New Mizuno 270 Gyuto

[Marko Tsourkan]

You can always refinish your knife with silicon carbide automotive sandpaper. It takes a little more elbow grease on monosteel knives than clad knives (most cladding on carbon knives is soft), but totally doable. Start with 220grit and take the finish as high as you like. Normally 600-800 gives you a nice satin finish. Removing a handle on a wa gyuto would be advisable, so you have clean scratch pattern.

M

 

[EdipisReks]

You can always refinish your knife with silicon carbide automotive sandpaper. It takes a little more elbow grease on monosteel knives than clad knives (most cladding on carbon knives is soft), but totally doable. Start with 220grit and take the finish as high as you like. Normally 600-800 gives you a nice satin finish. Removing a handle on a wa gyuto would be advisable, so you have clean scratch pattern.

M

yep. i've found that foaming hand soap is a great lubricant for this. i use method "sweet water," but i bet other scents would work nearly as well.

 

[Marko Tsourkan]

Some folks use WD-40 as a lubricant, but I am don't like the smell of it, so I stick with water or Windex.

 

[EdipisReks]

Some folks use WD-40 as a lubricant, but I am don't like the smell of it, so I stick with water or Windex.

i've used all three of those. the foaming hand soap honestly gave me the best results, and it easily washes out of the sandpaper (i use automotive and micro-mesh).

 

[Seb]

that looks pretty nice, for a 400. how long did you spend on that?

Thanks!

The #400-grit scratches? No time at all - about a minute. It's just a superficial layer to break up that sticky mirror-polish. I also experimented with a Suehiro Rika but found I preferred the Chocera #400.

 

[EdipisReks]

must be my shaky hands, because i bet mine would look like crap after breaking up a mirror polish with a stone that coarse.

 

[Seb]

Cheers! One reason I preferred the Chocera 400 over the Rika was that the coarser scratches seemed more forgiving.

 

[memorael]

Blasphemy

LOLZ

 

[tk59]

i've been refinishing blades on my cheap belt grinder. it really takes no time at all to get a like-new finish.

 

[G-rat]

SO just wanted to report back in and I'll post some pics later tonight when i get home.

This knife is has wonderful edge retention; the steel is incredibly tough. Now know that my current standards for sharpness and edge retention are with aogami super from moritaka. These were my main knives. My cleaver seemed to hold its ground for at least two sessions of the stone, then drop to 75% and stay there for a while, eventually degrading to 50% after about two weeks of relatively intense use. My moritaka petty in super which actually probably has seen more work as an all around knife in the last 6months than the cleaver would hold at about 85% and stay there for a month of pretty regular use. Obviously there is more weight behind the edge of the cleaver than behind the petty and so that might have something to do with it. Regardless this mizuno outdoes them both. It lost perhaps 10% of its initial sharpness after the 6th session off the stones. Then I left town to cook for an event across the country and it stayed there through an intense weekend with lots of squash and pears and apples, you know harder stuff on an edge (whole bushel of pears and apples, 70lbs of brussels, 30lbs butternut squash, 20lbs japanese eggplant and so on and so forth). It will still shave my arm but it needs some work...it has dropped down to like 70% sharpness (know these are all relative gauges they aren't scientific just impressions. Love this knife. Edge retention is really important to me because I work about 30 hours a week, am in grad school and don't have much evening time to spend sharpening knives because I want to hang out with my wife who I get to see like every other day. This knife is not only a beast in terms of size, weight (although it isn't heavy...just not a laser which leaves my hands tired from using more force at least in my experience) but it also holds a serious edge. This could change over time as I sharpen it but so far so good. Its next session on the stones is set for tomorrow. One thing that has bothered me has been the fact that slight rust collects where the tang goes into the ferrule. I try to be diligent with wipe downs by hitting that part of the knife each time...but anything you guys do other than epoxy to deal with this sort of thing?

 

[G-rat]

Last thing. As far as reactivity goes it has been mild. The pears and apples were the worst for the knife with just a slight patina. The patina is building but I haven thad much bloody meat or time to do Darkhoek's method. If I cut with the heel of the knife to split the pears and apples and then used the tip to cut those in half and then came back to the heel it would leave black pear juice on the pear...didn't matter cuz they were going into a lemon water bath so as not to oxidize but nonetheless this was as bad as it got and it happened in less than 2 seconds. I assume that once I get a better patina on this bad boy it won't be an issue.