# Thinning a Moritaka & my natural stone collection



## cheflivengood (Sep 19, 2016)

Hey KKF!

Here is the knife that started it all for me, a custom 270mm Moritaka Gyuto. Here is the knife in 2010 brand new:




And here it is before the 6 hours of thinning and finishing that I have done so far, a lot of finish work still needs to be done to make it pretty again. This is the first major thinning that I have done with my left hand as well as my dominate hand, I have been practicing a lot in my restaurant on the cheaper house knives:





My Progression for the thinning:
Aotoma 140 (was pretty worn but still more aggressive than 220)
JKI 220
JKI 400-s

Here is a before and after Choil Shot:





Here is my natural stone collection from left to right:
Hakka LVL 2
hakka LVL 3
Red Aoto
Nakayama Rainbow LVL 4
Suisa Omura (new on JNS)




Suisa Omura - This is a very nice size stone with zero imperfections, really does look synthetic. I got the best results running water over this stone until it stops absorbing water, its VERY thirsty. The polish this stone gives is pretty shinny yet still scratchy and the edge it leaves is very toothy, looks and feels like the Special 800 Diamiond I have from JKI. 




Red Aoto - Like butter, leaves a very smooth finish that is very light on scratches, the contrast isnt the best which is hard to see from pictures. Very Muddy stone, leaves a very toothy edge thats perfect for bulk knife work. Stone has a slight horizontal crack that after a few more flattening should be gone. 





Hakka LVL 2 - This stone is gorgeous and a pleasure to use, BUT after the first time I used it there was a crack that would defiantly be fatal If I kept using it, just a part of the collecting game I guess. I recently had time to rice paper and shellac the sides, 6 layers, and I am currently looking for a base that would be cool enough for how this stone looks and preforms. For this knife this was the best finish as it was soft enough to not scratch the cladding and has great contrast.


----------



## cheflivengood (Sep 19, 2016)

Hakka LVL 3 - This is a harder hakka, but still produces good mud. This stone looks awesome wet and has a nice sulfur smell to it. This stone is TALL and was urushi-ed before I bought it, makes me think there is something ugly happening under there which I am going to investigate soon. This was sourced by Takeda. Slightly scratchy on the cheap cladding Moritaka uses but the core is hazy mirror. From this stone on my left hand started to look worse than my right, more practice!






Nakayama Rainbow LVL4 - Obviously the crown gem in my collection, huge, heavy, beautiful, perfect shape. Once again scratchy on the cheap cladding Moritaka uses but the core is slightly hazy mirror. The edge this leaves is toothy yet push cuts without stropping on news print or leather. I use a nagura with this stone but does produce mud well without. this is the darkest cladding finish and on higher quality cladding steel like Hide brings out an almost shigefusa clouds affect.


----------



## rick_english (Sep 19, 2016)

Fabulous work and great pics, thanks!


----------



## JaVa (Sep 19, 2016)

Very, very nice job!!! 
Poor little (or big) veggies, they'll never now what hit them. :doublethumbsup:


----------



## cheflivengood (Sep 19, 2016)

Thanks Guys


----------



## YG420 (Sep 19, 2016)

Nice job on the thinning and good comparison of the stones! Nice stone collection by the way!


----------

