Kenji Togashi Custom Honyaki

[Homechef]

Patina update, coming in nice and brown ! So far I've cut an onion and sweet potato for my traditional test cuts plus sliced up some pork tenderloin and then the corned beef yesterday. The knife has been a pleasure to use so far. Smooth tip through the onion and nice quiet slices through the thick part of the sweet potato! The taper @Blank Blades. worked in gives this knife a lot of versatility between the thicker heel and the more nimble tip. Looking forward to continuing to get to know the knife.

 

[enrico]

@Homechef I will buy this

 

[EShin]

It’s been quiet here. Any updates? Really curious to see how all the other blades are progressing.

I’ve wasted many many hours using sandpaper and while trying out different lines and brands taught me a lot, even the good ones that work well for regular knives just don’t do much on this honyaki. But thanks to @Blank Blades. and @Dr. Knives I’ve finally found out that diamonds are a man’s best friend. Was sceptical about them but now I wish I would’ve tried them much earlier. Anyway, probably 3 hours on diamond stones getting rid of most flat spots and then diamond films, 300-600-1200-2000. 300 grit took me some time but after that it went really fast, couldn’t believe myself how easy it is. Now I think I’ll get some diamond paste to refine it further but since I don’t have any right now I tried etching it with hot vinegar and then polishing it with flitz. Btw, are there any important events things to consider with buying diamond pastes besides grit size?

What do you guys think? Some more refinement with diamond pastes will be nice but quite pleased with how it came out and the banding really is crazy on these. Only left it on the hamon while polishing the other parts more, but it would be nice if it would be visible on the whole blade. Any tips on how to achieve that? Many cycles of etching and polishing?
Btw, the blade is 170 g now so lost a good 100 g.

 

[OkayMode]

It’s been quiet here. Any updates? Really curious to see how all the other blades are progressing.

I’ve wasted many many hours using sandpaper and while trying out different lines and brands taught me a lot, even the good ones that work well for regular knives just don’t do much on this honyaki. But thanks to @Blank Blades. and @Dr. Knives I’ve finally found out that diamonds are a man’s best friend. Was sceptical about them but now I wish I would’ve tried them much earlier. Anyway, probably 3 hours on diamond stones getting rid of most flat spots and then diamond films, 300-600-1200-2000. 300 grit took me some time but after that it went really fast, couldn’t believe myself how easy it is. Now I think I’ll get some diamond paste to refine it further but since I don’t have any right now I tried etching it with hot vinegar and then polishing it with flitz. Btw, are there any important events things to consider with buying diamond pastes besides grit size?

View attachment 319490
View attachment 319491
View attachment 319492
What do you guys think? Some more refinement with diamond pastes will be nice but quite pleased with how it came out and the banding really is crazy on these. Only left it on the hamon while polishing the other parts more, but it would be nice if it would be visible on the whole blade. Any tips on how to achieve that? Many cycles of etching and polishing?
Btw, the blade is 170 g now so lost a good 100 g.

I’m not a honyaki polishing nerd, but that looks really nice to me. Love the ghostly look of the hamon in the second shot.

 

[Blank Blades.]

It’s been quiet here. Any updates? Really curious to see how all the other blades are progressing.

I’ve wasted many many hours using sandpaper and while trying out different lines and brands taught me a lot, even the good ones that work well for regular knives just don’t do much on this honyaki. But thanks to @Blank Blades. and @Dr. Knives I’ve finally found out that diamonds are a man’s best friend. Was sceptical about them but now I wish I would’ve tried them much earlier. Anyway, probably 3 hours on diamond stones getting rid of most flat spots and then diamond films, 300-600-1200-2000. 300 grit took me some time but after that it went really fast, couldn’t believe myself how easy it is. Now I think I’ll get some diamond paste to refine it further but since I don’t have any right now I tried etching it with hot vinegar and then polishing it with flitz. Btw, are there any important events things to consider with buying diamond pastes besides grit size?

View attachment 319490
View attachment 319491
View attachment 319492
What do you guys think? Some more refinement with diamond pastes will be nice but quite pleased with how it came out and the banding really is crazy on these. Only left it on the hamon while polishing the other parts more, but it would be nice if it would be visible on the whole blade. Any tips on how to achieve that? Many cycles of etching and polishing?
Btw, the blade is 170 g now so lost a good 100 g.

Yeah these steels that are really hard with some amount of Mc type carbide really need diamond to make your life easier.

If you need to. Now that the heavy lifting is done you can switch to high grit 3m wet or dry.

Start at 1500-2000 go to 3000. Then you can do etching cycles. Mess around with loose abrasives or flitz along with etching.

With this stuff it's really trial and error

 

[Dr. Knives]

It’s been quiet here. Any updates? Really curious to see how all the other blades are progressing.

I’ve wasted many many hours using sandpaper and while trying out different lines and brands taught me a lot, even the good ones that work well for regular knives just don’t do much on this honyaki. But thanks to @Blank Blades. and @Dr. Knives I’ve finally found out that diamonds are a man’s best friend. Was sceptical about them but now I wish I would’ve tried them much earlier. Anyway, probably 3 hours on diamond stones getting rid of most flat spots and then diamond films, 300-600-1200-2000. 300 grit took me some time but after that it went really fast, couldn’t believe myself how easy it is. Now I think I’ll get some diamond paste to refine it further but since I don’t have any right now I tried etching it with hot vinegar and then polishing it with flitz. Btw, are there any important events things to consider with buying diamond pastes besides grit size?

View attachment 319490
View attachment 319491
View attachment 319492
What do you guys think? Some more refinement with diamond pastes will be nice but quite pleased with how it came out and the banding really is crazy on these. Only left it on the hamon while polishing the other parts more, but it would be nice if it would be visible on the whole blade. Any tips on how to achieve that? Many cycles of etching and polishing?
Btw, the blade is 170 g now so lost a good 100 g.

Is this the one you were talking about? or another one

 

[NickMinton]

It’s been quiet here. Any updates? Really curious to see how all the other blades are progressing.

I’ve wasted many many hours using sandpaper and while trying out different lines and brands taught me a lot, even the good ones that work well for regular knives just don’t do much on this honyaki. But thanks to @Blank Blades. and @Dr. Knives I’ve finally found out that diamonds are a man’s best friend. Was sceptical about them but now I wish I would’ve tried them much earlier. Anyway, probably 3 hours on diamond stones getting rid of most flat spots and then diamond films, 300-600-1200-2000. 300 grit took me some time but after that it went really fast, couldn’t believe myself how easy it is. Now I think I’ll get some diamond paste to refine it further but since I don’t have any right now I tried etching it with hot vinegar and then polishing it with flitz. Btw, are there any important events things to consider with buying diamond pastes besides grit size?

View attachment 319490
View attachment 319491
View attachment 319492
What do you guys think? Some more refinement with diamond pastes will be nice but quite pleased with how it came out and the banding really is crazy on these. Only left it on the hamon while polishing the other parts more, but it would be nice if it would be visible on the whole blade. Any tips on how to achieve that? Many cycles of etching and polishing?
Btw, the blade is 170 g now so lost a good 100 g.

I’m waiting on mine to come back from a custom handle but this makes me nervous.

So this was fully done on diamond bench stones?

I had planned to do mine with hand sanding

 

[EShin]

Is this the one you were talking about? or another one

Yeah that’s the honyaki i was talking about. Also used the stone on a couple of other knives and it’s such a pleasure to use, but I’ll write about it elsewhere.

I’m waiting on mine to come back from a custom handle but this makes me nervous.

So this was fully done on diamond bench stones?

I had planned to do mine with hand sanding

I had it thinned by Murray Carter after which it was 182 g or so. The bench stones only came in after that and were necessary because the finish was quite course, in which case stones are more effective than sand paper. A nice side effect is that you can correct low spots. But if the finish on your knife is a bit finer, just start with sand paper. Just try and see how it goes. If sand paper doesn’t work well, diamond films are your friend.

 

[Dr. Knives]

Were the diamond films relatively durable on this kind of steel, or did you have to burn through them like sandpaper

 

[EShin]

Were the diamond films relatively durable on this kind of steel, or did you have to burn through them like sandpaper

There was a learning curve and there was quite some work for the 300 grit films so I ran through more than 2 sheets. Still nothing compared to sandpaper though and especially, it’s easy to control what you’re doing instead of just trying to make the sand paper work. Once I had finished with 300 grit it felt like cheating. It took me about 1/4 of a sheet per grit (600, 1200, 2000) for both sides. So yeah, bigger gaps in progression possible, they work much faster and hold up better. I tried 3m lapping films to see if I could continue polishing with them but they don’t really work.

 

[NickMinton]

Any reason I couldn’t use these? 3M sheets seemed pretty expensive

https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Poli...7556&sprefix=diamond+sandpaper,aps,223&sr=8-3

 

[ReiHamono]

This is the tungsten carbide plate I had developed

Flatness is within 0.08mm, hardness is 76hrc+

Available for pre order on my website

https://sharposharp.com/products/di...23449&pr_ref_pid=7271936426137&pr_seq=uniform

https://sharposharp.com/products/la...69081&pr_ref_pid=7271936426137&pr_seq=uniform

https://www.hisglassworks.com/1-pound-60-grit-graded-silicon-carbide.html

https://techdiamondtools.com/product/grinding-diamond-powders-25-100-carats-14-325-microns/

You can also use grinding belt

I’m using all Oboro diamond stones

 

[Dr. Knives]

Any reason I couldn’t use these? 3M sheets seemed pretty expensive

https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Polishing-Sanding-Backing-Ceramics/dp/B0CDBL67VR/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=39RU5S2AXNQ1T&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3uJbGtWe3QkSajzqgxY93VtOHJaryZsDjf3XO3bFuffU9CQSzaSbU4lQIBm0sAi0otyECwmwztPbrF9vorUl5nDCcUX0_wXtFBcLOm_0YjgSMl5CEvHJxJv-xKD6M41jJ4gaDlc59QodSxcTczSOrCyG31KGG6SSZsjkhKcbtKHcw_D952b_jzgY6s9ovehBtNS3pIJ2cRCzSUCU_0ia_A.a8FljmbwZIcXAmk9HcwJVHpHuan-qJi1G0Q0RwGAakQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=diamond+sandpaper&qid=1714917556&sprefix=diamond+sandpaper,aps,223&sr=8-3

yeah 3M is pretty expensive.

 

[MSicardCutlery]

https://sharposharp.com/products/diamond-film-8-1-2-x-11?variant=42408685207705
https://taytools.com/products/3m-psa-diamond-lapping-microfinishing-film?variant=31353962168407

 

[Blank Blades.]

Were the diamond films relatively durable on this kind of steel, or did you have to burn through them like sandpaper

This stuff sands pretty similarly to the harder to polish stuff tbh

(Kinda funny to me tbh after polishing one of these. Since people are turned off from wanting to use the kind of steels I like to because they are supposedly harder to deal with than "simple steels")

 

[Blank Blades.]

https://sharposharp.com/products/diamond-film-8-1-2-x-11?variant=42408685207705
https://taytools.com/products/3m-psa-diamond-lapping-microfinishing-film?variant=31353962168407
https://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/product_details.php?category_name=Micro Lapping Film&product_id=192

The last one might be aluminum oxide

 

[MSicardCutlery]

The last one might be aluminum oxide

Good catch. Edited out.

 

[EShin]

The last one might be aluminum oxide

Yep, tested them and they're fine for softer clads etc. but not for this kind of steel.

This stuff sands pretty similarly to the harder to polish stuff tbh

(Kinda funny to me tbh after polishing one of these. Since people are turned off from wanting to use the kind of steels I like to because they are supposedly harder to deal with than "simple steels")

From my understanding, the hard part falls mostly on the maker? Another misconception is that diamond stones only make sense for high-alloy steel. Actually, they can make your life much easier for thinning all kinds of knives as they cut well without dishing fast and without covering up low spots etc. At least that's my experience with kyotonaturalstones.com (great source for films, too!) but I guess it should be similar for others as well.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Yep, tested them and they're fine for softer clads etc. but not for this kind of steel.

From my understanding, the hard part falls mostly on the maker? Another misconception is that diamond stones only make sense for high-alloy steel. Actually, they can make your life much easier for thinning all kinds of knives as they cut well without dishing fast and without covering up low spots etc. At least that's my experience with kyotonaturalstones.com (great source for films, too!) but I guess it should be similar for others as well.

Idk maybe it could be a bit due to the maker.

But I think it being monosteel, and having Mc type carbide are the main things. That and being 65+ hrc together with those things.