Polishing the bevel...starting at what grit?

[Mjdavid]

I want to polish the bevels on several knives...you know that kasumi thing...beginning with the oob finish all the way up to jnat. Taking for example the wide bevel style that is the Tanaka+Kyuzo, what grit would you start with?

 

[MrHiggins]

I want to polish the bevels on several knives...you know that kasumi thing...beginning with the oob finish all the way up to jnat. Taking for example the wide bevel style that is the Tanaka+Kyuzo, what grit would you start with?

I'm not one of the guys that knows best on this forum, but, as an owner of a Kyuzo, I'll chime in. My knife (and I bet yours, too) had a significant concave grind. If you want an even finish, you'll have to flatten that out.

When I thin a knife, I start with 140 sandpaper on something very flat (I have a chunk of milled aluminum that I tape sandpaper to). I then move to 220, 400 sandpaper to get rid of the scratches. Then I move to stones: 400, 1000, etc...

Good luck and have fun!

 

[refcast]

If you don't mind keeping the concave bevel, start at some high grit sandpaper first and see how coarse you need to go downward, so you don't make big scratches. Otherwise, do what MrHiggins said if you want a flat or convex bevel.

Then finish with natural stones, natural stone powder, or metal polish. DON'T cut your fingers!! Be careful doing this, as someone who sliced off 0.5mm thick of their index fingertip. Dull or round the blade edge or cover it with tape (which is less feaseable).

 

[Mjdavid]

My limited experience already dictates that what seems like a fairly easy job always turns out to be more work than it looked like. And once you get started there’s no turning back.

 

[TB_London]

Recently got an atoma 140 after fighting the urge for years. Makes levelling wide bevels so much quicker. Then a 220, 500,1k,3k,5k and polish

Coarse stone does all the work, after that it’s just scratch removal. Having a king 800 means if you get bored you can put a passable kasumi on so it doesn’t look like a scratched up mistake between sessions

 

[SeattleBen]

My limited experience already dictates that what seems like a fairly easy job always turns out to be more work than it looked like. And once you get started there’s no turning back.

I’m very much in this boat right now. I’ve got something that I thought was going to be much much easier than it is/was and really bit off a project. Makoto has a few spots that really needed to be ground down to get to level. My takeaway with almost all of this stuff has been to not be afraid of the really low grits.

 

[Mjdavid]

My takeaway with almost all of this stuff has been to not be afraid of the really low grits.

It’s terrifying putting a perfectly good $500 knive on a 150...that’s after wasting two hours on a Naniwa 400. But I figure that’s the cost of a good education.

 

[SeattleBen]

It’s terrifying putting a perfectly good $500 knive on a 150...that’s after wasting two hours on a Naniwa 400. But I figure that’s the cost of a good education.

Exactly. Hours go by trying not to use really coarse items. Peter Nowlan really gave me inspiration and courage to go with really coarse with confidence. Just absolutely need to drop pressure drastically.

 

[inferno]

I want to polish the bevels on several knives...you know that kasumi thing...beginning with the oob finish all the way up to jnat. Taking for example the wide bevel style that is the Tanaka+Kyuzo, what grit would you start with?

start with a completely flat piece like a diamond plate. then work up to 3-500, then 1000, then 2-3k. then 5-6k then 8-10k.