Honyaki White #1 Steel Knife – Restoration in Progress

Today, I worked on the sharpening repair of a Shiroichi-ko Mizu Honyaki that had been with me for a long time.

The main task was removing the Itohiki edge, as the blade had thickened over time.

As I was sharpening, the kiriba started to shine, so I brought in natural whetstones to bring out the unique hamon characteristic of Honyaki blades!

I used natural whetstones solely to bring out the hamon, but… that turned out to be a mistake.

As you can see in the photo, the hamon did appear, but at the cost of some mysterious scratches showing up.

Looking back, I probably should have just continued polishing it for a clean finish…

I’ll take my time restoring it, but for today, this is where I’m leaving it!

2018-07-17