# Mizuno Honyaki repolish



## mainaman (Feb 18, 2013)

I have Salty's Mizuno from the passaround and when I saw John's thread about the Masamoto honyaki I offered to try and polish the knife to bring out the hamon line.
The knife had patina and some pitting marks from use. 







I started with green Aoto slurry and polished out the patina and brightened the blade up a lot.
The hamon started to show, at which point I moved on to finger stones.
The result was an OK finish, with milky hamon, that did not stand out too much, at least not as much as I would have liked. I did not feel like grinding finger stones to powder and polishing with it to try and get more contrast.










The hamon on the front of the knife was hard to photograph and was not as pronounced as the back hamon.

I did not like the natural stone look of the polish so Instead I tried that vinegar / lemon juice method, and I liked the results a lot better.

I did 3 treatments with vinegar and lemon juice in order followed by polishing with 1k Wa powder, then 2k Wa powder.














Continues in next post.


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## mainaman (Feb 18, 2013)

the materials used for the job- Green Aoto, 1k/2k Wa powders, hard rubber block and a cork 








This knife can be made to look a lot better but that will require a bunch more work. For perfect finish the knife will have to be sanded with sand paper to get the pitting out, then redone with the fine powders, then etched and polished more with polishing powders. That is a lot of work but if someone is really determined to do it this knife will look fantastic.


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## franzb69 (Feb 18, 2013)

great post, very educational.


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## ThEoRy (Feb 18, 2013)

Hey that's lookin pretty cool so far..


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## kalaeb (Feb 18, 2013)

Nice work. All these polishing post are almost making me want to get out the sandpaper.


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## EdipisReks (Feb 18, 2013)

excuse my ignorance, but what is wa powder?


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## Rottman (Feb 18, 2013)

*W*hite *A*lumina I'd guess...


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## mainaman (Feb 18, 2013)

EdipisReks said:


> excuse my ignorance, but what is wa powder?


http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/Wa-Powder-Set-p/225.htm

AlO powder abrasive that Max carries
I have been using those on razors and knives and they work great


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## Salty dog (Feb 18, 2013)

:dance:


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## EdipisReks (Feb 18, 2013)

that makes sense, thanks. the way it was capitalized threw me.


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## EdipisReks (Feb 18, 2013)

mainaman said:


> http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/Wa-Powder-Set-p/225.htm
> 
> AlO powder abrasive that Max carries
> I have been using those on razors and knives and they work great



cool, thanks!


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## labor of love (Feb 18, 2013)

mainaman, that looks really really nice! can i ask what kind of towels you use for the powders and to polish? like restuarant kitchen towels? or a shammy?


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## brainsausage (Feb 18, 2013)

Nice work!


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## mainaman (Feb 18, 2013)

labor of love said:


> mainaman, that looks really really nice! can i ask what kind of towels you use for the powders and to polish? like restuarant kitchen towels? or a shammy?


I used the hard rubber block and the cork on the last picture.


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## cclin (Feb 18, 2013)

labor of love said:


> mainaman, that looks really really nice! can i ask what kind of towels you use for the powders and to polish? like restuarant kitchen towels? or a shammy?



I use Daikon & wa powder to polish my carbon knives. work great!! Japanese way!!


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## brainsausage (Feb 18, 2013)

cclin said:


> I use Daikon & wa powder to polish my carbon knives. work great!! Japanese way!!



I like this.


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## Johnny.B.Good (Feb 18, 2013)

Nice work!


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## Patatas Bravas (Feb 18, 2013)

mainaman said:


> I did not like the natural stone look of the polish so Instead I tried that vinegar / lemon juice method, and I liked the results a lot better.
> 
> I did 3 treatments with vinegar and lemon juice in order followed by polishing with 1k Wa powder, then 2k Wa powder.



Can you explain how this is? What is the purpose of the vinegar and lemon? I just think about these as things for generating patinas, not polishing. Thanks


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## cclin (Feb 18, 2013)

Patatas Bravas said:


> Can you explain how this is? What is the purpose of the vinegar and lemon? I just think about these as things for generating patinas, not polishing. Thanks



vinegar and lemon treatment will make hamon line more noticeable!!


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## labor of love (Feb 18, 2013)

"treatment"=etching=lemon/vinegar bath??? are these terms interchangeable where youre more or less talking about the same process? or is etching, lemon/vinegar treatment, and vinegar baths different things altogether?


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## Mike9 (Feb 18, 2013)

Wow - looks great so far. I'd like to bring out the hamon on my Takagi honyaki, but the forging is very rustic looking and I doubt it would show up like yours.


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## cclin (Feb 18, 2013)

labor of love said:


> "treatment"=etching=lemon/vinegar bath??? are these terms interchangeable where youre more or less talking about the same process? or is etching, lemon/vinegar treatment, and vinegar baths different things altogether?


if I remenber it right.....vinegar bath>polish>lemon juice rub>polish-----> repeat 2~ 3 times!!


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## mainaman (Feb 18, 2013)

cclin said:


> if I remenber it right.....vinegar bath>polish>lemon juice rub>polish-----> repeat 2~ 3 times!!


I rubbed the vinegar as well, it worked just fine.


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## Miles (Feb 18, 2013)

Looks great! Nice work!


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## labor of love (Feb 18, 2013)

cclin said:


> if I remenber it right.....vinegar bath>polish>lemon juice rub>polish-----> repeat 2~ 3 times!!





mainaman said:


> I rubbed the vinegar as well, it worked just fine.


thank you.


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