Changing an asymmetric grind

[demosthenes]

Let's say I'm right-handed and receive a knife with a left-hand bias. What is the best way to correct this?

Option A: thin the blade to grind out the bulge on the right side of the blade face (edge facing up).
Option B: sharpen the blade on the left side of the blade face (edge facing up) to create a more symmetric bevel, albeit shortening the blade height in the process.

... or ...

Real world choil from one of my knives that seems left-hand biased:

 

[MSicardCutlery]

The amount of time you'll spend and the material you'll lose trying to reverse the grind will be significant. Alternatively, pushing the shiogi up on the left hand side would help, but it's still a lot to do on stones and by hand.

Personally I would just list it and look for another knife. There are many lefty's in the knife world that would love to have a dedicated LH ground blade.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Choil shots can be deceiving. Does it perform like it has a left hand bias?

I had a knife that appeared much like that but it was just a slight bulge at the very edge of the coil so gave that appearance but the knife grind itself was fine.

 

[MowgFace]

Does your knife steer in a undesired way? Or is this just for Aesthetics?

 

[MSicardCutlery]

Choil shots can be deceiving. Does it perform like it has a left hand bias?

I had a knife that appeared much like that but it was just a slight bulge at the very edge of the coil so gave that appearance but the knife grind itself was fine.

Also this.

 

[Delat]

Choil shots can be deceiving. Does it perform like it has a left hand bias?

I had a knife that appeared much like that but it was just a slight bulge at the very edge of the coil so gave that appearance but the knife grind itself was fine.

Agree with this. Take a credit card / straightedge to the blade at the midpoint and see what the grind looks like there.

 

[demosthenes]

This is very helpful information, thank you for the replies!

I don't notice any steering, but I do feel some resistance when cutting when I get to the shinogi line. I thought this might be more noticeable given the apparent asymmetrical grind, but it's a good point that the choil shot may be deceiving.

I'll try the credit card trick to investigate what the grind actually is near the midpoint.

 

[MowgFace]

If your knife is not steering as a left hand bias knife, then it should not be an issue.

Resistance towards the shinogi line is a function of the construction. Shinogi line is usually the thickest part of the grind.

 

[demosthenes]

FWIW, I checked the mid-point of the blade with a straightedge and the grind does seem pretty symmetric actually. So in this case the choil was misleading.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Benuser]

A bit late: the main difference between left- and right-biased blades is not only in the convex grinding to ease food release, but as well in the off-centering of the edge: to the left with right-biased knives and vice versa. This off-centering makes the difference between a common Japanese blade and a traditional Sab, where the edge is centered but the faces are just as different as with Japanese knives. The Japanese could ignore left-handers and the edge's off-centering to the left will enhance the food release even more. Moving the very edge to the other side means a waste of material. As suggested before, better sell a dedicated left-biased blade to a left-hander instead of changing it into a probably sub-optimal right-hander's blade after a lot of work and considerable loss of width.