I really like the look of kurouchi finish along the edge, I'm thinking of Tetsujin Tanryusen's in particular (probably my favourite looking, and by all accounts, great knifes). I'm just concerned that the first time I need to thin the knife it's going to remove all the kurouchi finish and spoil its good looks. Are my fears unfounded or is this unavoidable? Basically I'm going through a bit of a buying spurt and trying to find a reason not to pull the trigger on another acquisition (a Tanryusen)...
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tostadas
Hobbyist / Craftsman
Tetsujin doesn't have kurouchi (ku is the black stuff from forging). Are you perhaps meaning the banding in the cladding?
I can't tell if the edge is polished and presenting as dark gray or if it is etched. As @tostadas says, these knives don't have kurouchi but If you're referring to this area, then yes, you will absolutely remove it. Which if it is etched, I'd probably prefer as I find that etching can induce drag.
If you mean the banding, then not necessarily but you need to be real careful in your approach to keep things looking nice.
If you mean the banding, then not necessarily but you need to be real careful in your approach to keep things looking nice.
Just looked them up. Assuming you mean the ones from K&S. Most likely the core steel is black from etching to bring out the detail in the cladding.
Tetsujin gonna lose their finish pretty quick in thinning, time to learn polishing and etching
Just something to be aware of with clad (iron, soft steel & stainless) KU finish knives, if you are aiming at restoring the matte grey kasumi finish of the softer cladded area, the kurouchi finish itself can flake into the slurry and cause grief in the form of polished streaks in the kasumi finish.
I just finished work on a KU finish knife and had to wrack my brain for a while along the way to understand why I got major streakage, this, until I observed black spots appearing in the slurry which turned out to be flaked KU finish. To mitigate that I needed to work extra carefully and I still didn't end up with that great an end result. Passable, yeah, primo? Not even close.
Things turned a bit better after I forced a patina on the knife (iron clad so pretty much a must), so... not too miffed about that... would have been more of an issue if the knife in question would have been stainless-clad because the kasumi that you get with the stones is the end result you are going to be stuck with.
I have pretty vowed myself off from trying to prettify any KU finish knife in the future, it felt like such a major PITA and I couldn't really do much about it. Things might have been better if I had polishing powders meant for finishing, but no, I did not have any at hand...
I just finished work on a KU finish knife and had to wrack my brain for a while along the way to understand why I got major streakage, this, until I observed black spots appearing in the slurry which turned out to be flaked KU finish. To mitigate that I needed to work extra carefully and I still didn't end up with that great an end result. Passable, yeah, primo? Not even close.
Things turned a bit better after I forced a patina on the knife (iron clad so pretty much a must), so... not too miffed about that... would have been more of an issue if the knife in question would have been stainless-clad because the kasumi that you get with the stones is the end result you are going to be stuck with.
I have pretty vowed myself off from trying to prettify any KU finish knife in the future, it felt like such a major PITA and I couldn't really do much about it. Things might have been better if I had polishing powders meant for finishing, but no, I did not have any at hand...
It’s etched and it’s not draggy at all. Stainless etched tends to be draggy
