What's on my Bench Today?

That's an excellent idea my friend!

Actually I have to run down to the steel mill and pick up some appropriate thickness mild steel before I can begin on those templates...but I should be able to get started on them in the next week. That kind of work is perfect for when knives are cooking up in spherodization .

 

Ready for heat treat!

 

Hi Cris. You may be interested in watching this video:



It's really worth it to spend 30 minutes on this. My congratulations because of new tools
Greg

 

Awesome video Greg! I'd have to agree...INCREDIBLY worth it!!

And thanks for the congratulations .

 

Gyuto 1 of 5 has a soul =p.

 

Nice work. Squiggly souls are pretty when they come out with a shape that complements the blade.

 

I'm just happy when they come out without cracks =p. I've been very lucky in that of all the blades I've made, only two have cracked in the quench...both rather dramatically lol. One was a small wakizashi, and it literally snapped itself almost into pieces. The second was my first attempt at a kitchen knife years ago...and it tried to separate itself into pieces as well lol. Everything else I've made has survived, and all of them have had hamon.

Here's a picture of that kitchen knife post quench:


Every time I see that picture I want to cry...that hamon would have been STUNNING!!

 

Yeah I've been involved with some of that maybe a decade or so ago. Quench is always stressful when working with more artistic clay designs and thickness variations.

 

On the chef's knives, I actually started quenching in Parks 50 for awhile to reduce warpage...but the one you see above (that I did today) was brine quenched. Performance wise there isn't much difference (they do get a bit harder in brine, but they're tempered back regardless)...I just like the feel of a finished blade after a brine quench better. I don't know how else to describe it, lol.

 

I will take pictures and send you with a subject "confidential" congrats on your grinder , now it's time to crank the production

 

Lol, awesome!

 

Please don't turn a certain one of those gyutos into a toothpick.

 

No sir! The one above is one you should keep a close eye on though...just sayin .

 

heyyy whats wrong with toothpicks?

 

Nothing...I like toothpicks! It's just a rather expensive way to go about getting one, lol.

As for what's on my bench today...







185mm ko-gyuto. 50mm on the heel, 110mm flat, and the tip is 1cm off the board. It will be getting my standard gyuto symmetrical grind. Basically an all around user knife, great for small boards and/or cramped kitchens. Not to mention for anything that dragging out a 250mm blade seems overkill for.

This is quickly becoming my favorite little blade, and I'll be making one for myself sooner rather than later.

 

After your recent gyuto frustrations, I'm glad the shorty is working out.

 

Thanks man! I'm pretty happy about it as well! I'm loving this profile...so much so that I worked out another today. I'm going to be heat treating it, a petty, a kiridashi, and probably my little EDC tonight .

 

is that the honesuki in the middle or a petty?

 

Petty. 150mm. I'm waiting for my client's reply before starting the honesuki.

 

you have the piece to make the uras now?