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Mats

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Hi, I'm a newbie and this is my first post. Is there anyone out there able to convert a knife from a right hand to a lefty? I mean in changing the grind/convex angles of a knife. All my knives are convex on the right and the bevel is greater on the right also. Where can I get good help?
 
Welcome to the Knut House!
I would guess that you would loose so much metal that it wouldn't be worthwhile.
 
Hi, I'm a newbie and this is my first post. Is there anyone out there able to convert a knife from a right hand to a lefty? I mean in changing the grind/convex angles of a knife. All my knives are convex on the right and the bevel is greater on the right also. Where can I get good help?

Changing the grind of a knife isn't going to be worth the time / effort. You can pretty easily change the bevel. Basically you want to just start removing more metal on the left hand side (at a lower angle) than on the right side of the knife (which should be done at a higher angle). As long as you continue thinning regularly eventually your knife bevels will become larger on the left hand side.

If you want to speed the process along you can really thin out the right side of the knife until there is no clear bevel. Set your bevels how you'd like them and you are good to go.
 
Thanks for the quick response. If I just change the bevel, would that make a lot of difference as far as food sticking?
 
Thanks for the quick response. If I just change the bevel, would that make a lot of difference as far as food sticking?

In general (and tk would be better at answering this than me), the larger your bevel is the more steering and less sticking you will encounter. The grind of the blade face will play the biggest role, however.
 
I'm a lefty and I have the moritaka 250 ks. The grind is asymmetric but it doesn't really bother me. I do sharpen mainly the face side though.

I feel better about that purchase now, thanks! I believe that's the knife I'm getting too. The Aogami Super with the Masamoto KS shape? If you don't mind me asking a newbie question, what's the face side?
 
Don't worry. I don't know what the face side is either, lol. :)
To make the Fujiwara more lefty friendly, you will need to make a fairly large bevel on the left side of the blade (as you're looking down at the knife and using it). For the Moritaka, it should not be a big issue, if it's one of those partial ground deals. Just sharpen as much or more on the left side as the right.
 
Welcome!

Is there a reason you can't choose a different knife--such as one with a 50/50 bevel? If you haven't even received the knives yet, maybe you could work an exchange...I believe Mark is a fair guy to deal with and I'm sure you can get something you really want that is setup a bit more neutral.
 
The couple of carbon Fujiwara's that I have both have strongly skewed right handed bevels (like 90/10 or more). IMHO it would take quite a bit of edge removal to flip it around to a lefty. You might want to unload the knife to a right handed person and pick something up that has a more 50/50 bevel or an outright lefty bevel (though that might be more expensive).

Before you buy a replacement sujihiki you could ask on this forum. I am sure people around here would enjoy directing towards a more lefty friendly knife.

Welcome into the fray- BTW

Cheers,
rj
 
That's a good point. Show us some pics of the bevels on this knife.
 
Since we know that there is no such thing as a 50/50 ground Japanese knife, we can then conclude that leftys should either buy left handed knives or the thinnest 60/40 ground blades that they can find to avoid sharpening and twisting issues. There's lots of nice knives that fall into this category but I don't believe either of the ones mentioned by the original poster are of that criteria.

***Remember, the edge is not the only thing that's ground asymmetrical - the entire blade is too.
 
Thanks guys... I didn't even think about the lefty thing until I started reading forums!
 
Now I was thinking. I don't really have to switch the bevel to be predominately lefty. Why not switch to 50/50?
 
Dave,
You don't think the Fujiwara is a thin enough so it would work well with a large, lefty, chisel-ground edge?
 
Now I was thinking. I don't really have to switch the bevel to be predominately lefty. Why not switch to 50/50?

It depends on what you like. Some people like asymmetric bevels, some don't. The more asymmetric your bevel is the thinner the edge will be, something to keep in mind.
 
The Moritaka description given on CKTG says "These knives come with a 50/50 edge grind and an upgraded rosewood octagonal handle so this knife is equally good for left handed and right handed users." That's one of the reasons I purchased it.
 
Also, my extra extra coarse DMT metal came in today so I'ma gonna have at it!
 
This is more or less the case with all clad, partial ground knives.
 
Grinding that bugger on the left side.

If we're talking about the bevels, not knife face, I wouldn't advise starting with a DMT plate. They cut really fast and can leave gouges that are... not fun... to remove. Do you have a 500 grit stone?
 
If we're talking about the bevels, not knife face, I wouldn't advise starting with a DMT plate. They cut really fast and can leave gouges that are... not fun... to remove. Do you have a 500 grit stone?

No, I got a 250 and 1k.
 
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