Scratches on kurouchi gyuto

I scratched up my Kochi 240mm carbon gyuto a bit while sharpening on the 500 stone. Would abrasive pads lessen the scratches? Its mostly on the raw edge. I'd have to be careful to avoid the kurouchi. Any advice? Everything from how-to to leave it alone is welcomed .

You should be able to get those scratches out with a finishing stone or a sandpaper progression.

What grit should I start at, say 400?

You used 500 grit stone to make those scratches. So lower grit would make even worse scratches. That's why you should start your progression with higher grit. It could be 600 or 800. Even 1000 might work but would require more time.

If you want to be really protective just cover everything up to the edge with strong tape. Looks like you could get those scratches out with abrasive pads/micro mesh or you could just leave it until you plan to thin behind the edge and polish them out on stones, Or as mentioned above just work the area on stones...

Maybe slow down your sharpening and focus on your technique, angle pressure and pitch as you approach the tip?

icanhaschzbrgr said:

You used 500 grit stone to make those scratches. So lower grit would make even worse scratches. That's why you should start your progression with higher grit. It could be 600 or 800. Even 1000 might work but would require more time.

Click to expand...

+1

Thanks to all. Definitely need to slow down when sharpening.

… maybe a bit offtopic here, but why did you start at 500 grit? Isn't it an overkill?

Until I want to reprofile knife or need some serious edge fixing, I would start at 1000 (or even at 2000 with the recently acquired Gesshin 2k). Yes, it takes more time to create burr with higher grit stones, but not that much more.

icanhaschzbrgr said:

… maybe a bit offtopic here, but why did you start at 500 grit? Isn't it an overkill?

Click to expand...

Was thinking the same thing.

I had a few minor bends in the edge I wanted to work out. No idea how it happened, I think with some tough parsnips.

Must have been a bad ass parsnip

i'll start at 300 grit if it helps me get the job done faster... doenst mean i need to remove more metal (i can spend less time on each stone)... just making the point that its not necessary to be afraid of low grits if you are comfortable with your sharpening.

More like ass bad technique, mrmnms

icanhaschzbrgr said:

You used 500 grit stone to make those scratches. So lower grit would make even worse scratches. That's why you should start your progression with higher grit. It could be 600 or 800. Even 1000 might work but would require more time.

Click to expand...

-1

Choose the grit to do the job at hand. 400/500 grit means less time on the stone, and less time to screw up the angle.

Not horrible. Went from 600 grit up to 3k to polish.

icanhaschzbrgr said:

You used 500 grit stone to make those scratches. So lower grit would make even worse scratches. That's why you should start your progression with higher grit. It could be 600 or 800. Even 1000 might work but would require more time.

Click to expand...

that makes little sense. to get 500 scratches out, one should use the same or coarser material, and then progress to higher, and evenly refinish the entire surface. using 800 grit is just going to give nicely polished 500 grit scratches.

Mrmnms said:

Must have been a bad ass parsnip

Click to expand...

root vegetables often have grit in them, and grit can definitely deform a thin edge. leeks are a bad knife scratcher for me, even when i carefully and thoroughly clean them.

Do you guys think I could have done better with the kurouchi finish? It got evened out a bit, not as crisp. Not sure how that could have been accomplished. Where's Dave? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a trip to PA for a quick spa treatment.

EdipisReks said:

that makes little sense. to get 500 scratches out, one should use the same or coarser material, and then progress to higher, and evenly refinish the entire surface. using 800 grit is just going to give nicely polished 500 grit scratches.

Click to expand...

As I see it, no matter what grit you are using — you are just removing material. So it's possible to remove 500 grit scratches with 600/800/1000 or maybe even 6000 if you spend enough time.

this is true, but who wants to spend 5 hours fixing something that should take no longer than an hour (Max)

JBroida said:

i'll start at 300 grit if it helps me get the job done faster... doenst mean i need to remove more metal (i can spend less time on each stone)... just making the point that its not necessary to be afraid of low grits if you are comfortable with your sharpening.

Click to expand...

GIANT lus1: to this!!!

brianh said:

Do you guys think I could have done better with the kurouchi finish? It got evened out a bit, not as crisp. Not sure how that could have been accomplished. Where's Dave? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a trip to PA for a quick spa treatment.

Click to expand...

From the picture it looks like you just fine.

Here's a trick for you kurouchi knife owners out there....hang the black part of the knife off of the side edge of the stone when sharpening....you will have a harder time screwing up the pretty finish this way.

Trick #2 - it may be possible to use a cold blue treatment to cover up your screw ups. Some work better than others, I have about 5 types on hand here and sometimes I have to play around to find a match so just buying one type/brand doesn't guarantee you a fix. Also, this only works for painted on types of kurouchi, the dark black thick scale looking stuff is a whole other situation that can't be fixed.

not t0o get off topic but since spending some time with dave when i sharpen i start at 500, and it really takes less time, i finish with a better, more crisp edge and in my opinion it shortens the time spent on every stone after it. and i used to never use my corse stonesbut now im getting great results

turbochef422 said:

not t0o get off topic but since spending some time with dave when i sharpen i start at 500, and it really takes less time, i finish with a better, more crisp edge and in my opinion it shortens the time spent on every stone after it. and i used to never use my corse stonesbut now im getting great results

Click to expand...

+1
I've said it a few times before, but starting with a coarser stone (I like the Gesshin 400) and then using fewer subsequent stones and spending less time on each was one of the lessons that look me longest to learn and has made the biggest difference in my sharpening.

Even if I'm not resetting the bevel or thinning, I'll still give the edge a few passes on the 400 just to add some fresh teeth before refining and polishing on higher grits again.

Thanks for the tip on the blueing Dave!!

Also, nice work on the polish job brianh!

Thanks, it's still gonna go to Dave for a rehab. I'm not that anal, but just anal enough that I want it to look less beat up. Lesson learned to not sharpen so quickly when I'm a noob.

icanhaschzbrgr said:

As I see it, no matter what grit you are using — you are just removing material. So it's possible to remove 500 grit scratches with 600/800/1000 or maybe even 6000 if you spend enough time.

Click to expand...

I'm sure one could do the job, if one had a sufficient supply of legal pads and enough time. It wouldn't be the kind of endeavor that is ranked with the moon landing, though.

Is this the knife you use on a daily basis? If so, why worry about scratches? I get the knife aesthetics thing and like mine to look nice too. But my daily knives are all scratched up from all sorts of things and they cut just the same. My single bevels, however, are a different story, especially the yanagibas. But I am not using them to cut anything but soft raw meat or fish. The gyuto? what ever happens happens.
Jan

Logically you're right, of course. I'm a home cook and it gets used twice a week. I love natural wear, patina... But this was stupidity and while it would probably be best to be reminded of it, I'd rather it be back to its glory.