What do you do with a wonky chopper

[taz575]

Ah, gotcha! Do they have the equivalent of 1x30 or 2x42 belt sanders over there? Coarse belts will make quick work and then you can go to stones from there to smooth it out.

[XexoX]

I think Altadan is in Israel, maybe he knows of someone there that could help. He hasn't logged in since 11/1/2023 though.

[Kekoa]

Nice investigation so far GiftRadish, keep us updated on how continued work goes, I'm quite curious to see how it turns out. I wonder if for thinning you could get a sanding belt or sandpaper then clamp it to a piece of glass so that you can get something very coarse and not worry about wearing down any of your sharpening stones in the process. I have been thinking about trying something like that for thinning experimentation myself.

[gladius]

I picked up one a few weeks ago and it is a great value. Mine came in straight with an even grind. It took a typical good white steel no. 2 edge and is a good performer. Not up to the level of Sugimoto Virgin Carbon Steel but for $60 quite nice. Sorry yours is "wonky" but every time you work on it, it will get better and it is a fun project.

[aporigine]

Nice investigation so far GiftRadish, keep us updated on how continued work goes, I'm quite curious to see how it turns out. I wonder if for thinning you could get a sanding belt or sandpaper then clamp it to a piece of glass so that you can get something very coarse and not worry about wearing down any of your sharpening stones in the process. I have been thinking about trying something like that for thinning experimentation myself.

This.
I did most of my thinning using 100-grit ceramic paper (part of a belt) glued to some thick MDF before moving to a 120 Shapton Pro and a 220 Imanishi.

My blade road is not entirely evened out, but the blade is thinner behind the edge, and (except for two small chips) is very sharp coming off a Chosera 400 and a Shapton 1000 and some stropping (bovine + 1 micron CBN).

I’ll take it back to the sandpaper/coarse stones progression soon, no doubt. But even with the blade road only “half done” the cleaver is doing good work on ingredients from potato to bread.

[taz575]

If it's a san mai clad blade, you may be able to file the bevel smoother on the cladded portion? Cladding is usually softer steel and can be filed. I would use a draw filing motion and it should knock down the high spots fairly quickly. It looks like they took several passes with a small diameter grinding wheel and never blended the facets on the bevel together. The bead/sand blasting can hide those flaws, but when you put it on a flat surface, they show up.

Even a 4x36 belt sander would be able to clean that up enough to go to the stones. Or a handheld 3x21 belt sander clamped in a vise would work.

[GiftRadish]

Thanks all for the advice! Most people live in apartments here and tools are expensive, so not so easy to find someone with a belt sander who'll let me use it for free. The DMT diamond plate made surprisingly quick work when I tried it so I'll see how quickly it goes with that before I start asking around.

[GiftRadish]

I picked up one a few weeks ago and it is a great value. Mine came in straight with an even grind. It took a typical good white steel no. 2 edge and is a good performer.

Thanks Gladius. Glad to hear it's not an issue on your end, maybe it was a batch issue. It gives me confidence that it's superficial and not a problem with the underlying materials, design, heat treatment etc. it's been putting in good work - used it today to dice a hard sweet potato and finely sliced some scallions, and I'm happy with it, just think there's still room for improvement.

It does look like the primary bevel wanders a little bit on yours as well, if I'm not mistaken, which would indicate some inconsistency of the grind along the length of the blade, but in any case I don't think that's a problem nearly so much as the shape of the grind itself.