chipped tip off brand new kamagata usuba

Within the first three minutes of using my new Masamoto kamagata usuba that I bought in Tsukiji last week, I broke the first 2mm of the tip off when it got wedged in the cutting board.

What's the best course of action to fix it? Sharpen as normal and just let it correct itself over time?

I don't have usuba but I fix my yanagiba with diamond plate. With edge side up and away start grinding away... I remember doing it on cement before getting the diamond plate back in the days. Then smooth it out with sandpaper or stones.

pics? it really depends on the nature of the chip as to how it would be fixed best

Or just send it to the best there is...... Oh sorry, I mean Jon! :cool2:

I chipped my first jknife within minutes. I'd been bashing German stainless and French carbon for years and had no idea how fragile truly hard steels were. I bought a good, end grain board and learnt better technique, but I still chip blades from time to time. It's the trade off to having hard steel.

It's hard to reprofile a tip with anything but a diamond plate. The core steel will laugh at files. Decent wet and dry laid flat will also work, just remember to tape up the blade first so you don't cut yourself. Work from the spine down towards the tip, keeping the curve. It'll take a while but looks better when you bring the spine back to the existing blade line. If you start at the blade line and take it up to the spine you'll end up with a weird looking lift toward the tip.

Good luck.

I repaired this Hattori HD last week:




Started on a diamond plate, did most of the work with that, and then went through a progression of increasing-grit stones to smooth it out and match the rest of the spine. Took less than an hour, the diamond plate made short work of it.
If I recall, there's a few videos on youtube that demonstrate technique. As others have said, typically involves removing material from the spine instead of the edge.

Jon's right, though. Hard to say without pics. If there's a bend in the edge where the tip snapped, you'd definitely want to correct that.

I would like it if you could post a pic for Jon to comment on, from what I understand fixing a single bevel can be different.

I also found the tip on a usuba to be very awkward while I was first learning to use the knife.

Great point.

Better pun.

LOL

With a Kama usuba it is actually recommended that you put a slight curve on the tip of the blade as opposed to keeping it flat the entire length of the blade. That being said with a broken tip you might be able to grind it out to form the slightly rounded tip. I can upload pictures of my Kama usuba if you want, but would also line to see the damage on your knife.

Just keep in mind an usuba is not a forceful chopping knife. It requires little force when finely chopping and is more of a hand held use knife for fine peeling. Abuse it and improperly use it and it will break.