# Hiromoto AS Sujihiki Thin & Etch



## Dave Martell

These pictures show a Hiro AS suji that's been thinned and etched to bring out the new pattern created during the thinning process through cladding removal. 

The kanji was only lightly stamped on one set and the other was etched in, both disappeared instantly as expected. 

Each Hiro seems to offer up a different result when etched, I never know what I'll get. On this knife the stainless cladding became mottled looking but I got it to be smooth textured. 

The pictures don;t show the knife sharpened, when this happens there will be a very small bevel on the right side and almost no bevel on the left. 

This knife is going to displace food with it's mere presence.


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## tgraypots

I think etching like this is one of the coolest ways to make a knife set apart. I gotta learn how to do this!


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## Iceman91

That looks amazing!


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## Dave Martell

The etching part is easy, it's the before and after that make the difference. Before you have to (in this case) remove material to expose the core but at the least you often need to sand and make it even. After requires some form of finish work be it sanding/buffing/both and maybe even chemical polishing too.


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## Dave Martell

Here's the before, well actually the just as I started grinding, pictures.


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## HHH Knives

Dave, That looks awesome!!


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## tk59

Looks like the cladding made it to the edge on the left side. That could be a problem. Otherwise, looks awesome.


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## obtuse

I want one...


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## Dave Martell

tk59 said:


> Looks like the cladding made it to the edge on the left side. That could be a problem. Otherwise, looks awesome.


 

Yeah I saw that, but that's a factory boo-boo. I considered trying to deal with it but I think that if I removed more on that side I'd have had an issue for sure.


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## tk59

Dave Martell said:


> Yeah I saw that, but that's a factory boo-boo. I considered trying to deal with it but I think that if I removed more on that side I'd have had an issue for sure.



How so? Just curious.


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## Dave Martell

Dave Martell said:


> Yeah I saw that, but that's a factory boo-boo. I considered trying to deal with it but I think that if I removed more on that side I'd have had an issue for sure.


 


tk59 said:


> How so? Just curious.




The left side came almost flat with only the slightest bevel but even so I ground off a good amount of cladding all the way down to the edge bevel nearly disappeared. If I pushed any further at the edge I'm pretty sure I would have blown through it creating that stupid hole we all hate. The edge is just so thin that I don;t think anymore could safely be removed.


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## Zach

that looks awesome! if the group buy hasn't sold out yet, i bet it will now!


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## Eamon Burke

Yeah, that sucks about the cladding, You'd have to shorten the knife and move the profile up to remove it, and God only knows how far up that goes!

Etching is cool. Does it stay though?


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## riverie

great looking etching job Dave, now just wait to see how it slice through things .


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## Dave Martell

johndoughy said:


> Etching is cool. Does it stay though?




Oh yeah it'll stay put for sure although the edge may change in appearance based on how it's used.


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## Dave Martell

riverie said:


> great looking etching job Dave, now just wait to see how it slice through things .




Glad you like it Rio, I hope it serves you well.


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## Daniel Fairly

Great looking knife!


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## DwarvenChef

As you all know these are my favorite knives hands down, Dave you really made that one look great  You may end up having to go with a more centered bevel if that cladding there is at the bevel, save what you can from this knife even if you don't get the near 100/0 bevel. 

I always watch with interest at what your dooing with the Hiromoto AS knives


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## Jim

Nice job on the weight reduction! It seems like a crap shoot what you are going to uncover when you thin these.


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## Dave Martell

Yeah it's true. The cladding on the left side was all over the edge and I ground most of it off of the edge except for that one part that I couldn't get. I can't always fix the problems the factory builds into knives but I try.


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## chefofthefuture

Dave,

All I have to say is how much does it cost and where do I sign up!


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## Dave Martell

chefofthefuture said:


> Dave,
> 
> All I have to say is how much does it cost and where do I sign up!




I love customers like you!


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## chefofthefuture

I have a 300mm Wa-Gyoto that I'm in the process of grinding a kiritsuke tip onto. After I'm done with it, I'll send it by you and let you do some magic to it.


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## Lefty

If "the hole" is a possible concern, how is this knife going to hold up to sharpening? Won't the cladding give out soon and leave a screwed bevel?


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## Dave Martell

chefofthefuture said:


> I have a 300mm Wa-Gyoto that I'm in the process of grinding a kiritsuke tip onto. After I'm done with it, I'll send it by you and let you do some magic to it.




I don't know if you're doing the tip by hand but if you are you could always just mark the blade for the desired look that you want and I could grind that in rest, wouldn't take me any time at all to do it. 

Either way thanks for the incoming thin & etch work.


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## Dave Martell

Lefty said:


> If "the hole" is a possible concern, how is this knife going to hold up to sharpening? Won't the cladding give out soon and leave a screwed bevel?




There's a hole? I didn't see one. 

The issue of the cladding is that it's hanging down low on the left side, down onto the bevel in that one spot, but there's still core steel behind it. The knife has been like this since it was made and hasn't presented a problem so I think it'll be OK.


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## Lefty

I should have written "possible hole". My bad!
Either way, as long as it won't pose a problem, it's all good. I was just wondering if the cladding would be low enough to be where the Aogami core was supposed to be the bevel. In other words, is the low cladding an issue because it might be in place of the Aogami (in the hanging portion), which will effectively be a soft clad bevel segment, or is it another issue?


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## Dave Martell

Yeah sure it could be an issue as the cladding has no edge holding capability but like I said before the knife had even more cladding all down over the edge before I touched it so at least now it's only one little spot so it's probably OK.


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## Lefty

Gotcha! I know you wouldn't do anything that would negatively affect a knife, but I was curious when I read the thread.


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## Mattias504

Sweet


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## TDj

dave - how thin are you getting these guys down to? like, is there a choil shot before and after?


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## riverie

Dave, i got the knife this morning. I know thursday is always a busy day so it's a good time to put it to work for sushi or sashimi. Slicing through tons of raw fish and it slice all of them like a melted butter. I feel it right away the performance of the blade increase significantly because of your thinning. It feels so light yet powerful to do the slice. It's no secret that hiro-AS takes screaming edge, and the best thing is it's only took me like 5 or 10 minutes to bring the edge to that level. The first time i touch the etching i was worried about the dragging effect.... but after i use it, i don't really feel it because the blade is so thin and sharp. For you guys that still undecided about hiro-AS group buy.... just go for it. After Dave thinning job, this knife blows anything on med-price level knife. The etching also make it looks like Bill Burke's cladding although i feel like it's comparing honda with ferrari.














Rio


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## Dave Martell

Nice sharpening job Rio! Looks like it's working out OK for you. I'm actually surprised that the etching didn't cause a problem with the raw fish but happy that's not the case. I did buff the blade lightly to smooth the texture so maybe that helped, who knows? Anyway, it's just good to see it's working for what you want it to do. 

Thanks again for the work!

Dave


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## Dave Martell

TDj said:


> dave - how thin are you getting these guys down to? like, is there a choil shot before and after?


 
I don't have choil shots nor measurements since I never thought to take any. I can tell you that the edge is pushed as thin as I feel comfortable going. The whole blades gets thinned too but most of the work is done 1/2 way down that way I leave the spine thickness as close to stock as possible.


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## Mike Davis

Man Dave, that looks really good! You did a great job with that!


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## TDj

hey dave,
how much would it cost to have you thin and etch a hiromoto that we already have?


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## Dave Martell

TDj said:


> hey dave,
> how much would it cost to have you thin and etch a hiromoto that we already have?




Hi Terry,

Thinning - $65

Etching - $50


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## mr drinky

Dang. Now that I have sent in two of my 240 knives to Dave, I am using my Hiro a lot more, but this looks super sexy. I'm thinking and thunking on this one.

k.


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## memorael

I haven't had a need for a hiro until now... thanks Dave.:dazed:


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## Dave Martell

You guys are incurable! :lol2:


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## jwpark

memorael said:


> I haven't had a need for a hiro until now... thanks Dave.:dazed:


 
Ditto, I'm on the verge of ordering Hiro Suji


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## Dave Martell

I should do another group buy?


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## mr drinky

How about a group etch for past buys??

k.


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## DwarvenChef

The thought of doing that on my Wa Suji (sporting a Stephan handle) would be outragous. But I worry about the way my cladding is on this knife if there may be trouble in the alteration.









This knife has large patches of missing cladding, leading me to think it is rather thin in areas. This is just how my knife was made, nothing that happened to it after I got it. Heck Dave you put the handle on back in the early days lol 

Dave I would love to hear more on the cladding and paterns you have come across working with these knives. They are by far still my favorite production knife out there.


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## echerub

Dave Martell said:


> I should do another group buy?


 
Oh man... I did not see that. I do not need another suji just because the etched one looks so damned frickin' cool!

I don't normally read suji threads because I know sujis aren't really my thing. I figured I'd read this one because, hey, what's the harm? Damn. Thanks, Dave


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## mr drinky

DwarvenChef said:


> Dave I would love to hear more on the cladding and paterns you have come across working with these knives. They are by far still my favorite production knife out there.


 
I agree. My hiro has a pretty boring cladding line (esp on one side). Does boring near the edge usually translate into boring after thinning?

k.


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## Dave Martell

The 240mm gyutos usually come out crazy but then some don't. The sujis seem to be the least likely to give a good pattern of all the Hiros AS's but I'd bet that DC's older suji with thin cladding would look CRAZY if thinned and etched. I really never know what to expect and it's a crapshoot if you ask me.


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## TDj

Dave Martell said:


> You guys are incurable! :lol2:


the crack dealer says to his addicts ... 
dave, you like our disease and you know it ...


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## Dave Martell

TDj said:


> the crack dealer says to his addicts ...
> dave, you like our disease and you know it ...




Yeah I'd be lying if I said otherwise.


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## MadMel

mr drinky said:


> How about a group etch for past buys??
> 
> k.


 
A group thin and etch would be nice haha


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## jwpark

Dave, thinning knives is very dangerous thing 

for my wallet.

Dang, I wish I still had that Moritaka to send to Dave for thinning.


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## Yoni Lang

*adds Hiro AS to mental suji list :happymug:*


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## kalaeb

Might want to add a thinning and etching from Dave while you are thinking about it


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