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Without a retail store nearby, I started buying quite a few different knives, some from online retailers and others from BST. Now that I have a better idea of what I like and why, I've start reducing the numbers, either selling or passing them on to someone who will enjoy them.

One benefit of my doing this is to someone on the KAMON wait list for a 260mm. I've asked to be removed from the top 36 list. The person who was first below the cut line for a 260mm will now get a KAMON! I hope Christmas came early for that person.
 
rstcso said:
Without a retail store nearby, I started buying quite a few different knives, some from online retailers and others from BST. Now that I have a better idea of what I like and why, I've start reducing the numbers, either selling or passing them on to someone who will enjoy them.

One benefit of my doing this is to someone on the KAMON wait list for a 260mm. I've asked to be removed from the top 36 list. The person who was first below the cut line for a 260mm will now get a KAMON! I hope Christmas came early for that person.
Click to expand...

If you repeat that process like 600 more times, I'll get a KAMON.
 
”LOVE” … hmmm … that might be a bit of a stretch! “LIKE“ … as in “I don’t mind using it if I find it in my hand” is probably more of my confession. If I find myself chopping away with one I don’t say “I hate this knife and must immediately go to a KKF thread and harangue anyone who has eyes about how terrible I feel having it in my hand and how horrible and ugly Mr. TF is”. That means I must “LIKE” it and the experience of using a TF. ”LOVE” as in how I feel about using my new Alex Horn Gyuto (as opposed to Alex Horn himself whom I have no particular feelings for). Now that’s “LOVE” … at least as far as something that can be applied to some non female inanimate object.

See New Knives this week for details.
 
I find it hard sometimes to bring myself to start using a new knife.
 
Bico Doce said:
I bought a bunch of stones, synthetic and natural with the hopes of putting a kasumi finish on a knife. Since then I’ve learned

1. this is really hard to do
2. the grind on the knife was surprisingly inconsistent and dealing with flat spots was a huge pain
3. I could have just bought some polishing stone powder and micro mesh pads for $50 and achieve better results in a fraction of the time
4. I bought stone powder and micro mesh pads and now I have a bunch of stones I don’t think I’ll really use too much. I should have just bought another knife
Click to expand...

stone polishing is an art form. it may not be as flashy as oil painting or some of the gorgeous ceramics we see around but it is an art form nonetheless.

most people are not all that good at it. I'm not all that good at it.

but then you look at a knife when you've accidentally done a good job and you can almost fall into the cladding.
 
Bico Doce said:
I bought a bunch of stones, synthetic and natural with the hopes of putting a kasumi finish on a knife. Since then I’ve learned

1. this is really hard to do
2. the grind on the knife was surprisingly inconsistent and dealing with flat spots was a huge pain
3. I could have just bought some polishing stone powder and micro mesh pads for $50 and achieve better results in a fraction of the time
4. I bought stone powder and micro mesh pads and now I have a bunch of stones I don’t think I’ll really use too much. I should have just bought another knife
Click to expand...
I feel your pain on the first 2 points. I went the other direction and bought even more stones . You know you could possibly turn the whole thing around by going through a massive thinning or 4, and be blown away by how well it cuts after, and the resulting kasumi. I’m still waiting on the second part. My mazaki looks like it went through a wood chipper but it cuts friggin amazing 😬😬.

My advice: take it slow, it’s going to suck horribly at first, but each tiny, incremental accomplishment will make you feel like a goddamn wizard. Rinse and repeat x 2 years.
 
Pie said:
I feel your pain on the first 2 points. I went the other direction and bought even more stones . You know you could possibly turn the whole thing around by going through a massive thinning or 4, and be blown away by how well it cuts after, and the resulting kasumi. I’m still waiting on the second part. My mazaki looks like it went through a wood chipper but it cuts friggin amazing 😬😬.

My advice: take it slow, it’s going to suck horribly at first, but each tiny, incremental accomplishment will make you feel like a goddamn wizard. Rinse and repeat x 2 years.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
 
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
Click to expand...

I have etched a couple. Here's a thread

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/advice-sought-on-rehabbing-damascus.40357/
 
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
Click to expand...

My TF is stainless clad. If you're just looking for good contrast, the King 800 work pretty well to start. But the resulting finish has a lot of drag, so you would want to follow that up with something finer.
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-work-uchigumori-and-co.29820/post-857313
And here's another of my stainless clad TF. I think this one was finished with uchi fingerstones. Less contrast though.
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/a-small-tf-project.52154/
@Runner_up did some really nice work on a stainless wakui
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-work-uchigumori-and-co.29820/post-781580
 
Last edited:
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
Click to expand...

sure, I just needed to go through my entire collection and find the one stone that agrees with that particular stainless cladding.

today I quickly touched up my Heiji and I only had to check 4 stones and the winner only cost 750 dollars 🙃
 
tostadas said:
My TF is stainless clad. If you're just looking for good contrast, the King 800 work pretty well to start. But the resulting finish has a lot of drag, so you would want to follow that up with something finer.
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-work-uchigumori-and-co.29820/post-857313
And here's another of my stainless clad TF. I think this one was finished with uchi fingerstones. Less contrast though.
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/a-small-tf-project.52154/
@Runner_up did some really nice work on a stainless wakui
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-work-uchigumori-and-co.29820/post-781580
Click to expand...

I think I may have to get some finger stones. I did have good success with the king 800 as well but everything after that seemed to undo what I had accomplished with the 800. I tried about 6 other stones and I couldn’t seem find anything that worked. Thank you for the links here, I’m going to do some more research, drop some more $$ and see if I can get this. Funny part is I have now spent more on stones trying to get a kasumi finish than what this knife originally cost (it wasn’t particularly expensive)!
 
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
Click to expand...
Balsamic vinegar etch perhaps? Here's an example with stainless cladding, semi stainless core.
PXL_20210719_043812380.jpg
 
For stainless, I would just polish the stainless and etch the core.
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
Click to expand...

Here's a TF petty that I polished and then etched with hot vinegar.

20200606_143601-jpg.83148
 
esoo said:
For stainless, I would just polish the stainless and etch the core.


Here's a TF petty that I polished and then etched with hot vinegar.

20200606_143601-jpg.83148
Click to expand...
This knife looks amazing. Would you mind sharing the details behind the etching process? Type of vinegar, temp and time?
 
Bico Doce said:
I think I may have to get some finger stones. I did have good success with the king 800 as well but everything after that seemed to undo what I had accomplished with the 800. I tried about 6 other stones and I couldn’t seem find anything that worked. Thank you for the links here, I’m going to do some more research, drop some more $$ and see if I can get this. Funny part is I have now spent more on stones trying to get a kasumi finish than what this knife originally cost (it wasn’t particularly expensive)!
Click to expand...

One more, this one was just sandpaper and etch with hot vinegar and instant coffee

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-work-uchigumori-and-co.29820/post-823443
 
Bico Doce said:
This knife looks amazing. Would you mind sharing the details behind the etching process? Type of vinegar, temp and time?
Click to expand...

It's been a bit, but from what I recall
- stainless wash polished used some metal polish and a buffing wheel on a dremel.
- I think I did what I've done before - 50% hottest tap water/50% pickling (7%) white vinegar. Probably left for 10-15 minutes, rinse, repeat (with maybe microwaving the water/vinegar mix to get it warm again)
 
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for for referring me to this thread. That was an impressive finish! Could I ask you about the sanding process? Why drop back down to 800 after the 1500 grit?
Click to expand...
This one was for a friend. I wanted a brushed finish that could help hide scratches from use. Also, 600-800 seems to be my sweet spot for sandpaper finish for minimizing drag and sticking.
 
Bico Doce said:
Thank you for the advice here. One of the issues I failed to mention was that my knife of choice has a stainless cladding and I have come to realize that I may never get a good contrast between the jigane/hagane.

I did go thru the thinning process and flattened out the bevel quite a bit, it was a great learning process. Once I failed to get a good contrast I had to walk away from that knife for a bit. I’m thinking about just etching it now and trying this whole process on one of my iron clad knives.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had success with stainless cladding
Click to expand...

ok on a more serious note I think it is not that hard to get a nice finish on stainless, you just have to adjust your expectations. and you do not need a super pricey stone, mostly what you need is a softer stone and very pure.

this is from a soft and particularly muddy Shoubudani tomae. the stone had some lines dug out and is only 600ish grams, and iirc it cost me 175 dollars. on iron cladding it makes a very contrasty finish, on stainless, well it is at least even and doesnt tug on the cladding.

IMG_1552.jpg
 
tcmx3 said:
ok on a more serious note I think it is not that hard to get a nice finish on stainless, you just have to adjust your expectations. and you do not need a super pricey stone, mostly what you need is a softer stone and very pure.

this is from a soft and particularly muddy Shoubudani tomae. the stone had some lines dug out and is only 600ish grams, and iirc it cost me 175 dollars. on iron cladding it makes a very contrasty finish, on stainless, well it is at least even and doesnt tug on the cladding.

View attachment 149151
Click to expand...
That is a great looking finish. Thank you for the suggestion on the stone, it seems like the missing piece of the puzzle (that and a whole bunch of skill)…
 
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