the bevel up (think wider), and add some convexing. On the right hand side, I flatten/thin the face and minimize the bevel. Hope that makes sense.

when you guys say "flatten the right side" are you refering to thinning it behind the edge? or are you doing something else?

That's what I mean. My post was partly gibberish. I apologize. Ha

labor of love said:

when you guys say "flatten the right side" are you refering to thinning it behind the edge? or are you doing something else?

Click to expand...

I mean flattening the entire right face to reduce its convexity, and not thinning behind the edge, which would enhance it.

benuser, you achieve this with a low grit stone right? i like this idea.

I would use automotive sandpaper, starting with grit P120.

I'd consider it the same thing....

I don't know, maybe I'm a lot less motivated. There are so many knives out there why buy one with a strong righty bias? I can see making an assymetric bevel on a 50-50 knife but to try to essentially regrind a knife seems like an awful lot of work to me. Not to mention it would unlikely be as good as one made by a master from the start.

This is not to say that I haven't done my share of crazy stuff. I have a Watanabe gyuto that I was determined to flatten. Which I did. Now the kanji is gone and I don't think it cuts any better than before. But it's flat!

Jan