A few years back, I purchased a Hitohira Kikuchiyo Ren white 2 gyuto as a knife that would expand my knowledge in sharpening and polishing. It taught me a lot about dealing with imperfections and experimenting with bevel shaping and polishing. I wrapped up by trying to emulate the stock aesthetic last winter and tested the knife in my rotation for a while.
First patina from testing my Ren - January 2023
There were a few things I want to improve in my future work on this knife:
- nice polish on bevels
- diagonal finish on flat
- change handle
I am currently working on achieving the diagonal finish. There are some deep low spots on the flat, so I am attempting to do this with sandpaper. I rigged up a sandpaper holder that I could rub the knife on, using a stone holder, wrapping sandpaper over the back side of atoma plate and some thin felt for backing the paper. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the tension I wanted on the sandpaper. my first attempt was not clean. The sandpaper was too loose and I slipped, accidentally grinding down the heel. I stopped early and didn't remove all the low-grit scratches because of this slip-up. I believe that my method has potential, a cleaner setup with more tension could produce the results I was looking for. Here is the result of my first attempt:
DIY sandpaper holder result
I purchased a Kasfly from AliExpress. With the Kasfly I did the previous grit scratch removal with the included rubber backer since it was more precise than my felt backing. Once I fully erased the scratches I switched to my felt backer and full long strokes to get a more even finish and prevent j-hooks.
Kasfly set up
After one round of long strokes, it was getting late and I decided to call it there. This was my first mistake, I should have run through a fresh sandpaper strip to fully get rid of stray sanding marks.
I then proceeded to quickly buff the knife with some koyo blue and a cotton pad. I tested buffing horizontally, but this introduced some surface-level scratches. Next time I will take more care at the buffing step to prevent any grit contamination, and I will follow the scratch pattern instead.
I did a quick clean-up of the main bevel on medium grit stone to make sure the geometry was crisp. There's some staining already as I was using tap water. Next time I will add some baking soda.
Here is the result of my attempt. I'm happy with my progress since my first try and learned some good lessons.
Diagonal flat attenpt 2
Scratches from a botched buffing experiment
To be continued/updated as I experiment further. Thanks for reading and please share any feedback or suggestions.
First patina from testing my Ren - January 2023
There were a few things I want to improve in my future work on this knife:
- nice polish on bevels
- diagonal finish on flat
- change handle
I am currently working on achieving the diagonal finish. There are some deep low spots on the flat, so I am attempting to do this with sandpaper. I rigged up a sandpaper holder that I could rub the knife on, using a stone holder, wrapping sandpaper over the back side of atoma plate and some thin felt for backing the paper. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the tension I wanted on the sandpaper. my first attempt was not clean. The sandpaper was too loose and I slipped, accidentally grinding down the heel. I stopped early and didn't remove all the low-grit scratches because of this slip-up. I believe that my method has potential, a cleaner setup with more tension could produce the results I was looking for. Here is the result of my first attempt:
DIY sandpaper holder result
I purchased a Kasfly from AliExpress. With the Kasfly I did the previous grit scratch removal with the included rubber backer since it was more precise than my felt backing. Once I fully erased the scratches I switched to my felt backer and full long strokes to get a more even finish and prevent j-hooks.
Kasfly set up
After one round of long strokes, it was getting late and I decided to call it there. This was my first mistake, I should have run through a fresh sandpaper strip to fully get rid of stray sanding marks.
I then proceeded to quickly buff the knife with some koyo blue and a cotton pad. I tested buffing horizontally, but this introduced some surface-level scratches. Next time I will take more care at the buffing step to prevent any grit contamination, and I will follow the scratch pattern instead.
I did a quick clean-up of the main bevel on medium grit stone to make sure the geometry was crisp. There's some staining already as I was using tap water. Next time I will add some baking soda.
Here is the result of my attempt. I'm happy with my progress since my first try and learned some good lessons.
Diagonal flat attenpt 2
Scratches from a botched buffing experiment
To be continued/updated as I experiment further. Thanks for reading and please share any feedback or suggestions.
