How to grind a single bevel knife

A friend has a standing request for a single bevel gyuto or kiritsuke from me. I'm going to try making a honesuki or deba for myself before attempting a gift for him. My question is how should it be done on the grinder?

I only do stock removal, so I'm guessing that I'd grind the distal taper into my profiled blank first, then grind a flat bevel from the hand side all the way to the other side so the edge is not centered but at the opposite hand blade face? Or do traditional single bevel j-knives not have distal taper?

Also, is there a disadvantage to grinding say 99/1 instead of doing the traditional uraoshi? If doing the ura, I'd try the top wheel on my Grizzly 1x30 or perhaps sandpaper on a shaped wood block, but to be honest, if 99/1-ish asymmetry gets a result close enough, that works for me...

Interesting! Haven't seen a homemade single bevel yet. Curious.

MB, Ive no special knowledge of this but I'm very interested to see how it goes.

Does the ura contribute to food release?

I wonder whether hamiguriba sharpening will be any more difficult without a soft iron layer? I guess it's not going to be as hard as sharpening a honyaki single bevel. What sort of steel are you going to use?

Keep us updated.

Hmmm.. I'd want to do the ura someway anyway.. Maybe you could bend the blade pre HT to warp it like that for ura.? I have made a couple and I wouldn't want to do it without a 2x72 and flat flat platen.

This might help.

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/26661-WIP-Honesuki

Jess that poem is priceless!

You don't grind straight across. You will slightly twist your wrists. You also approach the wheel at slight angles. using the radius of the wheels is important to getting the grind correct.


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

[video=youtube;liapu2iXfN4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liapu2iXfN4[/video]

[video=youtube;t8vW74cPDvM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8vW74cPDvM[/video]

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

[video=youtube;ZgEd5sMSpv8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgEd5sMSpv8[/video]


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


[video=youtube;besH0MScwY4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=besH0MScwY4[/video]

[video=youtube;obMIzGExjU4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obMIzGExjU4[/video]


[video=youtube;SO1E_PERNqo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO1E_PERNqo[/video]


[video=youtube;kVCuJ19ZoqY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVCuJ19ZoqY[/video]

[video=youtube;KQ23-y0eyBo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ23-y0eyBo[/video]


[video=youtube;aHyKWwuYsv4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHyKWwuYsv4[/video]

When I grind single bevels, I do it on a radius platen on my belt grinder. Without that or a large contact wheel or wet grinding wheel that Dave posted, I dont know how else to do it. maybe a specially made Sen or something along those lines??

Cool vids. Always like watching stuff made by hand.

JMJones said:

When I grind single bevels, I do it on a radius platen on my belt grinder. Without that or a large contact wheel or wet grinding wheel that Dave posted, I dont know how else to do it. maybe a specially made Sen or something along those lines??

Click to expand...

I haven't ground a single bevel myself but I have re-ground quite a few and what I use (like yourself) is a radius platen.

I also really like to use (wait for it)......LOL.....a rubber hand sanding block.......under the belt.
The curved part of the block has quite a few radius(s) built into it so I can sort of click in to whatever the maker did. I'm not so sure it'd work well for grinding from step #1.

Thanks Robin, Jess, Dave, and J.M. for the practical info! When I get around to making this single bevel, I'll try doing the ura since it seems important to further sharpening.

To confirm, a single bevel edge will not be centered with respect to the spine, right?

milkbaby said:

Thanks Robin, Jess, Dave, and J.M. for the practical info! When I get around to making this single bevel, I'll try doing the ura since it seems important to further sharpening.

To confirm, a single bevel edge will not be centered with respect to the spine, right?

Click to expand...

Yes, If you lay a very well made single bevel URA side down it will sit flat with the spine at a 90 degree angle.

I have not done a distal taper on Gyuto. For single bevel, I flat grind using a holding fixture for precision on the primary grind. After calculating the geometry of the bevel height, I set the correct grinder work rest angle and grind down to .030". Then sharpen to 15 degrees for the secondary grind. I only work with high carbon steels and Hitachi Blue No. 2, so I can obtain a extremely sharp kitchen blade with this technique.