# Sharpening Cheats - masking mistakes and faking good results



## jklip13 (Jan 14, 2014)

I have discovered a trick to mask mistakes made during sharpening Hamaguriba edges on single bevel knives.
I sometimes find that i haven't blended all the bevels together properly and end up with really gross facets and shiny spots all over the Jigane when making the jump to natural stones. I then either have to go back to coarse stones and re establish a properly blended surface OR i can fake it. If you make a small finger stone out of Uchigumori and polish the Jigane with some Uchigumori slurry, all of your mistakes disappear! The stone slides right over any high or low spots and polishes them evenly and giving great contrast as well.

Anyone else have any sharpening hacks?

-Jon


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## masibu (Jan 14, 2014)

Uchigumori definitely works.. I've used that one before haha. I guess any soft stone that produces good slurry would work well. I bought some fingerstones form cktg a few years ago. I am still trying to work out what one particular stone is as it's very soft after soaking and I have been able to fake some finishes on my knives quite easily. It's a reddish brown stone that reads "600" (grit) and I've used it a couple of times. The package included quite a few pieces of stone- no idea what any of them are. I wager a few of them are shapton pro offcuts. I've been looking at/trying all sorts of stones trying to discover what I like. 

I definitely prefer softer stones with a fair amount of mud for the feedback, even if they do gouge more readily. However, for the coarse stages, particularly during thinning, having something that stays flat it pretty important to me as stopping to flatten the stone I'm using is just a pita I don't need. I'm impatient by nature and I will probably continue using the stone even it's its not quite flat and then wonder why I have uneven finishes. I guess for me that makes diamond the winner for me, even if I hate the feedback, deep scratches and so on and so forth. Then again, that's why I have other softer, coarse stones to help with taking out those scratches. The imanishi pink brick loves covering up those scratches for me

I've never bought kings but I get the impression they are rather muddy and my rika is quite muddy too which I think I like. I had a synthetic blue aoto until I cracked it in two which from memory gave a pretty good finish also. I have a suehiro rika 5k I leave in water indefinitely and I find it rather convenient to use it in this way. I don't know if I particularly care for splash and go stones as much since I started using this stone. Wish I bought a baseless version though! I definitely meant to. I have considered trying out the 1k rika or king to compare to my sigma 1200 and chosera 1k and have that soaking along with my other goodies. The sigma certainly cuts well but isn't the most friendly feeling stone. The chosera is quite good, but I would prefer either a perma soaker or splash and go rather than something in between. I leave a beston 500, my sigma 1200 and rika 5k all in water without ill effects. I recently decided to throw my sigma 13k in there as well and it seems to perform much better after doing so, although it's debatable whether I should even bother with a finish that fine in the first place. It's pretty masturbatory but it's a handy stone for when I finally start trying out my white 2 straight razor I recently bought. 

I have chosera 3k and 5k, a snow white and kitayama sitting at home as I try to discover which stones I like most and I find that I don't particular wish I had any of these stones on me at work. I think because I can leave my current lineup of stones soaking in water throughout my shift and sharpen at the very end of it makes it much more convenient than trying to weasel my way out of the kitchen half an hour before I finish just to soak my chosera/snow white stones. People get unhappy when there's a whole kitchen to clean and I'm already thinking about my knives (as usual).


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## EdipisReks (Jan 14, 2014)

I used to find cheats and short cuts, but these days I just prefer to do things properly.


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## jklip13 (Jan 14, 2014)

I definitely agree with you, nothing is ever as good as the real thing!


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## vlad8 (Jan 19, 2014)

I use wicked edge it is difficult to not get great result.


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## ThEoRy (Jan 19, 2014)

vlad8 said:


> I use wicked edge it is difficult to not get great result.



Wicked edge for hamaguriba on single bevel knives?


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## Asteger (Jan 19, 2014)

*wick·ed*
/&#712;wikid/
adjective: 
1. evil or morally wrong. 
synonyms: evil, sinful, immoral, wrong, morally wrong, wrongful, bad, iniquitous, corrupt, base, mean, vile


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## EdipisReks (Jan 19, 2014)

ThEoRy said:


> Wicked edge for hamaguriba on single bevel knives?



heh, I'd like to see a video of that.


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## Keith Sinclair (Jan 19, 2014)

Depends on just going for looks or functional edge for cutting sashimi.You can get a razor edge without a perfect looking face.I am just playing with a stone bought fr. Jon to create mists.Mixed results found alot of misted mud & not too much pressure seems to work best.

I don't think the poster meant hamaguriba bevel with wicked edge.No gig only freehand can do it.:groucho:


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## vlad8 (Jan 19, 2014)

ThEoRy said:


> Wicked edge for hamaguriba on single bevel knives?



Oops too late did not read the full post.


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