Restoring a Kasumi Finish?

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mikedtran

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Curious what are some of the options for restoring/cleaning up a Kasumi finish (particular for a Wakui, but also for a Shig).

Seems like finger stones is a common way. If I don't have access to finger stones, would slurry from a certain grit stones work? Any other options?
 
King 800 is referenced by Dave M in this thread http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...the-easiest-stone-to-get-a-kasumi-finish-with

Do a Google search of KKF for "king 800 Kasumi" and it'll come up multiple times. Unless you want to get uchigomori finger stones it'd probably be a good choice. I got some uchigomori and kiita stones from Maksim so may get into this once I figure out which is better for what…
 
Jon at JKI can supply fingerstones that work well. I've been happy with mine....a little bit of work but hey, it's a hobby.
 
King 800 is referenced by Dave M in this thread http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...the-easiest-stone-to-get-a-kasumi-finish-with

Do a Google search of KKF for "king 800 Kasumi" and it'll come up multiple times. Unless you want to get uchigomori finger stones it'd probably be a good choice. I got some uchigomori and kiita stones from Maksim so may get into this once I figure out which is better for what…

Thanks that is a really helpful search term!

Jon at JKI can supply fingerstones that work well. I've been happy with mine....a little bit of work but hey, it's a hobby.

Thanks for the lead, sent Jon an email =)
 
Wet/dry sandpaper works great, I usually start with 320, unless there are really deep scratches. If you can remove the handle and clamp the tang to something you will get a more even finish. Using a firm backing on the paper, make passes in one direction only, heel to tip and continue to until you have an even finish, then repeat the process with finer grits, you can stop at 400, but I prefer 600 myself.

Here is a pic of a Kato I refinished in this method, this is after removing the vertical grind marks it comes with
https://instagram.com/p/w2a1u0HIB3/
 
Wet/dry sandpaper works great, I usually start with 320, unless there are really deep scratches. If you can remove the handle and clamp the tang to something you will get a more even finish. Using a firm backing on the paper, make passes in one direction only, heel to tip and continue to until you have an even finish, then repeat the process with finer grits, you can stop at 400, but I prefer 600 myself.

Here is a pic of a Kato I refinished in this method, this is after removing the vertical grind marks it comes with
https://instagram.com/p/w2a1u0HIB3/

That is a very nice finish on a Kato, much sleeker and sexier than the vertical grind marks.

Two quick questions: Did you do this wet or dry? Did you avoid the core steel area when doing this or did you go all the way up to the edge?
 
do you do this with wet or dry sandpaper? and when you say 'Using a firm backing on the paper', do you imply that you need to stick it something or just with your hands?
 
That is a very nice finish on a Kato, much sleeker and sexier than the vertical grind marks.

Two quick questions: Did you do this wet or dry? Did you avoid the core steel area when doing this or did you go all the way up to the edge?
I use wd40 to lubricate the paper, and I go near the edge, but try as much as possible to avoid the very edge, also be careful with the tip, it's easy to press too hard and damage the tip, or catch the paper on the return stroke and damage yourself.
 
do you do this with wet or dry sandpaper? and when you say 'Using a firm backing on the paper', do you imply that you need to stick it something or just with your hands?
I have cut a cork sanding block into slices, and chamfered the edge. I cut strips of paper to fit and wrap it around the block
 
I use wd40 to lubricate the paper, and I go near the edge, but try as much as possible to avoid the very edge, also be careful with the tip, it's easy to press too hard and damage the tip, or catch the paper on the return stroke and damage yourself.

Thanks the additional tips are much appreciated and very helpful!
 
I dont have a kasumi knife but through learning about sword polishing, i like pulling out the natural look of the knife, i take the bevel to a high polish then using the uchi to bring out the look of the soft iron which significantly darkens it.

Sandpaper helps, i use a high polish pad to hold the thin uchigamori instead of rice paper.

Please do not use wd40, it creates a false polish and 2)you're using wd40 on your kitchen knife.

Water is the only lube you'll need.

Ill try and post some good reads.
 
Did a little reading on Maksim's blog just now.

Was curious though, it sounds like uchigamori are the final step in the polishing. So does it make sense to still use some sand paper before the uchigamori or should that be able to get out most of the scratches?
 
I doubt you'd get any scratches out with the Uchigomori (they'd just polish between the scratches) and would only bring out the contrast at the cladding line or in a multi layer jigane. I guess it's depend on the look you want to go for, I wouldn't mind sanding a knife I have a bit finer than current and then use the stones.

Smurfmacaw did a crash course in finger stones here: http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/24469-My-Foray-Into-Finger-Stones
 
I've found that polishing to as near a mirror finish as possible, all the way down to the edge, before you use the finger stones works best. The fingerstones are pretty soft and won't scratch the hagane if you are careful and will give the jigane that hazy finish you are looking for with a nice contrast between the core and the cladding. It's a lot easier than it sounds.
 
That write up is exactly what I needed. Pretty excited for the whole process! =)
 
I doubt you'd get any scratches out with the Uchigomori (they'd just polish between the scratches) and would only bring out the contrast at the cladding line or in a multi layer jigane. I guess it's depend on the look you want to go for, I wouldn't mind sanding a knife I have a bit finer than current and then use the stones.

Yeah, jizuya uchigumori should basically darken the cladding (and help highlight layers if kitaeji for eg). This would still work if you have scratch patterns underneath, and it might look good to keep these too in the tip-to-handle Sanjo-ish style. I also like the coarse scratch-polish patterns on 1-bevels or roughly finished Heiji, but finer polishing looks better on more smoothly ground knives, as many gyuto are.

Wet/dry sandpaper works great ... a Kato I refinished in this method, this is after removing the vertical grind marks it comes with
https://instagram.com/p/w2a1u0HIB3/

This looks good to me, and much better than the original Kato finish. Must have taken a while to erase the original grind marks, which I guess is why Kato doesn't do it himself. Definitely has a shinier paper polish, though. Hard to get the lines so uniform and parallel like VonB did here.

I usually use jnat powder (I have a broken Natsuya and uchigimori powder) or slurry and rub with this in whatever way that seems fit at the time. Wet/dry and sandpapers are useful too, but seem to dull too quick.
 
Did a little reading on Maksim's blog just now.

Was curious though, it sounds like uchigamori are the final step in the polishing. So does it make sense to still use some sand paper before the uchigamori or should that be able to get out most of the scratches?

Yes, use paper and polish out the knife before you use fingerstones. It would take forever to remove deep scratches with fingerstones. I did a Carter high grade funayuki which has a similar finish to the Kato and it took a good hour or hour and a half to get the blade ready for the finger stones. I started at 100 grit (well, actually I started at 220 and quickly realized I'd be old(er) and grey(er) before I got the scratches out.) I then worked up to 2000 grit. Next blade I polish out will get final polished with diamond compound on a piece of felt after the 2000 grit paper before I use the fingerstones. Is that totally necessary? Probably not but it makes sure you don't have any scratches that would show up with the finger stones. I find the whole process kind of therapeutic. A loupe helps a lot in this process as it is much easier to identify when you still have scratches that haven't quite been eliminated (plus it's really useful to identify what's going on with the edge when you sharpen...you can see the burr and all the little chips and nicks that aren't quite gone yet.....hey, it's a hobby - it's ok to obsess lol).

I'm going to sit down and build some more fingerstones over the next week or two and I'll try to document a little closer with photographs. I plan on taking them to 1mm and gluing on the backing paper and then just leave them and thin to final dimensions when I need them, it's a lot easier than I thought it would be.
 
There is lots of great discussion about fingerstones and very complex ways of polishing up kasumi. This is the place to discuss it, but if you don't want to be too precious and just get your knife looking good quickly, I use a progression of three scotch brite pads (http://www.amazon.com/3M-HP-HP-Scotch-Brite-Hand-Pad/dp/B00125PR5A/ref=pd_bxgy_263_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0AYGYWX0WN381480YNZ5) just using my fingers and the knife on a flat surface. It brings out the kasumi nicely on my Shigefusa in about five minutes. You will probably want to sharpen afterwards as well.

Of course now I have to post some photos, but I am at work now. I'll try to put something up later.
 
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I use a Gesshin Jinzo Aoto stone. Get good contrast with it. Great for spiffing up scratched up well used single bevels. Jon gave me some tips on how to get the mist with this stone.
 
I've been trying to achieve a kasumi finish using a hakka stone purchased via B/S/T and having some decent luck for my otherwise total lack of experience...

So far been mostly focussing on a yanagiba from korin that came with a pretty rough scratch pattern, still some low spots that I've not evened out- but overall not too bad. It's a fun process on knives I'm not totally worried about making a mess of.
 
First I would like to thank the forum for being so helpful and sharing tons of information. Additionally two separate members messaged me and offered to send me fingerstones, which really just shows what a community this is =)

Today I was able to round up 220/320/400/600 grit sandpaper at the hardware store and a friend was able to find some 800/1000/1500/2000 and will be dropping them off on Friday.

Process
I took the opportunity to try polishing one side of the blade to see how it went. I'm currently cutting squares of sandpaper, dipping that into water then running it from heel to tip. After a couple strokes I rotate the square 90 degrees and repeat that till I've used all 4 sides of the sand paper square. Would take any advice on a better way to do this.

Thoughts & Questions
First thing I noticed was that the abrasive on the sandpaper runs off really quickly (maybe get a couple strokes in and had to switch parts of the paper). How many strokes is everyone getting from one particular section of sandpaper before switching?

I also had a hard time getting consistent pattern near the heel the rest of the blade is acceptable. I'm curious if anyone is using pieces of sandpaper large enough to encompass the whole blade? Any suggestions on how to get a more consistent pattern near the heel? A member suggested possibly using a popsicle stick, seems like that could work.

Apologies for the terrible lightning and iphone pictures. I will have to get a better angle shot tomorrow, but I'm pooped today.

Setup:
hxzRCDE.jpg


Unpolished Side:
n5yMoJk.jpg


Polished Side (up to 600 grit as a test run), some water on it:
cOiThmo.jpg
 
Looks good. You'll get more consistent results by knocking the handle off. Make long, straight strokes from tang to tip, in one direction only. Don't scrub back and forth. Backing the sandpaper with a soft but rigid material, like cork or dense rubber, will save some wear on your fingers.
 
Looks good. You'll get more consistent results by knocking the handle off. Make long, straight strokes from tang to tip, in one direction only. Don't scrub back and forth. Backing the sandpaper with a soft but rigid material, like cork or dense rubber, will save some wear on your fingers.

I only went heel to tip, so one direction only. My thumb is so sore and lightly torn up now =p. Do you suggest using a piece of sandpaper that covers the whole blade or just move a smaller piece around?

I will highly consider backing the sandpaper.
 
I only went heel to tip, so one direction only. My thumb is so sore and lightly torn up now =p. Do you suggest using a piece of sandpaper that covers the whole blade or just move a smaller piece around?

I will highly consider backing the sandpaper.

Following up on what dmccurtis said, I'd recommend taking some tips from this video:

[video=youtube;9MIpilMOn2E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MIpilMOn2E[/video]

Clamp the blade, use an abrasive that's wider than the blade, lubricate with water+Dawn or WD40, start with a back-and-forth motion in the lower grits to build a foundation, finish with uni-directional pulls. I'm in the process of doing that with a knife I got on the forum B/S/T that used to belong to KC Ma. Here's a before picture:

kc_ma_3.jpg


And here's where it stands after 220 grit:

kc_ma_7.jpg


I'll probably take it to 600 or so.
 
So after watching the video, I decided to give it another go. I did find an extra magnetic knife rack which worked like a charm for holding the blade.

Still haven't found anything suitable to hold the sandpaper yet, which I feel I need. Lubricated with Tsubiki Oil.

Second Attempt up to 600 grit:
RDuVA3r.jpg
 
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