Santoku grind

JTknives

JTknives

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Jun 11, 2006
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I am working on wanting to do a batch of nice kitchen knives and on the list is a santoku. but i'm wondering how i would do the little grinds on the edge bevel. any ideas or tips
 
You could do it many different ways IMO. A full flat grind, flat grind, scandi grind and chisel grind would all work nicely. I am not sure on hollow but my preference would be full flat. If you mean scandi, Dan Koster had a thread on how he set up his work rest at the right angle.
 
I've hollow ground Santoku blades with good results. Most are flat, a scandi type grind isn't going to make for a fine slicing tool. If you mean the serrations on the bevel, I would skip them, most of the people I've met who actually use their santoku knives sharpen them constantly. If you're talking about the scallops then I can't help you, I've never put them on a knife.
 
JTknives said:
I am working on wanting to do a batch of nice kitchen knives and on the list is a santoku. but i'm wondering how i would do the little grinds on the edge bevel. any ideas or tips
Click to expand...

JT, are you talking about the acallops allong the blade just behind the edge? If you are then they can be done with a rounded wheel on a surface grinder. just radius the wheel to the profile that gives you the shape that you want/like. do some test grinds on a piece of scrap. that being said, after visiting a dozen or more Hocho makers in japan and at least that many of the factories the only santoku that I saw with these on the blades were of western design. None of the tradtionaly made knives that I saw had these and all of the makers that were grinding by hand had a convex or chisel ground blade.
 
I did my scallops like this, full flat grind, then mark line edge with black marker, along the black line marked where i wanted them to go or to evenly space them apart, set the blade in a jig I made so the "scallop" remained consistent, width and height, then still using the black marked line, did a scandi grind from there to the edge, hope that made sense...


Sorry forgot say i did the scallops with a 1/2" wheel
 
Maybe you could use a star wheel dresser to get a fine grit grinding wheel to that shape? I don't know really, but from the Shun santoku I have (which I really like) I have not noticed that those scallops do all that much to break the "suction" of sliced or chopped food sticking to the blade. Maybe just a little.
 
They are mostly marketing tools. The amount of "suction" on a blade is probably very little. The amount of "sticking" is higher. Thus the reduced surface area may help a little, but not all that much. What the Granton edge does is make a large flat surface look better. Other techniques to handle large flat surfaces are: Satin finish ( very common), Leaving on parallel grinding lines ( not my favorite, yuk), jeweling (one of my favorites), and damascus san-mai ( The best looking for a santoku).
At the factory, the scallops are cut in with a large diameter 1/4" wheel and a jig that moves the blade for each cut.

To do it by hand, try this:
Make a 12" plywood wheel for your grinder. Taper the edge to 1/4" rounded edge. Mount it on the grinder with a 400 grit J-flex belt. Tension the belt so the belt bends around the small edge wheel. Run the grinder slow.
Mark the blade with a sharpie where the cuts will be. Mount the blade on a board, so the center line of the scallops is parallel to the board edge. Use the grinder rest to move the board to each cut, thus keeping the height on the blade even. Do this before final sanding, after HT.
It is worth a try if you intend to do this often.

Stacy
 
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