Project knife ID and advice

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dreamsignals

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Hi all,

A friend of mine's dad gave her a set of japanese kitchen a few years ago and told her to take care of them..to which she responded by keeping them in the a drawer and not using them at all. A couple of months ago I got her and her husband started with a 3-piece Tojiro DP set, and finding out about my budding knife-geekness they trusted me with bringing the set back to life.

In all, it seems like none of the knives has ever been significantly used or sharpened.

If you look at the pictures, they're not in all bad shape. The petty (second smallest, with the broken tip) had a nice rusty crust that I worked out with BKF and cork, which revealed some pitting, but nothing terrible. I quickly sharpened it (I was already late to work) just to see what it could do, and it got pretty sharp pretty fast. I got the knives yesterday and haven't done anything else yet.

So here are my questions:

Can anybody help identify the knives? The smallest one has "Masatoshi" written in roman alphabet. The other have Kanji (?). Googling I found this.

I've never had to fix a broken tip this big, but I'm guessing I should just grind from the spine, so to maintain the original profile. I"m tempted to just flatten it, giving it a 'kiritsuke look' instead of going through the trouble of rounding it (also, I don't have any power tools for this, so all with be done with stones). What do you say?

The handles are what seem to be in worse shape. Lots of small gaps all around, with some visible rusting, and the wood is less than smooth at this point. I have no woodwork skills whatsoever and could not dream of rehandling them. How should I go about this?

Thanks

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they actually don't look to bad. your standard fit and finish issues. I would sand the handles down to the metal and then soak them in some mineral oil, they look a little dry. the handles should swell up once they absorb the oil. Then sand smooth. The blades don't look too bad either. get some cork and wrap some sandpaper around it and some dishsoap on the blade, work it in one direction and take it up to a 600 or 800 grit. I wouldn't go much more then that, as things will tend to stick. For my own preference a nice satin finish is best. Make sure you smooth out that bolster it looks a little rough and while your at it hit the spine and choil. For the broken tip, you can go either way. The direction of the break gets you half way to Kiritsuke tip and a rounded tip. start from the spine side. If you don't want to wear out your stones and don't have power tools, go outside and use the sidewalk or a cinder block to get the bulk of the metal off, That's what I do when it happens to me. Finish with the stones, sharpen and enjoy.
 
Rounding the tip on a stone is much easier than the kiritsuke thing.
 
Thanks for the advice!

I would sand the handles down to the metal and then soak them in some mineral oil, they look a little dry. the handles should swell up once they absorb the oil. Then sand smooth.

Should I not sand only after the oil soak?


Make sure you smooth out that bolster it looks a little rough

What do you mean exactly? Smooth the "sharp" corners where it slopes up?
 
Smooth out the handles and oil them, take care of any rust spots with BKF but I wouldn't try to refuse the blades, let them wear their age with pride. Start slicing some rare beef and watch the colours :)
 
Thanks for the advice!



Should I not sand only after the oil soak?
You will get a much smoother and tighter fit if you sand first, it will open the pores, so they can absorb the oil better. Once they pump up do a little touch up sanding and you should have a nice tight handle.




What do you mean exactly? Smooth the "sharp" corners where it slopes up?
You will get a much smoother and tighter fit if you sand first, it will open the pores, so they can absorb the oil better. Once they pump up do a little touch up sanding and you should have a nice tight handle.
exactly that.
 
You will get a much smoother and tighter fit if you sand first, it will open the pores, so they can absorb the oil better. Once they pump up do a little touch up sanding and you should have a nice tight handle.
exactly that.

and what grip sandpaper should i begin with? should i care about a progression, or just start with a finer grit?
 
The grit for opening the pores isn't that important. Someting around P400 if you're using fresh paper. Just a few strokes will do.
 
Why do think that?

Because you are not a steel jig, and you have a natural tendency to wobble. A flat line is easy on a grinder with a platen--just shove it up there a few seconds at a time and bammo. But I find fixing broken tips by moving the tip up through sharpening and the spine down by cheating the curve is a lot easier.
 
Because you are not a steel jig, and you have a natural tendency to wobble. A flat line is easy on a grinder with a platen--just shove it up there a few seconds at a time and bammo. But I find fixing broken tips by moving the tip up through sharpening and the spine down by cheating the curve is a lot easier.

Got it, thanks. I'll probably get to it this weekend. I can just get the cheap pharmacy mineral oil, right?

Any chance somebody knows more about the brand, maker, still active, etc?
 
The grit for opening the pores isn't that important. Someting around P400 if you're using fresh paper. Just a few strokes will do.

thanks!

and what grit for after i've open the pores and soaked in oil? wet-dry?

and what grit sandpaper should i use for rounding out the spine, etc?
 
If you use wet/dry on wood to finish sand, make sure you don't buy the cheap stuff, or re-use the sheets you used for metal. It'll leave black streaks on your wood and ruin the entire finish. The grit you go to is up to you.

For rounding the spine by hand, I'd go with 120. Stray low-grit scratches are a pain to get out, especially by hand.
 
So, I finally got around to sanding and soaking the handles. I haven't yet sanded them again to get the wood flush with the metal. I guess I'm a little nervous the wood will shrink again so I'm waiting a few days to see how it behaves. Is this warranted or can I should go ahead and finish them. I'm planning on using 600 grit regular sandpaper. Does this sound right?

Also, on all but one of the knives the little gaps between handle and tang closed (or almost). What can I do the one knife in which they didn't? They're not huge, but since I'm doing this, I might as well go all the way. Can I fill the up with some resin or wax? Would it do anything to try to 'squeeze' towards the tang the scales on a bench clamp?

Thanks.
 
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