Morihei Hisamoto 240 western to Wa conversion

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Boynutman

Boynutman

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Bought a Morihei Hisamoto 240mm kurouchi western handle fine finish. Was happy with the cutting performance but not so much with the handle and balance. So I decided to convert it to wa.
Plus on this particular sample the spine was awful, really wide, almost felt like a T-cross section so that needed rework.
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Ripped of the handle and scratched lines for the grinder.
Reduced the height of the neck to allow for a radius at the neck/choil.
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Used a light grinder with my son standing by to pour some water over it every 30 seconds to avoid overheating. With gentle grinding heat was not to bad.
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Result after initial deburring. Tang length 115mm.

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Bevels on the neck and spine, choil rounded, sharp corner of heel removed somewhat.

Cut a tapered piece of walnut from a block
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Sanding on kitchen counter to make it perpendicular. Walnut turns out easy to work with, easy to get good flat planes.
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Drilled holes with a cordless drill with long 3mm drill bit.
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Filing out the tang hole.
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Trying it on for size, roughly shaped octagonal bevels with hand plane.
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Sanded bevels, with the help of pencil lines.
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Oiled handle with multiple coats of tung oil. Installed with hot melt glue. Sealed tang gap with beeswax.

Polished with stone powder.
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Really happy with the result!
Weight 226gram.
Balance point right between the 2 large kanji characters so pretty blade forward.

All in all no surprises really. The handle is my first attempt, kind of a prototype to learn from and find a good size and proportions. So far I'm happy. Big improvement over the original situation!
 
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tostadas said:
SWEET! Is your grinder also set up in your kitchen?
Click to expand...
Thanks!
Haha no, better to do it outside.
It is just a 750W hand held angle grinder with a thin disk. Hand work. So I did it with some care so as not to overshoot.

With a thin disk I was able to gently cut along the lines instead of just grinding away all excess material. Figured/hoped it would generate less heat.
 
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Awesome job on that! Sadly, since I have no tools, I'll just have to wait for a wa Morihei Hisamoto to become available. Yours looks very nicely done.
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Awesome job. Requires a big set to take something like that on.

If you do it again, I wouldn’t worry too much about excessive heat if just working on the tang. You can wrap the blade in a damp towel to make sure no heat is getting to the edge, which is really all you have to worry about. Often the tangs aren’t even hardened in the first place.
 
Yeah that would be the way I think. Id have to try it on a cheap knife first. Matching the cladding on my knives would be impossible and I’d worry about heat (w bench sander). I def prefer the balance and feel of a wa handle in most situations. In the past ive changed handle material, made the handles much thinner and changed dimensions to make the balance more forward heavy. A full conversion would be next step. This is great inspiration
 
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