A Yanagi Ba for a friend

Hi Stacey, thanks for the reply and good advice as always. I started the hand work at P320,600,1200, where I'll probably stop. It's near sharp, tough to mic it but around .002 or so. ALMOST ready to assemble finally!! So should I take it down more? There's a video I found on sharpening yanagiba, by an Asian guy that dulls the blade on a brick before sharpening, (kind a made me sick watching that part). So he probably started at .002 or so, where I'm at now. If that's an accurate depiction of how to sharpen (along with yours and others) I should be in good shape down to the finish line.
 
Have to agree with Stacy, stones at this point.
I would have advised you, prior to mounting the handle, to try some lengthwise grinding on the bevel.
It's fairly safe and easy to do (tip down of course) and will even out the grind, flatten it, and let you take it close to finished without the dreaded gouges you can get grinding standard.
But stones will finish it up. Just takes patience.

These guys are sharp (pun intended). I don't know how many times I've watched this and I seem to learn something new each time. Not so much what they say, but what I see them doing:
 
Hi Brock Cutlery Brock Cutlery , the handle is not epoxied on the tang yet, but the first one's pretty much ready to sharpen after I do. It did have a micro gouge that came right out at 320 though. #2 is about .005 or .007 so I could try the vertical as a final step, thanks a lot for the tip and the vid!

One thing I learned, had to really watch the tip thickness and dulled it on a granite plate several times to equalize. This may have changed the profile slightly but I don't think it's noticeable. Also lightened the pressure as the tip approached and pull off just at the right time. Both tips survived thankfully.

ETA forgot to ask, can anyone verify this kanji reads " Yanagiba"? I don't want to rely on the big g00gle.
yanagiba in kanjicropped.jpg
 
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Well, here is the second one with Bubinga and Ebony with red and copper spacers. I think the Bubinga really pops. The first 2 pics are not epoxied yet. It's curing in the 3rd picture.

I devised the straightedge eyeball test to try and insure it stays true but since the handle is tapered I had to do a lot of leveling... of the straightedge, judge the amount of taper with the level, and level the blade. This gives lots of indexing opportunity with so many lines and numbers to check in to. One eyeball at a time... left and right both. I also lay on the floor and look up, then another look from above. Sure hope it works, the first one appears to be dead on after doing it this way. I'll be checking it often.

So if anyone wants to know... I got confirmation from a member in Japan (subforum regional communities) that the kanji characters in the previous post are correct (ain't bladeforums great or what?) and will be doing a little calligraphy on the saya. Clients initials, kanji and willow leaves.

I received my Norton Waterstone kit with 2 combo stones 3x8" at 220/1000 and 4000/8000 and a flattening stone and was wondering... since the edges of both are around .002 should I start at 1000? Do I gain anything by using the 4000 in between? The videos seem to go 1000/8000. Thanks in advance.

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The benefit of going 1000-4000-8000 is the 8000 will have a little less work to do if you use the 4000. On this grind, that can be significant. I go 1000 to 5000 and call it done, but 8000 is good.
 
Stacy your last kind comment means a ton to me. Thank you sincerely, and you too Brock for the patient guidance, and giving thanks to all the others who helped me along the way.

Here are the two together, nearly finished. A Very Long Thanksgiving weekend of sharpening and polishing on the waterstones, these are VERY sharp. I can drop one on a 5/8” carrot from about 3” and it slices through. By far the sharpest knives I've ever held in my hands for sure.

Learning to use the waterstones was a new adventure but I seemed to take to it after all the videos and reading, the repetition is quite therapeutic as Stacy said in his great WIP. I did get bit on 3 fingers and didn’t even know it until I saw the stones turning a weird color.

However, I do have issues with the polishing aspect. No matter how I go about (lengthwise, angles, or perpendicular I still get very tiny "facets", mostly toward the tip. In other words the scratch patterns aren't uniform, almost smeared looking. Any advice there? In lengthwise mode I've mostly been pushing, could pulling work better?

I did see a new-to-me video where a guy was using "finger stones" looked like small pieces of polishing sticks, which I have, but these are now so sharp I'm leery of working close to the edge, but I'll do it if that's the solution.

The dark one is currently hand sanded to 2000 grit, my normal stopping point for outdoor knives and looks great. The light one is "polished" on stones and exhibits the issue noted above, relatively minor but still bugging me.

The saya with the willow leaves near the mouth developed a crack right at one willow stem :( so I'll be replacing that one. I turned my retainer pins tapered on a drill press with sandpaper and the thong tubes are copper lined.

Here’s a couple of 1 minute youtube cutting links. Please be kind these are my first ever videos of any sort. The phone book paper caught the blade a couple of times but rest assured when I’m not so nervous I can cut ¼” strips of phone book paper from stem to stern and feather the edges easily.



By the way I got the salmon at a regular supermarket, it will be cooked since I don't know if sashimi grade fish is handled differently.;)
And a couple of pics
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Thanks a lot Richard338 Richard338 I realized something last night though, I'm ruined as a knifemaker because I'll be comparing every edge on regular outdoor knives to these ones and they won't measure up!;)
 
Finger stones scare the heck out of me. I have hazuya and jizuya for working the hamon on a sword. Using these tiny flat stones on a thumb or finger tip right next to the razor sharp edge is sphincter tightening to say the least. I have watched videos of the togi masters with their fingers lying around like crazy right on the edge. It is a miracle they have any fingers left. I would love to see one of their fingerprints :) - mine are crazy scarred up from years of tiny cuts.

Side story:
I was getting fingerprinted once for something governmental and the guy said I would have to come back, because there were too many "anomalies" in my fingerprints. I told him they would always be there. They made me come back in three weeks and the fingerprints were no better, so they kept them as they were. I commented that in a year, they would be different and he said that was impossible. His boss overheard and came over to look. He looked at the fingerprints and then looked at my hands. Missing one fingertip, one finger sewn back on at the first joint, old cuts and many new small cuts, splits/cracks in the thumb tips from working hard/polishing and scrubbing up many times a day.…. and made a note on the card - "scarring will made determination difficult."
 
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