Daily Sharpening Pics

[gaijin]

Todays session - reparing the damage I did with a Tormek. When I borrowed a Tormek from a friend I managed to create something between a flat spot and a reverse belly near the tip of a small IKEA 365+ knife:

The marked tip is where the problem is. Well, the problem on top of it being an IKEA knife then.

My current preferred sharpening station is to place a plastic container on top of my kitchen table with decent amount of water in it, and then a sink bridge on top. This gives me a reasoable hight and decent light.

First the knife and a JNS 300 Matukusuyama:

With this setup I first fixed the profile by "sharpening" at a pretty high angle - I went over the edge in front and back until I had the profile as I wanted it.

After that, I started sharpening at a pretty low angle as good as I could on this stone. When I felt finished I changed to the (now permasoaked) JNS 800 Matukusuyama and continued grinding. I actually forgot to take a picture of that. Bad influencer, bad!

At this step I could almost shave my arm and I could cut newspaper pages without problems. But since I have a third JNS stone, the Synthetic Aoto, I put it to work too. First normal sharpening, burr removal, and then some edge leadning "stropping" or whatever you want to call it:

After this the knife looked decent for an amateur-sharpened IKEA knife and I was more than pleased with the sharpness tests. Final result:

Well... that was that.

 

[KingShapton]

After this the knife looked decent for an amateur-sharpened IKEA knife and I was more than pleased with the sharpness tests.

 

[cotedupy]

The wife noticed today that the Superbowl was on, so decided we needed to BBQ, dashed out to the butcher, and got some baby backs. Now I've never had much luck with pork ribs, as they've always dried out a bit by the time they were done. But happily @stringer was on speed dial for some advice, and I nailed them this time ...

Though, as my back was turned, the better half had also decided that our Shibata TT was the best thing for hacking them up to serve. And unfortunately it was not...

Only a tiny couple of chips, so let's see if we can get them out on this Coti x BBW:

 

[cotedupy]

I had the Coti out already actually, as just before I had been comparing how BBW and Hindostans did in terms of cleaning up bevel scratch patterns immediately following an SG500.

And frankly I think they did rather well (bearing in mind I only spent a minute or so on each side, and am no great polishing expert anyway)...

SG500:

BBW:

Hindo:

 

[KingShapton]

Though, as my back was turned, the better half had decided that our Shibata TT was the best thing for hacking them up to serve.

When I read this sentence, I had an ominous premonition, almost a deja vu....without having seen the picture.

Please don't ask me where the deja vu is coming from...I don't want to talk about it...

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

My Arkansas stones have largely sat since I started seriously exploring Japanese synthetic water stones. But @stringer and @cotedupy inspired me to rectify that. Hell, I even broke my own long-standing rule and used water instead of oil. Old dog, new trick. Ruff!

Started out just wanting to see how the Yoshi responded. I was really doing more just very light stropping work than any actual sharpening. I was quite pleased with the results. As I stared out the window at the near blizzard swirling outside, I found myself touching up a few more knives while I was at it.

Man, it's always good to reunite with old friends. I think, at least for a while, this guy will be staying within arm's reach.

Thanks for the kick fellas!

 

[Pie]

Testing out a couple new stones - edge built on the iyoto, finished on the suita. The iyoto is the first jnat I can comfortably set a bevel on. It’s not quite as fast as a synthetic, but it’s close to a 1k in terms of speed, 2-3K in terms of keenness, and beastly toothy. Scratchy, as it should be, but manageable depth and consistency for polishing. Softer, muddied especially on stainless.

The suita is chalky, full of feedback and a surprisingly pleasant polisher. It was difficult to not overcook the edge, took some self control to stop playing around. You can get it to start low at around 3-4K but a textured mirror happens quickly with a stone this fast. Beautiful cladding haze, not an auto-kasumi but on the easier side. Fastest stone I have, by far. HHT achieved with no strop. Helps that Togashi’s white #2 supports unbelievable, effortless edge taking.

I’ve had a bit of a revelation as well - it seems these days I each stone I try is “the best ever”. Now that can’t possibly be true, so I’ll chalk it up to recency bias, but also to the possibility that I’m actually clueless at both polishing and sharpening, and when I try a new stone, the actual act of using it teaches me something new about my technique (or lack thereof) regardless of the stone. It’s quite humbling, and makes me a little guilty when I even consider buying more jnats. I guess the positive side is that I have years worth of learning available with my current collection, but it really causes me to pause and wonder if I know what I’m doing or not.

I bought these with very little prior knowledge of how they behave and feel, just to see if I was capable of judging and categorizing them. At a glance I might have at least succeeded in at least this.

 

[deltaplex]

Well, finally getting this one usable led me to discover that my previous phone didn't back up all of my "before" shots for things that I have in WIP. This particular Nakiri came to me quite thin with a huge rust rash in the middle of the rh side and a 2-3mm deep set of chips about 1/4 the way up from the heel. I learned a ton about de-rusting, handle removal, breadknifing, thinning, and edge straightening/profile adjustment in getting this one to here. I went with the medium india to smooth out the edge and thin, then sg500-> hindostan with a little mud for some attempt at polishing and then final edge refinement. I'll make a handle for it (maybe using the exisitng with the ferrule replaced) and then it should be all set.

 

[M1k3]

Somewhat abused Benriner Mandolin blade.

Did a progression of SG 500 -> Venev 400/800 -> SG 4k -> 1 micron diamond on balsa

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Somewhat abused Benriner Mandolin blade.View attachment 168936View attachment 168937View attachment 168938View attachment 168939

Did a progression of SG 500 -> Venev 400/800 -> SG 4k -> 1 micron diamond on balsaView attachment 168941View attachment 168942View attachment 168943

Very cool.

 

[M1k3]

Very cool.

Especially when I quietly put it back on the rack for the next coworker to use.

 

[KingShapton]

Especially when I quietly put it back on the rack for the next coworker to use.

I do something similar from time to time with my mother-in-law's kitchen knives

 

[ModRQC]

Especially when I quietly put it back on the rack for the next coworker to use.

I wasn't entirely sure of the outcome you were hoping for there...

I do something similar from time to time with my mother-in-law's kitchen knives

... but here there's no being mistaken.

Psychopaths!

 

[M1k3]

I wasn't entirely sure of the outcome you were hoping for there...



... but here there's no being mistaken.

Psychopaths!

Sharpness/"That 'look' on their face"

 

[ModRQC]

Sharpness/"That 'look' on their face"

... when they shave a whole fingerprint off?

 

[M1k3]

... when they shave a whole fingerprint off?

 

[BillHanna]

As a guy who would take the shield off of the deli slicer, working with @M1k3 would have been life changing. Positive? Negative? The world will never know.

 

[ModRQC]

Think I just understood why I've seen many pros have their first cut(s) slower...

...

They've worked with YOU at some point.

 

[ModRQC]

As a guy who would take the shield off of the deli slicer, working with @M1k3 would have been life changing. Positive? Negative? The world will never know.

You might have found your future knife skills diminishing by the slice... in a gush of blood screaming in agony all the way. Looking back at it with fond laughters 20 years later "Aaaaah that Mike, man, what a joker!" looking at your stump.

Ok ok...

 

[ModRQC]

Sorry @BillHanna ... these the kind of jokes always coming to my mind. Twisted that way. Nothing I can do but shut up, which as a matter of fact I've been trying to do a lot lately. To no avail, it would seem...

 

[M1k3]

As a guy who would take the shield off of the deli slicer, working with @M1k3 would have been life changing. Positive? Negative? The world will never know.

Depends on who's life we're talking about.

Work smarter, not harder.

 

[Bear]

Today, zero ground then cleaned up, tomorrow scratched and blue.

 

[Pie]

I uh.. I think I need a bigger stone. Seriously this thing is weird as heck to sharpen.

A nice blast from the past, a cheap white amakusa that I had a hard time finding a use for. These 2 play very nice together. The soft carbon and grittiness of the stone make for a nice feel through flesh.

 

[gaijin]

JNS on JNS

 

[ModRQC]

I uh.. I think I need a bigger stone. Seriously this thing is weird as heck to sharpen.
View attachment 169795
A nice blast from the past, a cheap white amakusa that I had a hard time finding a use for. These 2 play very nice together. The soft carbon and grittiness of the stone make for a nice feel through flesh. View attachment 169796

You're a great explorator and to my eye show tremendous skills, more and more. Love seeing your stuff.

 

[ModRQC]

JNS on JNS
View attachment 169809

How do you like the stone? I've always been tempted to try some of these.

 

[Pie]

You're a great explorator and to my eye show tremendous skills, more and more. Love seeing your stuff.

Thanks for the kind words! I have blast trying and learning new things

 

[gaijin]

How do you like the stone? I've always been tempted to try some of these.

I mainly use it as the final stone for the edge on some kitchen knives... and for that I really like it. I get a really sharp result, still with some bite. But... I'm not the most experienced here. Others can probably give better comparisons to other stones.

 

[Kiru]

Fun time with this uchigomori yesterday, for a while I didn’t quite like the stone because it’s very reactive, It often leaves brown stains on my knife after rubbing it on the stone… it’s kind of a bummer because the stone is so fun to use, good sharpening feel, just right amount of mud and the mud isn’t sticky.
I took an advice from a friend and it worked great but I’m unsure if it will affect the stone in a long term, fingers crossed!

Knife is a beefy petty from migoto.

 

[Pie]

White #2 honesuki, iyoto/Takeda’s random nagura.

The iyoto isn’t so much coarser than I thought, but the particles don’t shear down readily. Just a touch up, so not much pressure or steel removal had to happen and I suspect the edge would show mostly the characteristics of nagura mud. The result was a sort of boring, inert feeling edge that easily pushes through flesh but struggles with sharpness tests. Success, right?

White #2 bonus: hit one bone, re-touch up!