I bought a cheap yanagiba on eBay, a Sekizo 240mm. Very cheap, I'm ashamed to mention the price. Less than a good lunch.
Anyway, this is really just for fun, I don't need a yanagiba, but I thought it would be interesting to see how they sharpen and work, just in case. I wasn't expecting much for $25. I really just wanted to see how they are ground and how single bevel knives sharp, and so forth.
So it arrived today. After supper I pulled it out of the box and took a look. Back is very rough, fake bead blasted "blade road", the works. Felt pretty sharp, but the grind was VERY rough (Tojiro DP times about 10) right down to the edge, and the grinding burr is visible to the eye. Didn't bother to try cutting anything with it. The burr should have been a clue, more on that in a bit.
Took it down to the sharpening station in the basement, thinking a few minutes on the 1200 Bester would put and edge on it and it would be ready to try out. Boy was I optomistic!
Surprisingly, the back was actually concave, but no ura, just ground on a decent radius right to the spine and to the edge. No big deal, I thought, I'd must whip it over the stones and get a good polish on it and see what the bevel looks like. Ha, what a mess.
I do have it more or less flat, but I'll have to eventually re-grind the back -- serious wobble in the grind leaving a big fat spot about 8 cm back from the tip (more on that later, too!) and a huge overgrind at the tip. Probably never going to be sharp at the tip, I won't live long enough to grind off enough steel to get an edge. Still not too disappointed, thought, it was cheap. Time to flip it over an start in on the bevel. I'm not fond of the fake sandblasting anyway.
Five minutes later, I switched from the Bester to my King Deluxe 300 grit -- two big high spots at 4 cm and 20 cm, it would take a decade or two on the 1200 grit stone to make any headway. Half an hour later I dig up the Harbor Freight 140 grit diamond plate, even the 300 grit stone is going to take an eon to get anywhere near the edge. Tip is completely hopeless, there is a huge overgrind for the last 2 cm or so with a horrible 30 degree bevel ground along the last bit as well. Knife is a bit fat on that side in back from the overgrind too.
I eventually get close to the edge and switch back to the 300 grit stone. Another hour and I'm getting a burr about 3/4 of the way up, so have to remove it periodically, I don't want a giant piece of foil stuck to the edge, and I keep working. Another hour and I'm almost all the way through the small overgrind at the heel and have a decent burr, so I de-burr (or at least thought I did) and change to the Bester 700.
That goes pretty fast, cleans up the scratches from the 300 fairly quickly and I get a nice burr. Remove it and move on to the 1200, which produces a nice matte finish like always. I clean up the back, deburr on the stone, and get out my synthetic aoto. Work up a nice batch of mud, bevel is starting to polish a bit, back looks OK other than the messy ura, but when I wipe the blade down after washing off the mud it's rough.
Get the hand lens out and the edge looks burned. I mean, this is a cheap knife, but burnt? Go back to the 300 grit, thinking I'm going to have to grind out some chips although I cannot imagine how I would have chipped the edge wiping on a dishcloth. Grind a bit and there is MORE stuff that looks like chips. Can't be, how could I possibly chip the edge?
A closer look reveals the truth -- a monster burr of foil thin metal easily visible to the naked eye! Soft stainless at it's worst, I suspect. Drag the knife edge through some wood a couple times and it's better, so I do a dozen or so firm strops on the stone and the rest of it comes off. Now there is a distinct dip in the edge near the tip I'm going to have to grind out, but when I finally got the burr off the edge is actually sharp. I may measure the blade for thickness along that area, I'm thinking I'm going to need to do some major grinding to get the edge smooth, but it's actually sharp most of the length.
I quit for tonight, this is obviously going to be a major project instead of a quick sharpening, unlike my new Tojiro DP gyuto. Not a great edge on that when it arrived, but a few minutes got me a razor edge.
If I have time tomorrow I'll post some pics, should have take a couple to start with. Needless to say, if this wasn't a project I'd not have bothered. I suppose you could cut raw fish with that knife with out of the box edge, but you'd also be able to cut raw fish with a hand saw if you worked at it.
Given the enormous and tenacious burr, I'm guessing the knife is something like 54 Rockwell 440A or something similar. Where I've actually apexed the edge it's quite sharp off the Bester 700, so I think I can get it really sharp at least temporarily.
I'll report back after another couple hours of grinding, as I'm going to have to fix the wavy edge now. I may even eventually be able to cut something with it!
Peter
Anyway, this is really just for fun, I don't need a yanagiba, but I thought it would be interesting to see how they sharpen and work, just in case. I wasn't expecting much for $25. I really just wanted to see how they are ground and how single bevel knives sharp, and so forth.
So it arrived today. After supper I pulled it out of the box and took a look. Back is very rough, fake bead blasted "blade road", the works. Felt pretty sharp, but the grind was VERY rough (Tojiro DP times about 10) right down to the edge, and the grinding burr is visible to the eye. Didn't bother to try cutting anything with it. The burr should have been a clue, more on that in a bit.
Took it down to the sharpening station in the basement, thinking a few minutes on the 1200 Bester would put and edge on it and it would be ready to try out. Boy was I optomistic!
Surprisingly, the back was actually concave, but no ura, just ground on a decent radius right to the spine and to the edge. No big deal, I thought, I'd must whip it over the stones and get a good polish on it and see what the bevel looks like. Ha, what a mess.
I do have it more or less flat, but I'll have to eventually re-grind the back -- serious wobble in the grind leaving a big fat spot about 8 cm back from the tip (more on that later, too!) and a huge overgrind at the tip. Probably never going to be sharp at the tip, I won't live long enough to grind off enough steel to get an edge. Still not too disappointed, thought, it was cheap. Time to flip it over an start in on the bevel. I'm not fond of the fake sandblasting anyway.
Five minutes later, I switched from the Bester to my King Deluxe 300 grit -- two big high spots at 4 cm and 20 cm, it would take a decade or two on the 1200 grit stone to make any headway. Half an hour later I dig up the Harbor Freight 140 grit diamond plate, even the 300 grit stone is going to take an eon to get anywhere near the edge. Tip is completely hopeless, there is a huge overgrind for the last 2 cm or so with a horrible 30 degree bevel ground along the last bit as well. Knife is a bit fat on that side in back from the overgrind too.
I eventually get close to the edge and switch back to the 300 grit stone. Another hour and I'm getting a burr about 3/4 of the way up, so have to remove it periodically, I don't want a giant piece of foil stuck to the edge, and I keep working. Another hour and I'm almost all the way through the small overgrind at the heel and have a decent burr, so I de-burr (or at least thought I did) and change to the Bester 700.
That goes pretty fast, cleans up the scratches from the 300 fairly quickly and I get a nice burr. Remove it and move on to the 1200, which produces a nice matte finish like always. I clean up the back, deburr on the stone, and get out my synthetic aoto. Work up a nice batch of mud, bevel is starting to polish a bit, back looks OK other than the messy ura, but when I wipe the blade down after washing off the mud it's rough.
Get the hand lens out and the edge looks burned. I mean, this is a cheap knife, but burnt? Go back to the 300 grit, thinking I'm going to have to grind out some chips although I cannot imagine how I would have chipped the edge wiping on a dishcloth. Grind a bit and there is MORE stuff that looks like chips. Can't be, how could I possibly chip the edge?
A closer look reveals the truth -- a monster burr of foil thin metal easily visible to the naked eye! Soft stainless at it's worst, I suspect. Drag the knife edge through some wood a couple times and it's better, so I do a dozen or so firm strops on the stone and the rest of it comes off. Now there is a distinct dip in the edge near the tip I'm going to have to grind out, but when I finally got the burr off the edge is actually sharp. I may measure the blade for thickness along that area, I'm thinking I'm going to need to do some major grinding to get the edge smooth, but it's actually sharp most of the length.
I quit for tonight, this is obviously going to be a major project instead of a quick sharpening, unlike my new Tojiro DP gyuto. Not a great edge on that when it arrived, but a few minutes got me a razor edge.
If I have time tomorrow I'll post some pics, should have take a couple to start with. Needless to say, if this wasn't a project I'd not have bothered. I suppose you could cut raw fish with that knife with out of the box edge, but you'd also be able to cut raw fish with a hand saw if you worked at it.
Given the enormous and tenacious burr, I'm guessing the knife is something like 54 Rockwell 440A or something similar. Where I've actually apexed the edge it's quite sharp off the Bester 700, so I think I can get it really sharp at least temporarily.
I'll report back after another couple hours of grinding, as I'm going to have to fix the wavy edge now. I may even eventually be able to cut something with it!
Peter
