# Even thousand-dollar Honyaki are not perfect



## jklip13 (Mar 1, 2017)

This is the bevel 2 hours into a 400 grit stone. 
It's going to turn out fine, but it's certainly trying my patience. 
Has anyone ever bought a knife that came out of the box and didn't need to be broken in in some sort of way?


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## Salty dog (Mar 1, 2017)

What are you trying to accomplish?


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## JBroida (Mar 1, 2017)

very few... and its not a question of needing no work... its more a function of how much work is required.


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## jklip13 (Mar 1, 2017)

Salty dog said:


> What are you trying to accomplish?



Just trying to get the entire bevel to be sharpenable and consistent so it doesn't look all scuffed up in front of guests.


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## jklip13 (Mar 1, 2017)

JBroida said:


> very few... and its not a question of needing no work... its more a function of how much work is required.



In the limited number of knives I've sharpened, single bevels from Kato Jr and Sr. have been the best, but they're far from fully flat and consistent.
I guess the extra couple hours would end up translating to a few hundred dollars by the time the customer gets it.


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## labor of love (Mar 1, 2017)

i had a heiji gyuto, maybe 2 where the bevels didn't have spots. That's about it, and I purchased one of those heijis used(former owner may have thinned them out). Pretty normal-perhaps use something faster than a 400
Grit, it should be in your budget if you're buying honyakis


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## jklip13 (Mar 1, 2017)

labor of love said:


> i had a heiji gyuto, maybe 2 where the bevels didn't have spots. That's about it, and I purchased one of those heijis used(former owner may have thinned them out). Pretty normal-perhaps use something faster than a 400
> Grit, it should be in your budget if you're buying honyakis



I don't think I've ever sharpened an unused Heiji, but I've heard good things 
I've got a bunch of of stones coarser than 400, the problem is I can't find any that don't leave a fuzzy halo above the shinogi from the mud.


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## labor of love (Mar 1, 2017)

Sorry, I feel you're pain. I'm currently in the process of wrecking an aroma just to bring a takeda back to life.


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## Oh_Toro (Mar 1, 2017)

Maybe that edge profile was intentional. Could be that the knife was sharpened with a beta togi edge near the tip for maximum sharpness and a hamaguri edge near the heel to chop through things. :lol2:


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## jklip13 (Mar 1, 2017)

Oh_Toro said:


> Maybe that edge profile was intentional. Could be that the knife was sharpened with a beta togi edge near the tip for maximum sharpness and a hamaguri edge near the heel to chop through things. :lol2:



Although it's possible that was the intention, this kind of twist in the bevel is almost always seen because of the distal taper. It would be impossible to have distal taper, a bevel maintaining a consistent angle and a parallel shinogi line to the edge. Who knows though. That's pretty easy to follow with sharpening, it's the low spots under the shinogi that are less intentional and trickier to solve.


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## Badgertooth (Mar 1, 2017)

A Hinoura I owned was about the least in need of correction


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## jklip13 (Mar 1, 2017)

Badgertooth said:


> A Hinoura I owned was about the least in need of correction



I've always wondered about the Hinoura kitaeji Nd river jump, those look like they have pretty good foundations


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## Badgertooth (Mar 1, 2017)

Yeah this is the more entry-level, soft clad, white 2 which is done collaboratively between Jr and Sr and I think someone pointed out when I first got it that he uses a jig of sorts for doing the bevel.


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## Badgertooth (Mar 1, 2017)

TheDispossessed said:


> As for the bevel, I'm pretty sure mutsumi has some kind of machine rig type thing, so those aren't hand ground, not to say that's necessarily a bad thing. Also I could be wrong it's what I heard is all.



From the show your newest knife buy thread


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## v647c (Mar 2, 2017)

Sharpened a Nenohi honyaki once that was ridiculously uneven. All Shig single bevels (5, only actually owned 1 of them) I have sharpened were perfectly smooth. I've worked on some double bevels from "premium" brands, the only one with perfectly even bevels is an Ichimonji Kirameki. I've sharpened 1 Heiji that had only 1 very minor low spot which could be evened on a 1k grit. The 3 konosuke fujiyama I've done had a ridiculous amount of low spots..


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## Salty dog (Mar 2, 2017)

The honyaki yanagi I have has a slightly concave bevel so I don't lay the bevel flat on the stone when I sharpen it. I don't want to f-up the bevel. (About as flat as I can go without the stone touching the top of the bevel.) Although I lay the back flat which is also concave. I don't know what the generally accepted method is. I may be doing it "wrong" but it works for me.


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## labor of love (Mar 2, 2017)

Im left handed, don't even use single bevels for work, but maybe this video could help some.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kA0vdeDDSJI


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## labor of love (Mar 2, 2017)

labor of love said:


> Sorry, I feel you're pain. I'm currently in the process of wrecking an aroma just to bring a takeda back to life.



Atoma-I swear it's spellchecks fault.


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## labor of love (Mar 2, 2017)

labor of love said:


> Im left handed, don't even use single bevels for work, but maybe this video could help some.
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kA0vdeDDSJI



Or maybe not. Good luck flattening out those spots. Maybe bevel blending will help.


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## jklip13 (Mar 3, 2017)

I'm 75% of the way there with regards to geometry one one of the two honyaki I'm working on right now. The hamon is just visible. I'm ironing out the shinogi and it will be time to move to Koma in less than an hour .


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## Badgertooth (Mar 3, 2017)

That looks awesome!


Did you level out your Togo reigou gyuto?


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## jklip13 (Mar 3, 2017)

Badgertooth said:


> That looks awesome!
> 
> 
> Did you level out your Togo reigou gyuto?



Man I wish I had a Togo Reigo gyuto! I have a kiritsuke and a yanagiba that are both fully broken in though


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## valgard (Mar 4, 2017)

That's coming along beautifully Jon.


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## brooksie967 (Mar 4, 2017)

jklip13 said:


> Man I wish I had a Togo Reigo gyuto! I have a kiritsuke and a yanagiba that are both fully broken in though



First world problems.... Jerk lol. 

Jon, great little progression here. Looking forward to seeing you finish a knife. It's been a while (correct me if i'm wrong).


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## jklip13 (Mar 4, 2017)

brooksie967 said:


> First world problems.... Jerk lol.
> 
> Jon, great little progression here. Looking forward to seeing you finish a knife. It's been a while (correct me if i'm wrong).



Yeah it's been forever!


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## zitangy (Mar 7, 2017)

there'e always some work to do and its a Works in progress (WIP) as I do not pay for a mirror polish honyaki. On the Hiromoto yo handle..., its not that hard in terms of high HRC.. but on the Takayuki Gyuto and yanigiba honyaki .... the scratch lines are deep and I only start with either 400 or 600 grit... sandpaper with leather backing and I do not want to weight of knife to change too much...

Also... chasing to improve the hamon line without etching is another story..

Its always improving.....

Oh yes.. I prefer to Ho wood handle as that you can really work on the blade and pop it back again for interim use. Once its all done..will pop in an ebony handle without epoxy but some glue or moulded rubber that will harden after 24 hours ...for ease of removal

hv fun.... Z


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