Deba sharpening

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slowtyper

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Do you sharpen the entire blade road and treat it as any other single-bevel, or do you sharpen just the cutting edge?
 
Do you sharpen the entire blade road and treat it as any other single-bevel, or do you sharpen just the cutting edge?

Entire blade road. See here for an example of my initial sharpening of my Yoshihiro deba.
 
Blade road then edge. Don't forget uraoshi too.
 
For some reason I remember reading somewhere to not bother with the whole blade road for deba. I'm not sure why....or where I even read that...
 
That's strange. Like any knife, it'll get thick at the edge if you don't thin it. That's pretty much what the blade road is for, isn't it?
 
blade road, then hamaguri for edge, then ura (on finishing stone)

rinse and repeat
 
Sometimes a microbevel will be added to the heel section to strengthen that area for chopping through vertebrae etc, this may be what the OP has read about?
 
what grit do you all generally finish a deba at?
i usually finish my blades on a gesshin 4k and then strop on newsprint
 
Is what you guys are calling the blade road AKA the secondary bevel?
 
The blade road is from the shinogi down to the lamination line.
 
For some reason I remember reading somewhere to not bother with the whole blade road for deba. I'm not sure why....or where I even read that...

That's strange. Like any knife, it'll get thick at the edge if you don't thin it. That's pretty much what the blade road is for, isn't it?

Blade road on most debas are convex is I'm not wrong? So just sharpening the edge till the knife becomes to thick might be a good idea for someone lacking the tools or skill to thin the convex road. If you thin a convex road on a bench stone you will flatten it, running the knife. Deba's gave me a hard time for a long time. On my expensive ones I still send them to Dave for thinning of the blade road or bad damage repair.
 
The blade road is from the shinogi down to the lamination line.

I have always thought of the blade road as shinogi to edge, with two areas (jigane and hagane) within the blade road.
 
I have always thought of the blade road as shinogi to edge, with two areas (jigane and hagane) within the blade road.

You are right, it is. Since I convex the edge at the lamination line i just personally consider the blade road to stop there and the secondary bevel to begin down to the primary. Of course this is after the entire blade road has been flattened which again leads to you being right.
 
Blade road on most debas are convex is I'm not wrong? So just sharpening the edge till the knife becomes to thick might be a good idea for someone lacking the tools or skill to thin the convex road.

I believe that you right.

Thus I use sandpaper ( 600 grit on the index finger the to thin the blade road to the edge and stone for the edge area. Finally finer 1000 grit sandpaper to even things out.

IF I need the blade road to move upwards slightly, wld use sandpaper on soft backing. Alternatively, I may use a small block of wood as a backing for the sandpaper.

I find that I have better control.

rgds
d
 
You are right, it is. Since I convex the edge at the lamination line i just personally consider the blade road to stop there and the secondary bevel to begin down to the primary. Of course this is after the entire blade road has been flattened which again leads to you being right.

I am not sure I follow what you are saying. Are you making the hagane section convex, and leaving everything flat above that?

I always grind shinogi to lamination line, then lamination to edge and blend between. Are you doing something different?
 
I use finger stones when Maintaining the edge,kind if like what you are doing with the sand paper but I do it mostly for the looks not the Minimal amount of thinning it does. When it comes to damage (Common for me with dabes, they get used and abused a lot) I don't have the skill, time, Or patients to fix it all properly. Better safe then sorry when playing with knives I love, I send them out to someone better at fixing them then me.
I believe that you right.

Thus I use sandpaper ( 600 grit on the index finger the to thin the blade road to the edge and stone for the edge area. Finally finer 1000 grit sandpaper to even things out.

IF I need the blade road to move upwards slightly, wld use sandpaper on soft backing. Alternatively, I may use a small block of wood as a backing for the sandpaper.

I find that I have better control.

rgds
d
 
I am not sure I follow what you are saying. Are you making the hagane section convex, and leaving everything flat above that?

I always grind shinogi to lamination line, then lamination to edge and blend between. Are you doing something different?

I go from shinogi to lamination line, then edge to lamination line, then blend in between, then micro bevel when sharpening. On most Debas I have, they are convex from shinogi to the lamination line. Then if your lucky flat from there to the edge. I say lucky because most debas are not hand finished, thus not flat but in many cases hollow, bad bad bad
 
I go from shinogi to lamination line, then edge to lamination line, then blend in between, then micro bevel when sharpening.
Exactly as I should have said it, I am doing the same. I am curious if theory is doing something different, and how.
Then if your lucky flat from there to the edge. I say lucky because most debas are not hand finished, thus not flat but in many cases hollow, bad bad bad

I have had a few blades with concave blade road, definitely takes a bit of work to get that the way it should be.
 
Exactly as I should have said it, I am doing the same. I am curious if theory is doing something different, and how.


I have had a few blades with concave blade road, definitely takes a bit of work to get that the way it should be.

I could be wrong but it sounds like he is convexing all the way down to the edge? Only way to do it is with a belt. That or a hell of a lot of time with sand paper. I had Butch make me a "westernish" Deba. It's a Double sided beveled knife but the Entire knife itself is convex, no flat spot at all thus no food release issues and one Hell of a sharp hey beefy edge. I lay it on a belt ant it sharpens its self.
 
I could be wrong but it sounds like he is convexing all the way down to the edge? Only way to do it is with a belt. That or a hell of a lot of time with sand paper. I had Butch make me a "westernish" Deba. It's a Double sided beveled knife but the Entire knife itself is convex, no flat spot at all thus no food release issues and one Hell of a sharp hey beefy edge. I lay it on a belt ant it sharpens its self.

Got a picture of this thing?
 
I could be wrong but it sounds like he is convexing all the way down to the edge? Only way to do it is with a belt. That or a hell of a lot of time with sand paper. I had Butch make me a "westernish" Deba. It's a Double sided beveled knife but the Entire knife itself is convex, no flat spot at all thus no food release issues and one Hell of a sharp hey beefy edge. I lay it on a belt ant it sharpens its self.

You can see it best in this unfinished pic Butch sent me before he finished it.
4560236baa0a308d80e6c4ff194e7864.jpg
 
Exactly as I should have said it, I am doing the same. I am curious if theory is doing something different, and how.


I have had a few blades with concave blade road, definitely takes a bit of work to get that the way it should be.

I'm doing it the same way as Colin.
 
I could be wrong but it sounds like he is convexing all the way down to the edge? Only way to do it is with a belt. That or a hell of a lot of time with sand paper. I had Butch make me a "westernish" Deba. It's a Double sided beveled knife but the Entire knife itself is convex, no flat spot at all thus no food release issues and one Hell of a sharp hey beefy edge. I lay it on a belt ant it sharpens its self.

DId it once when a deba had a 2mm chip that belongs to a friend. For him.. worst possible outcome .. cant get any worse as it was not usable. It was fun and satisfying for me. Did it on a belt grinder with no platten and I played/ adjust the pressure against the belt to get the required slack to be at the place it needs to be .. abt 2mm above the present blade road then. First I tested on an old deba that is not repairable as the rat tail is too weak. Besides I picked that up for USD$5 at a Japanese surplus store.

The initial testing was done on a 1,000grit used sand belt. Once i had the general feel, I progressed to the " victim"deba to be repaired with used 220grit and then on the 1,000 grit. Followed with sandpaper and then stone.

No complaints . I will gladly grind it further if so desired.

Wld be great with a better belt sander with a proper work table attached so that I can put a block for better consistency/ control of the blade road and preferably with a variable speed ; of which I am saving for one.

rgds
d
 
How thick is it? What are you using it for?

Everything I would use a Deba on. I have chipped every Deba I have ever owned. This thing has never chipped even when I have used a rubber maul on the back side to go threw thick bone. It's 3/8" at its thickest part.
 
fwiw, you guys are making this way more complicated than it needs to be... single bevel knife sharpeing is single bevel knife sharpening... yanagiba, deba, usuba, kiritsuke... its all the same stuff
 
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