Some nice piece of steel for polishing

[Krakorak]

Hi,

I really like polishing (its a kind of relaxation for me) and am quite a stone nut, particularly as regards JNATs...But I found recently myself to lack enough toys for my stones, especially for the finer stuff...I have a couple of blades which are pretty good and sufficient for testing medium grit stones to less fine finishers, but hardly anything what would give my finer finishers (especially some Nakayama kiita) the opportunity to show their full potential., i.e. something with really fine grain in steel, some cool alloy banding etc...

So, I would like to collect a couple of tips what to get eventually...I don't care if it would be a small knife or a 300 mm yanagi, have even no problem if it would be a blade in some poor condition which would require some rough work on geometry before, I just don't want to spend too much money on something which would predominantly be a stone tester (so nothing like Shig kitaeji, Tsukasa river jump, no Milan etc.)...So if you know let's say a line of knives where one could be sure that it will possess the above mentioned properties, let me know, please! Or if you would have something lying around in your drawer which might work well for me...

 

[Rangen]

Some like to use kiridashis or kanna (Japanese plane blades) for this.

 

[Just a DK]

Kinda like offal from a butcher, I do ask for custom orders if anyone is willing to put in a broken/small/failed piece of steel that can be used to practice polishing.

So far unsuccessful as I think people are quite efficient with the steel they use, but as I believe ask and ye shall receive! at some point or another eventually....

 

[Jovidah]

Kinda like offal from a butcher, I do ask for custom orders if anyone is willing to put in a broken/small/failed piece of steel that can be used to practice polishing.

So far unsuccessful as I think people are quite efficient with the steel they use, but as I believe ask and ye shall receive! at some point or another eventually....

Lately it feels like some failed gyutos already end up as nakiris or bunkas...

 

[Krakorak]

Some like to use kiridashis or kanna (Japanese plane blades) for this.

Yeah, I know, I already bought a quite nice kanna on Buyee some time ago exactly for this purpose and used it from time to time, but its nothing super special, although definitely not bad, see for instance here: https://www.rajce.idnes.cz/rhamphorhynchus/album/shinden-suita-2/1571379662...But its a little too wide for me, as regards a comfortable use, so I occassionally cut into the stone etc.....And as for kiridashi - I even got an offer for one already, so maybe...I prefer knives, but kiridashi could be fun, if revealing some nice effects...

 

[Krakorak]

So far unsuccessful as I think people are quite efficient with the steel they use, but as I believe ask and ye shall receive! at some point or another eventually....

I tried the same with my friend Dominik aka Merion Forge, but also without success:-(

 

[cotedupy]

Yeah, I know, I already bought a quite nice kanna on Buyee some time ago exactly for this purpose and used it from time to time, but its nothing super special, although definitely not bad, see for instance here: https://www.rajce.idnes.cz/rhamphorhynchus/album/shinden-suita-2/1571379662...But its a little too wide for me, as regards a comfortable use, so I occassionally cut into the stone etc.....And as for kiridashi - I even got an offer for one already, so maybe...I prefer knives, but kiridashi could be fun, if revealing some nice effects...

If you do fancy a kiri - I’d also strongly reccommend this:

https://www.shop-schilbach.net/en/p...anese-carver-forged-from-kamaji-iron-1880year
(Tipoff came from @amastronardi originally).

 

[blokey]

Something cheap on KnifeJapan, or rustic Tosa stuff on Rakuten, old stuffs on Yahoo auction, ebay and Mercari

 

[ethompson]

Just set forum alerts for when @refcast drops something

 

[M1k3]

https://hidatool.com/item/2003

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

Ibuki Blades has some kiridashi and other sanmai blades at good prices. I have a kirisashi from them and a Muneishi sanmai petty 150mm.

I also have one of their finger knives that is supposed to be sanmai with a shirogami core but I don’t think it is sanmai. I think it is monosteel and as such I could not recommend this particular one for the purposes you are looking for.

As always, if you see something you like, check the forum vendors for something similar. Make sure to support those that are supporting us.

 

[refcast]

I was selling this awhile ago but decided to keep it -- so something like this?

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/220mm-rustic-takohiki.67899/

 

[ethompson]

I was selling this awhile ago but decided to keep it -- so something like this?

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/220mm-rustic-takohiki.67899/

Yeah, that’d do

Or that nakiri you showed me I bought on Sunday lol

 

[Pie]

Just set forum alerts for when @refcast drops something

This would be the prime source. I scored an old takobiki, top tier tester.

Moritaka (any size, preferably something flat like the kiritsuke) has really fun cladding lines with lots of detail and well behaved iron. A downside is there is little visual character to the iron and steel itself, so your acidic stones won’t be getting a ton of etch reveals.

Other downside is the longer ones are a tad flexy.

 

[ethompson]

I found a decent amount of banding in Hinoura iron prelam stuff (both father and son), downside is most of it comes with hollow bevels

 

[Heckel7302]

Sounds like @ethompson needs to put another order in for those RDG wrought clad kiridashi.

 

[Krakorak]

If you do fancy a kiri - I’d also strongly reccommend this:

https://www.shop-schilbach.net/en/p...anese-carver-forged-from-kamaji-iron-1880year
(Tipoff came from @amastronardi originally).

I think I have already found a few toys which will suit me well, thanks to a few gentlemen who have contributed to this thread, but will definitely consider this as well! It looks sweet and the seller is even located within EU what is great! So, thanks, Oli!

 

[Krakorak]

Something cheap on KnifeJapan, or rustic Tosa stuff on Rakuten, old stuffs on Yahoo auction, ebay and Mercari

Haha, actually, my Tosa funayuki was (and still is) one of my main JNAT testers over the years, but rather for the edges and to test the general feedback of the particular stones, it doesn't reveal any special details even on really fine stones...And those blades which I mentioned to be my recent testers come mostly just from Buyee..But even if one can score there rather nice looking pieces for not much money, its still hard to evaluate the geometry just based on a couple of photos, so it sometimes takes ages to get off all the lowspots, other time it takes ages to get off all the really deeply protruding rust which seemed to be much less of issue on the photos etc....So this time I decided to go for something either new or at least already tested!

But as I mentioned - I have already found what I needed, so thanks to everybody who contributed and tried to help!

 

[tostadas]

I'm curious now what you ended up with. Do share the results!

 

[OyakoDont]

I found a decent amount of banding in Hinoura iron prelam stuff (both father and son), downside is most of it comes with hollow bevels

Stupid question, what brings out banding? Is it inherent in the steel and any fine grit/awasedo can bring it out or is it a combination of the two?

 

[ethompson]

Stupid question, what brings out banding? Is it inherent in the steel and any fine grit/awasedo can bring it out or is it a combination of the two?

It’s just grain structure in the steel or iron. It’s either there or not. Any steel or iron pushed fine enough will show grain of some type, but some show it was more visibly than others

 

[Krakorak]

I'm curious now what you ended up with. Do share the results!

So, @refcast kindly offered to sell me that takobiki he mentioned above in thread, I will also grab a Jikko yanagiba @ethompson used in the past for stone testing (see for instance picture here: Aizu) and it remained unused after he got better toys for this, and I also got an old usuba from a local Czech friend which displays a subtle, but quite pretty banding, see pictures below...I wanted to buy this one from him already some time ago, but he declined that time, but fortunately changed his mind in the meantime..So, overall, its nothing fancy, but I think, these three will be fun to play with! And there is never enough toys for polishing, so I will certainly jump on something else as well in near future!