Kishubusshin-鬼手仏心

Today, I performed Honbazuke on a deba knife that will be used at home.

The customer often goes fishing at offshore ponds, catching plenty of red sea bream and yellowtail. They chose a Kishubusshin for its great edge retention and well-balanced feel—easy for women to handle as well.

First, I set the initial bevel using a diamond stone.
Smoothing out any steps in the grind at this stage makes the later sharpening much easier.

From the middle of the blade towards the heel, the natural Hamaguri (clamshell) shape forms on its own, so leaving some steps there is fine. But for a clean finish, careful sharpening around the curved tip is essential.

For this session, I followed #325 with a #3000 finishing stone—a new stone with decent cutting power. It feels somewhat like a #3000-grit Kitayama, if I had to compare.

One common issue with high-cutting-power stones is this…

As shown in the photo, step marks appear, even at #3000 grit.
This often happens with Chosera, Shapton, and other aggressive stones.
To remove them, I gently and patiently smooth them out.

Once that’s done, I move on to the final polishing stage using a finer finishing stone.

I jumped from #3000 straight to #10,000 for polishing.
The finish looks shiny and razor-sharp, but if left as the final edge, the blade would glide too smoothly over the fish.

The customer would likely say:
“It cuts newspaper effortlessly… but maybe not the best for fish?”

This kind of finish is meant to be followed by Itohiki sharpening.

Once a knife leaves my hands, there’s nothing more I can do—so it always makes me a little nervous.

For home use, I usually try to take extra precautions, but since they chose Kishubusshin, I want them to experience its full potential!

By the way, fish from offshore fishing ponds tend to have fattier flesh, maybe due to their diet…
Maybe I should have prioritized edge bite a little more… That’s one small regret.

• 2020-03-06