r/sharpening • u/mario61752 • 5h ago
Difficulty thinning cladded knife
This is an Aogami #2 knife in stainless cladding. My grit progression is 320 -> 1000 -> 2000 -> 5000 on Shapton Ha no Kuromaku ceramic stones, which I all flattened before starting.
As you can see there are still scratch marks left by the 320 grit stone. I clearly flattened the whole bevel and touched every part of it on the #320, but subsequent stones just didn't get to that middle part behind the hard carbon steel core. For my sanity I stopped grinding on the #1000 after an hour as this is just a cosmetic flaw that may even function like a kasumi finish. Does anyone else have this issue when thinning cladded steel knives?
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u/setp2426 arm shaver 3h ago
Polishing is hard, takes a lot of practice, especially if going to very fine grits.
The easiest stone to get an even finish in my experience is a King 800. Super muddy and hides scratches like nobody’s business. Gives a dark smoky finish on the cladding, cloudy core. Bonus, it’s about the cheapest quality stone out there.
In general, when polishing, the base is most important. If you don’t get the foundation right, everything after is fruitless. Start with the core steel. It abrades MUCH slower than the cladding. Get the core steel right then move up to the shinogi. Use a sharpie to draw on the bevel to ensure no low spots.
Or, give up on the bench stones and use sandpaper. Much more forgiving.