The Sharpening Guy

Before photo (in comments) and after video of a makeover I did on a Damascus clad gyuto I thinned/reground, re-etched, and sharpened. Due to improper sharpening, you can see in the before photo how little of the core steel was exposed, and how thick the knife had become behind the edge. By thinning the knife back out, I was able to restore proper cross section blade geometry to the knife and bring it back to optimal cutting performance. You can see how far the cladding line moved up the side of the blade when I thinned it back out.

Before photos (in comments) and after videos of a worn out and beat up yanagiba that came in for restoration. The ura was convex in places, the blade road was almost nonexistent, the blade profile and shinogi line both had a reverse curve in them, and the blade was warped. Once I straightened the blade out, I removed the handle and then completely reground both the ura to restore it’s hollow grind and then reground the blade road to restore proper cross section blade geometry to the knife as well as cleaned up the rest of the blade. I then re-attached the handle and obviously sharpened the knife. The knife is too short to really be used as a yanagiba at this point, but it can be used as a sweet petty knife.

Before photos (in comments) and after video. Most of the homemade knives people send in for sharpening have either very little blade grind at all, and what they do have is really thick and uneven. This knife was no exception. I reground the wide bevels to thin the blade out behind the cutting edge and to get them nice and even before sharpening the actual edge. Without doing this, knives like this wouldn’t cut through things very well even if the edge was sharp. I didn’t polish much, only to a satin finish on the wide bevels since that was similar to the rest of the blade. This knife will now definitely cut way better than it did when it was new.

Fresh regrind and sharpen on this gyuto.

This was an old rusted butcher knife that I restored for a customer. I completely reground the wide bevels, polished the blade, and finally put an insanely sharp edge on it. I’m sure it is now sharper than it has ever been before.

Major thinning and regrind on this Takeda. This knife will definitely perform better than when it was new.

Did a nice thinning and sharpening on this gyuto recently. Imagine what I could do with your knives.