Ohta FK5 Higonokami-pocket knife, desert ironwood

Friday 14 January 2022

Wednesday 20 June 2018

After an extensive search for a pocket knife that slips easily into the Condom pocket inside the right hand jean pocket I settled on this Higo knife. The Higo knives have a nice story and are generally handmade in Japan. The knife itself has a flat, relatively thin handle making it sit in the pocket unnoticed both by the wearer and others. I was impressed with the sharpness straight out the box and immediately tested it by shaving some hair from my forearm, a test which it passed easily. So there it was search over I thought........ However a week later when I came to strop the blade just to polish up that sharpness, something I do with my wood carving knives, I found that I blunted the edge ! Now I’m pretty good at getting razor sharp, mirror finished edges on my Chisels, carving knives and axes so was quite alarmed when after 1/2 hours work the edge was now even worse. Initially I worked it on my 3M Lapping film on glass to 3 Micron. The blade was now quite blunt and I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong. So began the google search, turns out it is very hard steel and only wet stones should be used at an angle of around 10*. So after an hour on the 3000/8000 wet stone I finally got it sharp enough for day to day use but don’t think I’ll ever shave hair again. So be warned unless you are a master sharpener, blessed with Ninja sharpening skills I would look elsewhere, perhaps for a simple flat bevel edged knife.