Show your work! Uchigumori and co...

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Recent uchigumori polish on my wrought iron clad 52100 Comet.
 

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The above video is set to private.

rainy surreal sort of day, so why not space out and get stoney? did some general sharpening, but then pulled out the raquin for a polish session. (i need a knife to practice on, haha, so i stop using the good knives) went from the marouyama tomae to a naritaka kiita and then back to the marouyama. I figured maybe i could get more mirror hagane, then go back and get a bit more cloudy contrast on the jigane. im pleased with the results in terms of consistency, but still looking for more contrast. maybe more time on the marou, but it takes good pressure, then i start to notice the odd scratch, and i was already proud of the lack of scratches, haha. I need some finger stone maybe, or another softer stone for upping my contrast perhaps. and of course more and more skill and experience. i feel like i understand the stones more each session. like Andy Goldsworthy says, it takes a lifetime to understand the stone, but we can try to understand the stone.
glassy finish.jpg

Raquin Polish.jpg
 
Badgertooth said:
Your dad would be proud, you did a beautiful resorption and that hairline finish really sings.
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Appreciate it Badgertooth. Really enjoyed getting into it, and I know my cousin and her husband think of him often when they're processing "Porky". Have a very old hand axe and a couple large blocks of walnut from his shop. Plan is to someday carve a new handle for it. btw, Grandfather, not Dad. Made him a sanding block in 7th grade wood shop (~1972, yikes!). Now it's in my workshop - still has my initials on it. Don't know what it is about tools but when my father in-law passed about 3 years ago I got a hammer, shop brush, and a few clamps. Use them all often. Sometimes it's the simple things that can bring back some of the best memories...
 
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Black lotus 235mm Gyuto.

Description direct from the blacklotus knives web shop.

Canister twist Damascus. 1084, 15N20, 1095 high carbon steels.

Handle is Arizona Desert Ironwood burl and G10.

Saya is dyed Silky Oak.

Workhorse convex grind.
 
Here are some pics of my Watanabe 240.

sanded to 1000 grit, and then super soft Uchigomori finger stone to create contrast.
The finish from the finger stones turned out a little streaky. Any tips?
 

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MartinJ said:
Does every blade have this "potential" or some San mai are just more basic?
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im just learning this, but i will try my best to answer, and others should also help.
these are layers of iron, so i think it depends on who made the billet and what technique they used, but i dont know much beyond that. I think each cladding has its own sort of potential, some have swirls, some have lines or waves, perhaps some have no special character to be found, i am not sure. when i first began to polish this one, first it was just turning more grey and foggy. after time i could just begin to see hints of those layers. then this morning i tried some different things on the stone and was able to coax more of the layers to show themselves. it was a long process with of experimenting on the stones to find this effect.
before that, i was able to get a line at the core, that now is not so visible, so different things happen depending on how you understand the stone. because i dont really know what im doing yet, i cannot replicate my efforts, so i play. this is what it looked like last night after some polish. notice the lighter layer where cladding meets the core. this was the same knife on the same stones last night.
bazes core steel.jpg
 
Matt Zilliox said:
im just learning this, but i will try my best to answer, and others should also help.
these are layers of iron, so i think it depends on who made the billet and what technique they used, but i dont know much beyond that. I think each cladding has its own sort of potential, some have swirls, some have lines or waves, perhaps some have no special character to be found, i am not sure. when i first began to polish this one, first it was just turning more grey and foggy. after time i could just begin to see hints of those layers. then this morning i tried some different things on the stone and was able to coax more of the layers to show themselves. it was a long process with of experimenting on the stones to find this effect.
before that, i was able to get a line at the core, that now is not so visible, so different things happen depending on how you understand the stone. because i dont really know what im doing yet, i cannot replicate my efforts, so i play. this is what it looked like last night after some polish. notice the lighter layer where cladding meets the core. this was the same knife on the same stones last night.
View attachment 75240
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The lighter layer is actually a portion of the iron jacket that hardened. In the forgewelding and forging process, and also even during heat treat, carbon in migrating from the high carbon core steel into the jacket. The area of the jacket that is exposed at the core is the closest portion of the iron jacket to the core. The austenizing temps that followed anywhere between 1485-1520F (known ranges for white and blue steels) also happens to harden carbon steel as low as a 1050 steel.

In short, that bright portion of the iron jacket is hardened steel. It polishes brightly *similarly to core steel on a stone.
 
Used some of this extra time at home to finally put my kiritsuke to stones. This knife hasn't had an easy life - its been tipped multiple times (by me) and "sharpened" by less than capable hands (not me, until now). Stuck to the higher grit stones as this was my first time sharpening a single-beveled knife to make sure my inevitable mistakes wouldn't be as hard to fix.

I still have some learning to do, but am reasonably happy with how the finish turned out. I did kick up some grit at one point and picked up some gouges in the cladding towards the tip, but I'll just work those out over time.
IMG_8998.jpg IMG_9001.jpg IMG_8999.jpg
 
Y'all do some great work. I gotta put some time in so I can stop carrying Frankenstein's knife roll.
 
valgard said:
that's a pretty nice polish
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thanks Carlos, this was my first time trying to reset the bevel to convex like in your video tutorial. this knife is ground assymmetric, flat and high on the left bevel while convex and a touch lower on the right bevel. i had troubles when going back to blend the convexity like you showed, i lost a bit of the contrast going back to blend that in, but i had to be satisfied for this session. now to consider if im ready to try harder stones like your okudo suita
 
Matt Zilliox said:
thanks Carlos, this was my first time trying to reset the bevel to convex like in your video tutorial. this knife is ground assymmetric, flat and high on the left bevel while convex and a touch lower on the right bevel. i had troubles when going back to blend the convexity like you showed, i lost a bit of the contrast going back to blend that in, but i had to be satisfied for this session. now to consider if im ready to try harder stones like your okudo suita
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Great work!
Could you share that video link?:)
 
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