# Random pictures of knife sharpening and refinishing we do



## JBroida

I thought i would make a thread for pictures of the kind of sharpening, restoring, refinishing, and just general repair work we are doing here on a daily basis. I usually suck at remembering to take pictures, and almost always forget the "before" pics, but i'll be my best to post what i can when i can....


After rust and pitting removal, refnishing, and sharpening...






After rust removal, restoration, repolishing, and sharpening...





Mirror finishing a knife...





Thinning and refinishing...





Initial sharpening and polishing of a Jin...





Polishing to bring out the hamon...





Before...





And after...


----------



## YG420

Beautiful work Jon! Knives look better than new!


----------



## lifeis11

YG420 said:


> Beautiful work Jon! Knives look better than new!



can confirm that sending Jon a knife yields it coming back to you in better-than-new condition. :doublethumbsup:


----------



## aboynamedsuita

JBroida said:


> Before...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And after...



Wow it looks like someone cut thru an electrical wire as I'm sure I see copper (or rust) in the before picture.


----------



## JBroida

i've been on a tear lately, trying to get caught up with work before i leave... here's another one i just did this afternoon.

This was another rusted knife... it had been sitting by an open window at an apartment near the ocean for a bit and had surface rust on one side with minor pitting. We repolished the blade to an almost mirror finish and then hand polished to bring out the damascus pattern.

Step 1





Step 2





Step 3


----------



## Dardeau

Good god, that masamoto


----------



## panda

did that deba have cancer?


----------



## Smurfmacaw

panda said:


> did that deba have cancer?


Looks more like a chancre!


----------



## Smurfmacaw

I'll vouch for his work though....I had a kitaeji gyuto that had an unfortunate tip incident and after he got through with it, you couldn't tell it had ever had an "incident". Top quality work for a VERY reasonable price.


----------



## YG420

Smurfmacaw said:


> I'll vouch for his work though....I had a kitaeji gyuto that had an unfortunate tip incident and after he got through with it, you couldn't tell it had ever had an "incident". Top quality work for a VERY reasonable price.



+1 same here!


----------



## Framingchisel

Beautiful photography and wonderful work. It is hard to tell from a verbal description how the polished bade should look. These images give me something to work toward.


----------



## JBroida

Framingchisel said:


> Beautiful photography and wonderful work. It is hard to tell from a verbal description how the polished bade should look. These images give me something to work toward.



straight up iphone pics


----------



## fimbulvetr

Good frog in freaven. As someone who's trying to teach himself to do half this well through trial, error, and YouTube, I wish like the devil y'all weren't most of a country away.


----------



## Matus

You do truly amazing work Jon.


----------



## Bolek

Jon your work is amazing, and I hope that you are way faster than I am (not difficult as I am slow), but I do not understand how you can make your living out of a such time and labor consuming activity.
It is a plesure to look at you work.


----------



## berko

awesome pictures. i would love to see some of your stone collection as well


----------



## JBroida

another refinished deba.... a big difference in the way the finish looks can be dictated by what is used to apply the the finish. For example, i can use the same uchigumori, but apply it as a finger stone, a powder applied with metal, a powder applied with wood, cork, etc., and get very different results


----------



## Matus

Jon, that would be a great subject for a video (different ways to finish a knife)


----------



## JBroida

Matus said:


> Jon, that would be a great subject for a video (different ways to finish a knife)



let me get caught up with my huge backlog of things to do and then i'll work on it


----------



## Matus

JBroida said:


> let me get caught up with my huge backlog of things to do and then i'll work on it



Sure, no problem


----------



## JBroida

Here's another one i did today... this Suisin Hayate by Kejiro Doi was a bit rusted and pitted. We cleaned up all of the rust and pitting, restored the mirror finish, and sharpened it.


----------



## Mute-on

I love this thread :thumbsup:


----------



## TheDispossessed

Jon are you using a cooler filter in these photos or is it just the type of light you get through the storefront? Makes the various metals look very nice.


----------



## JBroida

TheDispossessed said:


> Jon are you using a cooler filter in these photos or is it just the type of light you get through the storefront? Makes the various metals look very nice.



straight up natural light and my iphone... no filter... just the beautiful california sky in the reflection


----------



## aboynamedsuita

I keep coming back to look I think I'll have to get in touch regarding some work myself. I'll try to call tomorrow to discuss.


----------



## rubby

Nice work done by. Looks like you are yielding new ones


----------



## JBroida

kasumi finish on masamoto deba


----------



## TheDispossessed

Original home office right there! love that cool grey jigane.


----------



## chiffonodd

TheDispossessed said:


> Original home office right there! love that cool grey jigane.



Perfect hazeball


----------



## TheDispossessed

chiffonodd said:


> Perfect hazeball


This fried beef sword drunkeness feeling inox ding ding.
Sorry Jon. Nice work. Just being a jackass as usual


----------



## JBroida

here's an example of the kind of refinishing we can do to even a simple ho wood handle

[video]https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/videos/10153796391188860/[/video]


----------



## Matus

Nice work Jon - looks better than new.


----------



## JBroida

here are few more from this morning...

before and after of custom takeshi saji gyuto (a lot of thinning, adding of distal taper, and refinishing)...












Takeda after thinning:

(side by side with an untouched takeda... not the same one, but i forgot to take a before pic, and the bevels of the thinned one were actually smaller than the one i pictured on the left for reference)...






and some more pictures of the takeda after thinning (and etching for fun)...


----------



## aboynamedsuita

Wow Jon, that's quite the transformation on the Takeda. I can't wait to see how the one on the left turns out


----------



## Matus

On can actually see that you did distal taper on the takeshi saji gyuto - the damascus pattern changed. But should not one actually call that 'advanced stock removal' with that amount of work done?


----------



## JBroida

tjangula said:


> Wow Jon, that's quite the transformation on the Takeda. I can't wait to see how the one on the left turns out



haha... starting on that one in the next day or two  Already started on the kato a bit.


----------



## JBroida

Matus said:


> On can actually see that you did distal taper on the takeshi saji gyuto - the damascus pattern changed. But should not one actually call that 'advanced stock removal' with that amount of work done?



whatever you want to call it, it was a ton of work


----------



## youkinorn

This might be my favorite thread. Really inspiring stuff.


----------



## panda

i bet that takeda cuts like a beast now.


----------



## wphill

That choil shot of the Takeda...wow!
Go back 2010 or around that time, is that what his grind looked like OOTB?
Jon is the go-to pro for thinning. No way I could do this on stones, alone, without
ending up with a zero grind and no convex.
Could someone with an early Takeda's post their choil shot for comparison?


----------



## JBroida

wphill said:


> That choil shot of the Takeda...wow!
> Go back 2010 or around that time, is that what his grind looked like OOTB?
> Jon is the go-to pro for thinning. No way I could do this on stones, alone, without
> ending up with a zero grind and no convex.
> Could someone with an early Takeda's post their choil shot for comparison?



here's a picture of one from 2008 (not my sharpening, but answers your question)


----------



## JBroida

while i'm at it today, here's a Jin yanagiba i did this morning...


----------



## wphill

Jon,
A hallmark quality comes across in this choil shot...flexible but sturdy. Only in what I've read, but it makes sense when looking at the grind. Have metal in all the right places, and leave out where not needed.
A few days ago, I made an order to Shosui. He promptly responded. I had found this photo on line and used it as an example. Shosui makes a very favorable impression of wanting
to please. I don't mind having to wait the customary period when making a direct order. The hard part is calming down from sheer excitement, and toes crossed about expectations.
Thanks for the postings on the Takeda.


JBroida said:


> here's a picture of one from 2008 (not my sharpening, but answers your question)


----------



## JBroida

after handle and saya cleanup and some sharpening to get this set up for initial use (we do this kind of work to all of the Jin knives we sell when we sell them, unless the customer requests otherwise)...











cleaning up and sharpening of a knife (was a pretty badly scratched up and patina-ed mirror finish):


----------



## JBroida

more takeda stuff (i've got about 4 more to get done this week still)

after thinning, applying a black oxidized finish to replicate the look of KU, and etching the edge (i hadnt sharpened this one at the time the picture was taken... i took it to demonstrate the finish in a different thread).






and a choil shot:


----------



## XooMG

wphill said:


> Jon,
> A hallmark quality comes across in this choil shot...flexible but sturdy. Only in what I've read, but it makes sense when looking at the grind. Have metal in all the right places, and leave out where not needed.
> A few days ago, I made an order to Shosui. He promptly responded. I had found this photo on line and used it as an example. Shosui makes a very favorable impression of wanting
> to please. I don't mind having to wait the customary period when making a direct order. The hard part is calming down from sheer excitement, and toes crossed about expectations.
> Thanks for the postings on the Takeda.


Don't want to pollute Jon's thread but I admire your optimism.


----------



## rj_1

Jon, when you're thinning the Takeda's, are you just using the same technique you demonstrate in your thinning video? Or are you doing anything else to deal with the shoulders?


----------



## JBroida

rj_1 said:


> Jon, when you're thinning the Takeda's, are you just using the same technique you demonstrate in your thinning video? Or are you doing anything else to deal with the shoulders?



Same stuff... Different tools (I use a large water wheel). Also, shoulders aren't really an issue at the acute angles I thin at, but they are still there


----------



## rj_1

Thanks Jon. Out of curiosity, why aren't shoulder's an issue at acute angles?




JBroida said:


> Same stuff... Different tools (I use a large water wheel). Also, shoulders aren't really an issue at the acute angles I thin at, but they are still there


----------



## XooMG

A spine is a shoulder at an acute angle.


----------



## JBroida

rj_1 said:


> Thanks Jon. Out of curiosity, why aren't shoulder's an issue at acute angles?



Same reason this makes sense and makes me laugh a bit:



XooMG said:


> A spine is a shoulder at an acute angle.



Shoulders become an issue when they cause excessive pressure to be exerted against foods and wedge... when the angles are more acute, this doesnt really happen. If the thinning was a bit less acute, the top of the thinning would still be thick enough to cause wedging, and smoothing over the bevels would make more sense.


----------



## rj_1

aha...that makes sense! Thanks!



JBroida said:


> Same reason this makes sense and makes me laugh a bit:
> 
> 
> 
> Shoulders become an issue when they cause excessive pressure to be exerted against foods and wedge... when the angles are more acute, this doesnt really happen. If the thinning was a bit less acute, the top of the thinning would still be thick enough to cause wedging, and smoothing over the bevels would make more sense.


----------



## JBroida

refinishing a mirror finished honyaki in blue #2






and a couple more shots to show off different things on the same knife...

first up, the hamon:






and second up, the mirror finish:




(happy national donut day)


----------



## aboynamedsuita

That's gorgeous, I just checked DHL and it looks like three more mirror polished blue #2 honyaki have arrived 

Although they aren't as pretty as this one.


----------



## JBroida

yeah... they just got here today... havent had time to open up the package yet, so i'll be in touch tomorrow


----------



## aboynamedsuita

No rush Jon, the opportunity just presented itself to make a fitting comment so I took it


----------



## tomsch

Those are some amazing examples of your work Jon!


----------



## JBroida

finishing up a shigefusa mukimono today (well, i have the back to do tomorrow, but almost there)...

After a lot of hand sharpening and polishing up to an almost mirror finish (and with a mirror finish along the entire bevel), we used finger stones to polish and create contrast





The result along the edge... the rest of the knife has not yet been polished





After polishing the rest of the knife... we use different stones and powders than we do with the edge, so they dont all blend together and look uniform





Another view (and semi-selfie i guess)


----------



## YG420

JBroida said:


> finishing up a shigefusa mukimono today (well, i have the back to do tomorrow, but almost there)...
> 
> After a lot of hand sharpening and polishing up to an almost mirror finish (and with a mirror finish along the entire bevel), we used finger stones to polish and create contrast
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The result along the edge... the rest of the knife has not yet been polished
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> After polishing the rest of the knife... we use different stones and powders than we do with the edge, so they dont all blend together and look uniform
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Another view (and semi-selfie i guess)



Incredible Jon! I plan on passing by this week to drop off a Kato so you can work your magic on it lol


----------



## JBroida

i've got a few huge projects in line before you... are you ok if it takes me a few weeks to get to it?


----------



## YG420

JBroida said:


> i've got a few huge projects in line before you... are you ok if it takes me a few weeks to get to it?



Not a problem! I totally understand! I think last time you had a bag of 30 knives to get to! :dazed:


----------



## mikedtran

The mukimono is looking awesome :doublethumbsup:


----------



## JBroida

JBroida said:


> here are few more from this morning...
> 
> before and after of custom takeshi saji gyuto (a lot of thinning, adding of distal taper, and refinishing)...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Takeda after thinning:
> 
> (side by side with an untouched takeda... not the same one, but i forgot to take a before pic, and the bevels of the thinned one were actually smaller than the one i pictured on the left for reference)...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> and some more pictures of the takeda after thinning (and etching for fun)...



After getting a few e-mails from customers and other people about this, i think people may have misunderstood what i did here. In the pictures, it appears as though the bevel blends into the upper section of the blade and the shoulder of the bevel has been removed. It has not. The shoulders can be easily felt by running ones fingers over the edge. They are still there. In fact, the blade is sharpened flat along the wide bevel (and in some cases, an additional bevel at the edge or microbevel has been added, depending on how acute the wide bevel was). As it turns out, many takeda blades were sharpened at acute angles like this from the factory for quite some time, but as of late, have been less acute. Just wanted to clarify, as a few people have asked me about this. For what its worth, i also dont believe that thinning blades requires getting rid of bevel shoulders at all. There are some cases where that makes sense, and others where it does not. Just wanted to clarify.


----------



## JBroida

This one is not my work personally, but rather one of the guys who's been learning with me for a few years now... natural stone finish (shobudani suita and uchigumori hazuya finger stones) on a kurouchi kato

[video]https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/videos/10153852845718860/[/video]


----------



## aboynamedsuita

JBroida said:


> This one is not my work personally, but rather one of the guys who's been learning with me for a few years now... natural stone finish (shobudani suita and uchigumori hazuya finger stones) on a kurouchi kato
> 
> [video]https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/videos/10153852845718860/[/video]



I like it :doublethumbsup:


----------



## JBroida

I've been playing around with finishes on a Kato Kikuryu for someone lately... gone through a few different revisions of what i wanted to do and how i went about it it... here was the first one:






And here is what i did today:


----------



## YG420

Gorgeous work Jon!


----------



## aboynamedsuita

I like them both! You can send that one to Canada along with the KU gyuto posted yesterday once they're ready


----------



## JBroida

working on refinishing a Tsukasa Hinoura this morning:


----------



## Matus

Just beautiful work Jon.


----------



## Johnny.B.Good

Gorgeous.


----------



## KimBronnum

Wow Jon, I love these posts - pure knife porn. Keep them coming :coolsign:


----------



## JDA_NC

JBroida said:


> working on refinishing a Tsukasa Hinoura this morning:



So I have to ask.... (and I hope it's not big deal going a little off topic)

You have been working with knives full-time now for a good chunk of time. I'm sure you've seen and handled more knives than most of combined could even dream of.

But you originally started off just like one of us (an enthused knife knerd). So...

Do you still get giddy when you get a chance to handle unicorns like this?


----------



## JBroida

yeah... its still a lot of fun. Thankfully, we manage to see a large number of super badass knives on a daily basis for sharpening/repair/refinishing, but its still a great time. With things like Hinoura-san's work, what gets to me the most is that I've become good friends with the guy... we talk just as much about non-knife things as we do about knife things now days.


----------



## JBroida

Thinning and quick refinish of a watanabe wa-gyuto (customer opted for spine to edge finishing in this case)






and before and after choil shot of the same knife


----------



## YG420

SUPER stoked by the job Jon did on my kikuryu recently! The knife had obvious "bald'' spots within the pattern, the pattern wasnt as defined, and Jon worked his magic once again to make this knife better than new! I have a before pic and the after pics. The photo quality doesnt do it justice, much better in person!

Before:












After: (the random spots were from wetting and drying the knife at home)


----------



## mikedtran

OMG!!! That knife looks unbelievable now!

I need kikuryu so badly now...


----------



## aboynamedsuita

Wow that kikuryu had undergone quite the transformation! Amazing work Jon!!


----------



## YG420

mikedtran said:


> OMG!!! That knife looks unbelievable now!
> 
> I need kikuryu so badly now...



Do it Mike! If you have the chance to get your hands on one (and I know you should have no problem lol), get it and send it out to Jon ASAP lol.


----------



## aboynamedsuita

I have an eternal dibs on YG's kikuryu :nunchucks:


----------



## YG420

Hahah! You sure do Tanner!


----------



## aboynamedsuita

YG420 said:


> Hahah! You sure do Tanner!



:doublethumbsup:


----------



## mikedtran

I just received my mukimono back from Jon and I can whole heartedly say that Jon's finish looks even *better* than new - the edge is more mirror and there is slightly more contrast in the Kitaeji!


----------



## gadgetguy9000

JBroida said:


> Thinning and quick refinish of a watanabe wa-gyuto (customer opted for spine to edge finishing in this case)
> 
> and before and after choil shot of the same knife



Looking at the wood, unless this was re-handled, it is hard to believe it is the same blade. The proportions and grain patterns seem quite different, as do the facets on the sides of the choil.


----------



## JBroida

gadgetguy9000 said:


> Looking at the wood, unless this was re-handled, it is hard to believe it is the same blade. The proportions and grain patterns seem quite different, as do the facets on the sides of the choil.



Same knife... Different angle, different lighting, different white balance... That's it


----------



## JBroida

another takeda (this time with a natural stone finish and the same kind of sharpening takeda-san does for his knives... but at a slightly lower angle).


----------



## aboynamedsuita

JBroida said:


> another takeda (this time with a natural stone finish and the same kind of sharpening takeda-san does for his knives... but at a slightly lower angle).



It looks better than new!

EDIT
I can see it in the app but not on the website


----------



## Matus

Jon, your work makes me want to buy some crappy, beaten up knife just to see what you can turn it into


----------



## JBroida

[video]https://youtu.be/ImuuydmDA5k[/video]


----------



## brianh

Not going to show any before pics of my attempt at sharpening that. Jon is amazing.


----------



## JBroida

More natural stone finishing
[video]https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/videos/10153898745363860/[/video]


And one more (the color is the reflection from the building across the street)


----------



## JBroida

this is how we do picture in picture:


----------



## Doug

JBroida said:


> this is how we do picture in picture:



Wow! That hurts my eyeballs


----------



## JBroida

refinishing a mizuno after thinning:
[video]https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/videos/10153921134558860/[/video]


----------



## foody518

JBroida said:


> this is how we do picture in picture:


Knife-ception


----------



## JBroida




----------



## V1P

Wow, that's very very nice Jon!


----------



## JBroida

[video]https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/videos/10154313712728860/[/video]

A 240mm kejiro doi kiritsuke on naturals


----------



## JBroida

some more pictures of recent work 
(also, sorry so many of the other picture links are broken... not sure what happened there... the pictures are still up on our FB and Instagram)




































Video of the above image


----------



## aboynamedsuita

JBroida said:


> some more pictures of recent work
> (also, sorry so many of the other picture links are broken... not sure what happened there... the pictures are still up on our FB and Instagram)



My baby [emoji76]

Thanks for the amazing work!


----------



## Sporks

That's a really lovely deba.


----------



## JBroida

Sporks said:


> That's a really lovely deba.



i think its still up for sale here:
https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/pages/special-of-the-day


----------



## valgard

aboynamedsuita said:


> My baby [emoji76]
> 
> Thanks for the amazing work!



WOW Tanner, that looks sick!


----------



## JBroida

seems like most of the old pictures dont work, so here are some new ones from the last couple of days:


----------



## cheflarge

MY GOODNESS!!! Talk about taking my breath away....... All beauties.


----------



## panda

shig western choil shot, was that stock grind or did you thin it?


----------



## JBroida

panda said:


> shig western choil shot, was that stock grind or did you thin it?


thinned


----------



## panda

look freaking great!


----------



## Badgertooth

Keep em coming Jon, really nice


----------



## YG420

DAM! I need to come in soon...


----------



## Omega

Yeah, wow... That Shigefusa choil shot is bonkers


----------



## YG420

Hope this fits here, just wanted to show off the awesome sayas the guys at JKI made for some of my knives. Theyre the best fitting sayas Ive ever come across, even from custom makers.


----------



## cheflarge

YG420 said:


> Hope this fits here, just wanted to show off the awesome sayas the guys at JKI made for some of my knives. Theyre the best fitting sayas Ive ever come across, even from custom makers.


Awesome!


----------



## MontezumaBoy

Thx YG420 ... just another excuse (if needed) to stop in at JKI! Very nice work Jon & Co!


----------

