Hideriyama Koppa

I recently bought a Hideriyama Koppa from JNS. This one actually:
http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/hideriyama-huge-koppa-lv-2-5-a1278/

One of the tricky things with koppas like this is the edges. You still want to be able to get close enough with the heel of the knife to get a uniform sharpening.
Not to much of an issue with this one, but still.



Also I really wanted some fingerstones from this one as Hideriyama is notorious for the great contrast it brings out.
So I decided to trim it down a little:



As you can see, I sitll have a sizeable koppa, and the source of quite a few finger-stones.

The cut edges have been rounded. Here is an example of the result:



The fingerstone stands out on this pic as it is still wet.


So I am a happy camper: I got a great stone for a good price.
It is now easier to use AND I´ve got quite a lot of good fingerstones :doublethumbsup:

Well done indeed! How did you trim the stone so precisely?

TheCaptain said:

Well done indeed! How did you trim the stone so precisely?

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I was wondering the same thing! Looks quite good.

A large angle grinder and a diamond cutting blade
irate1:

I was eyeing that stone for a long time! Glad it found a good home Very nice conversion.

On another note, what do you think of the 180 Mazaki?

Nice!

Very nice work. I wish i could cut stones like that.

How is the the Mazaki grind? Did you flatten the bevels for this?

Mute-on said:

I was eyeing that stone for a long time! Glad it found a good home Very nice conversion.

On another note, what do you think of the 180 Mazaki?

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This stone is actually the darkest/most brown Hideriyama I´ve seen. Also compared to the full size one avaliable from him now.
This is most pronounced when wet.
Aestetically I like the lighter ones better. But the result, and the feel of the stone is exactly the same.
I tried this stone, and the full size one, head to head at his place.




The Mazaki is a very hefty knife.
In an elegant way. It is by no means clumsy or to wide to perform.
It just has a LOT of heft. Meaning it has a good weight that makes it "fall though" food.
Quite a bit more heft than my Tsukasa Hinoura, which used to be the "beefy" one in my setup.
It sharpens very easily.
I have not yet had it long enough to say a lot about edge retention.

And I think I was one of the very first to buy one.
Maxim got it from Japan in the afternoon, and I got it later same day.
But in a home enviroment it just has not had enough time to be dulled enough after my initial sharpening.
I didn´t find it sufficiently sharp OOTB, so I got to give it a treat.
And I guess I´ll do the same now, after the fingerstones.

I am very pleased with the knife. I´ll for sure get more Mazaki when these become available.
These knifes for sure hold their own against the other makers we already know form JNS: Munetoshi, Toyama, Shigefusa, Kato (I have several knives from each of these makers).



For those considering these knives I can only suggest to get one.
Especially now where Maxim is on holliday, and has discounted the whole inventory.

tommybig said:

Very nice work. I wish i could cut stones like that.

How is the the Mazaki grind? Did you flatten the bevels for this?

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No, they were already flat.
But I must say, that I find the aestetics of the knife really did benefit from this treatment with the fingerstone.