I bought a book to learn hiragana, so need to practise.
Urashite (うらして), pronounced ura-shi-te, is the process of taking a shitty ura and making it into a decent shite.
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| From shite to blade in 2 hours |
There's not much info in the internets of how to do it. Some people use a dremel. Tanaka just shows the result. I use a hand cranked grinder.
Why a hand cranked grinder? Because I have one and it works. I don't have a dremel so no way to use that one.
This is my setup:
Half japanese, half a mess. I clamp the grinder to a piece of wood so I can sit in front to it. With one hand I hold the blade, with the other I turn, and with the third one I take pictures. That's the movement I do.
As you see the grinder is quite small, but don't let that deter you.
Just keep a steady hand and swingle on top of the grinder. At low speed. Also, don't clean the grinder, the rust in the pores will make for a slower and more controlled grinding process.
Start from the middle and then swing to the sides, you eventually learn to see where the wheel is cutting. Your body gets use to it quite fast. It's more precise than what you would expect. Grind a bit, from the centre towards the sides of the blade, once the dirt is gone, check with a source of light for the reflections, they tell you the shape of the ura. Also use a flat diamond stone to see the flats.
Look at the right side. It is under level but the curvature is not right. There is a line of light between the two valleys. I will fix it next time.
The centre is easily concave. The diffusion pattern tells you that.
And the other side. Here you can see I have another flat next to the "real" flat at the side.
And the edge. Since there is not much hagane left here I am not going all the way down.
Half japanese, half a mess. I clamp the grinder to a piece of wood so I can sit in front to it. With one hand I hold the blade, with the other I turn, and with the third one I take pictures. That's the movement I do.
As you see the grinder is quite small, but don't let that deter you.
Just keep a steady hand and swingle on top of the grinder. At low speed. Also, don't clean the grinder, the rust in the pores will make for a slower and more controlled grinding process.
Start from the middle and then swing to the sides, you eventually learn to see where the wheel is cutting. Your body gets use to it quite fast. It's more precise than what you would expect. Grind a bit, from the centre towards the sides of the blade, once the dirt is gone, check with a source of light for the reflections, they tell you the shape of the ura. Also use a flat diamond stone to see the flats.
Look at the right side. It is under level but the curvature is not right. There is a line of light between the two valleys. I will fix it next time.
The centre is easily concave. The diffusion pattern tells you that.
And the other side. Here you can see I have another flat next to the "real" flat at the side.
And the edge. Since there is not much hagane left here I am not going all the way down.
That's it. I made around ten rounds of grinding, lapping, checking. A bit of tapping the back also when lapping. Just keep on moving, slowly.
Oh yeah, and I may have made out うらして, so don't quote me.
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