# Bad angle on sharpening and scraped knife side



## tojiroDP (May 18, 2013)

I am new to sharpening as a whole and have tried being very careful starting out and watching videos online. During one of the first few times experimenting I have managed to scratch the knife face angling too low down. It now looks like there is a 3 inch diameter of darkness along the knife. I was curious if there is any way to buff that out or something I can do to make it show less.. If you need a picture let me know

it is a tojiro dp sharpened on a king 1000/6000


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## Eric (May 18, 2013)

Wet/dry sandpaper and some elbow grease. Starting grit depends on scratches, I usually start around 400 for light scratches in cladding and work up till I'm satisfied. I also use micro mesh at the higher grits. Long strokes parallel to blade, let the paper do the work. Don't move up in grit till a uniform scratch pattern is achieved or the deeper ones will remain. Good luck.


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## The hekler (May 18, 2013)

I'm sure it happens to all of us when we are starting out I know I've done it a few times. Refinishing is fairly easy with wet dry sand paper in various grits, depending how bad the scratches are I'd start at 350-500 and work my way up till I was happy with the finish. Be patient it takes a while and a decent amount of sand paper depending on the hardness and type of steel. Only problem is you might have to sacrifice any printing that is on the blade. I've done it with a 270 stainless gyuto made by Mario with good results but it took a good 3-4 hours while sitting down watching TV. I would not recommend it until your entirely confident with your sharpening abilities. Also note that the higher finish you out on the knife will slightly increase sticktion. Good luck and welcome to the forum.


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## Benuser (May 18, 2013)

Make sure to stay away from the very edge.


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## xuz (May 18, 2013)

Picture please.
I want to see if the scratches are on satin/bead blast/belt sanded/hammer finished/kurouchi finish or on mirror finish.
Former is not perfectly fixable, later is fixable with 40 dollar buffer and some compounds and buffing wheel from harbor freight and the like.


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## Benuser (May 18, 2013)

Won't buffering affect the edge?


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## xuz (May 18, 2013)

Benuser said:


> Won't buffering affect the edge?


In what way? Like roll the edge?

When I re-profile, I go low grit up to about 5k, then buff, then go 8k 12k 20k.
Never felt that it had negative impact.


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## tojiroDP (May 18, 2013)

http://i.imgur.com/M785CRH.jpg

Hopefully the picture is decent enough to see what happed. It already has lines from its original belt grinder going vertical from the blade. Would I have to manually sand vertically along the blade so it blends? Sorry for the lack of knowledge that's why I'm here! Thanks so much for your responses, if I need to put a new picture up let me know


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## tojiroDP (May 18, 2013)

Its in pretty bad shape all around from daily use but I'm referring to the shaded grey part in the middle.


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## Benuser (May 19, 2013)

Heat and rounding could be a problem. 20k with kitchen knives, are you serious?


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## xuz (May 19, 2013)

Loose cloth with diamond spray generates near zero heat.
Green compound on the other hand, produces heat in a hurry.
If that's the case, you can just dip it in the water and wipe on cloth once in a while.

I actually don't like 12k SS, 30k shapton, but love 20k gokumyo.
Gokumyo has this effect that gives the edge really sweet bite, but if you strop with leather, then it can shave beard.
Love that stone.


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## Benuser (May 19, 2013)

That's fine, but the OP has to deal with 1k scratches!


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## xuz (May 19, 2013)

You are right.
We'd need to see a picture of the damage and where it's at.


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## GlassEye (May 19, 2013)

I would just leave the scratches as is for now, and wait to fix it until after the first thinning or when you are comfortable with sharpening and don't think it will happen again. You probably won't want to repeat the sanding process again. 

If you do want to fix it, Eric and The Hekler gave good advice.


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## tojiroDP (May 19, 2013)

Hey guys thanks much for your advice. I've posted the picture twice now but I guess it didn't go through or it has to be approved. I'll check again tomorrow to see if it has updated. 

Again thanks for all the input I really appreciate it.


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## EdipisReks (May 19, 2013)

dude, it's a tool. do you care if your framing hammer has chips taken out of the face?


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## tk59 (May 19, 2013)

Before you try fixing the aesthetics, I'd suggest you work out the kinks in your sharpening. Otherwise, that could be a lot of work wasted. The ugly scratches won't affect performance too much.


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## EdipisReks (May 19, 2013)

xuz said:


> Gokumyo has this effect that gives the edge really sweet bite, but if you strop with leather, then it can shave beard.
> Love that stone.



you can easily shave a beard with a properly sharpened knife finished on a 4k Shapton (probably lower, but that's what i've tried). getting a shaving edge with an 20k is entirely unimpressive.


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## tk59 (May 19, 2013)

I dunno. I haven't had a nice shave from anything finished on 4k. :O


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## EdipisReks (May 19, 2013)

tk59 said:


> I dunno. I haven't had a nice shave from anything finished on 4k. :O



i didn't say it was a nice shave, i only said it should shave a beard, which was the only criteria given.


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## Benuser (May 19, 2013)

tojiroDP said:


> I've posted the picture twice now.


Use an image host as postimage.org and post the link here.


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## xuz (May 19, 2013)

EdipisReks said:


> you can easily shave a beard with a properly sharpened knife finished on a 4k Shapton (probably lower, but that's what i've tried). getting a shaving edge with an 20k is entirely unimpressive.



Having read my own comment, I realize that it was both irrelevant to the topic and unimpressive.
I apologize for the post, I'll try to keep myself in check in the future.
Thanks.

About posting pics, I use tinypic.com myself and it gives you some options afterward so you can just copy and paste the link here.

Regarding scratches, for some times I don't care and some I do.
With free hand, you can always end up with scratches.
For mission critical sharpening, you might consider using a heavy duty tape or painter's tape.
It takes a bit of getting used to, but when it works, it works very well.


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## tojiroDP (May 19, 2013)

http://i.imgur.com/fKnz0Rs.jpg

Im not too worried about the look of the knife as it has a lot of scratches and the blade itself is very sharp, I think it gives it nice character. It was a thought that I came across and figured I would see if there is any way to go about fixing the error I made. If there is a cleaning solution I could use to tone down the dark spots or scratches let me know. Sorry for the bad english I really appreciate everyone's comments.


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