Both of my grandmothers have passed away, so I won't be buying them any knives or sharpening theirs.
I think my post above answered your questions/comments about why I decided to buy a couple of project knives.
How did they turn out? I think the bunka has turned out pretty well. I've done several progressions from 220 sandpaper up to 5000 on the bunka. The bevels aren't completely flat and that's fine with me. Overall, it is thinner behind the edge than it was at the beginning and I've gotten better at scratch removal. The bunka is actually a nice utility knife. The nakiri isn't messed up, but I'm not convinced that I made it much better. The nakiri is much thinner at the spine with less pronounced bevels. When I worked on flattening those bevels, I ended up nearly eliminating the shoulders. I don't find myself using the nakiri much.
I rounded the choil and spine on both knives, removed most of the ku, and tried a couple of forced patinas. None of these were necessary, but I was interested in the process/work involved.
I made new handles for both of them. There is a separate thread somewhere where I posted those. The first one, for the nakiri, is really rough. It is usable, but not terribly attractive or comfortable. This winter, I may make a new handle for that knife. The handle for the bunka turned out quite a bit better. Although the handle is a little large for the knife from a visual perspective, it fits my hand well and doesn't mess with the balance too much.