Unexpected kitchen knife find

[M&J]

One of the beat knives that was given to me that was in need of a new handle. The knife was pretty coarse and the original had diagonal grind-finishing marks on both sides. Junko couldn't read the marking so we have no idea what is on the blade. I thought this was an inexpensive piece and for the fun wanted to rub the finish to clean it up. I thought the temper line was faked.

As I'm rubbing I could feel the slight difference from the edge and top of blade. Where the edge bevel is, is quite hard. At 400 grit I could see the temper line and continued to 1000. The back has a hollow grind too but the temper line is not there. However this knife was made there are different layers on the backside.

Gave it a light etch in some vinegar water at 1:3 and this is how it came out. To clean the haze off rubbed it wit some 2000 grit and this is how it is now.

This will be a polish project. Just don't know how far I want to rub the markings because already they are smoothed over.

Before:


After: