Question about thinning

I'm currently thinning my Takagi honyaki gyuto and I was wondering, how do you guys make sure that you're thinning a knife evenly? I feel like I've thinned some sections more than others. Any way techniques/tricks to check that I'm grinding it evenly?

This is a tough one. For me, there has not been a solid "trick" to doing it, just gotta pay close attention, don't stay in one spot too long, watch your pressure, and learn to feel how a blade should feel when it's being dragged across a stone/platen. It should feel like a natural flow.

ive asked jon in the past to make a video on thinning...im more of a visual learner. it would great if there was just a cool video somewhere on thinning. all my thinning attempts have come out quite uneven.

BurkeCutlery said:

This is a tough one. For me, there has not been a solid "trick" to doing it, just gotta pay close attention, don't stay in one spot too long, watch your pressure, and learn to feel how a blade should feel when it's being dragged across a stone/platen. It should feel like a natural flow.

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ahhh alright; watching my pressure and paying attention has been a bit tough since the knife is a bit wear resistant, but I'll definitely pay more attention to this from now on. I really wish there was some easy way to tell whether I'm doing alright, or whether I'm putting a horrible overgrind in my knife

Also, should I be thinning by sections or doing a sweeping sort of motion?

How do you sharpen? In sections or in sweeping motions? You should use the same motion for thinning.
I think what Eamon said is really the only thing to do. I find that you can really easily feel any 'bumps' or 'divots' when you are thinning. It gives you terrible feedback, especially on a lower grit stone.

Yeah, I pretty much see thinning as High-stakes Sharpening. It's where the muscle memory and sense of feel from practicing hand sharpening comes in handy.

BurkeCutlery said:

Yeah, I pretty much see thinning as High-stakes Sharpening. It's where the muscle memory and sense of feel from practicing hand sharpening comes in handy.

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Feels good to see someone say that. I'm always envious of the perfect bevels I see in pictures around here and if you need to do some serious thinning they can be a pain to keep even.

I check by going to a polishing stone with light pressure every once in a while. High spots end up shiny and low spots don't change. Sometimes I also take a marker and draw a few lines on the bevel then put it back on the stone for a few strokes with light pressure to see where they rub off. Other than that, you just have to go with it.

I've been thinking of thinning my Kanamasa suji and now two threads on it. Gonna wait for Dave's Summer School to give it a try and will report back.

I personally don't think anyone should be doing a major thinning job if they aren't comfortable with sharpening yet. If you can get consistent bevels every time with regular sharpening, then you are ready to go to a lower angle and possibly a coaser stone to thin a large area...then you basically use the exact same motions.

My style is a sectional/sweeper...maybe 4 total 'sections' on a blade, but each stroke blends into the next section---using this I've never had any areas/bevels that were uneven (or at least significantly enough to notice visually or while cutting)

I'm glad these thinning threads went up, Thanks for sharing the info guys

tk59 said:

I check by going to a polishing stone with light pressure every once in a while. High spots end up shiny and low spots don't change. Sometimes I also take a marker and draw a few lines on the bevel then put it back on the stone for a few strokes with light pressure to see where they rub off. Other than that, you just have to go with it.

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This worked beautifully. Apparently I'm in good shape . Thanks for all of the advice!

i scheduled in some time on wednesday to hopefully shoot a video or two

JBroida said:

i scheduled in some time on wednesday to hopefully shoot a video or two

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awesome. looking forward to it.