MowgFace
Senior Member
How do you like the Naniwa Diamond?
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How do you like the Naniwa Diamond?
It was different than I expected. I'd only had the electroplated type diamonds before this and it is completely different. As opposed to a plate type, which is screechy and annoying, the Naniwa has what I would call a "plastic-y" feel to it. Minimal feedback, but I would say more than a Shapton Pro 5000 (which I absolutely hated for knives as it gave nothing). Not as quick as I'd thought it would be, but gets the job done. Seems to load a bit easily, but the cleaning stone does it's job. I'd have to use to more to comment further.
Your wife did you a real service. Cheap nakiri can be a little rough around the edges. But I find that their geometry is mostly hammered in. This makes them look pretty crude, but in some ways this means they have to be more perfect because there's just a tiny bit of weakly held kurouchi hiding it's essential form from the world. No room to hide anything. Low spots on the bevels are a given. But generally the geometry is not an accident or an afterthought. The geometry is the knife. No BS or fillers or makeup. Form follows function. I did a video about my favorite little dude.
She really did. The other 3 I bought were just randomly picked off the shelf purely based on looks, and only this one stays out for daily use. Otherwise, i’d never have started screwing around with stones and thinning. One of these days im going to follow your lead and really map out the geometry and see what’s going on. It’s been subject to so much abuse/chip removal that little of the bevel geometry remains, but the blade face remains mostly unaltered. If anything, I need to see what that massive concave at the choil is all about. Luckily it looks righty biased, and performs as such.
Knivperson
Senior Member
Cut some fresh turmeric I had to polish off. Then it needed sharpening. JNS 6000 did the job. Cuts soft tissue paper like nothing.
Knivperson
Senior Member
Clean cuts
Got back to the Hinokuni.
This is my most extensive project so far. I've never ground down the actual edge like I did on this guy. I got it evened out but in the process I eradicated most of the original bevel on the back half or so yet most of the bevel in front of that wasn't touched much.
I'm still a greenhorn when it comes to thinning too. Done some, but still need a lot of experience.
All of that combined with a knife that, well, retains its rustic forging heritage, equaled a challenge. But, it's one I wanted to tackle because I really do like this knife and I want to improve my skills.
Once I had the high spots ground out of the blade, I set about thinning it. I had no concern with aesthetics to start, I just wanted function and to judge my own progress. I did a good bit of work on the Norton course Crystolon. It left some prominent scratches but did make a noticeable difference.
I transitioned to my SG500, 2k and even the 4k. There were still a lot of scratches but I got some polish at the very edge and tried to fool myself into believing I was happy with the sharpness. I put it on the magnet and told myself it was fine.
It wasn't.
So, back at it again today.
Still some scratches, I'm honestly not concerned with the looks so that is okay with me. I just need to get an edge I was alright with. Today I spent more time on the Crytolon and laid the edge back a bit. I formed it too fat the first go around and didn't do a good job of blending it with the original edge at the front half.
This time I stopped on the SG2k and am pretty happy with the results. Great learning experience, and an awesome baseline to get better.
This is my most extensive project so far. I've never ground down the actual edge like I did on this guy. I got it evened out but in the process I eradicated most of the original bevel on the back half or so yet most of the bevel in front of that wasn't touched much.
I'm still a greenhorn when it comes to thinning too. Done some, but still need a lot of experience.
All of that combined with a knife that, well, retains its rustic forging heritage, equaled a challenge. But, it's one I wanted to tackle because I really do like this knife and I want to improve my skills.
Once I had the high spots ground out of the blade, I set about thinning it. I had no concern with aesthetics to start, I just wanted function and to judge my own progress. I did a good bit of work on the Norton course Crystolon. It left some prominent scratches but did make a noticeable difference.
I transitioned to my SG500, 2k and even the 4k. There were still a lot of scratches but I got some polish at the very edge and tried to fool myself into believing I was happy with the sharpness. I put it on the magnet and told myself it was fine.
It wasn't.
So, back at it again today.
Still some scratches, I'm honestly not concerned with the looks so that is okay with me. I just need to get an edge I was alright with. Today I spent more time on the Crytolon and laid the edge back a bit. I formed it too fat the first go around and didn't do a good job of blending it with the original edge at the front half.
This time I stopped on the SG2k and am pretty happy with the results. Great learning experience, and an awesome baseline to get better.
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MowgFace
Senior Member
Got back to the Hinokuni.
This is my most extensive project so far. I've never ground down the actual edge like I did on this guy. I got it evened out but in the process I eradicated most of the original bevel on the back half or so yet most of the bevel in front of that wasn't touched much.
I'm still a greenhorn when it comes to thinning too. Done some, but still need a lot of experience.
All of that combined with a knife that, well, retains its rustic forging heritage, equaled a challenge. But, it's one I wanted to tackle because I really do like this knife and I want to improve my skills.
Once I had the high spots ground out of the blade, I set about thinning it. I had no concern with aesthetics to start, I just wanted function and to judge my own progress. I did a good bit of work on the Norton course Crystolon. It left some prominent scratches but did make a noticeable difference.
I transitioned to my SG500, 2k and even the 4k. There were still a lot of scratches but I got some polish at the very edge and tried to fool myself into believing I was happy with the sharpness. I put it on the magnet and told myself it was fine.
It wasn't.
So, back at it again today.
Still some scratches, I'm honestly not concerned with the looks so that is okay with me. I just need to get an edge I was alright with. Today I spent more time on the Crytolon and laid the edge back a bit. I formed it too fat the first go around and didn't do a good job of blending it with the original edge at the front half.
This time I stopped on the SG2k and am pretty happy with the results. Great learning experience, and an awesome baseline to get better.
If that is a low spot on the left face near the tip, I’d make sure to monitor that over your next few sharpening/thinnings. Looks like is not too far from the edge, either being an over grind that could lead to a hole, or a possible twist or bend in the blade near there.
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Thank you and I agree. It's a low spot.
It’s a real keeper my friend. I like it more every time I use it. The clay feel is something else entirely at this level of fine finisher.
Knivperson
Senior Member
Trying som jigane kasumi and hagane migaki on this honesuki. An absolute noob and no naturals, but it was fun. Blood, knives, stones and beer.
Grinding the pads off your fingers smarts. I have experience. 
Knivperson
Senior Member
I'm an academic. Fingers are good for nothing. Well... almost nothing, you know...Grinding the pads off your fingers smarts. I have experience.
Worst part is you don’t notice until it’s way too late and that red streak shows up.
Had 10 minutes before work today, went from NP400 straight to shobu suita. For science. Discovered this thing is obscenely fast. Close to synthetic speed on self-slurry 
. Gonna try to take out all the scratches, see what happens
. Gonna try to take out all the scratches, see what happens
user 16756
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Had 10 minutes before work today, went from NP400 straight to shobu suita. For science. Discovered this thing is obscenely fast. Close to synthetic speed on self-slurry
Ive been testing some bigger jumps after hearing some claims about it and I have definitely seen some of my stones, especially my suitas, can absolutely go from 500 on the soft iron (I dont own a 400 grit synth, but I do own and love the SG500). I dont love the results on core steel but on the cladding it's unreal how fast some stones can be on that cladding.
Time to sharpen the the work knives. Some maintenance thinning with SG500 to SS2K. Then bevel set on washita with a finish on aizu with aizu slurry. Final deburr on cbn pasted denim.
After pics in the morning. No good light
I was surprised, I heard suita were fast but I didn’t expect this. Blows through cladding but I agree with you on the hagane, it’s not what I would want as a final product. I’m thinking this one might be worth a try on denka cladding.
user 16756
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hard for me to say without knowing that individual stone, but for me I found the greatest success on TF cladding with very soft/muddy stones. my Maru shiro suita is my personal favorite for that task but YMMV. I think some of my other suitas are a bit too hard for that sort of thing but it probably can be mitigated with a slurry.
Now that’s a proper microbevel.
I get this sort of buyers remorse in the form of “I wonder what the other one was like”. The suita layer has my attention, and now I need to find another marou to buy. My shobu is muddy, but not squishy soft like my hideriyama tomae. I have a ways to go before I tackle the TF thankfully.
user 16756
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Just achieved the first ever “easy” HHT pass - nick the hair and it pops, some spots it cuts/splits, near the tip it barely passes with a good amount of convincing. First time trying hybrid edgetoo, although I definitely spent too much time on the finisher. I have to say I’m impressed. NP400 (I love how this stone works), 5 minutes or so on the suita. Hard nagura to mostly use base stone mud. Last time you’ll see this knife until it’s refinished, I promise!
A fools errand, sharpening an oversized 270mm on a tiny stone. Awesome tiny stone. Hard suita with its own thin watery nagura slurry, A+ edge cleanliness with no strop, good amount of tooth. Beats the heck out of high synthetic overpolished edge. Haven’t used this guy for edges much, as it’s way over my skill level but it’s easier than the last time I tried. Takeda’s constant belly really takes well to full length stropping motions.
Bright idea, taking apart a bunch of squash with soft(er) white #2. No chips, but plenty of banging/smashing/2 handed pressure on the spine. Rolled some edge on the half near the tip.
Soft Hideriyama with some speed to it to reform the edge , deburr on hard suita
