Well, this post should be interesting. I had the chance to use a number of old and new tools and come up with some new techniques. I could write a bunch of separate little reviews, but I thought I'd just put it all here.
I was slicing paper thin slices of cucumber and red peppers, using my damascus clad Moritaka nakiri. I put them together adding some rice vinegar, a bit of chili peppers and some finely diced preserved 'Buddha's hand', which is a odd shaped lemon that's quite zesty and aromatic, adding some of the brine olive oil mix that it's preserved in. I rinsed and dried the knife off, leaving it on the cutting board and leaving the kitchen. My wife had just come home (I picked her up) and she decided to come into the kitchen just after I left it and promptly grabbed my nakiri and hacked her way through a rock hard stale baguette with it !!
Well, she chipped the edge badly in two spots and bent it in two spots that didn't quite 'chip out'. Looking even closer, the whole edge was all chipped up. I wasn't pleased. But I figured it was an opportunity to make it better than it was. Time to break in some new toys
So I decided to do a 50/50 bevel at 7 degrees per side, now that I KNEW it would never be used to make croutons.
I started out with my new DMT 11 inch extra course, a 220 grit plate. I used the Panavice setup for this (the one for holding long stones - pics on request). It worked VERY well. This is a very thin knife, so it went fast, but did put some scratches a bit above the bevel. There was no need to go to the XXC. This may be from some of the initial loose diamonds cleaving off or some irregularities in the surface of the knife or both. I used the DMT initially dry and then rinsed it several times during the session. It is as expected - between the XXC and Coarse stones.
I followed this with the DMT coarse then the GlassStone 500. At 500 I already had a mirrored edge. I'm really impressed with how nice the finish is with the 500 GS and how quickly it occurs after the DMT coarse. I then went to the 1k and then 2k GlassStones. It was easily push cutting at this point, but there were still some scratches above the 7 degree bevel.
I had previously taken some grit taken from flattening a Naniwa 2k (IR-0260), which is a mix of natural and artificial stone. I had smeared this grit on a sheet of copy paper and let it dry out, storing it in a ziploc. I cut some small strips of this and used it to sand the scratches above the bevel, using my finger as a flexible padding behind the paper. It quickly cleaned the metal, removing a bit of patina and gradually removing most of the scratches without affecting the Damascus. With patience I could have removed more, but it works quite well BUT you have to be fully mindful or you could cut yourself badly doing this.
I retouched the edge again with the 2k GS, then went on to the 4k GS and 8k GS.
Then I jumped to the Naniwa 12k. The first impression is that it is definitely harder than the 10 k Naniwa in the same series. I had no problem using edge leading or trailing strokes with it. Did it feel better than the Naniwa 10 k? No not really. I wasn't too impressed. As some may recall, I had spilled a drop of grease on the stone and had flattened it extensively with a DMT XXC, so it was dead flat, but it just felt a bit rough, not quite that buttery smooth feeling of the Naniwa 10k.
Well, I got another toy - A DMT XXF 8000 grit plate. I decided to 'break in' the plate on the Naniwa 12k, 'polishing' the stone surface with it and leaving this ultrafine particulate on the stone. BIG DIFFERENCE ! ! !
Now the stone felt finer than the 10k Naniwa. This slight bit of refinement totally brought out the true character of the stone! I finished with this refined surface of the Naniwa 12k and it produced an exceptional edge, push cutting out at 2 inches. I'm a happy guy
This change in character of the stone surface of the Nanmmwa 12k with the 8000 DMT really impressed me.
I really didn't feel the need to strop at all.
At no point during the entire proedure did I do any burr removal, however I inspected it regularly, only once noticing the slightest of burrs at 4k under 15x magnification.
The bevels weren't as crisply precise as they could be using the 'GIZMO', but the Panavice approach worked for the 11 inch plate and Naniwa 12k with a base and I didn't want this review
to be confused as a Gizmo review, but more a combined review of the DMT XC, DMT XXF and the Naniwa 12k Superstone and a new use for me for cleaning up the side of a knife with grit laden copypaper. I've been impressed with this grit laden paper backed by a glass plate as producing an edge exceeding what you get directly from the stone, quite possibly due to the extra flatness and more finely ground grit 'prechewed' compared to it's state on the stone.
The idea of using the 8k DMT really sprung from a discussion with Blok regarding the use of the Atoma 1200 to generate a nagura like effect with natural stones, a trick that So uses. Thank you for that idea. That it changed the surface characteristics so dramatically came as a complete surprise.
---
Ken
I was slicing paper thin slices of cucumber and red peppers, using my damascus clad Moritaka nakiri. I put them together adding some rice vinegar, a bit of chili peppers and some finely diced preserved 'Buddha's hand', which is a odd shaped lemon that's quite zesty and aromatic, adding some of the brine olive oil mix that it's preserved in. I rinsed and dried the knife off, leaving it on the cutting board and leaving the kitchen. My wife had just come home (I picked her up) and she decided to come into the kitchen just after I left it and promptly grabbed my nakiri and hacked her way through a rock hard stale baguette with it !!
Well, she chipped the edge badly in two spots and bent it in two spots that didn't quite 'chip out'. Looking even closer, the whole edge was all chipped up. I wasn't pleased. But I figured it was an opportunity to make it better than it was. Time to break in some new toys
So I decided to do a 50/50 bevel at 7 degrees per side, now that I KNEW it would never be used to make croutons.
I started out with my new DMT 11 inch extra course, a 220 grit plate. I used the Panavice setup for this (the one for holding long stones - pics on request). It worked VERY well. This is a very thin knife, so it went fast, but did put some scratches a bit above the bevel. There was no need to go to the XXC. This may be from some of the initial loose diamonds cleaving off or some irregularities in the surface of the knife or both. I used the DMT initially dry and then rinsed it several times during the session. It is as expected - between the XXC and Coarse stones.
I followed this with the DMT coarse then the GlassStone 500. At 500 I already had a mirrored edge. I'm really impressed with how nice the finish is with the 500 GS and how quickly it occurs after the DMT coarse. I then went to the 1k and then 2k GlassStones. It was easily push cutting at this point, but there were still some scratches above the 7 degree bevel.
I had previously taken some grit taken from flattening a Naniwa 2k (IR-0260), which is a mix of natural and artificial stone. I had smeared this grit on a sheet of copy paper and let it dry out, storing it in a ziploc. I cut some small strips of this and used it to sand the scratches above the bevel, using my finger as a flexible padding behind the paper. It quickly cleaned the metal, removing a bit of patina and gradually removing most of the scratches without affecting the Damascus. With patience I could have removed more, but it works quite well BUT you have to be fully mindful or you could cut yourself badly doing this.
I retouched the edge again with the 2k GS, then went on to the 4k GS and 8k GS.
Then I jumped to the Naniwa 12k. The first impression is that it is definitely harder than the 10 k Naniwa in the same series. I had no problem using edge leading or trailing strokes with it. Did it feel better than the Naniwa 10 k? No not really. I wasn't too impressed. As some may recall, I had spilled a drop of grease on the stone and had flattened it extensively with a DMT XXC, so it was dead flat, but it just felt a bit rough, not quite that buttery smooth feeling of the Naniwa 10k.
Well, I got another toy - A DMT XXF 8000 grit plate. I decided to 'break in' the plate on the Naniwa 12k, 'polishing' the stone surface with it and leaving this ultrafine particulate on the stone. BIG DIFFERENCE ! ! !
Now the stone felt finer than the 10k Naniwa. This slight bit of refinement totally brought out the true character of the stone! I finished with this refined surface of the Naniwa 12k and it produced an exceptional edge, push cutting out at 2 inches. I'm a happy guy
This change in character of the stone surface of the Nanmmwa 12k with the 8000 DMT really impressed me.
I really didn't feel the need to strop at all.
At no point during the entire proedure did I do any burr removal, however I inspected it regularly, only once noticing the slightest of burrs at 4k under 15x magnification.
The bevels weren't as crisply precise as they could be using the 'GIZMO', but the Panavice approach worked for the 11 inch plate and Naniwa 12k with a base and I didn't want this review
to be confused as a Gizmo review, but more a combined review of the DMT XC, DMT XXF and the Naniwa 12k Superstone and a new use for me for cleaning up the side of a knife with grit laden copypaper. I've been impressed with this grit laden paper backed by a glass plate as producing an edge exceeding what you get directly from the stone, quite possibly due to the extra flatness and more finely ground grit 'prechewed' compared to it's state on the stone.
The idea of using the 8k DMT really sprung from a discussion with Blok regarding the use of the Atoma 1200 to generate a nagura like effect with natural stones, a trick that So uses. Thank you for that idea. That it changed the surface characteristics so dramatically came as a complete surprise.
---
Ken
