An older project, this – before the recent Moritaka and Mabs thread I posted. Pics had been sorted out but I never found time to publish.
Here’s a pic of the original, so we know where we started:
The main idea here was simply to etch aiming to make the cladding line pop out more, since the original grind was pretty insipid. Leading into something for sure – it seems you can never just do ONE thing to a knife. They have a mind of their own, these things. Besides in this case I found that the handle was too bulky, and while it wasn’t really disturbing, I had a mind to possibly work on that too.
I had an inkling that the following result could happen, and had I been bothered by the possibility, I would have prevented it.
Kurouchi down!
Not the first time this happens to me. In this case, contrary to the Moritaka, underneath was a pretty usable Nashiji finish. I personally like the Ittetsu better this way, perhaps I was even banking on it when I saw OOTB it was a Nashiji Kurouchi and decided to etch it, but to each his own.
Clad line still was not to my liking. A project could be defined easily: mirror polish the grind and re-etch…
And resharpen it when done. Long etching method with mild acid solution does this. I’m glad I just found a shortcut since then that avoids dulling the blade and takes about 2 minutes obtaining the very same results. I would probably even have saved the Kurouchi here with the shortcut method. Long etching has its advantages with mono carbons though: if you’re so inclined, the forced patina left behind is highly effective. My Masahiro VC has seen a lot of garlic and onions since I etched it this way and it pretty much looks the same as just after etching – add a few very faint traces, no real spotting. Mind you, I’m not into wiping my blade down in between of anything neither, but I do wash immediately when a prep is done is all.
Result of mirror polish - before etching:
Result after etching:
Here’s a pic of the original, so we know where we started:
The main idea here was simply to etch aiming to make the cladding line pop out more, since the original grind was pretty insipid. Leading into something for sure – it seems you can never just do ONE thing to a knife. They have a mind of their own, these things. Besides in this case I found that the handle was too bulky, and while it wasn’t really disturbing, I had a mind to possibly work on that too.
I had an inkling that the following result could happen, and had I been bothered by the possibility, I would have prevented it.
Kurouchi down!
Not the first time this happens to me. In this case, contrary to the Moritaka, underneath was a pretty usable Nashiji finish. I personally like the Ittetsu better this way, perhaps I was even banking on it when I saw OOTB it was a Nashiji Kurouchi and decided to etch it, but to each his own.
Clad line still was not to my liking. A project could be defined easily: mirror polish the grind and re-etch…
And resharpen it when done. Long etching method with mild acid solution does this. I’m glad I just found a shortcut since then that avoids dulling the blade and takes about 2 minutes obtaining the very same results. I would probably even have saved the Kurouchi here with the shortcut method. Long etching has its advantages with mono carbons though: if you’re so inclined, the forced patina left behind is highly effective. My Masahiro VC has seen a lot of garlic and onions since I etched it this way and it pretty much looks the same as just after etching – add a few very faint traces, no real spotting. Mind you, I’m not into wiping my blade down in between of anything neither, but I do wash immediately when a prep is done is all.
Result of mirror polish - before etching:
Result after etching: