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Knife tip and profile repair

Discussion in 'Sharpening forum' started by Chuckles, Apr 11, 2014.

  1. Chuckles

    Chuckles Founding Member

    image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg

    I have a new line cook that brought this kikuichi in as his main knife. I can't just let someone use a knife in this condition so I took on the project.

    It seems he sharpended extremely aggressively right on the belly of the blade. The tip was broken and the heel was way too low. I layed a forgecraft blank I had handy to use as a stencil for the profile. I did the tip repair and the profile work and then thinned it out. I was trying to keep as much height at the heel as possible while allowing for solid board contact with not too much clunk. The mark i made at the heel was just a start. I took the very heel down to the marker line and then worked it into the rest of he blade.

    It is certainly more useful now than it was previously but I do have a few questions.

    What do you think?

    Would you take more off the heel?

    How do you polish a hammered Damascus knife? And what happens to the hammered part if you etch it?
     
  2. Not sure about what I'm seeing on my crappy mobile screen, but I would check whether the entire edge touches the board. I guess there is some remaining recurve belly / low heel.
     
  3. Twistington

    Twistington Founding Member

    Sanding sponges might be able to get down into the indents, or a small rotary tool i.e dremel equipped with a series of small buffing wheels loaded with a series of abrasive compounds from coarse to fine. The flat parts should be pretty straight forward with stones and wet/dry.

    The etching would make the hammered part uniform in color, if you would take some 400(or higher)wet/dry and just hit the high spots you would be in for a cool contrast.
     
  4. John Fout

    John Fout Founding Member

    On the heel, I would try it on a board and see if more needs to be removed.

    You did a good job with the tip. You can sand below the shinogi line to polish that part or a stone to kasumi it. I doubt the hammered bits above would stick out.
     
  5. panda

    panda Founding Member

    maybe he wants a honesuki?
     
  6. Chuckles

    Chuckles Founding Member

    Don't blame your mobile display too harshly they are terrible pictures.
     
  7. Chuckles

    Chuckles Founding Member

    image.jpg It does make solid board contact in the heel section. I don't how it is to work with though. I didn't cut much with it. The owner seems happy with it but I am his boss and did it overnight for free. So he is not really in a great place to complain.
     
  8. Taz575

    Taz575 Founding Member

    Looks like they didn't sharpen enough at the heel; the whole blade looks very flat to me. I had a chef friend who did similar to a MAC knife; the heel hit the board, but there was no board contact for almost 3-4" forward of the heel! It clunked a lot when I tried it. I asked how he sharpened and he used a 1000 grit water stone and a steel for like 8 years. He had thinned it pretty well in that time, but never figured out how to fix the heel, so I showed him. Much different profile in the blade after I fixed the recurved section.

    Looks like you did a very good job with it! Acid etching may bring out some contrast, but the acid doesn't etch SS Damascus as strongly as it does carbon steels, so it may need more time. The hammered portion is stainless IIRC, so that won't show much contrast there and may not darken the steel all that much. I have found that the norton non woven abrasive pads (Nortons version of 3M ScotchBrite) work to polish the steel slightly, but leave a satin finish as well. The green and maroon Norton pads are the coarser two and the grey and white are much finer. They leave a nice finish before acid etching, too and help to hide use scratches.
     
  9. Chuckles

    Chuckles Founding Member

    Those Norton pads look really helpful. Thanks for the tip!
     
  10. Taz575

    Taz575 Founding Member

    No problem! The Grey and White end up matching the factory finish on many satin finished blades and the coarser ones will still remove some metal. Deep scratches, sandpaper on a hard rubber block works well and then the Norton pads to blend. I use them on the counter in a stropping motion and keep the blade perpendicular to the pad so I get nice straight lines.
     
  11. kentos

    kentos Founding Member

    Compared to before its a 100% improvment. I can't imagine how he cut through anything with that uneven edge.
     

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