# Major chef knife regrind "Orion"



## kennyc (Aug 4, 2020)

This is a writeup of a chef knife transformation I am trying - I'm hoping to display some of my improvised equipment/process and also to get some insight on where to take it from here.

I bought it on a whim based on its tall heel height but it is THICK.

An earlier ID-help thread (Western chef knife ID help :)) had no replies so I made the assumption that its not of value as a collectible or original piece. Its perfect for experimentation!

My intention is to thin it out for performance and to use it as a test comparision for various stages of convex/S grinds
Ideally, I would be doing this on a 2X72. But I don't have one 

Starting stats:
~470gm weight
Edge thickness - didn't bother measuring.
1MM thickness: 1.5mm up from edge
2MM thickness: 7.5mm up from edge
Spine: 3MM

Seller's choil shot:








Initial weight loss:
Not trying to make a laser here, just maybe to take it from Chris Farley to Jonah Hill.
I'm no stranger to sharpening/edge finishing but there's just so much to trim down. An initial attempt to grind using backed 120 grit alox was pretty much futile. Material removal is done with a 24 grit wheel on my angle grinder. (Forgot to take a picture of this stage). Lots of pauses are taken to cool the blade and check for high spots.

Marking the high spots:











After the mass of excess material was removed, I swapped to an 80 grit flap wheel to blend the bevel and knock down the high points from the hard wheel.






At end of this stage: Main bevel has been brought up to 2/3 way up from the edge. Original thickness takes over from there all the way up to the spine.


----------



## kennyc (Aug 4, 2020)

Flattening/smoothing:
Equipment: 
4" X ~36" 120 grit aluminum oxide sanding belt, clamped to an old piece of laminate flooring. I essentially treat this as a large sharpening stone surface. 





Make no mistake, this a a messy process - I use oil to keep the dust down and to float away the swarf, but wear the same clothes as when I work on my car since I expect them to get irreparably oil/grit soaked. 

The blade bevel is laid flat on the grinding surface and smoothed with full length heel to tip & back strokes. Once the flap wheel marks are gone, I varied the angle a bit to blend a bit with the blade flat. Bevel angle variation inherent to the hand-grinding process and equipment used resulted in a slight convex, but I understand that this geometry could be beneficial for food release. 

Current stats:
398gm
Edge thickness: .35MM
1MM thickness: 5.5MM from edge
1.5MM thickness: 10.5MM
2.0MM thickness: 17.5MM
2.5MM thickness: 29.5MM









Choil shot:





I think I'll leave it here for now, any further thinning will be incidental to the polishing process. I can always re-grind more later but putting material back on is a challenge I haven't figure out how to solve yet 



My problem - I understand that blending convex surfaces is usually done on a slack belt; I can replicate most of this by varying the blade angle while manually grinding on the static belt, but the finish quality sucks. There's always a visible blend where the primary (convexed) bevel meets the flat - see the bright line 2/3 up from the edge? How else can I blend the bevels to ensure that each line of the scratch pattern is continuous from edge to spine?


----------



## M1k3 (Aug 4, 2020)

Something softish like a rubber mousepad. Good work.


----------

