echerub
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2011
- Messages
- 1,990
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I'm getting really frustrated with my econo-usuba. Yeah, I know the usual advice about not buying lower-priced usubas, but I got this thing really early on before I knew any better.
About 2 weeks ago, I figured I'd give the thing a proper sharpening - something I hadn't done on it before. Sometime towards the end of my routine, I decided to check on the edge itself and lo and behold it was like the McDonald's Golden Arches. I had an M-shaped edge profile going on with three points of contact and two slightly arched indents. No freakin' wonder I kept getting accordions with this knife when I used it before! I kept thinking it was just because I was using an older board that might not have been totally flat.
I spent a fair bit of time on some coarse stones thinking I could just work it out. No such luck. Even with a fair bit of metal and stone abraded away, it was still Golden Arches City.
That was 2 weeks ago. Tonight, I figured I'd try fixing the darned edge if I could. This time, I touched up the uraoshi a bit (because I'd worn enough metal away before that there was practically just a hair's breadth left) and then stood the knife on its edge. With the edge right on the Beston 500, I just flattened out the edge that way. Then I proceeded to put on a new, sharp edge on the knife.
At first, I kept checking the edge straightness, and it was a-ok all through my time on the Beston. Then I just continued as usual through the rest of my progression. Finally, after the finishing stone, I checked the edge again... and freakin' hell, I got the M-shape again.
Was it me? Was it the knife?
To try to put my mind at ease, I put a mioroshi deba through the whole sharpening routine. It was a second-hand knife and it had a few nicks in the edge that I wanted to take out. I went through from coarse up to finishing and everything was a-ok. Edge profile maintained, and it's nice and sharp.
What gives with the usuba then? Why is that the only knife that I can't sharpen properly? Is it me or is it the econo-usuba?
About 2 weeks ago, I figured I'd give the thing a proper sharpening - something I hadn't done on it before. Sometime towards the end of my routine, I decided to check on the edge itself and lo and behold it was like the McDonald's Golden Arches. I had an M-shaped edge profile going on with three points of contact and two slightly arched indents. No freakin' wonder I kept getting accordions with this knife when I used it before! I kept thinking it was just because I was using an older board that might not have been totally flat.
I spent a fair bit of time on some coarse stones thinking I could just work it out. No such luck. Even with a fair bit of metal and stone abraded away, it was still Golden Arches City.
That was 2 weeks ago. Tonight, I figured I'd try fixing the darned edge if I could. This time, I touched up the uraoshi a bit (because I'd worn enough metal away before that there was practically just a hair's breadth left) and then stood the knife on its edge. With the edge right on the Beston 500, I just flattened out the edge that way. Then I proceeded to put on a new, sharp edge on the knife.
At first, I kept checking the edge straightness, and it was a-ok all through my time on the Beston. Then I just continued as usual through the rest of my progression. Finally, after the finishing stone, I checked the edge again... and freakin' hell, I got the M-shape again.
Was it me? Was it the knife?
To try to put my mind at ease, I put a mioroshi deba through the whole sharpening routine. It was a second-hand knife and it had a few nicks in the edge that I wanted to take out. I went through from coarse up to finishing and everything was a-ok. Edge profile maintained, and it's nice and sharp.
What gives with the usuba then? Why is that the only knife that I can't sharpen properly? Is it me or is it the econo-usuba?