Resurrection of small Ajikiri...

Hello.

Some time ago, owner of that Ajikiri sent me an email about making a new handle and sharpening his blade. I asked him to send me a picture of his blade and then I was shocked. The knife was in very bad condition. It was covered by very deep rust, there was no tip at all, the handle was cracked and bent and I could see some chips on the edge.

Later on, few weeks later, I recieved package with the knife. When I opened it, I was bewildered. It looked the way worse than on the pictures. Here you can see what I saw:

As you can see, the situation is very bad. I was very close to send it back to it's owner but I decided to check what can I do.

My first step was to check how deep rust dug in to the blade so I started with 40 grit sand paper and WD-40. On picture below you can see that top flat face of the blade is cleaner now. It's not bad.

 The thing which is worrying me most is the tang. This part of the knife was the reason why I thought about sending it back to it's owner. The rust almost ate the tang. The very rear of this part is so thin, that you can bend it with no problem.

 More sanding paper and WD-40.

 Now take a look on the ''Ura'' side - the back of the knife. This is another crucial part of single bevel knives. Here you can see that ''hollow'' is not visible and it's still have many spots and rust marks.

Then I took the blade to the stones and cleaned the bevel. I didn't mean to remove chips on the edge, but only to see where am I standing and is it worth to repair it.

 Quick Oohira Range suita finish:

And the back of the knife. Here you can see that I was actually removing metal from outer edge of the knife. That's good.

I had to clean the tang with Dremel tool and wire brush.

Now it is the time to fix the grind. I have risked using belt grinder. I have marked what I have to remove.

Bevel straight from the belt sander. Also you can notice that tip is not rounded anymore.

I worked even more on the back side. You can see some dark spots on the very tip. It's not good because edge will crush if meet dark holes.

Before gluing new handle I decided to clean the tang one more time with Dremel tool...

...and I used my girlfriends nail laquer to cover the tang. The reason for that is that I wanted to protect it from air and water. Wood which I used for handle is stabilised and shouldn't get moist inside but there is possibility that glue will not cover the tang evenly. Nail laquer will work as extra protection.

 Now with handle glued it I am making last corrections of the grind.

 And there you go!! Full resurrection of small ajikiri.

I am very proud that I manage to repair that knife. I don't know anybody who would even consider repairing it and this is why I am very happy. It was very good lesson for me.