Show your work! Uchigumori and co...

[tylerleach]

First attempt ever… this is a LOT harder than I thought it would be! This is one of my employees knives, Okeya Ginsan 270, tons of low spots that became very apparent as soon as I put in on the stones.
This was a blatant reminder that this is an art, and as of right now I am terrible at it lol. Gonna keep working at it! Also very curious about J-nats and how they might change things… obviously they are not miracle stones, technique is everything I’m sure.

 

[wombat]

Had to attempt to thin my Denka because the cladding line had reached the edge.

Before thinning:



After thinning and tidying up:







Messed up the kurouchi a bit, but that was hard to avoid. Some more finishing work to be done.

There was a hollow spot one one side at the heel which has unfortunately resulted in a significant up-sweep. I'm hoping it will be reduced a bit when I sharpen it.

 

[krx927]

Had to attempt to thin my Denka because the cladding line had reached the edge.

Before thinning:

View attachment 165647

After thinning and tidying up:

View attachment 165648

View attachment 165650

View attachment 165651

Messed up the kurouchi a bit, but that was hard to avoid. Some more finishing work to be done.

There was a hollow spot one one side at the heel which has unfortunately resulted in a significant up-sweep. I'm hoping it will be reduced a bit when I sharpen it.

Tip for next time: You should put some tape on the kurouchi part to protect it.

 

[wombat]

I tried, but didn’t have any tape that was able to withstand the 220 stone. The unevenness of the finish made it very hard to keep some spots off the stone and bits of tape were clogging it up. Maybe a double layer of duct tape next time.

 

[tylerleach]

Thinned and polished this bad boy again… this is one of my work horses. Takamura Chromax 210. Reeeeeally wish they would make a 240! Then, you know, had to check my work

 

[Pie]

Got a couple killer stones from @Hassanbensober - an iyoto and an ohira suita. Maybe it’s a product of my limited jnat collection, but these things are fast.
Threw the polish mule on them for a couple minutes -

Another few passes

Impressed, to say the least.

Can’t wait to hide from my responsibilities for some more time with these.

 

[ethompson]

Can’t wait to hide from my responsibilities for some more time with these.

I too, use polishing as a my preferred revenge bedtime procrastination technique. Also, I too was surprised on how fast (relatively speaking) suitas seem to be in comparison to similarly hard finishing stones. Guess that is part of why they get so expensive.

 

[tylerleach]

What is a good first j-nat for polishing/finishing? Looking to pick what up I just have no idea what to get…definitely willing to spend money on something I can keep.

 

[user 16756]

What is a good first j-nat for polishing/finishing? Looking to pick what up I just have no idea what to get…definitely willing to spend money on something I can keep.

they're all individual etc etc etc but...

Maruoyama Shiro Suita. get the purest/biggest one you can afford.

reasonably priced (comparatively), easy to use, beautiful finishes, also tend to leave good edges a bit angrier than some of the harder suitas.

 

[Pie]

What is a good first j-nat for polishing/finishing? Looking to pick what up I just have no idea what to get…definitely willing to spend money on something I can keep.

Pick a price range, hound BST, and have a discussion with the seller as to what’s appropriate. Unfortunately there’s not much consistency afforded by pedigree, mine, or appearance. IME a softer Hideriyama tomae may be a good place to start, but I keep seeing others obtain good results off reasonably priced marouyama.

I say pick up a cheaper koppa and see what happens. Getting what you’re looking for is infinitely easier when you have one data point on what you do and don’t like.

 

[adrianopedro]

Kasumi polishing on my Naoki Mazaki Sujihiki

 

[esoo]

As most of this is done by stone going to post this here.

Rust eraser, flitz, Belgium blue nagura and natural stone powder. Should've spent more time earlier in the process to clean up some spots, but I'm happy with it for the time spent

 

[ethompson]

Gentle thinning (1k to start) and full progression for the ShiHan. Working on knives with grinds this immaculate is so easy. About an hour to take it back up to a finish that is as good as I can manage without stone powder, finger-stones, etc. King 1k > Shapton Glass 2k > Aoto > soft Ohira karasu uchigumori > Nakayama suita > Ohira uchigumori (very hard / fine) > Okudo suita. Used paper towel and the remaining slurry off the last suita to smooth it out a little bit too.

 

[Pie]

Revisited a stone I hadn’t really gotten to know very well, a softer shobu suita. Turns out it’s capable of some nice contrast while mirror polishing the cladding, all while giving up a comfortable mud cushion. Some scratches are there, I’m hoping from grit contamination and not an inclusion.

 

[tostadas]

Round 1 of many vs the giant rectangle. Not sure why I thought this would be a good idea.

 

[Pie]

Round 1 of many vs the giant rectangle. Not sure why I thought this would be a good idea.
View attachment 172935

Might be because it looks awesome!

 

[refcast]

Double cladding line or super carbon migration. . . Uchigumori fingerstones because I don't want to thin the knife just yet, since it's a concave grind .

 

[Pie]

All natural progression - amakusa, white amakusa, Hideriyama, shobou suita. Core steel isn’t nearly as clean as synth prepped, I suspect due to the variable cutting power of my stones, combined with impatience. Reminds me a bit of mazaki’s stock finishes about a year ago.

 

[ethompson]

Found some very interesting texture in this 1.2562 mini-cleaver core steel during polishing.

 

[MSicardCutlery]

I'm a big fan of Walter Sorrels' hybrid polishing method for hamons, of course they're just about impossible to photograph nicely if they're active.

 

[Runner_up]

Yanagiba polish

Playing around with some new stones.

 

[DanielC]

I've been away for a bit but I have managed to squeek out a feel polishes to stay same.

And a different one.

 

[tostadas]

Cleaning up the Matsubara after 2 thinning sessions. Played around with some etching to try to calm down the reactivity. Some interesting details started showing up in parts of the cladding.

 

[refcast]

A Kanna

 

[Feiii]

Cleaning up the Matsubara after 2 thinning sessions. Played around with some etching to try to calm down the reactivity. Some interesting details started showing up in parts of the cladding.

that's Matsubara White 1 right? How did you go about thinning it if I may ask? How does it perform now after 2 thinning sessions?

 

[tostadas]

that's Matsubara White 1 right? How did you go about thinning it if I may ask? How does it perform now after 2 thinning sessions?

It arrived thick at the edge with a bit of a wonky grind. I focused my effort on the first 10-15mm behind the edge. The geometry higher up the blade is nice, so I just wanted to mainly thin bte and preserve the original convexity. I did the thinning work with sandpaper on top of an atoma block. 220-400-800, going slowly and checking frequently. Here's a photo of original grind compared to result after the first thinning. Second thinning was less significant. The knife performs way nicer now. I'll just have to see now how the reactivity is after the polish and etch.

 

[ethompson]

Another kanna.

 

[Runner_up]

Full blade and KU refinish

Most of the polishing work done on Morihei Hishiboshi stones.

 

[Heckel7302]

Full blade and KU refinish

Most of the polishing work done on Morihei Hishiboshi stones.

What did you use to refinish the KU?

 

[Runner_up]

What did you use to refinish the KU?

Sorry, this is a proprietary process that I came up with through a lot of trial and error - I will keep this to myself.

However a lot of folks use gun blu and get pretty good results. The stuff is pretty toxic, but I think in the small amounts used and if the blade is prepped correctly before and after it is no problem.