Back in May I bought a Y Tanaka KU iron clad AS 240 from Zahocho.
When it arrived, things were pretty awful - super concave grind, super thick behind the edge despite the concavity, and sharp edges everywhere.
@jedy617 probably doesn’t remember his fondly.
I’m a relative newb to big geometry and polishing projects, so whilst I was okay putting some work into it, I didn’t want to ruin my relatively expensive new Tanaka.
I took it to Kataba in London to take most of the concavity out, with instructions to raise the shinogi if needed in order to maintain as much height as possible.
This is how I got it back - the height was mostly retained, concavity mostly removed, and some f****** big belt sander scratches.
There were still some low spots, so I did a full progression from a Morihei 500 -> JNS 1k -> JNS red Aoto -> Uchigumori -> Narutaki to work most of them out and get a reasonable polish.
Probably took me about 15 hours in total, mostly because I’d rediscover some stubborn remaining scratches and low spots when at the high grits and have to move down to the 500 again.
This is how it looks now - lots to refine at the heel and tip, some stray scratches and some low spots with stubborn belt scratches still present, but it’s good enough to put to use without removing even more material. I can tidy up in later thinning sessions when needed.
I had loads of advice and tips from people here. Thanks KKF, and a particular shout out to
@deltaplex for letting me bounce ideas off him and making sure I didn’t ruin my knife.
Here are some shots of the WIP with some macro details and a choil shot:
), but getting better!
