rough sharpening; coarse grinding
The initial stage of sharpening a blade using a coarse stone (粗砥) to shape the edge before finer stones are used. Common in knife and tool maintenance contexts.
See also: 粗砥
The kitchen knife blade was chipped, so I started with rough sharpening first.
After rough sharpening is done, I finish with a medium-grit stone.
Standard kanji spelling. 粗 means 'coarse' or 'rough', matching the sense.
Alternate kanji spelling using 荒 ('rough'). Less common but still encountered.
Compound of 粗 (ara, 'coarse') + 研ぎ (togi, 'sharpening', the noun form of 研ぐ). The spelling 荒研ぎ uses a different character for 'rough'.