Sharpening Part 20 – Flattening and Polishing the Ura

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Your most humble and obedient servant began this post with the elegant sonnet quoted above, indisputably one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry ever written in the English language, instead of the usual pithy proverbs of Red Green, that Great Canadian Philosopher-Handyman and erudite Leader of Possum Lodge, just to show Gentle Readers how refined we at C&S Tools can be when no one is watching (ツ). But sadly we must now pause all such elegant distractions for a time to focus on the nuts-and-bolts of how to true the ura of a Japanese woodworking blade, the first step in making it sharp.

This tutorial is rather wordy because Beloved Customers sometimes find the task of managing the ura difficult at first. Indeed, while truing the ura of Japanese chisels and planes is a simple task, it’s one many get wrong the first time, occasionally resulting in emotional damage to both blade and it’s owner. I know it almost drove me non compos mentis the first few times I tried, but now that my psychiatric team has stumbled onto the right mix of meds, and Doctor Alonzo has released your humble servant from that unflattering canvas straight jacket, Beloved Customers have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Rejoice!

So let’s get to it.

Important General Principles

All standard chisel blades and plane blades, whether Japanese or Western, need to have a planar flat or ura that it will be in contact with the sharpening stones its full width, and ideally, full length. Perfection is not necessary, however, so don’t let yourself become obsessive; That way lies madness.

A few lost souls mistakenly assume (just before they go barking mad) that the ura’s lands must be all planar for the chisel to function, but such is not the case. Granted, it does make it easier to sharpen the blade, but it need not be achieved immediately, especially since a planar ura can be easily obtained gradually over multiple sharpening sessions.

If Beloved Customer’s chisel does not have a fully-planar set of lands surrounding the hollow-ground uratsuki when new, understand that it may be a hand-forged, hand-shaped, hand-sharpened tool with imperfections, and perhaps not a CAD-CAM designed, mass-produced, sharpened Chinese screwdriver. If so, please understand that this is not an aberration but is normal. However, if such natural irregularities distract to the point your eye starts twitching like that of Chief Inspector Dreyfus after spending time with Inspector Clouseau, perhaps hand-forged tools are not your cup of tea.

In any case, the chisel will work fine as-is if you are aware of the blades tendencies and compensate using your eyes and hands accordingly. After all, the chisel only does what you direct it do, so please pay attention and actually direct the blade instead of just going along for the ride while drinking adult beverages and smokin wacky-tabaccy in the back seat with Murphy. 〜(シ) 〜

If the plane formed by the ura’s lands is concave, the chisel will tend to undercut the end walls of a mortise, not difficult to avoid with some caution of the sort one must always exercise.

On the other hand (the one with 6 fingers) if the plane is convex, the chisel will tend to scoop away from the end walls of a mortise. All things considered, however, concave is far better than convex.

But whether concave or convex, such irregularities always exist to some degree from time to time in all chisels sharpened by hand. It is the craftsman’s job to manage his tools and find efficient ways to maintain them. Of course, this means we must strive to create and maintain a reasonably flat ura, so let’s consider some practical time-proven solutions that avoid wasting a lot of time, stone and steel, and at the same time don’t wear out the hollow at the ura in the process.

Let us begin by observing that the surface area (square millimeters) of the hard steel encompassed within the lands at the ura that we need to eventually make planar can be divided into three areas:

1. The land immediately adjacent the cutting edge (aka “itoura;)
2. The land where the neck meets the blade;
3. The two skinny side lands right and left of the ura.

The area that matters most when sharpening and cutting is the last couple of millimeters immediately behind the cutting edge.

The area near the neck matters not at all. This is an important point to grasp.

The side lands are important bearing surfaces for aligning the chisel in the cut, but they are less important than the cutting edge land. These we want to keep as skinny as possible as long as possible in order to preserve the ura thereby keeping the job of sharpening easier.

It’s important to realize sooner than later that as we wear out the skinny side lands, the ura will become shallower and the amount of hard steel we will need to sharpen/polish will drastically increase, which is inconvenient in so many ways. Sadly, too many people make their chisel’s side lands fat as a sumo wrestler soon after purchasing a chisel in their quest for the totally flat ura. Makes me wanna cry.

The cost-efficient and time-efficient solution is to make small corrections to the ura over multiple sharpening sessions thereby saving valuable time as well as expensive stones and steel while preserving the ura as long as possible. How to do this? Focus all your attention on the most important area, and patiently plan on accomplishing the job over 5~10 sharpening sessions, using the chisel in the meantime.

Don’t spend any effort correcting/polishing the ura full-length from cutting edge to neck, instead work the area behind the cutting edge on the stones (which must be flat). To do this, focus finger pressure nearest the cutting edge only. An effective approach is press down on the land nearest the cutting edge while moving the blade on the stones, while the rest of the blade hangs off the stone.

In other words, while pressing down with the fingertip(s) on the face of the blade (the surface opposite the ura with the brand on it) as near as possible to the cutting edge, move the last 5~15mm of the blade onto and off of the stone in a back-and-forth diagonal motion concentrating abrasion where it is needed most. This requires the ability to sense the balance of the blade on the stone, and to apply fingertip pressure where it is needed most. Wow, imagine that.. real hand skills. If you don’t have these skills now, they are easy to develop with concentration and practice.

During each subsequent sharpening session, increase the width of the area you work on the stones a tiny bit until the entire ura is flat and can be worked on the stones.

Through this technique and over multiple sharpening sessions, you will notice the ura’s lands will gradually become planar while only the lands nearest the cutting edge increase in width. Honest.

It helps to apply either marking pen ink or machinist’s blue to the blade to confirm whether or not you are applying pressure where it is need most and that abrasion is proceeding as desired.

Please also keep in mind that, when working the ura, in most cases, you should focus hand/finger pressure on the “ito-ura,” the land at the ura located right at the cutting edge, and almost no pressure elsewhere on the ura.

It is human nature to want to rely on the flatness of the ura’s lands to keep the blade flat on the stone, and therefore we tend to apply pressure at the midpoint of the back so that the pressure on the ura’s land is even at all points of contact. This feels good; It feels stable.

But if you consider the narrow width (and small area) of the hard steel exposed at the side lands compared to the lands at the ito-ura cutting edge and the corners of the blade, you will see why this technique will wear the skinny side lands quickly and prematurely.

Allow me to restate an important point: The goal therefore is to focus hand/finger pressure nearest the cutting with much less pressure focused on the sides lands preserving them, and the depth of the ura, as long as possible. This technique will also save time and expensive steel. It is an advanced skill, but one Beloved Customer should aim to perfect.

A detailed example follows.

Once the ura of your chisel is flat and true, you should not need to true it again unless the blade needs major repairs. Japanese plane blades, on the other hand, are a little more complicated because repeated sharpenings tend to gradually wear out the land right in front of the cutting edge, called the “ito ura,” and the bevel must be tapped-out to compensate, and the ura re-flattened. I won’t delve into the subject of “tapping out” the ura of plane blades in this post but a detailed explanation can be found in Part 30 of this series.

Evaluate the Ura

The first step in flattening or truing an ura is to evaluate its condition. Don’t start grinding away willy nilly without first checking it and making a plan. If you find you cannot stop yourself, don’t walk but run to the nearest pharmacy and buy a bucket of the medicine discussed in part 19 in this series about maintaining sharpening stones.

There are several ways to check the ura’s condition. A thin straightedge works well in most cases. Place the edge on top of the full length of the shiny land at one side of the ura all the way to the cutting edge. Keep the straightedge touching the land; Don’t let it span the hollow-ground urasuki. Hold the straightedge and blade up to a strong light source and look for light passing between them. This technique is quick and dirty and will suffice in most cases, but does not tell you a lot about twist.

Another method to check the ura for planar is to paint the shiny lands with dark marking pen ink or Dykem liquid, apply a bit of fine sharpening stone mud to a piece of flat glass, like the piece mentioned in Part 17, and rub the blade’s flat or ura over the glass. The high spots will become obvious. If the ura is banana shaped (convex), mark the high spot with your marking pen. More often than not, the ura of chisels will be generally flat, but the last 2mm or so of the cutting edge will be curved upwards towards the chisel’s face.

I learned two things from my examination of this atsunomi. First, there is a high spot (convex) at the skinny land on one side located approximately 1/2 to 5/8 the blades’ distance from the cutting edge. The land on the other side seems a little low. Hmm, curious. This is a bit unusual, but it happens when a blade warps during heat treat, which Shirogami steels tends to do frequently.

The second problem I observed was that the last 3~4mm of the itoura land right behind the cutting edge curves downward away from the ura just a tiny bit, enough to cause problems.

I next must formulate a plan to resolve these problems with a minimum of time and effort and without making things worse.

Make a Plan

The temptation to start grinding away immediately will be powerful. But… I must… resist… the… stupidity impulse!!

If it becomes too much, I’ll take a coffee cup or three of the medicine mentioned in the previous post and slather it on my head forcefully. Don’t hold back, for Pete’s sake, rub it in really good now. Some say my excessive use of this medicine is why I am as bald as an egg, but I prefer to believe it is caused by the high-intensity psychic waves radiating from my gigantic brain (ツ). Thank goodness for my aluminum foil skull cap with its artfully protruding copper wires or the radiating light might blind airline pilots passing overhead!

But getting back to practical matters, any plan needs goals and objectives. In this case the goal is a perfectly planar ura, but if this goal is difficult to achieve quickly there is an objective you should plan to achieve immediately in any case, one that may make it possible to achieve the larger goal over multiple routine sharpening sessions without any special effort.

As I keep harping, to make a chisel or plane work well, you need a flat area right at the cutting edge. This is where the cutting occurs and the area I need to keep sharp, so I will make creating this flat area the first objective in my plan, and then determine the steps to achieve it. Make certain every step in your plan and every stroke on the stones gets you closer to this objective, not further away. This means working smart, ruthlessly subduing the stupidity impulse, and perhaps the occasional dab of ointment…

If the blade is arched (concave), touching at two points, one near the neck of the chisel blade, or head of the plane blade, and at the other at the cutting edge, and not in between, all is well. I recommend you leave a blade like this as-is because after a few sharpening sessions the ura will become flat and twist-free without any special effort, and the blade will become very sharp and be entirely functional (assuming the faces of your stones are flat).

If the blade is wavy (rare) or banana-shaped (convex), your plan needs to take those details into account.

I located the highest point of the bulging area at the ura and marked a line across it with my marking pen. I then measured halfway between this line and the cutting edge and made another line. This area we will call the “focus line.” It is here where I need to focus the most pressure when grinding down the ura, not the entire length of the blade.

The purpose of doing all this prissy planning and layout work is to protect the right and left side lands from being wasted unnecessarily. Newbies try to work the entire length of the blade, but this is illogical and ignores three points.

The first point often ignored is that the majority of the metal I need to waste is usually located to the right and left of the itoura land nearest the cutting edge, not the full length of the blade, so there is little benefit to grinding the entire ura.

The second point is that the side lands are thin as a blade of grass and will abrade very quickly with almost no effort. Besides, without using large plates and stones, it is very difficult to work the blade’s full length accurately without wearing steps into the side lands anyway.

The third point often ignored is that it makes no sense to try to grind down the land nearest the neck since the plane of the ura hinges on this land. Best to leave it alone and focus my efforts where they will make a difference.

Plane blades don’t even have a land near the head, so the futility of working the entire ura on plane blades is even more obvious than for a chisel.

Work the Plan

The traditional Japanese tool used to flatten and/or correct ura is a smooth steel lapping plate called a kanaban, meaning “metal plate.” To use it, carborundum powder and water are placed on the plate, and the blade is lapped. This is not a difficult process at all, but there is a tendency for the blade’s perimeter to be ground more than the interior areas as the grit is forced in between the kanaban and the blade’s perimeter. To avoid this tendency, and to speed the process up, I prefer to use diamond plates or diamond stones instead of kanaban.

Whatever plan you developed, and whichever tool you selected for this job, the time has come to work the plan. Do you need more idiot-b-gone medicine? A bigger coffee cup?

First, color the ura’s perimeter lands with a marking pen or Dykem to help you see where the ura is being ground down. Don’t ever guess.

Place the most pressure on the focus line selected above. Move the blade back and forth (not side to side) onto and off of the diamond plate, diamond stone or kanaban with the cutting edge and the focus line always touching the diamond plate or kanaban. Don’t go past the high point for now. Be careful to not grind a notch into the narrow side lands where they meet the edge of the diamond plate or kanaban. Most people make this mistake at first. Please don’t you make it more than once.

Grind the ura down so the line at the highest point and the cutting edge is fairly flat.

Remember, the narrow lands at the sides of the hollow-ground urasuki will abrade down quickly. And the rest of the ura can be gradually flattened during subsequent sharpening sessions using regular sharpening stones. It doesn’t need to be made perfect immediately. What matters most is the steel on the itoura land right at the cutting edge.

This flattening process is seldom required except on new blades. Polish a blade’s ura up to the level of your finest finishing stone once, and don’t touch it with rougher stones again unless it is absolutely necessary, or further gradual flattening is required. This means that in normal sharpening sessions you must remove all the damage at the cutting edge by abrading the bevel with the rougher stones, and only when the bevel is ready for the finish stone, do you work on the flat or ura, alternating from bevel to flat/ura until all defects, burrs, and even visible scratches are polished away.

If you condition the flat (ura) side of the blade correctly, and keep it polished, you should not need to work it on anything but your finish stone until it is time to tap out and grind the ura or back in the case of plane blades. Therefore, the bevel side of the blade is where we spend most of our time and effort.

Now that the ura is in good shape, we will look at sharpening the other side of the wedge, the blade’s bevel, in the next post in the series. In the meantime, keep yer stick on the ice.

YMHOS

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Links to Other Posts in the “Sharpening” Series

• Sharpening Part 2 – The Journey
• Sharpening Part 3 – Philosophy
• Sharpening Part 4 – ‘Nando and the Sword Sharpener
• Sharpening Part 5 – The Sharp Edge
• Sharpening Part 6 – The Mystery of Steel
• Sharpening Part 7 – The Alchemy of Hard Steel 鋼
• Sharpening Part 8 – Soft Iron 地金
• Sharpening Part 9 – Hard Steel & Soft Iron 鍛接
• Sharpening Part 10 – The Ura 浦
• Sharpening Part 11 – Supernatural Bevel Angles
• Sharpening Part 12 – Skewampus Blades, Curved Cutting Edges, and Monkeyshines
• Sharpening Part 13 – Nitty Gritty
• Sharpening Part 14 – Natural Sharpening Stones
• Sharpening Part 15 – The Most Important Stone
• Sharpening Part 16 – Pixie Dust
• Sharpening Part 17 – Gear
• Sharpening Part 18 – The Nagura Stone
• Sharpening Part 19 – Maintaining Sharpening Stones
• Sharpening Part 20 – Flattening and Polishing the Ura
• Sharpening Part 21 – The Bulging Bevel
• Sharpening Part 22 – The Double-bevel Blues
• Sharpening Part 23 – Stance & Grip
• Sharpening Part 24 – Sharpening Direction
• Sharpening Part 25 – Short Strokes
• Sharpening Part 26 – The Taming of the Skew
• Sharpening Part 27 – The Entire Face
• Sharpening Part 28 – The Minuscule Burr
• Sharpening Part 29 – An Example
• Sharpening Part 30 – Uradashi & Uraoshi