A falling knife has no handle...

Or what dumb thing did Andre do today.



I knocked my Masamoto yanagiba off of the cutting board with a roll of plastic wrap. Then I tried to catch it.

It now looks like this:








The tip of my left middle finger looks about the same.



Everybody loses.



I've never chipped a single bevel anywhere near this badly, little nicks on my deba, but this is the size of the flat on the ura. Is there anything I should or should not do while fixing this? Or things I should look out for where I could eff up the geometry? I don't plan on trying to get it all in one go, maybe three to four sessions. Any and all advice is welcome!

 

I think if you're not very comforty with Japanese stones this is a job for a professional like there are on this forum and others.succes!

 

Other people here buy new knives just imagining something like this could happen. You clearly need a replacement knife while this one gets professional service.

Stefan

 

Soorry to see that and hear about your finger.

 

hope you're okay, best of luck fixing the knife, sorry to all those who took me and lost in the pool for first accident

 

Andre,
imho,

You have to fix it in one go. Reason being is that this is the critical spot in the knife, where, in every single cut, you are going to use that actual part of the tip. Unfortunately.

The other thing is, that you backside is not wearing equally on both top and bottom, there can be many reasons to this, one is warped blade, common if this is a KK, it might be you pressing equally hard on the back stroke when youre sharpening. One thing is for certain, you can fix it without big fuss.

1. focus yourself only at the tip, the last 4cm of the blade. You just work there. Now.
2. Thin the bevel to raise the blade road a 1mm. Try to flatter the bevel as well so you get same scratches top to bottom.
3. Sharpen slightly just to create a sort of oversized burr but not a monster
4. Flip the blade, keep one of your fingers directly at the tip, and I mean that the rest of your fingertip chould have contact with the abrasive, one other finger at the edge beside the other finger.
5. Now, no returning strokes, you are going to lift the blade to return to starting point
6. with the arm and wrist that holds the handle, you will try to apply pressure downward towards the edge, by twisting your wrist downwards, ever so slightly. You dont want to raise the back of the spine off the stone, you just want more pressure at the area your working at.
Magic marker here might be useful, so you see exactly where you are abrading.
7. Do a couple of strokes, just so the burr is flipped.
8. Now, do the thinning on the front again, until the edge bevel youve created previously is gone.
9. Sharpen again, [creating primary bevel and a burr]
10. Flip and repeat and repaet and repeat until its all gone.
Preferably use an abrasive in the 1K range, but you have to figure out yourself, too harsh will leave too deep scratches both at the back and front, too mild and you will take forever to fix it.

If youve never done this before, I reckon about three hours, being careful.

Satisfaction - priceless.

Good luck

 

One more thing, the entire bevel at the front, the secondary bevel is alive, Unless its totally absolutely flat, you have to control your pressure and by pressing in different spots, youre going to remove metal in different areas, what Im saying is if you see that the shinogi goes up too fast, try to press with your fingers a little closer to the edge to keep the balance. Hand holding the handle must be of a help too.

 

Bieniek..... WOW..... what an awesome thing that you would spend the time to explain this specific procedure! Although I understand the technique, I don't know if I could put it into words as elegently as you. WAY COOL!

 

I sure am anxious to see the fix.