# Yanagi questions



## ghost1234 (Sep 10, 2018)

Hi, I picked up a yanagiba recently, tried to remove the microbevel to no avail, need more work on it. I noticed when I was sharpening it that I found these I'm not too sure but i believe they are low spots, can't get to them on my stones but the rest of the knife will take a nice polishing. Any insight would be nice. Thanks


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## ghost1234 (Sep 10, 2018)

https://imgur.com/a/Mo1iOBs Is the link to the pictures, quality is kinda bad


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## Gjackson98 (Sep 10, 2018)

I can't see the picture, I don't know about others. You might want to re-upload.


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## Panamapeet (Sep 10, 2018)

Generally yanagi are sharpened with a large water wheel, which will leave low spots. You can finds some yanagis with (almost) no low spots, but they are hard to find/expensive. 

They usually have a microbevel as well, that can take some time to remove. Just carefully work at it with a low grit stone, and you will start feeling a burr soon!


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## ghost1234 (Sep 15, 2018)

New picture, tried at my lowest grit 1k stone for about 10 mins and no progress


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## Panamapeet (Sep 16, 2018)

Try starting out on 300 or so!


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## Ryndunk (Sep 16, 2018)

Spipet said:


> Try starting out on 300 or so!


+1


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## ghost1234 (Sep 16, 2018)

Got this from my old boss, might try it. I dont have any frits below 1k, but maybe i ahould invest in one. Name of the stone is some diamond stone looks old


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## Panamapeet (Sep 17, 2018)

ghost1234 said:


> Got this from my old boss, might try it. I dont have any frits below 1k, but maybe i ahould invest in one. Name of the stone is some diamond stone looks old


Honestly, I don't like to use diamond stones for sharpening. Better to invest in a good coarse stone to do some proper initial grinding. I recommend the King 300 (cheap), Chosera 400 or Shapton glass 500 (get the double thick version).


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## Keith Sinclair (Sep 24, 2018)

JMO don't like using diamond stones on yanagiba's. Do you know what brand of sashimi knife yours is? Is it stainless or carbon?
Cheap stainless yanagi's are a dime a dozen. You can practice sharpening on them don't expect much. If it is a quality carbon blade sharpen only on the bevel side with your fingerpads pressing the edge into the stone on the hollow ground backside. This will lift the spine. Keep pressure on as you work the length of the blade. When the edges meet a burr can be felt on backside of blade and the micro bevel will be gone. Laying blade flat on the stone gently remove the burr with a forward stroke.


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## ghost1234 (Sep 24, 2018)

Picked it up on CKTG labeled as Young samurai, it's carbon steel white 2 or blue 2 not sure, i will need to pick up a coarse stone soon so I can play with it some more. No time to get one yet. Only 100$ so I'm not afraid to beat it up. Thanks foe the advice, will see what happens when i get a coarse stone i will avoid the diamond one


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## Ochazuke (Sep 24, 2018)

I can’t describe how much I hate cheap yanagi. They shouldn’t even be called yanagi. Most of the time the grind is just really awful and you have to do way too much to fix it. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.


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## Keith Sinclair (Sep 24, 2018)

Well at least it is carbon. Check out Jon's( knifesharpeningplaylist) look up sharpening yanagiba's.
His technique is Japanese in origin important esp. for single bevels. Burr removal on the backside is often over done which can change the geometry of the hollow grind over time. He shows the edge forward light touch burr removal.

On Usuba and Deba I use micro bevels. On Yanagiba prefer no micro so the edge is very sharp and easy to chip. I always protect the edge only using for sushi topping and sashimi


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## nutmeg (Oct 1, 2018)

I would go with a very coarse diamond stone, like #200 perpendicular to the axis of the edge.
Diamond stones are optimal because they stay flat and this is exactly what you need for this kind of job.

It is also important you don't damage the ura side of the blade with the regrinding.


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## kevin (Oct 1, 2018)

Shapton 120 does a good job for flattening


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## ghost1234 (Jan 5, 2020)

Update, the low spot is still there been just using it as is, The real question is I created a secondary bevel on it and its hard to remove so I've just been resharpening it on that bevel, it helps with micro chips but what is the real downside to making a secondary bevel?


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## Forty Ounce (Jan 5, 2020)

ghost1234 said:


> Update, the low spot is still there been just using it as is, The real question is I created a secondary bevel on it and its hard to remove so I've just been resharpening it on that bevel, it helps with micro chips but what is the real downside to making a secondary bevel?


Creating a secondary bevel essentially destroys it's cutting ability. Having a small micro bevel is recommended to give strength to the edge. What you are doing is the first step on chip removal, now you must follow up with thinning the bevel down to preserve the geometry and cutting ability. To give you an idea, the micro bevel shouldn't be bigger than a hair.


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## Forty Ounce (Jan 5, 2020)

The light reflects the micro bevel


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## ghost1234 (Jan 5, 2020)

Hmm, I have a lot of thinning to do, the bevel is pretty dominant on my yanagi I use it mostly to cut sushi rolls / fried ones that have crust. It's been working well so far but I will try and thin it down and make a smaller micro bevel.


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## San_ (Feb 1, 2020)

Forty Ounce said:


> The light reflects the micro bevel


Look so nice ! I’m Starting Work on it to get to that level lol


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## Forty Ounce (Feb 2, 2020)

San_ said:


> Look so nice ! I’m Starting Work on it to get to that level lol


Thanks! Please post pics when you're done, I'd love to see them.


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## San_ (Feb 2, 2020)

Forty Ounce said:


> Thanks! Please post pics when you're done, I'd love to see them.


I mean I’m still leaning for it , not easy I know , take me long times please ! 

Any recommend for the whetstone stone for That ? Thanks


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## Forty Ounce (Feb 2, 2020)

San_ said:


> I mean I’m still leaning for it , not easy I know , take me long times please !
> 
> Any recommend for the whetstone stone for That ? Thanks


My absolute favorite stone for working single bevels is a JKI Gesshin 400. But if I need to remove a lot of metal, I will usually use an atoma diamond plate. The 140 is good, the 400 is better. Just make sure to check your work often, and don't be afraid to post progress pics and ask for help.


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## San_ (Feb 2, 2020)

Forty Ounce said:


> My absolute favorite stone for working single bevels is a JKI Gesshin 400. But if I need to remove a lot of metal, I will usually use an atoma diamond plate. The 140 is good, the 400 is better. Just make sure to check your work often, and don't be afraid to post progress pics and ask for help.


Thanks so much !! 

But Will the diamond stone will damaged the blade ? Like something high end single edge blade ? Just got some new shig and Watanabe blue 1 yanagiba form my good friend,one thing that I get told is the new yanagiba will need to be sharping and thinned before could get to best cutting edge , i m not 100% sure about that ! 

Maybe I just need to get a cheaper yanagiba to starting sharping on it to see what I can get ! Lol

will post some pics when I done to it , then looking for help from you guys !


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## Forty Ounce (Feb 2, 2020)

San_ said:


> Thanks so much !!
> 
> But Will the diamond stone will damaged the blade ? Like something high end single edge blade ? Just got some new shig and Watanabe blue 1 yanagiba form my good friend,one thing that I get told is the new yanagiba will need to be sharping and thinned before could get to best cutting edge , i m not 100% sure about that !
> 
> ...


Absolutely get something cheap so you can learn and not ruin an expensive knife. 
You can absolutely ruin a knife with any stone, if you aren't careful. Moreso with a very aggressive stone.


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## Nino-chan (Feb 3, 2020)

Spipet said:


> Honestly, I don't like to use diamond stones for sharpening. Better to invest in a good coarse stone to do some proper initial grinding. I recommend the King 300 (cheap), Chosera 400 or Shapton glass 500 (get the double thick version).


why dont you like diamonds? they are perfect for getting that initial flatness of the cutting edge then you can move onto stones just making sure they are flat


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## plluke (Feb 4, 2020)

Forty Ounce said:


> Absolutely get something cheap so you can learn and not ruin an expensive knife.
> You can absolutely ruin a knife with any stone, if you aren't careful. Moreso with a very aggressive stone.


+1.

Though I will add that really cheap knives are often harder to work with because their grinds aren't as careful. I got a couple of super cheap Yanagi and Usuba off ebay to play with and while they're great as a teaching tool for sharpening single bevel, they all have ridiculous low spots and event somewhat bent blades that make polishing/flattening an absolute chore even with diamonds. I'm toying with the idea of going to my local shop (Bernal) and paying them to flatten out the bevel with their horizontal spinning stone thing (I have no idea what that's called) so that I can get on to playing with technique/polishing without spending hours on my Atoma.


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## Forty Ounce (Feb 4, 2020)

plluke said:


> +1.
> 
> Though I will add that really cheap knives are often harder to work with because their grinds aren't as careful. I got a couple of super cheap Yanagi and Usuba off ebay to play with and while they're great as a teaching tool for sharpening single bevel, they all have ridiculous low spots and event somewhat bent blades that make polishing/flattening an absolute chore even with diamonds. I'm toying with the idea of going to my local shop (Bernal) and paying them to flatten out the bevel with their horizontal spinning stone thing (I have no idea what that's called) so that I can get on to playing with technique/polishing without spending hours on my Atoma.


I have one of those spinning wheels.. I wouldn't dare put a yanagi on it.. I'd recommend that you don't ask anyone to do that. Just set aside some time and do it right.


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## plluke (Feb 4, 2020)

Forty Ounce said:


> I have one of those spinning wheels.. I wouldn't dare put a yanagi on it.. I'd recommend that you don't ask anyone to do that. Just set aside some time and do it right.



My actual Yanagi I use from time to time I have been flattening with SG500 and upwards slowly as it's not as bad though still not fast. The really crappy knives that I don't care about and purely use for playing around with trial and error is what I was thinking about. You wouldn't put those on to a wheel even for a $20 trial and error knife?


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## Forty Ounce (Feb 4, 2020)

plluke said:


> My actual Yanagi I use from time to time I have been flattening with SG500 and upwards slowly as it's not as bad though still not fast. The really crappy knives that I don't care about and purely use for playing around with trial and error is what I was thinking about. You wouldn't put those on to a wheel even for a $20 trial and error knife?


No, I wouldn't. Just my 2 cents btw.. while I love the sg500 and think it's an invaluable tool, it's awful as your main coarse stone. The only thing I use it for is taking out 200 grit scratches, and even then, I prefer the gesshin 400.


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