Saturday, December 6, 2014

No senseless Sen

I was trying to convince Jason of sending me a Sen, but I guess I was too subtle. He said something like "you need to make yours."

A bummer because I have no welding machine nor forge in the flat.

Enters old chisel that I could not sharpen properly, the edge seemed a tad too soft.  Does't have a handle either so today I said, what the heck, let's try it. My idea was simply to take the rust off from where the stone didn't reach.

It works.


Not only the rust but some metal too.


I use two hands, but the angle is something like this


Compare to the steal near the handle, where I didn't sen.


The saw was resting on the bench, so the handle worked as a stop.

This is really hard work. Real slow. Hard on the hands too. I will make handles during the week.

But it looks nice, really nice.


A slight mirror finish and the lovely marks of a hand on it. Traces, I like to call them, traces of humanity.

\

I think she's happy, at least cleaner than last week. 


2 comments:

  1. This Nomi could be dedicated to use as Sen by creating an obtuse (75^), and skewed (60^, say) edge and used with a 270 mm x 35 mm D slick handle. The chip would slightly resemble steel wool - well tiny wood shavings or scrapings anyway - used like steelwool. Address the blade by raising to 2 -4 ^ angle.

    Work both sides equally.

    Very hard wood dai (bench) or stand) or steel, and flat.

    Keep shavings out (dai clean)

    De-Magnitiser helpful.


    The blade thickness is "measured" by flexing the blade. Dozuki blades without the back will bend into a deep U shape.

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  2. To recondition a rested blade, a better tool is a patch (30 x 40 mm) 36 grit sanding belt piece, held to the blade by friction under a small section of bicycle tire mounted on a wood T shaped handle, the top bar of the T being 210 mm and the vertical being 40 or so mm, just enough to allow your knuckles to clear a benchtop for example, when gripping. Used with Sen Dai.

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