Are all mirror finished knives expensive?

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agp

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I'm looking to pick up a mirror finished blade, but most of the ones I see are very expensive - 500+. Why are they so expensive, and are there cheaper ones?
 
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There are craftsmen in the US that can mirror any knife for you. It won’t cost the earth, a couple of hundred bucks. So if you like mirror finishes (I do), you can pick your favourite knife and send it over to them. It will very likely end up finished much better than a factory finished mirror (they use buffing wheels and more often than not, quite a few scratches are left behind, where as the people that hand sand it will leave a much more controlled mirror finish). The best factory mirror finish on a Japanese knife I have seen has been on a Gesshin Ittetsu honyaki western gyuto btw.
 
khashy said:
There are craftsmen in the US that can mirror any knife for you. It won’t cost the earth, a couple of hundred bucks. So if you like mirror finishes (I do), you can pick your favourite knife and send it over to them. It will very likely end up finished much better than a factory finished mirror (they use buffing wheels and more often than not, quite a few scratches are left behind, where as the people that hand sand it will leave a much more controlled mirror finish). The best factory mirror finish on a Japanese knife I have seen has been on a Gesshin Ittetsu honyaki western gyuto btw.
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How often do you have to re-finish your daily knife?
 
agp said:
How often do you have to re-finish your daily knife?
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Never had to. A mild polish removes patina and restores shine and mirror again. My mirrors knives are honyakis, so they don’t scratch very easily
 
High polished finish sucks, you can see everything, finger prints, scratches, etc.

Hand polished especially honyaki knives are expensive because of the labor envolved. I am sure you can get cheap polished knives though.
 
In my experience a high polished knife shows fingerprints and even the smallest of scratches more so than one that isn't polished. Food seems to stick a lot more also. But I'm still a sucker for a beautiful mirror finish.
 
Really I just want one for show. Maybe use it to slice some salami every once in a while
 
I've put mirror finishes on 2 gyutos and promised myself that I'd never do another because of the amount of work involved,but at the end of the day it's so satisfying to acquire the results you want through hard work. Plus it's nice to be able to tell people..I did that!!
 
Sad thing is a pro can mirror one in a few minutes if they have the setup. No interest in doing it yourself? $25 in high grit paper (plus the elbow grease) but then again I enjoy it.
 
nevrknow said:
Sad thing is a pro can mirror one in a few minutes if they have the setup. No interest in doing it yourself? $25 in high grit paper (plus the elbow grease) but then again I enjoy it.
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I don’t agree. You might get it shiny but mirror is something to be respected and takes a lot of work/knowledge.
 
I agree it’s to be respected, especially if done by hand.

But is done everyday on machines on other metals and in some Japanese knife shops. Depends on who it is doing it.

Not trying to imply there is “nothing to it” but the mystique is gone for me. 100 years ago?? ( probably less) damn right mirror would be jaw dropping. With the tools available today? Meh. Pretty but not awe inspiring.
 
nevrknow said:
I agree it’s to be respected, especially if done by hand.

But is done everyday on machines on other metals and in some Japanese knife shops. Depends on who it is doing it.

Not trying to imply there is “nothing to it” but the mystique is gone for me. 100 years ago?? ( probably less) damn right mirror would be jaw dropping. With the tools available today? Meh. Pretty but not awe inspiring.
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Again no they can’t.

I was helping do mirror polishing just the other day on 10 honyaki Knives. It is still done by hand even though you are using rotary machines with different buffs and such.

It’s not like waxing your car. First of all it takes forever to get all the tiny scratches out. Yes your polished knife is full of tiny scratches. To take it from there to mirror finish you go through a hand full of steps involving kf foils, papers, satin and cloth buffs. Making sure everyone of the finishings on each step is properly done. Takes good eyes for this or you have to go back down and do it again if you didn’t get it right.

It is also very tiring and dangerous to do this. So considering all the time tools and labor invested into doing a mirror finish on a hand made knife, it will cost a lot more

If you still don’t believe me come to Osaka. I’ll show you.
 
Is water wet? Are politicians corrupt? Do strippers pretend to love you for tips?
 
Come to Vegas and get a 3 for one lap dance special.

Thread jack mitches.
 
agp said:
I'm looking to pick up a mirror finished blade, but most of the ones I see are very expensive - 500+. Why are they so expensive, and are there cheaper ones?
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Two factors: 1) mirror finish is time intensive and a pain in the butt and 2) the majority of Japanese mirror finished knives are probably honyaki which adds cost due to the failure rate during heat treating quench.

There's not any point to mirror polishing a common san mai knife because the soft cladding will be prone to showing scratches thus ruining the mirror polish.
 
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