D. Martell Gallery - Hiromoto AS... Full Spa Treatment

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Hiromoto AS Gyuto - thinned, etched, smoothed, and sharpened! :cool:

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Here's another Hiromoto AS that's just been through the spa treatment except this one had some additional work done to it. :cool:

This knife belongs to an old friend from back in the KF days. It's always both nice and a bit stressing to work on a friend's knife because my expectations go even higher than they should and I almost never meet them but in this case I exceeded what I hoped to accomplish so I'm actually happy for once...LOL

The knife came to me as a metal bolstered western configuration that I was tasked to convert to a bolster-less octagonal wa configuration so I ground off the old handle and metal bolster and made a new handle for it. Then choil was re-shaped for comfort.

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The wood was supplied by the customer, it's desert ironwood with sap wood. He asked me to include as much sapwood as possible and I worked to do this as best as I could. He wanted a metal spacer stack so I put together an 11 piece stack consisting of copper, nickel silver, and G10 spacers. I really love this handle a lot, it's one of my favorites that I've done.

I hope you like it as much Jay! :)



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This knife came to me well used. The owner wanted to pay it back by cleaning up the blade of all scratches/scuffs, thinning it for performance, etching it for beauty, and having a custom handle made out of desert ironwood burl. I think he might not recognize it as the knife he sent in. ;)

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Just finished up with these two Hiromoto AS knives and I couldn't be more happy now that they're complete as they were probably the two most challenging of the type I've done yet! :facepalm:

Both knives had been used in a pro kitchen with over 10 yrs of use on them. The owner is no longer in the kitchen so he decided to spruce up his old companions for their next duty assignment - home cooking. He went with complete spa treatments, with hand sanded blades, and new maple burl handles.

What do you think?


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Nice Dave

When I got Spa Hiromoto 240mm from you years ago I had just retired from kitchen.

The grind on that blade was superb. Used it as pass around at KCC. Had several offers to buy
it. Held off then eventually sold. At least it is now being used in pro kitchen as it should because it is a great cutter.
 
Looking great, Dave!
At the first look the original state may appear worrying, but isn't that bad at all after ten years in a pro kitchen.
What was challenging about it in this case?
 
Had a Hiromoto 150 petty got years ago was my first San Mai knife. Was a mono carbon guy
In pro kitchen almost 25 years. I used the crap
out of that big petty at work. Decided to get the 240mm. Used couple years at work. When sent it to Dave for spa treatment. His thinning job functionally made it a much better cutting
blade. You can imagine culinary students coming from Mercers using a blade like that.
It was also great looking.

The petty donated to a forum member who had his work knives stolen.
 
Looking great, Dave!
At the first look the original state may appear worrying, but isn't that bad at all after ten years in a pro kitchen.
What was challenging about it in this case?


Hiromotos always seem to have something, every one of them, that challenge me. In this case we had multiples issues, some caused by the maker and others by the user. And please don't take any of this as criticism of the user's sharpening abilities because considering that what he did it was over a 10 yr timeframe where very slight issues simply grew into bigger issues as time went by.

For example, the suji had no exposed core steel on the left side at the tip. I had to shorten the knife to get core steel to appear.
See...
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The suji had also been sharpened heavy at the heel causing an upsweep. This is actually a very common thing to see with these knives, seems almost everyone sharpens them the same way or maybe there's something built into the profile that helps this along?


The gyuto had also been sharpened a bit off just behind the tip to make for a flat spot from both sides meaning reprofiling was required. To add to the challenge the left side, behind the tip, had almost no cladding (the complete opposite of the suji!) so I had to go very slowly here as the core was getting exposed quickly. This was definitely a balancing act where I had to just get the best I could from all aspects and accept the results for what they are.

Then some extra fun got thrown in with the wood used on the gyuto as it didn't want to take an even finish. I re-finished it two extra times before I was done and even then it didn't get as nice as the suji handle came out. Sometimes it's just the way it is working with natural materials.

The etching didn't go smooth either but I was expecting as much by that point. :D
 
That "shadow" right above the clad line is stunning Dave! The darkened area is a result of acid etching?


The shadow'd area is something I can't explain. I see it more pronounced on older knives than his later versions. Steel composition, heat treat, lamination - I can't say. I love it too though!
 
Dave, are you still accepting new work for this treatment? I’ve got one I’d love to send in.
 
Dave, are you still accepting new work for this treatment? I’ve got one I’d love to send in.


I'm currently shut down for business, trying to find a new place to work/live but in the future I'd love to talk to you about this job.

Thanks for asking!
Dave
 
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