Adventures in Knifeland: On the Bench

So Erica tells me that my title is lame and that I am stealing her "thing". But if you look back at my blog you'll see "the workbench" there first. So I don't care :)

I know that you don't see a whole lot of my work on this blog, but I tend to think of it as more "guy" oriented. However, I've been thinking about general marketability lately, and think that I should probably be aiming more towards kitchen knives and folding knives than the hunting knives that I have been making. That doesn't meant that all of these are kitchen or folding knives mind you. Just that I think it would be a better idea in general.

I'll go in knifological order here:

I decided that I didn't like the hand on my knife AR36

Not that it doesn't look pretty good in this picture (handle is coccobolo and brass), but it didn't feel right and the balance was all wrong. Believe me, that makes more of a difference than you might think. Pick up your favorite and least favorite knives in the kitchen if you don't believe me.

Anyway, I decided to remake it. It's not done yet, and I think that I might do some wood burning on the handle, but haven't decided what to burn yet. This is what it looks like now:

The wood isn't quite so fancy, but I think it feels waaaaay better. The handle is now fruiting pear and brass.

Next is AR39, which was a big Machete last time, but didn't quench right, so the edge didn't hold.

It's a lot smaller now. But it holds its edge.

The handle is sycamore and purpleheart.

Then we jump forward to the current knives.

First, a new big machete-like thing....

AR52

The handle is curly maple, and it's a pretty big knife - that's my hand, not Erica's in the picture.

And lastly we have a couple of knives that just came out of their second forging session:

I'm not quite sure what they will look like in the end, but I am enjoying making them.

Any suggestions?

That's all for now,

Adam

Treasury of The Day: In the Kitchen (with Dinah?)

In The Kitchen.

• 

  Sweetheart Apron in Loo...

  prettylittlep...

  $28.00 USD

• 

  love of cooking - pots ...

  girlscantell

  $20.00 USD

• 

  Oven Mitt Kate Hennagir...

  Britgaldesigns

  $10.00 USD

• 

  Mini Wall Hanging Clock...

  decoylab

  $18.00 USD

• 

  pear pair green UNFILLED

  pillowhappy

  $22.00 USD

• 

  Tiger Maple Cheese Board

  laughingcoyote

  $37.99 USD

• 

  AR36 - Chefs Knife

  AcrylicAndSteel

  $115.00 USD

• 

  Chocolate Butterscotch ...

  whimsyandspice

  $9.00 USD

• 

  Kitchen Artichokes Art ...

  elr104

  $24.00 USD

• 

  Modern Print Linen Tea ...

  sweetbabu

  $23.00 USD

• 

  Cupcake 90 12x12 inch o...

  RozArt

  $75.00 USD

• 

  green and orange porcel...

  braypottery

  $32.00 USD

• 

  mixer kitchen stamp

  butterflyflys...

  $22.00 USD

• 

  Domestic Goddess Whims...

  cupcakecutiees

  $5.00 USD

• 

  FREE SHIPPING THRU JULY...

  MaryLittfin

  $12.00 USD

• 

  HOLEY CHEESE SLICE CAND...

  kokocandles

  $18.00 USD

Creepy Cool...

My wife is the coolest! Who else would say…you should make me a creepy knife?! I’m itching to get started. I have just the chunk of steel… and that was 3 months ago.

If you know Erica, you know she likes creepy things. Creepy dolls, creepy paintings, zombies, skulls, etc.. I think that is fantastic, so obviously this was a project that I wanted to do, and to put a little thought into...

So…what is a creepy knife? I guess its one that you can imagine seeing in a horror movie, rusty or bloody or sinister. Is it creepier to have an odd bone saw or a bloody butcher knife, or a rusty machete, or… what about a cleaver?

I’ve seen butcher knives with blood stains enameled on. But that just isn’t going to…cut it.

Something super rusty would be cool, but unusable. Lightly rusted is ok. So nothing stainless.

Mostly I just kinda like the idea of a rusty cleaver.

So I started it…

It all started with the chunk of steel, in this case 1095 high carbon steel, which is what I started forging knives with a few years ago. This particular chunk is the heaviest I've worked with, at 1 5/8ths wide and 3/8ths of an inch thick. That’s a lot of metal to move with a little hammer. Makes me wish I had a power hammer, although I do like hand forging. Sometimes I wish for a hotter forge too, but charcoal is pretty good and it feels like being back in time (except for the Dustdevil blower that I use).

Here's the chunk, with Autumn's hand for scale:

And an intermediate stage:

I thought I had a couple more intermediate stages, but I can't find the pictures anywhere, its a pretty big jump to go from the above stage, to the below stage.

Before Quenching:

After a few forging sessions, and a little grinding, I got the shape about where I wanted, quenched it, and ground an edge to it, leaving the forging and quenching patina on the back edge, while polishing the actual edge.

After Quenching:

I decided to go with oak as the handle, because it looks kinda basic, and was torn between rough twine and leather for the keeper cord that it will hang from. In the creepy theme I probably should have tied it off in a noose, but didn't. Oh yeah, and I used framing nails for the pins. Nice!

Anyway, I think it is pretty awesome, its heavy like a cleaver should be, sharp enough that you could probably shave with it, and creepy enough to meet the desired goal. We both kinda think that it should have a block to store it in, ya know, a head or skull or ribcage or something, but for now its going to hang on the wall.

I know its not rusty, but it did cut me a couple of times - I have all kinds of nicks on my hands - so its a little blood thirsty.

And I finished it on Mothers day :) Happy Mothers Day Honey!

What do you think?

Knives in the Kitchen

I don’t know what it is with guys and knives. We love them. I’m sure there are guys out there that don’t like them, or don’t care, but for most of us, knives are just something special. Mind you, not all guys like the same kind of knives, but most guys at least will express interest in one kind or another.

If you and your fiancée are filling out your wedding registry, and he isn’t all that thrilled, take him to the kitchen knives, you can share outrage at how expensive the ones he wants are, and maybe he’ll complain a little less about the process. Or let him register for power tools.

A guy may have no interest at all in cooking, but still want to carve the turkey or ham. Or he may be a culinary artiste, and have a full collection of the finest knives that money can buy.

Personally, I want a knife that doesn’t catch on anything. If I could use a lightsaber I would, but it might cook the meat, melt the cheese, burn the veggies etc… and they don’t exist. Barring that a knife that cuts like a razor and doesn’t ever need to be sharpened.

Some people claim that sharper knives make food taste better because the food isn’t bruised by the blade. I just want a tool that works properly.

So, in the interest of making my knives more approachable to more people, I have been focusing a little more on kitchen knives and utility knives (with the odd outside project: a lord-of-the-rings-esqe machete, a custom camp knife, and such).

I recently finished this stainless steel Japanese style chopper:

And this high carbon chef’s knife:

And I’m really close on these two kitchen carver/boners (they are farther along than this picture shows:

And now I’m fixing a Henkel’s Santoku for my Aunt, we’ll see if quenching it again destroys it. Henkel’s apparently welds bolsters and tang to their slightly higher quality blades. And they use non-stainless for the tang, because hers rusted and broke off in the handle. So, it’s changed shape a little, and hopefully it isn’t destroyed in the next step. It’s a little thinner than I like for quenching.

Let me know what you’d like to see in a knife and maybe I’ll make one just for you.

Adam

Kateigaho

Fall 2009 Kateigaho Internation Edition

My dad gave me a copy of this magazine for Christmas – If you have any interest in sushi, knives, the fall, tea, pottery…or just japan in general, check it out. He bought it for me due to the knife aspect.

As a knife guy, Japanese swords have always been the pinnacle of the craft. I hadn’t really thought too much about what happened to the swordsmiths and technology after swords weren’t quite as necessary. Yes there are certainly a few who still make high quality katana. But what about the rest?

The answer is apparently kitchen knives.

The same excessive detail that went into crafting a katana now goes into a wide variety of special purpose kitchen knives, some specific to particular types of fish. Who knew?

Just like for swords, they use a combination of hard and soft steel, but unlike swords and unlike western kitchen knives, the majority of them are single ground (like a chisel). Apparently this allows finer slices, preventing damage to the meat of the fish.

And just like for the swords, the bladesmith gets the blade to its rough shape and then its up to the polisher to finish it up.

A little obsessive for my taste, but interesting none the less.

So check it out for something a little different.