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I was wondering how you’re so exact, then I think I remember the angle checking block thing.

Looks great! Thinning damascus clad always makes me nervous.

Yup, that level of precision definitely isn’t necessary here but I’m just indulging my OCD. I think I need to go lower angle and higher up from the edge but that probably would mess up the damascus and I’m not feeling up to that just yet.
 
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Thinning Damascus (or fake Damascus) is something I've wondered about as I've never done it.

But I have a professional chef where I sharpen his 8 knives. Probably 6 of them (Shun/Wustoff) have been sharpened back so far over the last 2-3 decades that the edges are really thick at this point.

How deep toward the spine should the thinning be to keep easy cutting once thinned, plus it takes less time to sharpen for me. My pure guess is about 6-8 mm back from the widest part of the existing edge.
 
Committed.

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?k polish off an ozuku asagi I have never found a purpose for. My first jnat (in a shipment of 3), it almost ended the journey before it even started. Of Imanishi origin I believe. Also turns out this old Taiwan chisel is cladded 🥳.

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Nice work!

Ozuku Asagi should be golden for razor honing, give a shout if ever you fancy a swap... ;)
 
This Maruo is a very lovely kasumi stone but I've been using it a bit recently for sharpening too, and been really rather impressed. The stone is fairly slow in comparison to the kinds of things I normally use, but still manages to get a huge amount of aggression into a relatively fine edge.

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Nice work!

Ozuku Asagi should be golden for razor honing, give a shout if ever you fancy a swap... ;)
Thanks!

I’ve never sharpened a razor, but I have done some nagura progression on it for polishing. It appears to be an good base stone (not that I know what one is like), strongly reflecting what the slurry wants to do without any scratches or streaking.

In terms of a trade… PM incoming!
 
Going to call it a day here for the first day of "Greasy's tamahagane/wrought unagisaki revival project series." The goal was to get a better assessment of the condition of the knife and I think I have achieved that, and I feel much more confident tackling the project now than when it looked like a hunk of wavy pointy steel. There are some low spots on the bevel which I will have to work out somehow due to the rust, and I spent a good while trying to increase the size of the hira and begin recreating a shinogi. Actually a lot of progress made so far, but that's because it was a lot of setup. From now on it will be much slower progress I think. Oh yeah I had to straighten the knife too. It was pretty straight to start with but it had a bit of a bend on the kissaki which I think led to the low spot there. Luckily that low spot is not very deep and has come out very quickly. The shinogi is ultra wavy but I expected that from the previous sharpening as well as the low spots. I will try to straighten it out as I go but it's not an ultra high priority for me.

Before photos:
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After photos:
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Even the spine has banding!
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Finished up the Takeda with @refcast ’s mystery vintage barber hone. Not quite as clean as I would like but polishing, not to mention sharpening, is a bit difficult for me with these things. The stone could stand to be a bit bigger but what can you do.
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Can’t wait to get this back into rotation, it’s been like 3 months now 🤣.
 
Going to call it a day here for the first day of "Greasy's tamahagane/wrought unagisaki revival project series." The goal was to get a better assessment of the condition of the knife and I think I have achieved that, and I feel much more confident tackling the project now than when it looked like a hunk of wavy pointy steel. There are some low spots on the bevel which I will have to work out somehow due to the rust, and I spent a good while trying to increase the size of the hira and begin recreating a shinogi. Actually a lot of progress made so far, but that's because it was a lot of setup. From now on it will be much slower progress I think. Oh yeah I had to straighten the knife too. It was pretty straight to start with but it had a bit of a bend on the kissaki which I think led to the low spot there. Luckily that low spot is not very deep and has come out very quickly. The shinogi is ultra wavy but I expected that from the previous sharpening as well as the low spots. I will try to straighten it out as I go but it's not an ultra high priority for me.
Wrapping up day two of work on the unagi-saki. Didn't feel like doing too much today so I just cut the handle off, soaked the tang in evaporust and then found out I've worn out my bottle. Gotta get a new bottle and some brass brushes before I can finish cleaning the tang. Decided to just hit the knife with my new morihei 1k. Cladding line is now showing its face and the stone brought out some of the banding as well. Getting closer to looking like a proper knife :)

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Wrapping up day two of work on the unagi-saki. Didn't feel like doing too much today so I just cut the handle off, soaked the tang in evaporust and then found out I've worn out my bottle. Gotta get a new bottle and some brass brushes before I can finish cleaning the tang. Decided to just hit the knife with my new morihei 1k. Cladding line is now showing its face and the stone brought out some of the banding as well. Getting closer to looking like a proper knife :)

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This looks like an awesome project.

In return - one low spot out, next one on it’s way! It is thin, but there’s a tiny bit of convex that can come off.
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Going to call it a day here for the first day of "Greasy's tamahagane/wrought unagisaki revival project series." The goal was to get a better assessment of the condition of the knife and I think I have achieved that, and I feel much more confident tackling the project now than when it looked like a hunk of wavy pointy steel. There are some low spots on the bevel which I will have to work out somehow due to the rust, and I spent a good while trying to increase the size of the hira and begin recreating a shinogi. Actually a lot of progress made so far, but that's because it was a lot of setup. From now on it will be much slower progress I think. Oh yeah I had to straighten the knife too. It was pretty straight to start with but it had a bit of a bend on the kissaki which I think led to the low spot there. Luckily that low spot is not very deep and has come out very quickly. The shinogi is ultra wavy but I expected that from the previous sharpening as well as the low spots. I will try to straighten it out as I go but it's not an ultra high priority for me.

Before photos:
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After photos:
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Even the spine has banding!
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That knife looks like it's gonna be absolutely kickass. Where did you get it?!

(I am very jealous).
 
This looks like an awesome project.

In return - one low spot out, next one on it’s way! It is thin, but there’s a tiny bit of convex that can come off.
Nice! Glad you're enjoying it. Originally I had left the low spots because the knife is so thin I was worried it would move the shinogi too high before they came out, but I'm glad to see that wasn't the case :) That one is probably the lightest knife I've handled, just disappears into your hands
 
That knife looks like it's gonna be awesome! Where did you get it?!

(I am very jealous).
Thank you! I've been having a lot of fun with it and I'm excited to see where it goes. It's very satisfying to see a recognizable knife shape begin to emerge from what was essentially a pointy piece of metal and rust haha. This was a yahoo auctions find, and definitely my most unique auction buy to date. I was checking the unagi-saki listings every morning for probably 2 months before this knife got listed haha, totally worth it.
 
Don't you hate the way that Translucent Arks are so slow, with rubbish overly refined edges, and horrible streaky scratchy jigane... ;)


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This (courtesy of a trade with @ables) is one of the best edge sharpening stones I have. Very fine, but with huge amounts of bite and teeth. Even the paper towel I cut landed upright on the floor in appreciation!


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Is that bad boy friable at all?


Haha, yes. Good spot! I was being a little bit cute there, that stone is fairly atypical for a Norton Hard Ark...

Though the SG is still up at 2.62, the stone itself is a bit softer, much less translucent, and has a more noticeable surface pore structure than they usually do. Here are some comparison pics vs a more normal type of old Norton Hard.

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Haha, yes. Good spot! I was being a little bit cute there, that stone is fairly atypical for a Norton Hard Ark...

Though the SG is still up at 2.62, the stone itself is a bit softer, much less translucent, and has a more noticeable surface pore structure than they usually do. Here are some comparison pics vs a more normal type of old Norton Hard.

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I've owned atleast 3 dozen hard arkansas stones but never had one quite like this norton. Unique color, pores, and translucency. I knew it would be a really sweet knife stone and am glad it has a good home with fancy knives to sharpen!
 
Top tier pairing. Now I see the value in heavy ass single bevel honesuki.
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Finally finished the polish, poorly I might add, but I got lazy. The goal was to be able to use this thing and I absolutely love the feel in hand during use. Aoto edge is perfect, both for application and ease of use, although I’m sure my technique can be much better. The sheer weight and rock solid feel packed into such a small blade is a lot different than what I had used before. F yeah, objective achieved.

Edit - the core steel messy, but I like this iron.
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