asking for some advice to restore some old(?) knives

[MarcelNL]

I recently got two knives that both need some refreshing; see below for a sample. My thinking is; get the handle off (heat gun, piece of wood and a hammer) clean the handle by sanding with some 1000-2000 grit paper and oiling, but I wonder about the steel...taking it to the Koppa, tried that for a bit with the Usuba and it seems to be a massive job for the stone, or starting with either sand paper (but what grit) on a cork block or a coarser stone and then finishing with what before sharpening them. Not looking for Kasumi a clean look is enough for me unless I go all crazy in the process and find I'm unable to stop grinding ;-)

My stones: a Shapton Pro 1500, Hideryama koppa lv 2.5 ish, a Rika 5000ish and a Shapton pro 10000

 

[inferno]

depending on how flat the surfaces are you might want to start out with something way coarser than a 1500. 220 or 500 or so. or sandpaper.

 

[MarcelNL]

Thanks!! OK, I tried a 'sand paper' foam block and that seems to work pretty well. I remembered I have a couple of grades of scotch brite, could not find that (moving house does that) and found the foam block and just gave it a go.

 

[inferno]

you probably want something hard backing the paper. otherwise you will create a concave or convex surface on the steel. and then when you move onto stones it will come out quite bad since your stones are flat.

 

[MarcelNL]

ha, I noticed th surface is not flat indeed...not sure I got that much off it with the fine grit block I used but it was likley too soft indeed!

 

[inferno]

if you have a flat surface and its actually not really flat you can either make it truly flat with stones/sandpaper, or if you dont have the time or the will to make it flat, you can use sandpaper, but just rub the blade with it.

i usually fold the sandpaper a few times so there is some flex, and then lay the paper on a table and rub the knife on it, as opposed to rubbing the paper on the knife. i do this with my work moras.

 

[MarcelNL]

thanks for sharing, that confirms my little experience so far !