Question on polishing out some scratches

[txglasgow]

Hello! I've got a kitchen knife that I tried to sharpen. I made the angle too shallow at times and now there are a few patches where the stone touched the side of the knife. I would love to get those out if possible. Does anyone know the best way to do this?

Some additional info: It was a 6k/1k stone and the knife has a shirogami pattern.

 

[Dull_Apex]

What size/shape knife is it? It sounds like you have the option to either polish just the blade road (like a wide bevel knife) or redo the entire blade (more surface = more work).

 

[D J]

I have done the same thing, when learning how to sharpen. There are more experienced people here than me. But for myself, the scratches stayed there until I became proficient at sharpening and then plucked up the courage to try thinning and scratch removal. My bad sharpening had damaged the profile. I chose to use wet&dry sandpaper. The results so far is not the best but the knife is functional again.

 

[Walla]

Photos and a bit more info would definitely be helpful.

Take care

Jeff

 

[txglasgow]

Here are some better pictures! Thanks for the replies!

 

[Heckel7302]

That’s tough. I think your options are either live with it, or refinish the whole knife. There are many ways to get back to scratch free, but it will take more stones than you have and a lot of work.

Sandpaper is an option, but you won’t have the same contrast in the suminagashi and also, a lot of work. You could try fingerstones or Uchi/awasedo powder, which might help smooth things out, but they won’t fully remove 1k scratches.

 

[ethompson]

I wouldn't try and re-polish with stones, you're likely to run into frustrating low spots as you move up the grind. I actually think this is a great candidate for hand sanding up to 1k or so follow by etching, probably with FeCl. On the other hand, that's a decent amount of work... I'd probably just keep using the knife as is and practicing your sharpening. Once you're confident with your angle holding during sharpening, then I'd refinish the blade fully.

 

[Pie]

+1 for hand sanding and etching. It’s going to be tough to completely replicate that finish, and doing it on stones would not be my answer, even with the stones.

The big positive of this is it’s a full carbon knife. Patina will hide some of the scratches, performance might be affected if the bevel surface is still rough.