Hair whittling edge from slurry polishing (vid)

Magnaminous_G

Magnaminous_G

Joined
Jul 13, 2011
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Today I was finishing up this beautiful John Kiedaisch knife in 1/16” O1 on a slurry created with a natural Japanese chalk nagura on an Arashiyama 6k water stone… and decided, heck, I might as well make a vid of it. Stropped with kangaroo leather on glass. I was content to get to hair-splitting sharp… but then decided to spend one more minute with the strop to get to hair-whittling.

Note: I would not have gone as far as hair whittling if this was just for me. There’s no point, but alas, I know that that’s what people want to see here. And how refined you can reasonably take an edge depends on the knife and the steel (and the intended use). This knife can take it, and it's intended use is food prep, so it's suitable to the knife and the use. I feel that I can tell a lot about a knife from sharpening it, and I’m guessing this is at 60 rockwell or so with a nice, refined grain. John has an excellent heat treat.

Note: the gradual disintegration of the slurry is 100% intentional. The right consistency of slurry is very important for the initial polishing. For the deburring, it’s not important, and the slurry can be destroyed at that point.


Available in HD! (viewable ~30 minutes after posting this thread)
[youtube]NsDHoRNPcUA[/youtube]
 
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Neat stuff.

What stone / grit do you use before it? I heard the Arashiyama 6k behaves more like a 8k than a 6k stone, and maybe a better polishing than sharpening stone. Can you jump from a 1k stone to it or does it need a go between?
 
That is a beautiful video. I don't know if I could ever have the skill, focus, and patience to do that, but this video makes me want to try.

Andrew
 
looker said:
Neat stuff.

What stone / grit do you use before it? I heard the Arashiyama 6k behaves more like a 8k than a 6k stone, and maybe a better polishing than sharpening stone. Can you jump from a 1k stone to it or does it need a go between?
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Thanks, glad you enjoyed. I jumped from an Arashiyama 1k. But I have to admit, the more I work with these water stones, the more I find myself seriously considering an in-between stone -- probably a 3k or 4k. Maybe knifenut will chime in and give me a good recommendation.

As for your other question, yes, you definitely want to have all the real work of sharpening done before you reach for a 6k stone.


HeavyHanded said:
Nice Vid! Your stone-work technique gets better every time.

Martin
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Thanks, Marty! Of course, it's much faster and easier with the Washboard, but I like to work on the old-timey methods from time to time, too.


AFAustin said:
That is a beautiful video. I don't know if I could ever have the skill, focus, and patience to do that, but this video makes me want to try.

Andrew
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Thank you, glad you enjoyed. It's a labor of love and pure enjoyment to do all the work with just your stones and an unloaded strop. It's also the best practice for freehand sharpening, hands down. You have total control, but it's also unforgiving and highlights every mistake you make. That's good if you want to improve your technique and your understanding of sharpening, even if you decide to later use a guided system or powerful compounds, both of which I do use.
 
Nice work! Where did you get such a large and awesome looking nagura?

Slurry polishing is a whole new part of waterstone sharpening, before you know it you will be chasing natural waterstones and kasumi polishes :)

As for a middle stone, the blue Aoto, Nubatama 1200, or the always awesome Naniwa 2k "green brick" would be excellent options.
 
@magnanimous_g, thanks for the follow up. I was worried the Arashiyama 6k reputation for behaving like an 8k stone, might be too much for a 1k jump.

@knifenut1013, I'll look into your medium stone suggestions if i opt for the Arashiyama. Alternatively, any thoughts on the Suehiro 5k or suggestions on a 5/6k stone ( that can follow a 1k stone without a bridge), and a 8/10k finishing stone. Thanks.
 
Depends on the stones you are trying to follow, they are all a bit different and some don't mix as well as others.
 
Chris "Anagarika";12588868 said:
Mag,

Just when I thought I have enough sharpening videos, you came up with this :D

Going to download the HD ;), thanks!
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Hi Chris. Hope you enjoy. :)


knifenut1013 said:
Nice work! Where did you get such a large and awesome looking nagura?

Slurry polishing is a whole new part of waterstone sharpening, before you know it you will be chasing natural waterstones and kasumi polishes :)

As for a middle stone, the blue Aoto, Nubatama 1200, or the always awesome Naniwa 2k "green brick" would be excellent options.
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Hi knifenut. I got the nagura from Di Legno Supply. As for the J-nats, DON'T ENCOURAGE MY AD! For a middle stone, what do you think about the 3k Shapton Glass (since I'm already "accidentally" getting a 500 Shapton Glass to go between my Omura 150 and my Arashiyama 1k)? Or the Naniwa Super Stone 3k? Or would the 2k stones be a better option between the two Arashiyamas?
 
knifenut1013 said:
Depends on the stones you are trying to follow, they are all a bit different and some don't mix as well as others.
Click to expand...

I'm currently using the 1200grit King from Lee Valley, *but will likely replace it with something like the Bester 1200 in the near future.
 
Mag,

Like I mentioned mixing different stones does not always work. The stones I recommended would do best with the stones you have. The 3k SS for example will polish as high as a 6k Arashiyama and is a completely different type of stone just like the GS that are again completely different.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Mag,

Like I mentioned mixing different stones does not always work. The stones I recommended would do best with the stones you have. The 3k SS for example will polish as high as a 6k Arashiyama and is a completely different type of stone just like the GS that are again completely different.
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"Green Brick of Joy" it is then. :D
 
Nice job! :thumbup:

I didn't see it mentioned, is the kangaroo leather plain, or do you have something on it?
 
Chris "Anagarika";12594237 said:
Mag,

You didn't talk much, but totally enjoyable! :D
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Thanks! :D As for the talking, I talk enough in my other vids, probably too much. Anyway, there's enough "experts" on this subforum who talk/write enough for all of us already.

There are precious few of us willing to put our skills where our keyboards are and demonstrate our sharpening for all to see. Which also opens one to critique and thus improvement. My technical mistakes and knowledge/theory gaps were pointed out in earlier vids, and I am better for it. I hope I continue to receive constructive criticism and continue to improve.
 
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