The Dragon got here, and as I unboxed it, I couldn’t help but think…
“Meh…”
A Misono cherry blossom was my first real J-knife, and it seems that 9 months is a loooong time ago. I was so pleased when I unboxed the first – obviously. But a LOT of water went under that bridge…
Still, buying the Dragon is buying a project knife. Knew that, and had a mind of my own about how I would treat this very knife. It sure needed to be “reviewed”. That poor beast needed to be freed at last.
Presenting you…
Misono Kasumi – Phase 1
We have somewhat of a two-step progression here: one concerns thinning, the other one a polishing progression. For thinning, I used Sigma 240 for the heavy lifting, and Naniwa Pro 400 to refine Sigma’s scratch pattern a bit.
Thinning here is the progressive result of about 5 compound angles. Out of Sigma, the cutting side edge bevel was nearly twice as thick as the final result: the upper part of that bevel was eventually compounded into convexing. As well, I used two additional angles to thin further up the edge with the Sigma. We can still see about twice the edge bevel width, over it, that is paler and somewhat scratchier. Compounding is concentrated there. Pics will show the convexity well, the paler area where bevels were compounded is pretty subtle but also shows in some pics like the one above.
When I was done with the NP400, the actual face where lies the dragon was still untouched by stone. That's when I went for some easing of the spine and smoothing the right side of the choil just a bit.
Kasumi progress was done with Cerax #700 – SP1500 – Suehiro Ouka – Suehiro Rika. Edge bevel final mirror polish and sharpening was SP5K. I wanted to avoid really coarse stones for the polishing of the whole blade, that it would mostly polish but not thin further, because work out of the coarse stones had seen to that, and I wasn’t ready to thin further without trying the knife in a prep first. Always assess work before going for the real thin behind the edge. I can already tell that I won’t thin the knife further – it already wants to just stick into end-grain cutting boards, which can be dangerous if flexing occurs while cutting. Still it’s tough enough, thick as it is.
Last thing to know is that I didn’t finish the left side yet – this will be Phase 2.
Not beautiful yet, but I do like how this shot still underlines that neat convexing of the right side...
Reason being that I mostly worked that blade like you’d do a single bevel. I didn’t go the extreme of making the left side flat for real – and don’t think I will. But I worked on it some completely flat in between every phase of polishing the right side – sort of cleaning it and making the edge bevel there real obvious in the choil shot. The thick edge bevel on the cutting side is no relief bevel but zero grind of itself – it does meet the edge. On the left side I didn’t sharpen, only deburr recreating the company angle there.
I won’t make the left side real flat because we’re on the fine line before important steering occurs as is. I’ll just work with the current equilibrium when sharpening.
For an edge that I never truly apexed from the left side, nor polished the bevel much there, it’s pretty awesome. A couple spots would catch in paper – no surprise. But with food? Superb performance already, my grind is working awesomely, edge feels sharp as hell, no resistance with food.
As a test: cutting carrots, cucumber (for lunchs not in the menu above), dicing a shallot and an onion, smashing some garlic removing the root prior, slicing potatoes for the fondant, and slicing the pork roast to serve. Pardon the dark roasted fondant, but this was TV comfort food and I love them a bit overdone. Even better than good French fries and I'm a sucker for them, so that's saying something.
Next session will be a progression of Kasumi on the left side too, and cleaning/polishing the edge bevel there on fine stones to apex. I intend to try NP3000 I just received. It will take place of Suehiro Ouka in the progression, and be the first to clean and apex the left side bevel. Should give me a pretty good idea of the NP polishing prowess and cutting speed. At the same time I will of course use it on the right side edge bevel too, and a bit of cutting paper before going Rika should tell me some about what kind of an edge it leaves.
Dragon looks really neat on a kasumi background – finally free and looking alive. To the extent of expressing its satisfaction blowing some pent-up fire out.
That behaved patina of Misono Swedish…
Missed it a lot.
To be continued…
“Meh…”
A Misono cherry blossom was my first real J-knife, and it seems that 9 months is a loooong time ago. I was so pleased when I unboxed the first – obviously. But a LOT of water went under that bridge…
Still, buying the Dragon is buying a project knife. Knew that, and had a mind of my own about how I would treat this very knife. It sure needed to be “reviewed”. That poor beast needed to be freed at last.
Presenting you…
Misono Kasumi – Phase 1
We have somewhat of a two-step progression here: one concerns thinning, the other one a polishing progression. For thinning, I used Sigma 240 for the heavy lifting, and Naniwa Pro 400 to refine Sigma’s scratch pattern a bit.
Thinning here is the progressive result of about 5 compound angles. Out of Sigma, the cutting side edge bevel was nearly twice as thick as the final result: the upper part of that bevel was eventually compounded into convexing. As well, I used two additional angles to thin further up the edge with the Sigma. We can still see about twice the edge bevel width, over it, that is paler and somewhat scratchier. Compounding is concentrated there. Pics will show the convexity well, the paler area where bevels were compounded is pretty subtle but also shows in some pics like the one above.
When I was done with the NP400, the actual face where lies the dragon was still untouched by stone. That's when I went for some easing of the spine and smoothing the right side of the choil just a bit.
Kasumi progress was done with Cerax #700 – SP1500 – Suehiro Ouka – Suehiro Rika. Edge bevel final mirror polish and sharpening was SP5K. I wanted to avoid really coarse stones for the polishing of the whole blade, that it would mostly polish but not thin further, because work out of the coarse stones had seen to that, and I wasn’t ready to thin further without trying the knife in a prep first. Always assess work before going for the real thin behind the edge. I can already tell that I won’t thin the knife further – it already wants to just stick into end-grain cutting boards, which can be dangerous if flexing occurs while cutting. Still it’s tough enough, thick as it is.
Last thing to know is that I didn’t finish the left side yet – this will be Phase 2.
Not beautiful yet, but I do like how this shot still underlines that neat convexing of the right side...
Reason being that I mostly worked that blade like you’d do a single bevel. I didn’t go the extreme of making the left side flat for real – and don’t think I will. But I worked on it some completely flat in between every phase of polishing the right side – sort of cleaning it and making the edge bevel there real obvious in the choil shot. The thick edge bevel on the cutting side is no relief bevel but zero grind of itself – it does meet the edge. On the left side I didn’t sharpen, only deburr recreating the company angle there.
I won’t make the left side real flat because we’re on the fine line before important steering occurs as is. I’ll just work with the current equilibrium when sharpening.
For an edge that I never truly apexed from the left side, nor polished the bevel much there, it’s pretty awesome. A couple spots would catch in paper – no surprise. But with food? Superb performance already, my grind is working awesomely, edge feels sharp as hell, no resistance with food.
As a test: cutting carrots, cucumber (for lunchs not in the menu above), dicing a shallot and an onion, smashing some garlic removing the root prior, slicing potatoes for the fondant, and slicing the pork roast to serve. Pardon the dark roasted fondant, but this was TV comfort food and I love them a bit overdone. Even better than good French fries and I'm a sucker for them, so that's saying something.
Next session will be a progression of Kasumi on the left side too, and cleaning/polishing the edge bevel there on fine stones to apex. I intend to try NP3000 I just received. It will take place of Suehiro Ouka in the progression, and be the first to clean and apex the left side bevel. Should give me a pretty good idea of the NP polishing prowess and cutting speed. At the same time I will of course use it on the right side edge bevel too, and a bit of cutting paper before going Rika should tell me some about what kind of an edge it leaves.
Dragon looks really neat on a kasumi background – finally free and looking alive. To the extent of expressing its satisfaction blowing some pent-up fire out.
That behaved patina of Misono Swedish…
Missed it a lot.To be continued…
Last edited:
