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tough blade to thin… I thought this would be easy peasy like the Misono Swedish I recently thinned, but I was clearly wrong.

I’m throwing my whole coarse stone arsenal at it but every stone feels like it’s glazed - the blade just skates on the surface and steel removal is super slow. SG220, Debado 180 and Sigma 240 (Sigma is probably the fastest here but still slow)

 
I did some more practice with a soft stone and revisited a problem I had while learning to use it. I seem to have nice contrast and a decent kasumi from some angles, but a scratch pattern is easily visible.
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How do you manage to achieve a misty, almost milky finish on your knives and have a bright core steel? Are there techniques I'm not aware of, and should I look into getting a finer stone? A lot of the naguras and finishing stones in the classifieds look really enticing, but the users posting polish pics are also much more experienced.
 
Veitchii said:
I did some more practice with a soft stone and revisited a problem I had while learning to use it. I seem to have nice contrast and a decent kasumi from some angles, but a scratch pattern is easily visible.
View attachment 273254View attachment 273256View attachment 273257
How do you manage to achieve a misty, almost milky finish on your knives and have a bright core steel? Are there techniques I'm not aware of, and should I look into getting a finer stone? A lot of the naguras and finishing stones in the classifieds look really enticing, but the users posting polish pics are also much more experienced.
Click to expand...
Finger stone is the key if you want to refine those small scratches.

It helps to make everything uniform and to have a beautiful result. It's entirely possible to have a beautiful result directly on bench stone, but you will be less angry if you start to discover these little nuggets.
 
Veitchii said:
I did some more practice with a soft stone and revisited a problem I had while learning to use it. I seem to have nice contrast and a decent kasumi from some angles, but a scratch pattern is easily visible.
View attachment 273254View attachment 273256View attachment 273257
How do you manage to achieve a misty, almost milky finish on your knives and have a bright core steel? Are there techniques I'm not aware of, and should I look into getting a finer stone? A lot of the naguras and finishing stones in the classifieds look really enticing, but the users posting polish pics are also much more experienced.
Click to expand...
With a soft stone, and an imperfect bevel you can try to ride on mostly just the mud that was generated either by use or not more coarse than a 1200 atoma (ideally a tomo, also try to never end polish on a stone surface that is prepped with anything more coarse than 1200). Polish in the mud itself as opposed to the stone surface and see if it helps reduce.

If the bevel is fairly clean, you can try lapping the stone good and flat, flooding with water and try to burnish on just the stone itself using as little slurry as possible. If the bevel has any faceting, it will show up here.

Sometimes those scratches can also come from an uneven stone surface, like if there is a depression or several.
 
DanielC said:
With a soft stone, and an imperfect bevel you can try to ride on mostly just the mud that was generated either by use or not more coarse than a 1200 atoma (ideally a tomo, also try to never end polish on a stone surface that is prepped with anything more coarse than 1200). Polish in the mud itself as opposed to the stone surface and see if it helps reduce.

If the bevel is fairly clean, you can try lapping the stone good and flat, flooding with water and try to burnish on just the stone itself using as little slurry as possible. If the bevel has any faceting, it will show up here.

Sometimes those scratches can also come from an uneven stone surface, like if there is a depression or several.
Click to expand...
KasumiJLA said:
Finger stone is the key if you want to refine those small scratches.

It helps to make everything uniform and to have a beautiful result. It's entirely possible to have a beautiful result directly on bench stone, but you will be less angry if you start to discover these little nuggets.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for the help! Trying to polish with light pressure on the mud seemed to introduce more scratches to the iron somehow, but in hindsight, my best guess is that I was actually revealing hidden scratches. I'll lap the stone and try again.

I've had some experience with fingerstones, but only once have I gotten a perfectly scratchless finish, and despite my best effort, I was never able to recreate it. I used a cerax 1000, followed by a king 1000, and I then jumped straight to my soft Aiiwatani. I used some fingerstones with gradually decreasing pressure and then used a felt pad with remaining mud to try and even it all out. These were my results:
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Veitchii said:
Thank you so much for the help! Trying to polish with light pressure on the mud seemed to introduce more scratches to the iron somehow, but in hindsight, my best guess is that I was actually revealing hidden scratches. I'll lap the stone and try again.

I've had some experience with fingerstones, but only once have I gotten a perfectly scratchless finish, and despite my best effort, I was never able to recreate it. I used a cerax 1000, followed by a king 1000, and I then jumped straight to my soft Aiiwatani. I used some fingerstones with gradually decreasing pressure and then used a felt pad with remaining mud to try and even it all out. These were my results:View attachment 273435View attachment 273436View attachment 273437
Click to expand...
I’m seeing a lot of scratches, especially on the core, that seem to be 400-1k grit. I’d suggest being extra careful erasing all previous scratches along the way and also you need one or two steps between 1k synth and a natural finishing stone at least.

There are no shortcuts on the road to a kasumi. This is a lesson I learned over years of practice. Patience is the key ingredient much more so than fancy stones.

From the time a bevel had geometry fully set at 200 grit to get to here is probably 1 hr per 100mm per side. So for a 240 gyuto, that’d easily be 6 hours of work…
 
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ethompson said:
I’m seeing a lot of scratches, especially on the core, that seem to be 400-1k grit. I’d suggest being extra careful erasing all previous scratches along the way and also you need one or two steps between 1k synth and a natural finishing stone at least.

There are no shortcuts on the road to a kasumi. This is a lesson I learned over years of practice. Patience is the key ingredient much more so than fancy stones.

From the time a bevel had geometry fully set at 200 grit to get to here is probably 1 hr per 100mm per side. So for a 240 gyuto, that’d easily be 6 hours of work…
View attachment 273445
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😅 I'll definitely take advantage of this 3 day weekend to tackle that. In a way, it's reassuring to know that I have a lot to learn.

As for steps between 1k and a synthetic, the next thing I have is a rika 5k. It doesn't leave much of a polish, but my natural seems to be able to replace those scratches easily (from what I see after cross-hatching).

Thank you for the insight!
 
ethompson said:
From the time a bevel had geometry fully set at 200 grit to get to here is probably 1 hr per 100mm per side. So for a 240 gyuto, that’d easily be 6 hours of work…
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I tried polish my Tojiro DP as a trail run, after about 1hr on my SP320 (lowest grit I got besides atoma flattening plate) I still see big lowspots. I though I must be doing something wrong, now I know I was just getting started...
 
dragjp said:
Is that a VG10 or other kind of stainless? Then you're in a deeper trouble than a cheap carbon..heh
If it's too slow for you, try a 200 maybe, or even a worn atoma 140.
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Yes it's vg10 core with stainless cladding. I've since given that knife away so probably will pick a iron clad to practice on next.
 
First attempt at thinning here. Decided to thin my Two Sticks AS stainless clad gyuto. The cladding was reaching the edge on one side. Put a couple hours into it today trying out a few different stones- shapton pro 120, 220, and atoma 140. Made some progress but not nearly as much as I'd hoped.

Starting:
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And here's the scratch pattern from sp220. The cladding isn't retreating from the edge yet. Will post more when I make some progress.

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I started the polishing project on this 250mm gyuto honyaki from The Nine. So far it's a smooth and fun ride, I really enjoy working on this beauty!

The choil had marks and the spine had steep angles. I put everything back in order and rounded everything up. I am happy to have been able to remove the majority of the forge marks but unfortunately for a question of geometry and time, I will have to leave a few moles. It will be discreet and it will leave a bit of history! This knife is around 5~6 years old according to Robert.

 
Two Sticks AS stainless clad gyuto project done. It's not perfect but I'm very happy with the results. I was able to successfully thin and push the cladding back from the edge without introducing thin spots or a recurve. Then I put on a decent kasumi finish with sandpaper and sic. There's still a lot of visible scratches and I should have spent more time on the stones for a shinier core. It was my first attempt at thinning and kasumi so it can only get better from here.

Before and after videos attached.


 
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