Show your work! Uchigumori and co...

[Krakorak]

The current state of an old 300 mm kensaki yanagi, originally bought with a huge, almost 1 mm wide facet on the kireha and several lowspots...Its a series of pictures as it wasn't possible, due to poor light conditions and the length of the blade and , to take a reasonable picture of it...Its still not perfect, but looks and predominantly works much, much better now...The progression was my friend's pink brick (which is most likely Imanishi Bester 220), then Naniwa Pro 400, Shapton 1k, Natsuya, Aizu, softer Okudo suita, my noname fine finisher and a Nakayama maruka kiita FS...

 

[Krakorak]

And here is a couple of pictures of an old unagisaki, originally bought from ethompson just for testing of stones...What, of course, was an excellent idea, especially as I didn't buy a single one since that which would be suitable for polishing ...just washitas and coticules...

It was even in much, much more terrible condition than the yanagi above and it took ages to get it into an at least a bit reasonable state...But it slowly comes to life again and the banding it reveals in the properly polished areas is quite nice, I think ..

 

[KenjiF]

And here is a couple of pictures of an old unagisaki, originally bought from ethompson just for testing of stones...What, of course, was an excellent idea, especially as I didn't buy a single one since that which would be suitable for polishing ...just washitas and coticules...

It was even in much, much more terrible condition than the yanagi above and it took ages to get it into an at least a bit reasonable state...But it slowly comes to life again and the banding it reveals in the properly polished areas is quite nice, I think ..

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What beautiful banding!

 

[KenjiF]

Spent some more time refining the polish on my Manaka today to wind down after a stressful day at work.

Still lots to improve (and maybe more fine finishers to purchase ), but getting better!

Half the skill is capturing your work on camera…

Great work! I haven't taken mine past an uchi so far... still a little geometry to fix before I do so I haven't put it on anything hard enough to tell. I'll let you know once I do.

 

[KasumiJLA]

I like mirror core and I was missing doing this kind of polish, it's so fun and I really like the look. First side is done and maybe 20 minutes left to complete this project. From factory grind to this results it's gonna be less than 4 hours which is relatively quick for a 210mm gyuto. Pretty happy on how this handle I've made is matching this overall aesthetic

 

[OkayMode]

I like mirror core and I was missing doing this kind of polish, it's so fun and I really like the look. First side is done and maybe 20 minutes left to complete this project. From factory grind to this results it's gonna be less than 4 hours which is relatively quick for a 210mm gyuto. Pretty happy on how this handle I've made is matching this overall aesthetic

View attachment 258211

Wow that’s awesome, let alone how little time it took.

What was your process?

 

[KenjiF]

I like mirror core and I was missing doing this kind of polish, it's so fun and I really like the look. First side is done and maybe 20 minutes left to complete this project. From factory grind to this results it's gonna be less than 4 hours which is relatively quick for a 210mm gyuto. Pretty happy on how this handle I've made is matching this overall aesthetic

View attachment 258211

Take the whole knife up to a 10k+ mirror on stones then finger stones?

 

[KasumiJLA]

@Ok__mode_6953 Thanks man! Yes I always enjoy polish this line of knives because the factory grind is always with little to no low spots.

@KenjiF is right! I used sp220, naniwa pro 400, imanishi 1K, Naniwa super 3k-5k-12k and Uchigumori lvl 3/5 finger stone for the final glazing

 

[KenjiF]

@Ok__mode_6953 Thanks man! Yes I always enjoy polish this line of knives because the factory grind is always with little to no low spots.

@KenjiF is right! I used sp220, naniwa pro 400, imanishi 1K, Naniwa super 3k-5k-12k and Uchigumori lvl 3/5 finger stone for the final glazing

I just bought some more super stones. I think they might be the cleanest stones I have tried for mirrored core steel. Very consistent grit and will burnish. I have to be a little careful with them near shinogi because they are softer than my finishing Jnats. I've been finishing at 5k in the past but I have got the 12k on its way so it's great seeing the finish that comes off it!!

 

[OkayMode]

@Ok__mode_6953 Thanks man! Yes I always enjoy polish this line of knives because the factory grind is always with little to no low spots.

@KenjiF is right! I used sp220, naniwa pro 400, imanishi 1K, Naniwa super 3k-5k-12k and Uchigumori lvl 3/5 finger stone for the final glazing

Gorgeous. What is the knife line?

 

[KasumiJLA]

I just bought some more super stones. I think they might be the cleanest stones I have tried for mirrored core steel. Very consistent grit and will burnish. I have to be a little careful with them near shinogi because they are softer than my finishing Jnats. I've been finishing at 5k in the past but I have got the 12k on its way so it's great seeing the finish that comes off it!!

Yes I really like them to polish, they do amazing results starting from 3k. They indeed burnish really fast Sharpening on them is not so fun since they are too soft, you can cut through it so easily. The 12k is a fun one to have and doesn't break the bank too, you gonna have fun with it!

Keep the mud away (I always use running water on my stone) and you will have a superb mirror

 

[Choppin]

First finish I'm not ashamed of: Gesshin 600->Cerax 3k->Gesshin 6K->Thuringian:

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do you remember if the Gesshin 600 to Cerax 3k jump was too much, or was it ok to erase the Gesshin scratches?

 

[KasumiJLA]

Project is finished and bonus choil shot! It was fun to play again with san mai after my honyaki experience. I have to say that it's not unpleasant to arrive at a final result without having devoted more than a month to it..

 

[jedy617]

Got a new (used) nine gyuto in, gave it a little polish with my new uchi. Normally I guess you would do something a bit harder and finer for wrought, but I don't have anything that hard or fine really. However, this uchi is relatively hard and I think showed some great detail.

 

[ahhactive]

My brother loaned my knife, and was washing the knife withr green part of the sponge.... You can imagine how pissed i am.

Good thing the scratch isn't too deep, progress is mikawa, renge suita, shoubu asagi and uchigomori

 

[KenjiF]

Recently started polishing wrought knives for the first time (that weren't Kanna or Kiri) and starting to learn what stones of mine play well. Here is a Fellipi finished on Naka Tomae. The heel still needs some work but getting close...

 

[Greasylake]

I humbly throw my hat into this thread. This isn't nearly as clean of a polish job as a lot of the other work here, but it's a big improvement from how this bevel started. This knife is going to my girlfriend, and no doubt I'll have a chance to re-polish it once it gets time to do some more thinning

 

[nutmeg]

What's next?

 

[nutmeg]

You can imagine there are different levels of finish on a same blade.

What a better invitation than a rustic pre-finish surface with visible scratches but with good geometry?

Let's call the first finish the Zone 1:
No visible scratches from far away, high micro contrast, very hazy surface on the clad, matte to satin on the core.
After some work on Synth, let’s start with the softest Ohira uchigumori and relatively coarse finger stones:

In certain conditions you can see a small amount of reflection through the core. Generally, you're more looking at the surface than the reflection.

 

[nutmeg]

What would you expect from Zone 2?

 

[ethompson]

Wish I could explain why, but the slurry from this Ohira suita was behaving unusually. From the lamination line up it forms beautiful branches and on the fully hardened steel it appears to cling to the grain boundaries. Magic!

 

[ethompson]

Kiri by the illustrious @Illyria and some more info on the stone and photos here

 

[DarwellianEmpire]

I hear we like old Kanji FMs around here?

Little TLC for the Blue 2 this morning. Just waiting on a new handle and then we’ll be good to go. Lots of synthetics, naturals, and finger stones were used in the making of this.

Also I’m terrible at taking pictures (compared to most of y’all) but I still like sharing progress!!

 

[adrianopedro]

Mutsumi Hinoura Gyuto

 

[dragjp]

Keep going for more details or should I stop here?

 

[Uncle Danny]

Finished this today

 

[OwlWoodworks]

Tidying up my Milan in preparation for a big soup. I like to clean the patina off my knives before I cook so I can see the beautiful blue on a fresh clean blade. Brings me joy

 

[ethompson]

Bevels re-shaped to not be hollow, polished up. Santoku by Mutsumi Hinoura.

 

[nutmeg]

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What would you expect from Zone 2?

Zone 2, step by step.

 

[user 37848]

Stone polish improving but still not great. The scratch pattern in certain lights show inconsistency.

Finished on a mizu asagi koppa