# the grandiose synth kasumi thread



## inferno

many people want to put on some nice finish on their blades and learn about these things so i thought we might need a polishing/finishing thread for synth stones only.
where people can post their results when using different stones and also discuss which stones are good for what. 

why synth stones only? well, we all have synth stones. and they are usually much cheaper than jnats. and in many cases you might not need an expensive jnat to get a good result.

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i think it would be nice if people posted the steel the blade if made of, such as: carbon/iron clad, carbon/ss clad, ss/ss clad, ceramic/meteorite clad, monos etc. because it will look completely different on all those materials.

and then which stones that was used (and maybe a comment about the stones).

pictures are nice! maybe not 200 of them but like 1 closeup (if possible) and then 1 zoomed out a bit.


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## TB_London

To kick it off here’s a king 800 on a stainless clad Aogami Super blade.
King 800 is a classic starter stone for kasumi finish. 

Loads of contrast but a bit rough looking and not refined in the slightest.


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## jwthaparc

TB_London said:


> To kick it off here’s a king 800 on a stainless clad Aogami Super blade.
> King 800 is a classic starter stone for kasumi finish.
> 
> Loads of contrast but a bit rough looking and not refined in the slightest. View attachment 112529


Looks like it could use a thinning, by the amount of cladding showing.


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## jwthaparc

The knife is iron clad shiro 2

Cerax 320, very rough, even finish with a lot of contrast. 





King 1200. A lot like the 800, it tends to have a few coarse scratches that show up here or there. Otherwise, good for prep to move on to higher grits.


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## stereo.pete

I'm subscribing to this thread! Great idea @inferno !


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## DHunter86

This is from my records, so no photos like those you've requested. It's quite easy to get a nice refined kasumi on the Chosera 800. Don't mind the tip of the kiridashi (it's not fully flat yet).

This is on iron clad White 2 steel. Leaves a bright uniform kasumi with proper pressure and slurry management. Helps that this stone is great for sharpening as well!


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## Matus

I was playing around a bit with my watetsu-clad blue#2 kamisori (the name of the maker escapes me)

JNS800:








Shapton Glass 2k:









JNS 6k






And now for comparison some naturals:

Atagoyama lv 3.0 (surprisingly fine and rather soft stone)


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## TB_London

jwthaparc said:


> Looks like it could use a thinning, by the amount of cladding showing.



It’s forged thin and ground thin, absolutely no need for thinning. Cuts like a charm. Maybe a trick of the light where the king didn’t hit the very edge.


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## TRPV4

I think he’s referring to the lack of exposed core steel


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## inferno

i was trying out some stones on the my kurosaki ss/ss nakiri. this is basically my test bed for stones. but it just wasn't possible to get a good finish on it. 

neither the imanishii 10k nor the cerax 8k turned out good. either stray scratches or just an uneven finish. so now i'm dropping down to low grits and lay down a foundation and then try something in the 2-3-4k range. i have a feeling the ouka will be fairly good. there is no guarantee though with this ss blade. and i'm a fairly impatient person.


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## inferno

here is some pics of the ouka 3k on a yoshikane ss clad skd11 or skd12 (i dont know).
not much contrast to speak of to be honest. no synth will create any good contrast on this one. none that i have tried at least.

then we have the kurosaki r2 ss clad. this one is also notorious for being almost impossible to cram out some contrast from. and as we all can see the ouka is kinda hard to get scratch free. there is always some strays with this one. no matter how careful i am. at least with these 2 blades.

both blades are dry.


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## kevin

Naniwa Pro 400


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## jwthaparc

King 300 finish on iron clad, white 2


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## jwthaparc

Cerax 320 on stainless Damascus cladding.


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## D J

My poor little denka. Finally got the courage to start a little project. The stone is 1000 grit from Watanabe


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## cotedupy

Excellent thread! Here's my effort with a King 1.2k on White 2.

(N.B. - My phone's camera is probably not up to this really. This is a restoration project on an old and rusty Yanagi, and I obviously haven't done the edge yet. And it's only my second or third time doing kasumi, so I'm not much good anyway!)


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## jwthaparc

Here are a few finishes. Most of my synthetic stones pretty much. I needed to do some work on my kiridashi, so I thought why not document it. 

King 300





Cerax 320





Chosera 800





King 1200 




King 4000





Kitayama 8000





And finally just for comparison uchigumori


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## cotedupy

jwthaparc said:


> Here are a few finishes. Most of my synthetic stones pretty much. I needed to do some work on my kiridashi, so I thought why not document it.
> 
> King 300
> View attachment 113520
> 
> 
> Cerax 320
> View attachment 113521
> 
> 
> Chosera 800
> View attachment 113522
> 
> 
> King 1200 View attachment 113523
> 
> 
> King 4000
> View attachment 113524
> 
> 
> Kitayama 8000
> View attachment 113525
> 
> 
> And finally just for comparison uchigumori
> View attachment 113526



Is that one of the Okeya kiridashi? If so - I think I just got the same delivered today


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## jwthaparc

cotedupy said:


> Is that one of the Okeya kiridashi? If so - I think I just got the same delivered today


No I should have bought one of his. This one isn't bad though its something I bought on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PK9TTMT?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share


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## LazerTornado

I rubbed a Tojiro on a Cerax 600 for a long time (but also not long enough). Still couldn't tell you why.


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## osakajoe

The sigma select 400 build a nice slur and gives a nice cloudy contrast. Sorry don’t have pictures at the moment.


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## Checkpure

My results off of NP 400.


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## XooMG

Cerax 3000


Naniwa SS5K (glossy edge steel)


Artificial suita 5-6k (a little less glossy):


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## kevin

Morihei 1000


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## inferno

here is an attempt with the 8k cerax. tried working up mud on the stone with only the blade, tried diamond slurry, tried naniwa nagura slurry, tried cerax nagura slurry etc. and this is the best i can get it. not much contrast and no way of getting rid of the silver scratches.


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## Knife2meatu

Shapton Pro 1k > Green Brick 2k > Superstone 10k


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## MowgFace

Knife2meatu said:


> Shapton Pro 1k > Green Brick 2k > Superstone 10k



I have grown to HATE the green brick‘s finish the more I use it. Yours looks so good! Do you attribute the finish more to the superstone, or are you able to get Kasumi from it? What’s the secret???


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## Knife2meatu

@MowgFace

The middle picture is after the 2k brick -- maybe there's some kasumi happening there? If so, it's from the GBoJ. I'm actually not sure what _kasumi_ denotes exactly, if I'm being honest...

The quality of the finish results from using the GBoJ muddy, most likely.

The Chosera cleaning nagura works particularly nicely to raise mud from the Green Brick, incidentally.


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## adrianopedro

Naniwa Sakaiden Waitoishi 1000


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## inferno

XooMG said:


> Cerax 3000
> 
> 
> Naniwa SS5K (glossy edge steel)
> 
> 
> Artificial suita 5-6k (a little less glossy):




i dunked my ouka last night to see if a long soak will make it less scratchy. it seemed to work on the 8k cerax at least.


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## jwthaparc

inferno said:


> here is an attempt with the 8k cerax. tried working up mud on the stone with only the blade, tried diamond slurry, tried naniwa nagura slurry, tried cerax nagura slurry etc. and this is the best i can get it. not much contrast and no way of getting rid of the silver scratches.
> 
> View attachment 114926
> 
> 
> View attachment 114927


I run into that problem a lot of times with my king 4000, and kitayama 8000. So frustrating.


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## inferno

ok guys i found a synth i really like. the suehiro traditional green g8. 8k silicon carbide!

its smoother than the cerax 8k. and it does not leave any scratches. no ****! it feels a bit less "bitey" when sharpening stuff though.
medium/low muddiness, but it does release a bit quite quickly. hard feeling stone.

so the first pics are of a carbon blade. and you can see scratches in the finish, but those are from the 8k cerax, i just didn't work the blade long enough on the stone to remove them. on the SS blade you can see the scratch free finish. well as scratch free as its going to get anyway.

the pics are cool but in reality it produces and even better finish! really hard to capture especially hand held in available light. its a very fine haze on the edge. almost like a jnat. and yet has a polished deep dark cladding on carbon/iron.

all dry.


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## Pie

Second ever attempt at polishing.. confirmed that I have a looooot to learn. Naniwa Pro 400


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## jwthaparc

Pie said:


> Second ever attempt at polishing.. confirmed that I have a looooot to learn. Naniwa Pro 400


Dont we all?


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## Pie

1k Naniwa pro. Who would have thought consistent pressure = consistent results


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## jwthaparc

I messed around with a couple of my new stones. The shapton 1k, and the rika 5k. I thought I would show some pictures, along with some comparisons.

Shapton 1k, it's a bit on the coarse side. A bit unforgiving for polishing, very easy to leave a streaky finish. 





King 1.2k, more even and just a bit finer. 





Rika 5k, the picture looks a lot better than in real life, it leaves a bunch of ugly scratches. I'm new to this stone, so there could be a trick to it. 





Kitayama 8k. I feel like the picture is a fairly good representation of how it looks in real life. There are small scratches, though they are fairly uniform.


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## tcmx3

while Im looking at synths, does anyone have an opinion on what the best/their favorite synth for pre-polish work is? Im guessing it'll be a bit softer/muddier such that it'd do a very consistent finish, but Im open to suggestions. normally for this job I'd use an aizu but Ive been inspired by @inferno here and want to try either the morihei karasu or that suehiro so I might as well chuck another stone in there.

that morihei 1000 looks impressive fwiw


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## GorillaGrunt

I haven’t used the ones marketed specifically as synthetic alternatives to naturals, jinzo Aoto, Gesshin synthetic natural, etc. and maybe the korin ones I think I remember? But id love to see what those do.

I feel a bit silly that it took me long to figure this out, but all the Gesshin stones I’ve tried leave great contrast for synths. S&g 320, 400 soaker, Maido 2000, s&g 3000 ... which now I’m realizing is kind of a duh because Jon is a polisher and custom specs his stones.


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## Pie

It’s getting... slightly better. On one side only, the other side is another story





Mazaki white #2 iron(?) clad I believe. Results from kitayama 8k again.

the tip and heel are killing me, can’t seem to get good contact on the convexed part at the tip of the knife








The little scratches from the kitayama are kinda bugging me. Dead even off Naniwa pro 1k but not quite soft/smooth enough.


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## jwthaparc

tcmx3 said:


> while Im looking at synths, does anyone have an opinion on what the best/their favorite synth for pre-polish work is? Im guessing it'll be a bit softer/muddier such that it'd do a very consistent finish, but Im open to suggestions. normally for this job I'd use an aizu but Ive been inspired by @inferno here and want to try either the morihei karasu or that suehiro so I might as well chuck another stone in there.
> 
> that morihei 1000 looks impressive fwiw


Yeah go soft. Really it doesn't even have to be a completely uniform finish for prepolishing in my experience, the most important thing is you get out the scratches from the coarser grits, and leave tiny scratches that are easily polished out. So in my eyes something that doesn't want to leave a super consistent finish (at least in looks) but works quickly like the shapton 1k is just fine.


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## jwthaparc

Pie said:


> It’s getting... slightly better. On one side only, the other side is another story
> View attachment 122377
> 
> 
> Mazaki white #2 iron(?) clad I believe. Results from kitayama 8k again.
> 
> the tip and heel are killing me, can’t seem to get good contact on the convexed part at the tip of the knife
> 
> View attachment 122375
> View attachment 122376
> 
> The little scratches from the kitayama are kinda bugging me. Dead even off Naniwa pro 1k but not quite soft/smooth enough.


Yeah I know that feeling. In my experience the kitayama likes to scratch if you don't keep it very wet. I think the grit starts to conglomerate when you get a thick slurry leaving deeper scratches on some parts.


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## tcmx3

jwthaparc said:


> Yeah go soft. Really it doesn't even have to be a completely uniform finish for prepolishing in my experience, the most important thing is you get out the scratches from the coarser grits, and leave tiny scratches that are easily polished out. So in my eyes something that doesn't want to leave a super consistent finish (at least in looks) but works quickly like the shapton 1k is just fine.



ah, fair enough. 

I actually just had a Cerax 1000 and Naniwa 3000 show up today and that really fills out my synths. Im hoping these can give me a bit more grunt to get to final polish.


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## jwthaparc

tcmx3 said:


> ah, fair enough.
> 
> I actually just had a Cerax 1000 and Naniwa 3000 show up today and that really fills out my synths. Im hoping these can give me a bit more grunt to get to final polish.


Both should be fantastic for that I think.


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## Pie

jwthaparc said:


> Yeah I know that feeling. In my experience the kitayama likes to scratch if you don't keep it very wet. I think the grit starts to conglomerate when you get a thick slurry leaving deeper scratches on some parts.



 I was working with some super heavy slurry (on top of being lazy and not lapping first) and hearing a lot of chattering once the mud came up. Will continue to work. I love the complexity and little nuances that make this stone tick. Keeps me up at night sometimes, but damn is it ever fun.




tcmx3 said:


> while Im looking at synths, does anyone have an opinion on what the best/their favorite synth for pre-polish work is? Im guessing it'll be a bit softer/muddier such that it'd do a very consistent finish, but Im open to suggestions. normally for this job I'd use an aizu but Ive been inspired by @inferno here and want to try either the morihei karasu or that suehiro so I might as well chuck another stone in there.
> 
> that morihei 1000 looks impressive fwiw



NP1k gave me the most uniform smooth mud (lots of it) and therefore Kasumi, yet, 3k not so much (due to complete noob status I believe). From there I move to SS5 and 12k or 8k for just the core steel. I found anything higher than 1k starts to chatter and get kind of sticky. Probably due to technique as well.


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## esoo

Since I'm nowhere near good enough to follow the convex on the blade, I did this (taken as an idea from something similar from Tosho's Instagram).

King 250/1K combi stone + 325 grit diamond plate + a bunch of dry rubbing equaled a pile of 1K dust on a piece of parchment paper. Wet the blade and a 4K Micromesh pad with Windex. Go to town on the blade with heel to tip strokes.

Not too bad if I do say so myself. I probably should've started with 250 powder to take out the factory scratches, but quite pleased with the result. 






The back side where I was running out of the stone powder (edit to add - I'm a lefty - this is the back side to me):





Total time was 40 minutes. Lot better than anything I tried with sandpaper.


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## Bigbbaillie

Shapton pro 2k -> morihei 4k
Also could acheive comparable finish with Chosera 3k on TF stainless.
Was able to get a really bright finish on core albeit with a few visible scratches.


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## Qapla'

Moderators, please delete.


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## inferno

tcmx3 said:


> ah, fair enough.
> 
> I actually just had a Cerax 1000 and Naniwa 3000 show up today and that really fills out my synths. Im hoping these can give me a bit more grunt to get to final polish.



should have gotten a shapton 1k and a suehiro 3k imo  those are some kick ass kasumi stones imo


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## tcmx3

inferno said:


> should have gotten a shapton 1k and a suehiro 3k imo  those are some kick ass kasumi stones imo



 I was really impressed with the results people got with the Naniwa as a pre-polisher, and I just chucked the Cerax in my cart since the vendor had it

if my primary goal was final polish I would have gone with one of the two finishers you suggested, which are on my list, but I already have a bazillion naturals, so this made more sense as the first thing to grab.


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## Pie

Barely qualifies/bad picture . Kitayama 8k on Takeda NAS. Contrast isn’t great, cladding is pretty light, subtle fogginess. Fingerprints 100% gone.


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## kidsos

King 300, Tanaka toishi 1000 and Kitayama 6000 on munetoshi petty


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## 4phantom

Finally, after struggling with the NP 1k for so long have managed to get a decent/uniform polish off it!


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## Knife2meatu

tcmx3 said:


> I was really impressed with the results people got with the Naniwa as a pre-polisher, and I just chucked the Cerax in my cart since the vendor had it
> 
> if my primary goal was final polish I would have gone with one of the two finishers you suggested, which are on my list, but I already have a bazillion naturals, so this made more sense as the first thing to grab.



I feel the Cerax 1k is _at least _the equal of the Shapton Kuromaku 1k for cloudy cladding; I really wouldn't worry about that aspect. The Suehiro does form excessive mud to my liking with soft steel however, compared to the Shapton. I'd just use it until things fall into place, and not regret the choice one iota.


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## tcmx3

Knife2meatu said:


> I feel the Cerax 1k is _at least _the equal of the Shapton Kuromaku 1k for cloudy cladding; I really wouldn't worry about that aspect. The Suehiro does form excessive mud to my liking with soft steel however, compared to the Shapton. I'd just use it until things fall into place, and not regret the choice one iota.



Ive enjoyed both stones, fwiw. Still, my true love is jnats, so I dont forsee buying other synths at those grits until I need replacements. I do really like 1k for synths though it has made bridging to my naturals a bit easier.


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## tostadas

esoo said:


> Since I'm nowhere near good enough to follow the convex on the blade, I did this (taken as an idea from something similar from Tosho's Instagram).
> 
> King 250/1K combi stone + 325 grit diamond plate + a bunch of dry rubbing equaled a pile of 1K dust on a piece of parchment paper. Wet the blade and a 4K Micromesh pad with Windex. Go to town on the blade with heel to tip strokes.
> 
> Not too bad if I do say so myself. I probably should've started with 250 powder to take out the factory scratches, but quite pleased with the result.
> 
> View attachment 122470
> 
> 
> The back side where I was running out of the stone powder (edit to add - I'm a lefty - this is the back side to me):
> View attachment 122471
> 
> 
> Total time was 40 minutes. Lot better than anything I tried with sandpaper.


How much powder did you use?


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## inferno

Knife2meatu said:


> I feel the Cerax 1k is _at least _the equal of the Shapton Kuromaku 1k for cloudy cladding; I really wouldn't worry about that aspect. The Suehiro does form excessive mud to my liking with soft steel however, compared to the Shapton. I'd just use it until things fall into place, and not regret the choice one iota.



i dont have the 1k cerax but i did have the ouka and the 8k cerax. and there is always these stray scratches you can't get rid off. the shapton pro 1k actually produces a completely even scratch free finish for me. but its a very coarse finish, too coarse for me. at 3-4k i feel its starting to become good/usable.


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## esoo

tostadas said:


> How much powder did you use?



Hard to say ultimately, as I was grinding it off the stone, and just figured "that was enough". I'd guess at a teaspoon per side. The hardest part was grinding to get the powder. The actually result was easy to get.


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## Knife2meatu

inferno said:


> i dont have the 1k cerax but i did have the ouka and the 8k cerax. and there is always these stray scratches you can't get rid off. the shapton pro 1k actually produces a completely even scratch free finish for me. but its a very coarse finish, too coarse for me. at 3-4k i feel its starting to become good/usable.


That seems at odds with my own experience: I find the Shapton produces that kind of scratches -- you can just look at the picture I took earlier in this thread -- whereas the Cerax 1k has more of the even, 'bead blasted' look, closer to that produced by something like a King Deluxe.

As for the 3k Ouka, I haven't tried that one. But I know I've gotten virtually scratch free results off the 8k Cerax, although I've also sometimes been unable to pull it off, and gotten some amount of fine scratches.

I suspect the bright scratches are only sometimes due to the stones themselves; other times, I believe it may be contamination, either from flattening, cleaning, or just swarf from the blade itself.

I need a microscope, damnit ;p


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## zizirex

Morihei Hi 12000













I'll try to clean up better between the progression next time to remove the deeper scratch.


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## 4phantom

Your browser is not able to display this video.


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## 4phantom

^ From a naniwa pro 1k -> naniwa pro 3k. Not perfect and it needs a bit more time but it's progress


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## Pie

4phantom said:


> View attachment 127188


Looks nice and even! I haven’t gotten such good results off the 3k just yet.


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## inferno

zizirex said:


> Morihei Hi 12000
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'll try to clean up better between the progression next time to remove the deeper scratch.



i have the 12k too. and here in my hands it produces a much lower contrast than the 9k and also the green Sic 8k suehiro. 
but i think its kinda coo, anyway. need to use it more.


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## zizirex

inferno said:


> i have the 12k too. and here in my hands it produces a much lower contrast than the 9k and also the green Sic 8k suehiro.
> but i think its kinda coo, anyway. need to use it more.


This is stainless clad, so I haven't tried it on iron clad. I use lighter pressure on 9k and 12k.


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## Pie

My goodness polishing convex bevels is a challenge. Low spots galore and deep grind marks still have to come out. The kasumi is pretty patchy and over polished(?) near the tip - do I have to go back down to a lower stone to foggy it up again?

White #2 Iron clad - NP1k > NP3k > Kitayama 8K + some super stone polish. SS5K is a mirror polish demon apparently. 

Much less scratchy bevel face now means I’m a temporarily happy camper.


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## GBT-Splint

Sakai Takayuki Ktip yanagi in Yasuki White #1 'Shiro-Ichi' steel.

Stones progression was these four: 
JNS 300 (I love it for a kasumi starter)
The thin one is Japanese knife company 1000. It was a dual 1000/6000 before an accident. It is a muddy stone.
JNS Red aoto
Kitayama 8K

I'm working on my polishing skills but I'm fairly happy with this result, I miss something for a shinier edge.. maybe more time on kitayama

I'll follow this thread closely.


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## Pie

GBT-Splint said:


> Sakai Takayuki Ktip yanagi in Yasuki White #1 'Shiro-Ichi' steel.
> 
> Stones progression was these four:
> JNS 300 (I love it for a kasumi starter)
> The thin one is Japanese knife company 1000. It was a dual 1000/6000 before an accident. It is a muddy stone.
> JNS Red aoto
> Kitayama 8K
> 
> I'm working on my polishing skills but I'm fairly happy with this result, I miss something for a shinier edge.. maybe more time on kitayama
> 
> I'll follow this thread closely.
> 
> View attachment 128926
> View attachment 128927


Looks amazing! I noticed the kitayama will leave a scratch pattern in slightly softer w2, if you have access to Naniwa super stone, 5k > 12k only on the core steel can provide perfect mirror


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## zizirex

update on Morihei 12k.

All Syntethic Progress, Cerax 320> King Hyper 1k> Arashiyama 1k> Shapton Pro 2k> Morihei Hi 6k> Morihei Hi 12K


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## GBT-Splint

Pie said:


> Looks amazing! I noticed the kitayama will leave a scratch pattern in slightly softer w2, if you have access to Naniwa super stone, 5k > 12k only on the core steel can provide perfect mirror


thanks! I don't have these two naniwas I stopped at the 3K which I love but I have yet to try it on a single bevel, I've been trying only muddy stone progression for a start.


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## jwthaparc

King hyper 1k soft. 

Some minor streaks that I've come to expect from my 1.2k deluxe, though to a lesser extent on this stone. 

Off topic, I've been noticing less and less contrast on my knife lately. What the heck is going on?? Is it me? Have I been slowly loosing the (little) ability I had to polish? Or is it the knife? It seems like its somehow this knife is showing less and less difference between the jigane and hagane. Idk


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## jwthaparc

This time on vg10. Again, minor steaks. Would be a great transition stone. Cuts fast, the finish is even enough.


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## SolidSnake03

Glad you liking the King Hyper 1k Soft, wonderful stone for setting up a progression and sets a great base for follow up polishing. I follow with the Morihei stuff and it's nice from there.


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## mrmoves92

Here is my second or third time trying to polish. The knife is blue #2 with iron cladding, and it is dry in the pictures. Here are the stones that I used to polish: Gesshin 220 pink brick -> Shapton Glass 500 -> Suehiro Cerax 1000. I tried using my Suehiro Rika 5k, but it started making it uglier, so I went back to the Cerax 1k. Maybe I needed to spend more time removing lower grit scratches before trying the Rika 5k. The streaks that are visible on the close up shots are from the towel that I dried the knife with. Please excuse the messy house.


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## ModRQC

Quick full kasumi test using Cerax 320 - Ouka on SS Clad:


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## tostadas

ModRQC said:


> Quick full kasumi test using Cerax 320 - Ouka on SS Clad:
> 
> View attachment 134380
> View attachment 134381
> View attachment 134382
> View attachment 134383


Did you sand off all the tsuchime?


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## ModRQC

Full Kasumi. Stones. Various iterations/geometry transformation led there. But half was already gone after the first thinning/convexing. Went for full kasumi second time around.


From...





To...


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## captaincaed

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried the gesshin 4k stone for kasumi? I’m pretty interested in the edges, and was wondering if it would do a decent “working finish” on a wide bevel.

Cool thread to lurk on, thanks!


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## EricEricEric

Shapton pro 2000 does this really well. It’s incredibly annoying when you’re trying to polish out scratches, because it hides all of the scratches so well you can’t see them until later progressions where it’s too late


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## EricEricEric

zizirex said:


> update on Morihei 12k.
> 
> All Syntethic Progress, Cerax 320> King Hyper 1k> Arashiyama 1k> Shapton Pro 2k> Morihei Hi 6k> Morihei Hi 12K



Do the last two stones have natural stone powder integrated into them?

they did a great job


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## zizirex

EricEricEric said:


> Do the last two stones have natural stone powder integrated into them?
> 
> they did a great job


for sure. they advertise it a closest thing to natural stones finish


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## EricEricEric

zizirex said:


> for sure. they advertise it a closest thing to natural stones finish



It definitely worked, I might buy those and replace my shapton


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## jwthaparc

A couple of oil stone kasumi finishes. 

Coarse india





Fine india


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## captaincaed

Gesshin synthetic natural on a Kochi Kurouchi. Oiled in this picture, contrast is less distinct when dry.
220 pink brick > SG500 > cheap aoto > GSN


----------



## memorael

I see a lot of mistakes in the polishing process in this post. Most of them come from leaving scratches from rougher stones and not understanding how to polish a knife. Unidirectional polishing will yield bad results.


----------



## captaincaed

Cool


----------



## zizirex

Morihei Hi 6K. On this Munetoshi Butcher


----------



## JDC

captaincaed said:


> Out of curiosity, has anyone tried the gesshin 4k stone for kasumi? I’m pretty interested in the edges, and was wondering if it would do a decent “working finish” on a wide bevel.
> 
> Cool thread to lurk on, thanks!


Gessin 4k will give you a bright and scratched up finish, and you need to go back to 600 or lower to fix that. But the feedback is very good.


----------



## captaincaed

JDC said:


> Gessin 4k will give you a bright and scratched up finish, and you need to go back to 600 or lower to fix that. But the feedback is very good.


Yikes! OK thank you kindly! Sounds like edges only...


----------



## jwthaparc

jwthaparc said:


> I messed around with a couple of my new stones. The shapton 1k, and the rika 5k. I thought I would show some pictures, along with some comparisons.
> 
> Shapton 1k, it's a bit on the coarse side. A bit unforgiving for polishing, very easy to leave a streaky finish.
> View attachment 120946
> 
> 
> King 1.2k, more even and just a bit finer.
> View attachment 120947
> 
> 
> Rika 5k, the picture looks a lot better than in real life, it leaves a bunch of ugly scratches. I'm new to this stone, so there could be a trick to it.
> View attachment 120948
> 
> 
> Kitayama 8k. I feel like the picture is a fairly good representation of how it looks in real life. There are small scratches, though they are fairly uniform.
> View attachment 120949


Wow my kitayama looked that big back in April?! 

This is it now.


----------



## adrianopedro

Naniwa Sakaiden Waitoishi 1000 finish


----------



## Hz_zzzzzz

memorael said:


> I see a lot of mistakes in the polishing process in this post. Most of them come from leaving scratches from rougher stones and not understanding how to polish a knife. Unidirectional polishing will yield bad results.


Can you elaborate a little bit? I’m learning this and any knowledge would be appreciated.


----------



## memorael

Hz_zzzzzz said:


> Can you elaborate a little bit? I’m learning this and any knowledge would be appreciated.


Sure, see the thing is, if you polish your knife in the same direction (meaning using the same strokes all the time) the lower grit grooves after a while tend to form channels where the new abrasive compound run through and so the lower grit scratches don't get abraded. There's ways around this, usually it involves using higher grit stones and then going down again and then up again until the scratches are gone... takes forever. If you polish in one direction say this one -> \ then when you use a higher grit stone change the direction in order to reveal those hidden scratches and cut across them... I don't know if that makes sense? So if your knife is say perpendicular to your stone try doing parallel motions with the next stone. This has some diminishing returns, after a while going from like 5k to say 8k this doesn't make that much of a difference but when using something really course then using a 1k you will notice the effect. Also I would say around 3k to 5k is where the whole direction thing really makes a difference. If you do this correctly once you get to your highest grit or finishing stone you shouldn't see any and I DO MEAN ANY!!!! scratches that aren't all in the same direction and they should be even, meaning the all look the same.

Some abrasives like Japanese naturals cut differently than synthetic stones which is why some polishers only use synthetics up to 1k or 2k. As I understand it, lower grit naturals are basically sandstones with quartz or silica abrasives that are inferior to synthetics but once you get to AOTO levels, the stones abrasive is microscopic plankton and what not the basically turned into some abrasive that I can't recall.... Could be silica too, but the shape of the abrasive is potato chip formed and so when it cuts the steel it basically slices a thick groove that is very shallow, this is why Japanese Naturals don't mirror polish (I know there are exceptions and I mean mirror polish in like clearly mirror polish think naniwa 10k clear) you do get a clear reflection but it is almost always hazy or cloudy. In essence if you want to get the best polish and a clear contrast use synthetics only up to 1k or 2k and then a good Japanese aoto and nothing other than Japanese naturals for a classical Japanese polish. I however have messed around with other stone and stuff and you basically just go through the aoto take a while getting a nice even surface ready to get polished even further and boom, you use another sharp abrasive and in come the grooves again. Nothing wrong with it but its not the classical Japanese polish most people try to achieve.


----------



## Hz_zzzzzz

memorael said:


> Sure, see the thing is, if you polish your knife in the same direction (meaning using the same strokes all the time) the lower grit grooves after a while tend to form channels where the new abrasive compound run through and so the lower grit scratches don't get abraded. There's ways around this, usually it involves using higher grit stones and then going down again and then up again until the scratches are gone... takes forever. If you polish in one direction say this one -> \ then when you use a higher grit stone change the direction in order to reveal those hidden scratches and cut across them... I don't know if that makes sense? So if your knife is say perpendicular to your stone try doing parallel motions with the next stone. This has some diminishing returns, after a while going from like 5k to say 8k this doesn't make that much of a difference but when using something really course then using a 1k you will notice the effect. Also I would say around 3k to 5k is where the whole direction thing really makes a difference. If you do this correctly once you get to your highest grit or finishing stone you shouldn't see any and I DO MEAN ANY!!!! scratches that aren't all in the same direction and they should be even, meaning the all look the same.
> 
> Some abrasives like Japanese naturals cut differently than synthetic stones which is why some polishers only use synthetics up to 1k or 2k. As I understand it, lower grit naturals are basically sandstones with quartz or silica abrasives that are inferior to synthetics but once you get to AOTO levels, the stones abrasive is microscopic plankton and what not the basically turned into some abrasive that I can't recall.... Could be silica too, but the shape of the abrasive is potato chip formed and so when it cuts the steel it basically slices a thick groove that is very shallow, this is why Japanese Naturals don't mirror polish (I know there are exceptions and I mean mirror polish in like clearly mirror polish think naniwa 10k clear) you do get a clear reflection but it is almost always hazy or cloudy. In essence if you want to get the best polish and a clear contrast use synthetics only up to 1k or 2k and then a good Japanese aoto and nothing other than Japanese naturals for a classical Japanese polish. I however have messed around with other stone and stuff and you basically just go through the aoto take a while getting a nice even surface ready to get polished even further and boom, you use another sharp abrasive and in come the grooves again. Nothing wrong with it but its not the classical Japanese polish most people try to achieve.


Thanks. Basically we need to change direction to completely remove lower grit scratches, and switch to Jnat after maybe 2k for more scratch-less result. Makes a lot sense to me.


----------



## jwthaparc

I hope these two pictures prove my point. 

Just because there are deeper scratches, it doesn't mean the person didn't remove scratches from lower grits. Some stones leave deeper scratches along with finer ones. I wanted to clearly show this. 

These are going along the edge, left by my king 300. You can clearly see they are all running that way. 






Then we have my chosera 800. The scratches here are going perpendicular to the ones of the king 300, and you can see the king 300 scratches have been erased. 





My point is, there is a good chance what you're seeing isn't people leaving scratches behind from lower grits. Some synthetic stones tend to leave deeper scratches. Which is kind of the point of this thread. To find synthetic stones that are good for kasumi finishes, and avoid ones that leave ugly scratches.


----------



## JDC

Shapton 30k glass leaves deep scratches like 1k~2k. Not as many but they ruin the polish.


----------



## memorael

jwthaparc said:


> I hope these two pictures prove my point.
> 
> Just because there are deeper scratches, it doesn't mean the person didn't remove scratches from lower grits. Some stones leave deeper scratches along with finer ones. I wanted to clearly show this.
> 
> These are going along the edge, left by my king 300. You can clearly see they are all running that way.
> View attachment 140419
> 
> 
> Then we have my chosera 800. The scratches here are going perpendicular to the ones of the king 300, and you can see the king 300 scratches have been erased.
> View attachment 140420
> 
> 
> My point is, there is a good chance what you're seeing isn't people leaving scratches behind from lower grits. Some synthetic stones tend to leave deeper scratches. Which is kind of the point of this thread. To find synthetic stones that are good for kasumi finishes, and avoid ones that leave ugly scratches.


I can see the scratches left behind from the king 300 running in the other direction, this isn't easy stuff too do and it takes a long time to practice. I would suggest you jump to a really fine stone on this exact knife and polish lightly, just enough to see what is going on, you should clear up enough to see theres still scratches going in both directions. 
I mean no disrespect, if anything comes across as it, I assure you it isn't, just got on the forums again after like a 10 year hiatus don't want to start beef with no one.


----------



## memorael

Hz_zzzzzz said:


> Thanks. Basically we need to change direction to completely remove lower grit scratches, and switch to Jnat after maybe 2k for more scratch-less result. Makes a lot sense to me.


There's that and also, use a higher grit polish to reveal the lower grit scratches, think like maybe 10 passes or something to the liking of that, if you polish to much you can run the risk of making the scratches harder to see. 
One other thing I forgot to mention, if you use stones that load up or fail to keep them clear the steel bring removed will scratch the knife too so... yeah... there's that to take into the equation too.


----------



## jwthaparc

Ummm. What are you talking about??? Here I even went and dug out my macro lens to prove my point. 

Here's another picture of it. 





Here it is with the macro on. Tell me where you see scratches from the king 300?





Now there are various little scratches and even a small chip on it now because I threw it in this container, because I only use it as a utility knife. But I dont see any king 300 scratches.


----------



## jwthaparc

I spent a couple seconds on the stone just to get rid of the random scratches from being in the box to show it.


----------



## memorael

jwthaparc said:


> I spent a couple seconds on the stone just to get rid of the random scratches from being in the box to show it.
> 
> View attachment 140623


Well... there's two things going on right here. The first one and more important one, AS I MENTIONED in my first post, changing the direction removes the older scratches better than keeping the same direction going. The first pic in your post where you are proving MY POINT the scratches are going in the direction parallel to the edge. On the second pic the scratches are clearly going about 45 to 60 degrees from the edge.

The second one, I can clearly see you used another stone to re sharpen the knife, the finish is obviously better and not only that but it seems you used an aoto stone, unless I am wrong, the picture you took of the knife is on top of a stone that looks like one. Whatever it is it is clearly a higher grit finish. Also I can still see theres a scratch pattern going in the opposite direction once again proving my point, up on the left side of the knife there's a lot of dots instead of scratches. EXACTLY what you would see if you form an X scratch pattern.

If your looking for a fight or whatever I'm game, just make sure your prepared to loose.

Here are your pics with the obvious king 300 scratches.


----------



## jwthaparc

memorael said:


> Well... there's two things going on right here. The first one and more important one, AS I MENTIONED in my first post, changing the direction removes the older scratches better than keeping the same direction going. The first pic in your post where you are proving MY POINT the scratches are going in the direction parallel to the edge. On the second pic the scratches are clearly going about 45 to 60 degrees from the edge.
> 
> The second one, I can clearly see you used another stone to re sharpen the knife, the finish is obviously better and not only that but it seems you used an aoto stone, unless I am wrong, the picture you took of the knife is on top of a stone that looks like one. Whatever it is it is clearly a higher grit finish. Also I can still see theres a scratch pattern going in the opposite direction once again proving my point, up on the left side of the knife there's a lot of dots instead of scratches. EXACTLY what you would see if you form an X scratch pattern.
> 
> If your looking for a fight or whatever I'm game, just make sure your prepared to loose.
> 
> Here are your pics with the obvious king 300 scratches.


The stone it was sitting on top of is a venev 240 I was currently using to flatten the back of a plane blade when I dug the kiridashi out of that tub it had been rattling around in. The only aoto I have is super scratchy and would leave a really ****** finish. The only scratches going parallel to the edge on it are from it literally being bumping and scraping against hardened steel. If you look closely you can even see a chip at the edge that wasn't there too. That's why I spent about 10 seconds on the chosera for the final picture in my post to clean those scratches off. 

If by the second shot you can clearly see the exact same deep scratches left by the chosera 800 on the left side of the blade. 

Actually I'll post a picture of it polished by my aoto in a second when I have time.


----------



## jwthaparc

I wanted to highlight some of scratches left on it going in other directions that you can clearly see.





The point is, I left the same finish as the original picture, but there are a bunch of surface scratches. That took literally no time at all to get rid of.

I probably should have said this in the original post, but I got rid of the king 300 scratches way before I stopped sharpening with the chosera 800. I spent probably ten minutes on it before I took the original picture, because the polish kept coming out really uneven in the top left. If you can see anything at all (which I still can't see, and couldn't see in person) it was probably because i wipe the blade dry the same direction as the 300 grit scratches go.

Edit: this is the every first picture you can see the blade isn't fully dry, and the direction it smeared when I wiped it off with my dirty sharpening rag.


----------



## memorael

jwthaparc said:


> I wanted to highlight some of scratches left on it going in other directions that you can clearly see.
> View attachment 140758
> 
> 
> The point is, I left the same finish as the original picture, but there are a bunch of surface scratches. That took literally no time at all to get rid of.
> 
> I probably should have said this in the original post, but I got rid of the king 300 scratches way before I stopped sharpening with the chosera 800. I spent probably ten minutes on it before I took the original picture, because the polish kept coming out really uneven in the top left. If you can see anything at all (which I still can't see, and couldn't see in person) it was probably because i wipe the blade dry the same direction as the 300 grit scratches go.
> 
> Edit: this is the every first picture you can see the blade isn't fully dry, and the direction it smeared when I wiped it off with my dirty sharpening rag. View attachment 140759


ok cool, post the pictures of the aoto finish, I'd like to see them.


----------



## jwthaparc

memorael said:


> ok cool, post the pictures of the aoto finish, I'd like to see them.


Ok. This is the aoto. I'm at work right now, so I dont have my macro lense. When I get back I can upload another macro. 

This one does have scratches I didn't get rid of for sure. I just didn't feel like spending any more time on it. 





anyway. It leaves a wierd scratchy finish. Most likely the worst of all my stones.


----------



## Pie

NP3k. Rushed a stone or 2 earlier so some scratches persist.


----------



## Tapio

An old Mora knife after Morihei 500 and Morihei 1000. A medium fine natural stone will be the next step.


----------



## Heckel7302

Pie said:


> View attachment 141037
> 
> 
> NP3k. Rushed a stone or 2 earlier so some scratches persist.


I've struggled to get anything close to this on my NP3K. All I get is a streaky mess with some haze and some shiny polished. What kind of pressure do you use? How much mud? How much water? Thanks for any insight.


----------



## Pie

Heckel7302 said:


> I've struggled to get anything close to this on my NP3K. All I get is a streaky mess with some haze and some shiny polished. What kind of pressure do you use? How much mud? How much water? Thanks for any insight.



That used to happen to me! Like every time until this one. Was pretty close to selling it out of frustration. I can’t pin down exactly what it was I did this time, but it was off SP120, SG220, NP400, NP1k -> NP3k. Heavy focus on thick mud and low pressure to maximize contrast on the NP400 and 1k. 

I suspect the good results are from doing a complete convex thinning (poorly, I might add) to get rid of as many low spots as possible. The bevel is mostly even, which I’m guessing is the reason the polish turned out even. I used heavy pressure with clean water on the hagane, full length strokes. On the jigane I used medium then light pressure, taking advantage of the smooth watery mud formed from the previous step. Medium length strokes, not quite the super short precise ones. This part the stone still feels like it’s cutting ever so lightly, instead of polishing, to give you a landmark for pressure. Light pressure once-over the whole bevel short stroke with heavy mud (careful to not scrub the core steel too much) and you get very close to mirror core, nice soft fine cladding. Most jnat finishers I have will add a sort of pearl finish to the mirror, giving it some texture if you like. Keep in mind my very shaky attempt at hamaguri sharpening made it much easier to focus on core and cladding separately. A completely flat bevel I find chatters and streaks uncontrollably. 

Hope this helps, both my polishing and explaining skills need work.


----------



## Heckel7302

Pie said:


> That used to happen to me! Like every time until this one. Was pretty close to selling it out of frustration. I can’t pin down exactly what it was I did this time, but it was off SP120, SG220, NP400, NP1k -> NP3k. Heavy focus on thick mud and low pressure to maximize contrast on the NP400 and 1k.
> 
> I suspect the good results are from doing a complete convex thinning (poorly, I might add) to get rid of as many low spots as possible. The bevel is mostly even, which I’m guessing is the reason the polish turned out even. I used heavy pressure with clean water on the hagane, full length strokes. On the jigane I used medium then light pressure, taking advantage of the smooth watery mud formed from the previous step. Medium length strokes, not quite the super short precise ones. This part the stone still feels like it’s cutting ever so lightly, instead of polishing, to give you a landmark for pressure. Light pressure once-over the whole bevel short stroke with heavy mud (careful to not scrub the core steel too much) and you get very close to mirror core, nice soft fine cladding. Most jnat finishers I have will add a sort of pearl finish to the mirror, giving it some texture if you like. Keep in mind my very shaky attempt at hamaguri sharpening made it much easier to focus on core and cladding separately. A completely flat bevel I find chatters and streaks uncontrollably.
> 
> Hope this helps, both my polishing and explaining skills need work.



Thanks. All interesting things to think about. My attempts have been on flat bevels, only my practice kiridashi and a moritaka honesuki. I spent considerable time flattening them and removing low spots, so that's not the issue. I guess I'll have to keep experimenting. After much frustration with the NP3K I decided to pull out the 6K side of my old King KW65 and it worked a treat. In no time I had a very even kasumi (save for a few scratches) on the iron and a polished core steel with lots of contrast. I guess a soft, muddy synth like that is the way to go.

Here’s the Moritaka after the King 6k


----------



## Pie

Heckel7302 said:


> Thanks. All interesting things to think about. My attempts have been on flat bevels, only my practice kiridashi and a moritaka honesuki. I spent considerable time flattening them and removing low spots, so that's not the issue. I guess I'll have to keep experimenting. After much frustration with the NP3K I decided to pull out the 6K side of my old King KW65 and it worked a treat. In no time I had a very even kasumi (save for a few scratches) on the iron and a polished core steel with lots of contrast. I guess a soft, muddy synth like that is the way to go.
> 
> Here’s the Moritaka after the King 6k
> 
> View attachment 142639
> View attachment 142640
> View attachment 142641



Hugely jealous of the moritaka honesuki. Polish looks good too! There’s some high grit synths that can produce nice kasumi for sure. Kitayama 8k comes to mind, although I haven’t touched that one in a while. These days I take it to 3k and on to jnat prefinisher. Arashiyama 6k is one id like to try. NP3k is capable of quite a fine polish on the cladding (for the grit rating), kinda weird, quite fast too. 

I believe more screwing around may be warranted, something (you might not even know what it is) will click at some point in time and you’ll end up with better results. Pressure and mud were repeatable keys for me. 

Happy polishing!


----------



## jwthaparc

Heckel7302 said:


> Thanks. All interesting things to think about. My attempts have been on flat bevels, only my practice kiridashi and a moritaka honesuki. I spent considerable time flattening them and removing low spots, so that's not the issue. I guess I'll have to keep experimenting. After much frustration with the NP3K I decided to pull out the 6K side of my old King KW65 and it worked a treat. In no time I had a very even kasumi (save for a few scratches) on the iron and a polished core steel with lots of contrast. I guess a soft, muddy synth like that is the way to go.
> 
> Here’s the Moritaka after the King 6k
> 
> View attachment 142639
> View attachment 142640
> View attachment 142641


The king 6k can give some really nice results. 





This is a picture I took a couple years ago of my tojiro shirogami 210. I finished with my king 6k (long gone now) and rubbed some of the slurry on the bevel to make sure it evened out.


----------



## ModRQC

No grandiose kasumi, but a look at scratch pattern with an even less grandiose blade.





This an Higo Aogami 100mm. And my first go on a new Nanohone 200.

Obviously the knife has that shifty grind nearing the handle. Last Higono I had (lost/stolen/alien abducted) was even worse with a big recurve at the edge. This one a sort of concave low spot/OG, but minimal recurve. Anything of the likes reminding of most edges on cheap western knives with a full bolster. It's like you'd have understood by now when a design is just bad. 

Back to scratches now...












_About the Nanohone: Contrast is good - not like it's important at that level anyway, but still... Behaved scratch pattern. Didn't feel particularly hard nor soft, nor particularly muddy or not. It IS truly splash and go but does soak a bit of water to start. Dries faster than my SP320 did when left to dry. As long as I won't polish a proper sized blade, hard to say much about water behavior in serious work. Has sort of a porous, very grainy feeling. Readily releases abrasives, I'd guesstimate somewhat as dishy or a bit dishier than SG500. For coarseness it's generally very well behaved, but it's not like I'm thrilled with it or something. I do like how it polishes - seems a good start. It's hard enough to validate work on a wide bevel, but I'd still be inclined to make sure I have a very hard stone to follow up. It has enough give for convexing work. Sort of imperfect middle ground but can sure be of good use if the progression is well thought from it. Couldn't say much about speed from this polishing session but I feel it won't be as fast as the best I've seen in these grits. All in all, I'd say that if a Cerax 320 would be harder and splash and go, possibly a bit faster, Nanohone 200 would be it. Weird to compare the Nano to such a muddy dishy thirsty stone, but really it's the one it made me think about the most. If in doubt about this statement, try a non-permasoaked Cerax 320 with very little soaking time (I did a few times in the beginning) and compare the feeling. Even the scratch pattern resembles a Cerax 320 that wasn't soaked enough. Same ballpark dark kasumi and quite good contrast, as well. Will probably try some soaking periods with the Nano and see what happens... hoping what happens won't be its demise. _

And more scratches still - _gracieuseté _of SG500 this time.









It's not that it took time to cover up the Nanohone scratch pattern, however it took more time than I expected to _clean _it, and still wasn't perfect. Not just especially around the low spot, but as you can see, a bit of everywhere. Either SG500 takes much more readily from either a (well soaked/perma) Cerax 320 or even my Sigma 240... or either it's working on such a small bevel that completely puts me off my marks. It really wasn't a pleasurable experience polishing the Higo, even counting out the handle being a PITA.








Under it's better angle though, blade looks like finer factory belt pattern... or so.


A testament of real splash and go coarse stones...


----------



## ModRQC

Now... it was time for my favorite polisher.

I give you... Imanishi 1200!




















I _tried _to take a picture of the hollow nearing the handle, which was quite clearly visible looking down the edge with the naked eye... in picture not so much it seems. But still...






After a final go with metal polish and oil.












Edge is Nano 200 - SG500.

Had some unpacking to do at work this morning. A pleasure to use.


----------



## M1k3

ModRQC said:


> No grandiose kasumi, but a look at scratch pattern with an even less grandiose blade.
> 
> View attachment 143979
> 
> This an Higo Aogami 100mm. And my first go on a new Nanohone 200.
> 
> Obviously the knife has that shifty grind nearing the handle. Last Higono I had (lost/stolen/alien abducted) was even worse with a big recurve at the edge. This one a sort of concave low spot/OG, but minimal recurve. Anything of the likes reminding of most edges on cheap western knives with a full bolster. It's like you'd have understood by now when a design is just bad.
> 
> Back to scratches now...
> 
> View attachment 143980
> View attachment 143981
> View attachment 143982
> 
> 
> _About the Nanohone: Contrast is good - not like it's important at that level anyway, but still... Behaved scratch pattern. Didn't feel particularly hard nor soft, nor particularly muddy or not. It IS truly splash and go but does soak a bit of water to start. Dries faster than my SP320 did when left to dry. As long as I won't polish a proper sized blade, hard to say much about water behavior in serious work. Has sort of a porous, very grainy feeling. Readily releases abrasives, I'd guesstimate somewhat as dishy or a bit dishier than SG500. For coarseness it's generally very well behaved, but it's not like I'm thrilled with it or something. I do like how it polishes - seems a good start. It's hard enough to validate work on a wide bevel, but I'd still be inclined to make sure I have a very hard stone to follow up. It has enough give for convexing work. Sort of imperfect middle ground but can sure be of good use if the progression is well thought from it. Couldn't say much about speed from this polishing session but I feel it won't be as fast as the best I've seen in these grits. All in all, I'd say that if a Cerax 320 would be harder and splash and go, possibly a bit faster, Nanohone 200 would be it. Weird to compare the Nano to such a muddy dishy thirsty stone, but really it's the one it made me think about the most. If in doubt about this statement, try a non-permasoaked Cerax 320 with very little soaking time (I did a few times in the beginning) and compare the feeling. Even the scratch pattern resembles a Cerax 320 that wasn't soaked enough. Same ballpark dark kasumi and quite good contrast, as well. Will probably try some soaking periods with the Nano and see what happens... hoping what happens won't be its demise. _
> 
> And more scratches still - _gracieuseté _of SG500 this time.
> 
> View attachment 143983
> View attachment 143984
> 
> 
> It's not that it took time to cover up the Nanohone scratch pattern, however it took more time than I expected to _clean _it, and still wasn't perfect. Not just especially around the low spot, but as you can see, a bit of everywhere. Either SG500 takes much more readily from either a (well soaked/perma) Cerax 320 or even my Sigma 240... or either it's working on such a small bevel that completely puts me off my marks. It really wasn't a pleasurable experience polishing the Higo, even counting out the handle being a PITA.
> 
> View attachment 143985
> View attachment 143986
> 
> Under it's better angle though, blade looks like finer factory belt pattern... or so.
> 
> 
> A testament of real splash and go coarse stones...
> View attachment 143987


Try giving it a soak. It's resin based, so no worries about the binder leaching out.


----------



## ModRQC

M1k3 said:


> Try giving it a soak. It's resin based, so no worries about the binder leaching out.



Thanks for reinforcing that. It's on the long list of sh!t I still have to try on that stone.


----------



## inferno

good review of that 200! and good work!


----------



## Thpp9

Here is the result of a quick polish on the Arashiyama 6k on my Shiro Kamo Aogami #2 iron clad. Mirrorish core with light gray jigane. There are some scratches, but they are uniform. 

Arashiyama was a relatively forgiving stone (compared to the NP3K I am used to) and hadn't much issue with streaks and shiny spots.

The patina pictures are after I prepared some Bolognese sauce for Pastitsio ( greek food, which consists of 3 layers. Pasta, Bolognese sauce and bechamel sauce on top, baked in the oven)


----------



## Thpp9

After Arashiyama I went to Morihei Karasu 9k. Similar finish, but with less scratches and shinier-closer to mirror hagane. It was a quick polish that took me less than 5 minutes. Karasu is a really nice stone, pretty forgiving as well.


----------



## Pie

Thpp9 said:


> After Arashiyama I went to Morihei Karasu 9k. Similar finish, but with less scratches and shinier-closer to mirror hagane. It was a quick polish that took me less than 5 minutes. Karasu is a really nice stone, pretty forgiving as well.


This looks great!! Sounds like you have the pre and finisher figured out. I’ve always wanted an arashiyama, but never got around to getting one..


----------



## Thpp9

Pie said:


> This looks great!! Sounds like you have the pre and finisher figured out. I’ve always wanted an arashiyama, but never got around to getting one..


Honestly, Arashiyama was an impulse buy. I wanted just to get Karasu but I decided to save some money on shipping, so I ended up getting both on the same order.

Overall, for the price, it is a pretty decent stone. Polishing on it was pretty effortless as well. There were some scratches, but i think if I spent some more time on the hagane, it would come out pretty good. Also, it felt nice for sharpening and after some leather stropping action, it popped hairs and had enough bite for tomatoes and bell peppers skin.


----------



## VicWire

First try, Yoshikane SKD.
Flatened it on a Shapton glass 500. Worked my way through a Naniwa Pro 800 and a 3000 before finishing on a JNS Matukusuyama 6000.







Next try: Contrasting, shiny core steel.


----------



## Thpp9

VicWire said:


> First try, Yoshikane SKD.
> Flatened it on a Shapton glass 500. Worked my way through a Naniwa Pro 800 and a 3000 before finishing on a JNS Matukusuyama 6000.
> 
> View attachment 150162
> 
> 
> Next try: Shiny core steel.


How were the lowspots? Did you come across to any stubborn one ?


----------



## VicWire

Thpp9 said:


> How were the lowspots? Did you come across to any stubborn one ?



Yes, had to spend what must have been an hour on one of the sides, with the 
500, working on two low spots. Other side was done in 10 minutes.


----------



## Jovidah

VicWire said:


> First try, Yoshikane SKD.
> Flatened it on a Shapton glass 500. Worked my way through a Naniwa Pro 800 and a 3000 before finishing on a JNS Matukusuyama 6000.
> 
> View attachment 150162
> 
> 
> Next try: Contrasting, shiny core steel.


I'm curious what it does for food release. Did you do any test-cutting on the intermediate grits? Is it better when flattened even at teh high grind? 
I found the original finish quite sticky; basically no better than any other average laser.


----------



## ModRQC

Yoshikane is no food release master. Suspect it won't do much but relieve some sticking. However, it's the kind of knife where flatter bevels probably won't come off any worse.

@VicWire pretty great job! Here comes the kicker: dare to show us the left side?


----------



## VicWire

Jovidah said:


> I'm curious what it does for food release. Did you do any test-cutting on the intermediate grits? Is it better when flattened even at teh high grind?
> I found the original finish quite sticky; basically no better than any other average laser.



Didn’t try the intermediate grits, but to my memory it’s less sticky now then it was originally.


----------



## VicWire

ModRQC said:


> Yoshikane is no food release master. Suspect it won't do much but relieve some sticking. However, it's the kind of knife where flatter bevels probably won't come off any worse.
> 
> @VicWire pretty great job! Here comes the kicker: dare to show us the left side?



Food release did get a little bit better, but as you write, it’s no release master. Does not bother me, I guess I’m not sensitive to it.

Left side, sure, I’ve got nothing to hide


----------



## ModRQC

That’s the side that gave you problems? 

Good work you did there.



VicWire said:


> Food release did get a little bit better, but as you write, it’s no realise master. Does not bother me, I guess I’m not sensitive to it.
> 
> Left side, sure, I’ve got nothing to hide
> 
> View attachment 150410


----------



## VicWire

N


ModRQC said:


> That’s the side that gave you problems?
> 
> Good work you did there.



Thanks

No, it was the right side that had the low spots.


----------



## inferno

VicWire said:


> N
> 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> No, it was the right side that had the low spots.



stainless clad? my ss clad yoshi sucks for kasumi contrast imo. best i have gotten out of it is the uchigumori and the 8k green suehiro i think. but its still very low contrast. its high quality though. its just not very much of it.


----------



## tcmx3

inferno said:


> stainless clad? my ss clad yoshi sucks for kasumi contrast imo. best i have gotten out of it is the uchigumori and the 8k green suehiro i think. but its still very low contrast. its high quality though. its just not very much of it.



this.

you will not get stainless to look like mild iron, or that to look like dirty wrought, or either to look like high twist sumi. best to focus on how to get the result you like best for that type of cladding IMO


----------



## inferno

i do have a kurosaki that is ss clad and then blue super hagane and that one gives me good contrast. he must be using some other type of stainless for the cladding.

i mean you can go 304/316, 410/420 etc etc for the cladding. 300 series is austenitic and 400 series is martensitic (hardenable). and there is probably 2-3-4 more different ss cladding that are used. maybe even some duplex or superduplex ss. this is used in the oil drilling industry at sea sine it doesn't rust much but is stronger than 300 series. and more stainless than 400 series iirc. its also a ***** to machine.









Duplex stainless steel - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


----------



## VicWire

inferno said:


> stainless clad?



Yes


----------



## GBT-Splint

VicWire said:


> First try, Yoshikane SKD.
> Flatened it on a Shapton glass 500. Worked my way through a Naniwa Pro 800 and a 3000 before finishing on a JNS Matukusuyama 6000.
> 
> View attachment 150162
> 
> 
> Next try: Contrasting, shiny core steel.


Do you permasoak your JNS 6000 or do you use it as a splash and go as advised on the website ? 

great job btw


----------



## VicWire

I use it splash and go.


----------



## JakeLoveshighCarbon

I suck at polishing, but I'm trying to learn. I can say tho, I really like the results from a morihei progression and finishing on the sigma 13k. I got them on a recommendation from another forum member, and I can say I really like all those stones.


----------



## mrmoves92

Hello! I was bored yesterday, so I decided to polish my iron clad blue #2 knife to post some (hopefully) helpful pictures here. I am not great at polishing, and I didn’t spend that much time, so the polishes aren’t the best, but hopefully it provides good information. If the polishes are bad enough that you want me to delete them from this thread, let me know and I will. My progression was Naniwa Pro 400 -> Shapton Kuromaku 1k -> Naniwa Pro 1k -> Shapton Glass 2k -> JNS synth red Aoto -> Suehiro Rika 5k. The standout stones for me are the JNS red Aoto and the NP1k. I took multiple images of the stones from the NP1k and finer to try to show how the finish looks from different angles and in favorable and unfavorable lighting.

NP400:
This stone gives a decent polish for the grit.





Shapton Kuromaku 1k:
It gives some contrast and looks pretty good, but is a little scratchy.





NP1k:
Really nice looking finish. Really even, good contrast, and very few bright scratches.











SG2k:
Interesting stone…It is all shine and no contrast until a decent amount of mud is built up. Then it gives good contrast with pretty dark cladding. It leaves some bright scratches.








continued in the next post…


----------



## mrmoves92

…continued:

JNS synthetic red Aoto:
My favorite polish from all of the stones that I have. It gives really good contrast, and the core steel starts getting more reflective. I like the lighter shade that the iron cladding gets. It is a little scratchy, but overall, I really like how this stone polishes.














Suehiro Rika 5k:
Decent contrast and appearance, but really scratchy. I didn’t fully capture how scratched up the bevel looks under really harsh direct light at the wrong angle. The core steel seems hazier and less reflective than the JNS red Aoto, which is not what I want or expect when I increase grits.











That is it for now. I hope that this was helpful. I just ordered a Morihei Hishiboshi 9k karasu, so I will give an update if I get a nice polish with it and you guys don’t hate this post. Thanks!


----------



## EricEricEric

Last stone used was Mikawa nagura bench stone soaked over night roughed up with 600 grit atoma and rinsed thoroughly before use

I prefer this stone over hard Ohira suita. I feel both have same exact effect. A Mikawa this size and type is $165-$350 while an Ohira shiro suita of this size and type would be $2k-3k

Knife is Nobuya Hayashi gyuto 240mm aogami 2

Let me know if you’re interested in purchasing this knife






林 信哉 (@nobuyah) • Instagram photos and videos







instagram.com


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## mrmoves92

Hello! I am back with some pictures of a quick polish from a Morihei Hishiboshi 9k karasu that I got last night. It is the same iron clad blue #2 knife. I didn’t like the scratches from the Rika 5k, so I did the following progression NP1k -> SG2k -> JNS synth red Aoto before the Morihei 9k.

Morihei Hishiboshi 9k karasu:
This now takes the spot for the best polishing stone in my collection. It creates really nice contrast, and the core steel gets very shiny and reflective. In my 15 minutes or so with this stone, I noticed that I had to balance a mirror-like core steel and an even hazy cladding, but maybe this wouldn’t be an issue if I was more skilled with polishing or if I had more time with the stone. If I applied heavier pressure (especially on the core steel), the core steel would become very shiny/reflective, but the cladding might look a little streaky. If I used lighter pressure and focused it on the middle of the bevel, the cladding would look much more even, and the core steel would haze up a little bit (while still being pretty reflective). In the pictures, I was leaning towards the shinier core steel and slightly streaky cladding side of the spectrum. Also, this stone must be acidic. I have not used this knife since my last post here, but when using this stone, the blade got some patina or light surface rust, and the mud would quickly turn from grey to orange/brown. Sorry for rambling. I hope that this was helpful. Here are the pictures of how it looks from different angles:


----------



## mrmoves92

I did a higher effort polish with my Wakui stainless clad white #2 gyuto. I used the following progression: Nanohone 200 -> SG500 -> NP1k -> SG2k -> JNS red Aoto -> Morihei 9k. I thought that this was a better representation of the polish you could get with the Morihei 9k than my last post, and it is the best that I can currently do. I am sorry for posting so much here recently. I promise that this will be my last post here for at least a while.


----------



## stringer

mrmoves92 said:


> I did a higher effort polish with my Wakui stainless clad white #2 gyuto. I used the following progression: Nanohone 200 -> SG500 -> NP1k -> SG2k -> JNS red Aoto -> Morihei 9k. I thought that this was a better representation of the polish you could get with the Morihei 9k than my last post, and it is the best that I can currently do. I am sorry for posting so much here recently. I promise that this will be my last post here for at least a while.
> View attachment 166010
> View attachment 166011
> View attachment 166012


You never have to apologize for posting too much. Especially pictures and videos. Thanks for sharing. That looks great


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## Thpp9

Refinished my Shiro Kamo kurouchi.
Grinded a bit the Hira with Imanish 220 and sanded it down because there was a TON of spots that the stone didn't touch.

Bevel was in relatively good shape so my progression was:
King 1k
NP3k
Karasu 9k
And some natural stone powder

Final result:














Finish after Karasu 9k:





Previous finish:


----------



## WifeNotUnderstand

Half way through my first thinning Matsubara Blue #2- having purchased a few stones over the last couple of years I have finally taken the plunge.

the Matsubara is stainless clad with a lot of texture - some areas that originally thought was grinding issues are actually hammer blows that were covered up with the finishing


Here is a rank amateurs journey so far - Part 1

LD180 - almost finished - I moved onto the next stone without taking a photo - No contrast - can still see the some areas that needed further work here [less shiny] - this stone removes metal soo much faster than the 4/500 and it dosn't leave too deep scratches







400 Chosera - soo smooth





500 Morihei more scratchy than the 400 but faster - finish was better with the 400





King hyper 1000 - it had a couple of shiny streaks that i removed by re-flattening the stone and attacking the cladding with fresh mud





I have couple of other 1000's and a JNS Red aoto to play around next.
Things i have learnt so far
- LD180 is fantastic
- i haven't got to all of the spots and at this point i am not chasing perfection its about the learning so i am not going back
- the 400/500 didn't need that much time to get rid of the 180 scratches

stay tuned for part 2


----------



## Perverockstar

I got this really nice gray kasumi finish on my Shun Premier while thinning it with my JCK 400/1200 stone. I used both sides of the stone.

It is worth noticing that I worked a lot of sludge with the 400 side.

I WAS NOT looking for the finish, it just happened and I actually liked it. The "damascus" finish is not very noticeable, but I dig it!

The good: the finish 

The bad: it barely thinned the knife. I'll try with a Nano Hone 200 next time.


----------



## Gyuto

Here's a repair and simple kasumi I did for a sushi chef's abused Yoshihiro yanagiba. Stone progression was Super Vitrified #400 diamond stone -> Imanishi #1200 (it’s more like a #600/800) -> Naniwa (Super Stone) Sharpening Series #800. I think the Naniwa #800 is perfect for functional, contrasting finishes on knives being used -and abused- heavily. It's not the sparkliest finish, but it looks clean.


----------



## deltaplex

Nice work on the heel and Shinogi, too!


----------



## captaincaed

What a triumph. Perfection is unattainable. In the corporeal interim, I think that’s something to be very proud of.


----------



## Pie

Gyuto said:


> Here's a repair and simple kasumi I did for a sushi chef's abused Yoshihiro yanagiba. Stone progression was Super Vitrified #400 diamond stone -> Imanishi #1200 (it’s more like a #600/800) -> Naniwa (Super Stone) Sharpening Series #800. I think the Naniwa #800 is perfect for functional, contrasting finishes on knives being used -and abused- heavily. It's not the sparkliest finish, but it looks clean.
> View attachment 179415


That is a massive project. And amazing results. Well done!


----------



## superworrier

Finally my time to shine. 

Fellipi wrought clad gyuto OOTB and post polish (SP2k, Rika 5k, Arashiyama 6k) + natural stone powder with P10000 sandpaper. The stone dust here mainly turned down the orange hue the acidic Arashiyama slurry gave it. I did like 2-3 rounds of etching with the slurry + fake finger stones.


----------



## ModRQC

Looks amazing!


----------



## MowgFace

Stunning.


----------



## blokey

First time doing a single bevel and trying to bring out that kasumi, got myself a practice knife from BST here: SOLD - Kiya 180mm deba . Repair the chip and remove some of the rust, using a simple progression of 1000 shapton pro, Gesshin 2000 and Gesshin 4000. The Gesshin 4000 actually did a good job for me, didn't go any further because that's my highest grit... Tried Belgian blue but didn't work as intented, maybe need more trials.


----------



## blokey

Some result on Ouka, not very dark but the scratch patterns are not bad.


----------



## Greasylake

SG500, chosera 1k, gesshin resinoid 6k, the one with the blue specks, permasoaked


----------



## Wabisabi-Ken

Starting of removing factory grind marks to get a final kasumi on jnats. Managed this with a king 800 though which is pretty nice, surprised to be able to get almost no visible singlular scratches


----------



## Captain Sensible

I was making what I thought was reasonable progress on a deba I have but as I got higher in grit, 8k Kitayama, the kasumi began to polish out - towards mirror with little/no contrast. Does it mean I need to set the initial kasumi 'better' on the lower grits. More slurry perhaps on the higher grits? Some other secret?

Any advice appreciated, thanks


----------



## Heckel7302

Better is in the eye of the beholder. A lower grit will surely be easier to keep things contrasty. King 800 is great at this. Though with lower grit there will likely be visible scratches, which one could consider more offending. You might try more mud and less pressure on your kitayama to develop more contrast in the cladding.


----------



## Thpp9

Captain Sensible said:


> I was making what I thought was reasonable progress on a deba I have but as I got higher in grit, 8k Kitayama, the kasumi began to polish out - towards mirror with little/no contrast. Does it mean I need to set the initial kasumi 'better' on the lower grits. More slurry perhaps on the higher grits? Some other secret?
> 
> Any advice appreciated, thanks


Probably more mud and lighter pressure will do the trick as mentioned above. Posting some pictures would definitely be helpful for some more detailed replies.


----------



## ethompson

More mud, lighter pressure without going so light the knife starts to skip across the surface, and letting the slurry get as close to glazing as possible without glazing will all help.

That said, very high grit and still contrasty finishes are very, very hard to achieve, even with very high end JNats… not impossible, but hard.


----------



## Captain Sensible

Thpp9 said:


> Probably more mud and lighter pressure will do the trick as mentioned above. Posting some pictures would definitely be helpful for some more detailed replies.


OK thanks, I think you guys might be right, thing is I already went back down grits (starting chosera 800) to try and understand what was happening. It looks more reasonable now but not great, if I can get some decent shots I'll post them up. To describe it before, patchy kasumi/more toward mirror up to the shinogi line along the length of the blade.


----------



## Captain Sensible

Here it is


----------



## Thpp9

Captain Sensible said:


> Here it is View attachment 198838


Is this kitayama's finish?


----------



## Captain Sensible

This is after I went back down grits, I think I went chosera 800, green brick, rika 5k to get here


----------



## superworrier

Sandpaper and stone dust on Yoshihiro Y Tanaka AS. Some stray scratches and not well aligned scratches but I think I’m done with major refinishing projects for a while (I say it every time ) Tried some different etching techniques but no banding like @jedy617 I think I also saw sone on another. Wrong knife, wrong abrasives, or wrong polisher? Maybe a combination


----------



## jedy617

superworrier said:


> Sandpaper and stone dust on Yoshihiro Y Tanaka AS. Some stray scratches and not well aligned scratches but I think I’m done with major refinishing projects for a while (I say it every time ) Tried some different etching techniques but no banding like @jedy617 I think I also saw sone on another. Wrong knife, wrong abrasives, or wrong polisher? Maybe a combination


Nice job! Yeah I tell myself that every time after a project, it's a pain in the neck. I used a bunch of natural stones in my progression, and then finished off with dry uchi dust.


----------



## jwthaparc

You guys use dry stone dust? Why not wet?


----------



## superworrier

jwthaparc said:


> You guys use dry stone dust? Why not wet?


@jedy617 curious about this too


----------



## superworrier

A lot more is possible here with more time but pretty pleased. Learned a lot here. SG500 Bester1200 SP2k Naniwa Chosera 3000 SP5k Arashiyama

Heiji carbon cladding is surprisingly hard. And of course I completely scratched up the cladding sharpening after


----------



## jedy617

superworrier said:


> @jedy617 curious about this too


No clue. @EricEricEric told me to and I have had good results getting some banding to pop with it, along with etching. He seems to know what he's doing so I just trust him


----------



## superworrier

jedy617 said:


> No clue. @EricEricEric told me to and I have had good results getting some banding to pop with it, along with etching. He seems to know what he's doing so I just trust him


You just rub it dry? With felt or something? 

I wonder if I need to make another go at my Tanaka AS.


----------



## jedy617

superworrier said:


> You just rub it dry? With felt or something?
> 
> I wonder if I need to make another go at my Tanaka AS.


Yep. With felt pads like this: https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Round...67896781&sprefix=furniture+pads,aps,87&sr=8-6

I have only used uchi powder for what its worth


----------



## ethompson

My best synthetic only finish. $10 Yanagiba im working on to be my default stone and technique testing blade. Tight progression from Atoma 140 up to Gesshin 6k resinoid 




Your browser is not able to display this video.


----------



## inferno

hey guys. one of you need to do the naniwa pro 2k/chosera 2k. its ****ing ultra good!

do a 220 and then the 2k chosera. until done. and its not a really expensive stone or so. 
but its really, really good. talking both kasumi and adge. its like the 3k glass edge. since it gets finer. 

yeah maybe ill do one of these tomorrow if you want. just post a pic of your dick here if you want me to shoot how this works.


----------



## jedy617

inferno said:


> hey guys. one of you need to do the naniwa pro 2k/chosera 2k. its ****ing ultra good!
> 
> do a 220 and then the 2k chosera. until done. and its not a really expensive stone or so.
> but its really, really good. talking both kasumi and adge. its like the 3k glass edge. since it gets finer.
> 
> yeah maybe ill do one of these tomorrow if you want. just post a pic of your dick here if you want me to shoot how this works.


Show pls. Do I need to post dick pics I think I'll be banned


----------



## inferno

if we get to 10 dicks i'll shoot 10 pics of the finishing operation. 

retracted foreskin or not is up to you.


----------



## jwthaparc

inferno said:


> hey guys. one of you need to do the naniwa pro 2k/chosera 2k. its ****ing ultra good!
> 
> do a 220 and then the 2k chosera. until done. and its not a really expensive stone or so.
> but its really, really good. talking both kasumi and adge. its like the 3k glass edge. since it gets finer.
> 
> yeah maybe ill do one of these tomorrow if you want. just post a pic of your dick here if you want me to shoot how this works.


Huh. Maybe it will be what i hoped my green brick of joy would live up to (and failed).


----------



## inferno

the 2k delivers. to be honest i think this is the absolute best synth at all for kasumi. over all.


----------



## jwthaparc

inferno said:


> the 2k delivers. to be honest i think this is the absolute best synth at all for kasumi. over all.


Ok. Ill definitely try it then. Once i have some extra money. Im about to have to Spend 400 to get a 2x72 up and running. After that, i might actually have money to spare that doesnt all have to go towards more tools.


----------



## inferno

jwthaparc said:


> Ok. Ill definitely try it then. Once i have some extra money. Im about to have to Spend 400 to get a 2x72 up and running. After that, i might actually have money to spare that doesnt all have to go towards more tools.



are you in the knife MAKING BIZ?

if not, i'd say you wont need that 72 inch. but hey. if you want it you want it right.


----------



## inferno

i'm in the knife consuming biz.


----------



## inferno

yeah i kinda consume knives.


----------



## inferno

and in about autumn 2193 or so, planet earth, my first knife will have been "consumed" somehow. maybe.


----------



## blokey

Still trying to learn more about polishing… Debado 200-SG500-Gesshin 2000-Gesshin 4000-JNS 6000


----------



## Choppin

blokey said:


> View attachment 210825
> 
> Still trying to learn more about polishing… Debado 200-SG500-Gesshin 2000-Gesshin 4000-JNS 6000


looking good! how was the jump from Debado 200 to SG500? Was it easy to remove the Debado scratches with the SG500?


----------



## mrmoves92

Choppin said:


> looking good! how was the jump from Debado 200 to SG500? Was it easy to remove the Debado scratches with the SG500?


For me, it takes some time but is pretty easy. I find that the Nano Hone 200 leaves slightly shallower scratches than the Debado, and the NH200 scratches are a little easier/faster to remove with the SG500, but the difference is pretty small. I really like the Debado 200 and the NH200 as my course stones, and the SG500 works really well as the next stone in the progression for me.


----------



## Choppin

jwthaparc said:


> Cerax 320 on stainless Damascus cladding. View attachment 113043


Quoting an old post here, but do you remember if the Cerax 320 leaves less pronounced / deep scratches compared to the King 300? Looks like from the pics but could be the damascus masking them...


----------



## jwthaparc

Choppin said:


> Quoting an old post here, but do you remember if the Cerax 320 leaves less pronounced / deep scratches compared to the King 300? Looks like from the pics but could be the damascus masking them...


I would say yes, slightly. 

Thats just because the cerax slurrys SOOO much. Its going to leave a finer finish.


----------



## Choppin

jwthaparc said:


> I would say yes, slightly.
> 
> Thats just because the cerax slurrys SOOO much. Its going to leave a finer finish.


Thanks. Will try!


----------



## adrianopedro

Playing with @aecadiz Fellipi Porto Bunka
Wrought Iron cladding and 52100 core


----------



## HumbleHomeCook

adrianopedro said:


> Playing with @aecadiz Fellipi Porto Bunka
> Wrought Iron cladding and 52100 core




Sweet!


----------



## aecadiz

adrianopedro said:


> Playing with @aecadiz Fellipi Porto Bunka
> Wrought Iron cladding and 52100 core




Ooooooooo yeah


----------



## Choppin

adrianopedro said:


> Playing with @aecadiz Fellipi Porto Bunka
> Wrought Iron cladding and 52100 core



Wow! What stones did you use?


----------



## adrianopedro

Choppin said:


> Wow! What stones did you use?



Progression of Aizu and Nakayama Tomae, then Hazuya fingerstone.


----------



## Greasylake

Gesshin 6k resinoid


----------



## jwthaparc

That would look really nice if it wasnt for the pitting.


----------



## deltaplex

jwthaparc said:


> That would look really nice if it wasnt for the pitting.


All I see is potential!


----------



## Greasylake

jwthaparc said:


> That would look really nice if it wasnt for the pitting.


Well, I can't disagree with you, but I'm not done with the knife yet. I was just setting it up to see if I could play with some rocks and bring out some of the banding in the iron. I'm going to take it back to the low grits to fix the edge and take out the pitting and remaining low spots before I do another test polish. I still need to work the kissaki as well, I usually leave that until after doing the main bevel because it's quicker work


----------



## SwampDonkey

Shapton Pro 320 on Mazaki










Shun 1k soaker






Naniwa chosera 3k to finish 













I'm pretty pleased with just winging it as I went,. I used a Shapton glass 1k before the Naniwa but I didn't like the way it felt or looked so I didn't use very long. Honestly the cheap Shun 1k soaker was my favorite since it produced the most mud, feels closer to 800 grit though, and its 3k side feels similar to the Shapton glass 1k.


----------



## jwthaparc

SwampDonkey said:


> Shapton Pro 320 on Mazaki
> 
> View attachment 215615
> 
> View attachment 215613
> 
> 
> Shun 1k soaker
> View attachment 215616
> 
> 
> 
> Naniwa chosera 3k to finish
> 
> View attachment 215617
> 
> View attachment 215618
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm pretty pleased with just winging it as I went,. I used a Shapton glass 1k before the Naniwa but I didn't like the way it felt or looked so I didn't use very long. Honestly the cheap Shun 1k soaker was my favorite since it produced the most mud, feels closer to 800 grit though, and its 3k side feels similar to the Shapton glass 1k.


Just a tip for thinning and polishing in the future that i wished someone had said to me at first.

On a knife with a distal taper, you want to make your angle more acute near the heel. To avoid raising the shinogi in that area, and it will get gradually more acute as the distal taper gets thinner.

I ended up with a raised shinogi on the heel of my knives so many times because i didnt know that.


----------

