Japanese Knives New video- Natural Stone Finishes

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JBroida

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After shooting the double bevel sharpening video, i decided to have some fun. I thought it might be cool to show a natural stone in action and the finish that it leaves versus what you normally see from synthetic stones. Hope you enjoy it.

Please let me know if you have any questions about anything in the video.

[video=youtube;k6Dc3rMct_w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Dc3rMct_w[/video]
 
Rad video Jon! Now I want a natural stone to play with for my single bevel knives. My fiancee and wallet send their thanks.
 
Lately I've been thinking about getting into the whole Kasumi finish thing(I just sharpen mine to work, but it's fugly), but I don't have the money(or need) to buy a whole natural stone. Any suggestions on where I can get some fingerstones to make for this kind of finish?
 
you can get a nice finish off of the takashima awasedo i sell (which arent too expensive relative to other options), or talk to Maxim. In the same way i'm obsessed with stones and knives, maxim is obsessed with natural stones and sharpening... he'd be the person i'd talk to if i were in your shoes.
 
You could have talked about the results with the natural stone and I would have never understood what you were try to say. This video makes the concept very clear that natural stones can do things that synthetics cannot although I still not sure why. I guess I'll have to wait for that "Ah haw" moment.
 
its a function of the type of abrasives, their ability to break down, and how the hardness of the stone effects the sharpening. I could get similar looking results with synthetics, but it would involve multiple stones and would still not look exactly the same... and the edge feel would be different.
 
What amazes me is the separation between the cladding and the inner steel is so visible when using the natural stone and is virtually invisible using the synthetic stone.
 
Lately I've been thinking about getting into the whole Kasumi finish thing(I just sharpen mine to work, but it's fugly), but I don't have the money(or need) to buy a whole natural stone. Any suggestions on where I can get some fingerstones to make for this kind of finish?

you can fake it readily with micro-mesh pads and some practice.
 
micromesh never looks the same... you can do a better job making it look similar with a suehiro rika or synthetic aoto
 
micromesh never looks the same... you can do a better job making it look similar with a suehiro rika or synthetic aoto

not in my experience, and i've tried a bunch of synthetics (including the synthetic aoto and the rika). it just takes practice with the micro-mesh, like anything else.
 
it doesn't look precisely like good natural stones, but i think both of these blades look pretty good. not a great pic (lights bad in my kitchen, this time of day), and neither knife is fresh, both knives having picked up patina and scratches over the past few months, but i think there is good color and definition. sharpened on synthetic stones, and the base finish was created on a King 800x stone. after that, the cosmetics were finished on micro-mesh in about 10 minutes per knife. you can see where the blade road isn't quite flat on the heel of the yanagi. it's much, much less noticeable in person. i haven't bothered to quite finish it.

 
it doesn't look precisely like good natural stones, but i think both of these blades look pretty good. not a great pic (lights bad in my kitchen, this time of day), and neither knife is fresh, both knives having picked up patina and scratches over the past few months, but i think there is good color and definition. sharpened on synthetic stones, and the base finish was created on a King 800x stone. after that, the cosmetics were finished on micro-mesh in about 10 minutes per knife. you can see where the blade road isn't quite flat on the heel of the yanagi. it's much, much less noticeable in person. i haven't bothered to quite finish it.


ahh... i see what you're doing. Looks nice. Heres a finish off of a rika:

P1040933.JPG
 
that looks good, too. :) the micro-mesh is definitely not a complete solution, but they have the advantage of being quick and cheap.
 
the main difference in using synthetics (and micromesh) is that you end up with a visible scratch pattern (especially in the jigane), whereas with naturals, it looks smooth and without scratches
 
For folks like me who are not well informed about natural stones (yet), can you compare the stone in your video to the takashima awasedo you sell? $150 seems like a good place to start experimenting, but I'd be going in somewhat blind.

On another note, is the wobble in that plastic pan hard to deal with? I wonder if a stainless steel pan would eliminate the wobble (unless that's something you want)?
 
For folks like me who are not well informed about natural stones (yet), can you compare the stone in your video to the takashima awasedo you sell? $150 seems like a good place to start experimenting, but I'd be going in somewhat blind.

On another note, is the wobble in that plastic pan hard to deal with? I wonder if a stainless steel pan would eliminate the wobble (unless that's something you want)?

sure... i can try to shoot a video with the two stones soon.

the wobble isnt normally that bad... i move the bridge to the side of the pan and it pretty much goes away. Stainless steel pans wobble more actually. I tested ;)
 
Plus, try finding a working kitchen with hotel pans that still have flat bottoms. PSH. They're practically big bowls.
 
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