Fixing the grind.

I bought a lightly used Richmond Ultimatum in 240mm stainless a couple of weeks back (NOT on KKF). The thing is crazy sharp, but I noticed that it "felt funny" when cutting onions.

I've been sharpening for decades, but recently discovered the need to thin one's knives, I decided that this one could use some, particularly toward the tip. As I began working, I discovered that the grind of this knife in the secondary bevel was nowhere near flat.

I'm putting the work in to correct the issue, and am taking my time. The high vs low areas in the grind are striking. I showed a pic to a friend of mine who makes custom knives. He was shocked as well.

Is this common among some makers of "Japanese styled" knives? My much maligned Shuns and Wusthofs seem to have far better quality, at least in the grinding.

Am I missing something?

Richmond knives have a poor reputation here because of this sort of issues. I understand that they happen with other makers too, just not so often or so severely.

Thanks. I'd seen some pretty rough reviews for it in here.

Let's just say it's gonna be "a different animal". When in done with it. I have good tools and reasonably good form.

It'll be a Richmond-Batey Custom. LOL!!

Hopefully not the m390; that steel takes forever to move. The grind was pretty wonky for the one I got the gf. Left side was perfect and right side had a few interesting concavities. Had it professionally fixed and after a few sharpenings, it's quite a very good knife.

It's the 19C27, but is still getting its "pound of flesh" to get sorted.

It was made by a robot at Lamson Goodnow. Robots only do what they're told.

Somebody stuttered when they told the robot that made mine.

Great learning experience fixing this. I love how you can feel it on the stone when the bevel is evening out

It ain't pretty, but it's wicked sharp and cuts quite well.

Time to get out the wet dry paper and micro mesh pads

Yep. Cleaned it up on the stones some.

Decided to quit while I was ahead for the evening.


“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.” ― Anthony Bourdain

Yes I got an AEB-L Artiflex had to do major thinning then sold it.The Randy Haas of the same steel have a much better grind considering it is a Lamson blade.

I have heard no mention of the Kohetsu Aogami Super core stainless clad.Octagon wt. Horn Wa handle.Specs. it is a on the lighter side for a 240mm.Of coarse there are no grind shots,the blade is made in Japan.

do you have before pics?

the lamson made richmond knives tend to be rather thick. however his lines that are made in japan are the opposite. ive tested both laser AS and kohetsu. thought very highly of the laser as, kohetsu was much too thin for my taste but good knife none the less.

I took some pics early in the grinding. One shows the high and low spots clearly.

I tried posting a pic but it failed due to permissions.

The grinding is now done and I'm pretty pleased. It ain't pretty, but I'll be doing the cosmetics in the next few days.

you'll have to upload the picture to imgur or some similar site and insert the pic url

Thanks!

panda said:

do you have before pics?

the lamson made richmond knives tend to be rather thick. however his lines that are made in japan are the opposite. ive tested both laser AS and kohetsu. thought very highly of the laser as, kohetsu was much too thin for my taste but good knife none the less.

Click to expand...

This is definitely thick. I'm finding that even thinned, I don't like it for onions. It does a great job on celery, etc. I'll probably keep it around in my "travel set" and use it for heavy duty work.

Bigdaddyb said:

Somebody stuttered when they told the robot that made mine.

Click to expand...

Bigdaddy just curious this may have been mine. did you sang this one off the bay?

If so id like to see how you've fixed er up. I agree that the steel gets sharp and i dig the profile but it seemed like it needed some work and i wasn't willing to put in the time.

Yep. Got it off 'the bay" with a purpleheart saya.


“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.” ― Anthony Bourdain

You dared asked, so here we go.....

DISCLAIMER: I freely admit that I am not a knifesmith/professional sharpener/whatever. I have enjoyed knives/sharpening/etc. for many years. Constructive criticism is welcome.

The right side of the blade was a 'hot mess', as the first pic shows.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d1irr2ew9aqlmj8/2014-04-05 17.17.06.jpg

I was able to get it pretty flat. There are a couple of spots, particularly one near the heel where I just didn't want to remove that much metal.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ebwh1szi4s7kfpi/2014-04-08 19.02.09.jpg

The left side wasn't nearly as bad. All in all, I'm pleased with how things have improved. Overall, it's still a bit thick for my tastes, particularly on onions. I'm going to keep it and use it in my "traveling set" and for heavier tasks, where the added heft of the blade will come in handy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/drwyndf2n1y86fs/2014-04-12 21.58.56.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zpbvw2e2i5ag5eh/2014-04-12 21.58.50.jpg


“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.” ― Anthony Bourdain

Working on fixing the links.


“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.” ― Anthony Bourdain

Links work on the web, but not the iOS client. Not sure how to fix it.

Put them on Photobucket, then you get IMG links that you can put in your messages and it it will display right within the post. like this