# Impatience (personal story)



## XooMG (Jan 26, 2017)

Back when I was in talks with a knifemaker about a custom, I offered to send him one of my favorite general-use knives (I sent three others too). It came back to me some months later, and when I took it out of the box, I noticed several wavy spots of plastic deformation along the edge ("ribboning"). Sadly, I have no photos of it.

My first instinct was to accuse, but I had to admit I packed it up and sent it in a relative hurry without sharpening or inspecting it. The last thing I'd cut were some monster sweet potatoes:





_example on right; knife (Dalman prototype) is for scale and not the knife I sent (Wakui gyuto)_

I washed them but apparently not thoroughly enough; I later discovered with another knife (and similarly inadequate washing) that I'd hit hard embedded grit of some sort, which adequately explained the damage. I wanted to take the knife to the stones to level it all out, but I didn't want to risk the original finish (a decent machine finish), so I neglected the knife for a few months.

The other day, I was cutting up some stuff and thought to try the Wakui again. Was a nice experience, so it inspired me to try to reset the edge and give it an acceptable finish. Maybe a nice artsy finish like some folks share here.

When I started, I didn't have my atoma plates, and I still doubt I would use them for initial bevel flattening. Started on 220 grit Naniwa:





In the beginning, I noticed a bit of a low spot in the bevel near the engraving, and a little bit near the belly of the knife. Otherwise, it did not seem very wonky and was not extremely hard to level out. However, the 220 is not the fastest coarse stone, and I did not want to spend hours on it.

_Lazy rationalization: Don't want to remove too much metal in one go; it's probably not that serious and I'll work it out quickly; maybe it should just have a user finish since it is a user knife...._

So after the photo (which looked pretty OK), I returned to the 220 for a few minutes on each side before moving on. Sharpie on the bevel wore off pretty evenly so I was not too worried...but I could have checked better.


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## XooMG (Jan 26, 2017)

I jumped ahead to a JNS 800. I can remember debating with myself whether I should use it, because it has a nasty (or welcome, depending) tendency to hide scratches in a fog of random small scratches. That could obscure the leftover scratches from 220 and give me grief later. But my only "non-fogging" stone near the same speed is a soaker and wasn't soaking at the time.

Another issue with some of these stones is that I get a bit of rust. There are ways to mitigate that, but I did not really feel like it on the first pass, where I really wanted to just remove as much 220 as possible. I went back over each side briefly to clean up the rust, and then took a pic:





Pretty obvious that some rust lingered in my low spot. There was a bit up near the tip too, but that was not due to geometry but my haphazard cleanup.

I could have taken some other abrasives to polish out the fog and better reveal the underlying scratches and the amount of either continued work on 800 (probably a lot) or back to 220/300 (some, but likely not a lot). Nah.

_Rationalization: Already this far and it probably is no big deal. I don't need to go super-scratchless this time around. Maybe the knife will look better with a more spartan finish anyway. I can always go back and redo it next time I thin..._


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## XooMG (Jan 26, 2017)

So I decided to just keep going, rather than spend the time going back and getting the bevel perfect. I could try to polish _into_ the low spot, but figured it would just make more work for me both now and later on.

So now I have it mostly set, and the core is a semi-mirror with some scratches visible, and the cladding is a light mist. I could have cleaned up the core steel and made the mirror more dramatic, but couldn't be bothered on a "user". I think it looks pretty nice:





But if I look rather close, that low spot haunts:





I think the pic is a bit unflattering, if honest. It is tolerable, but I am pretty sure next time I flatten, I'll be a bit more thorough.

...If I can remind myself to be patient enough.


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## panda (Jan 28, 2017)

xoom, i really like the jns 800 finish!


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## pkjames (Jan 28, 2017)

LOVE!


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## Badgertooth (Jan 28, 2017)

Your impatience is virtuous compared to how sloppy I am sometimes. Awesome work as always.


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## XooMG (Jan 28, 2017)

panda said:


> xoom, i really like the jns 800 finish!


I used to think I was going to be happy with it for a nice rough-and-tumble kasumi, but it is much less pleasant in use than I hoped it would be, and attempts to make it cut smoother and rust less aggressively so far have reduced the contrast and revealed scratches.

I personally lean toward a soft fog and not the stormcloud look, but I can appreciate the appeal and ought to find a decent way to achieve a darker finish that cuts well.


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## XooMG (Jan 28, 2017)

Badgertooth said:


> Your impatience is virtuous compared to how sloppy I am sometimes. Awesome work as always.





pkjames said:


> LOVE!


Thanks guys. I may have set the thread up to be awkward to reply to, but it is nice to get encouragement sometimes.


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## preizzo (Jan 28, 2017)

Bravo &#128079;! Nice thread, I loved it! &#128522;


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## Mrmnms (Jan 28, 2017)

Looking at how well this came out, I am compelled to go back and look at a few knives I've done. If you were impatient than I had almost none.


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## zetieum (Jan 29, 2017)

Absolutely stunning. I would love to see how you do that. Based on the 220 grit photo, you process parallel to the knife on the stones?I am just completely amazed.


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## XooMG (Jan 29, 2017)

zetieum said:


> Absolutely stunning. I would love to see how you do that. Based on the 220 grit photo, you process parallel to the knife on the stones?I am just completely amazed.


Thanks. I do some grinding parallel to the edge because it allows me to see how the bevel contacts the long surface of the stone, which can reveal bevel inconsistency a little better than if I use a narrower section. It is a bit slow and unkind to stones when compared to a 45° or whatever angle.

In general I like to do both "standard" and parallel, but I doubt it yields any special benefit for the final result.


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## XooMG (Jan 30, 2017)

panda said:


> xoom, i really like the jns 800 finish!


I do not want to hijack my own thread, but I was playing around with the JNS800 and chased it directly with a white suita and uchigumori. It is not the most refined, but I was able to get it pretty smooth, and it looks pretty good on this old beater Zakuri funayuki of mine:




The darker area near the heel is a reflection, actually.


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## jessf (Jan 30, 2017)

Is the impatients over the existence of the hollow spot?


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## XooMG (Jan 30, 2017)

jessf said:


> Is the impatients over the existence of the hollow spot?


I started the thread with the general theme of impatience, especially as fuel for laziness. It was impatience that led me to cutting an inadequately cleaned ingredient and damaging the knife, impatience that let me send out a knife without inspecting, impatience that delayed my dealing with it, impatience that left the avoidable low spot, impatience that prevented me from reassessing it when a few steps into the polish, and impatience that left me relatively content to leave it until next time.

I think that I am likely not alone in doing some (or all) of these things, and thought maybe the story would help some other hobbyists feel normal.


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## jessf (Jan 31, 2017)

Oh. You should consider slowing down and be more patient.


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## Ivang (Feb 2, 2017)

XooMG said:


> I started the thread with the general theme of impatience, especially as fuel for laziness. It was impatience that led me to cutting an inadequately cleaned ingredient and damaging the knife, impatience that let me send out a knife without inspecting, impatience that delayed my dealing with it, impatience that left the avoidable low spot, impatience that prevented me from reassessing it when a few steps into the polish, and impatience that left me relatively content to leave it until next time.
> 
> I think that I am likely not alone in doing some (or all) of these things, and thought maybe the story would help some other hobbyists feel normal.



It happens to me all the time. I call it lack of discipline, I try to work on it as much as I can, but seldom find the necessary patience to do things right the first time.


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