WIP: First Yanagiba Fix

[tk59]

I started looking at finishes. I can still see 1k or coarser scratches that I never took out so I'll have to go back down in grit but here's the finish left by an 8k superstone (toward the heel) and a Kitayama 8k (adjacent to the superstone finish). At this point, the tip area was polished only up to 5k. One wierd thing I noticed is it seems that rust seemed to form quicker using the Kit. I didn't notice any rust formation using the SS.

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[bieniek]

Very good job indeed man. From what it was until what it became now, its huge difference and amount of your job.
But I have to say, that i would prefer to buy new knife as this one looks dead. I dont know how somebody can possibly damage a knife that way, especially back, but the wavy front bothers me also? how could you get that much metal of with only stone[I mean before you repaired it]?

 

[tk59]

But I have to say, that i would prefer to buy new knife as this one looks dead. I dont know how somebody can possibly damage a knife that way, especially back, but the wavy front bothers me also? how could you get that much metal of with only stone[I mean before you repaired it]?

Yeah, the damage is confusing to me, too. I can see how the front was damaged (and I didn't do the greatest job on it either) but the back side doesn't really make sense. It took many sharpenings to accomplish, I'm sure. For me, this was a learning experience while at the same time doing a good deed. :biggrin:

Here's probably the last pics I'll post on this. I finished with Belgian coticule and then Takashima Awasedo from Jon both 8k+ stones. It looks like the contrast on both is better than the Kit and probably the Takashima is a little better than the coticule but it's close. I'll add that I love the smell of damp earth from using natural stones. It adds a little something to the meditative experience... :disturb:

 

[bieniek]

You did excellent job, if you think that correcting up after others is the hardest job.
I wonder how sharp can this knife get?
I mean Jon written somewhere that too much grinding on Ura and performance will actually decrease.
So how is it?

 

[Dave Martell]

I'll add that I love the smell of damp earth from using natural stones. It adds a little something to the meditative experience.

I like this too.

 

[tk59]

You did excellent job, if you think that correcting up after others is the hardest job.
I wonder how sharp can this knife get?
I mean Jon written somewhere that too much grinding on Ura and performance will actually decrease.
So how is it?

Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. I wish I could answer your question but I have no idea what this knive was ever capable of (It could be a $50 junker for all I know.). I will say that it is easy to sharpen and takes a very nice edge, like every carbon steel I've tried. The guy I sharpened it for is a pro so I never really tried to push the edge to extreme sharpness but more for what Jon and others have described for a typical sushi chef ie toothy 5-8k finish. I put a pretty large angle on the microbevel based on the amount of damage it seemed to be taking. When I got it back, he said the knife had never been that sharp so I guess he wouldn't know either. I will say that the edge made it through an entire week (I don't know what his volume is like.) and he said it was still cutting satisfactorily. When I looked at it closely, it did show some microchipping about 1/3 of the way down the blade from the tip (this is where it was badly overground, initially) and the edge had rolled a little in some places toward the back of the knife. In the end, he's happy with the job I'm doing so I guess that's really what matters. In retrospect, I would have done a few things differently but I still feel that I understand a lot better now how to maintain this style of knife than I did before. Again, big thanks to Jon even though I didn't always follow his suggestions. He took a lot of the guess work out of the process.