What's on my Bench Today?

the hamon on the front side looks like the god damn sharkbite and i think i may die if i ever hold that slicer.

 

beautiful.

 

Fingers Crossed!!

 

Sharkbite?

 

Ohhh, gotcha, lol!! Talk to @ChuckTheButcher…he might be willing to sell it, lol.

Here's another I hardened today…along with two more all clayed up for heat treating tonight. After that its a straight week of grinding and handle work, lol.

Love this stuff!!

 

when you make the tang soft does it make it easier for the blade to bend right at the handle? i have had some super thin knives including takeda and konosuke that would bend and stay bent, it scared the ******** out of me. but i dont think they were made in this style so i was wondering if it makes it easier to bend with the soft steel rather than fully hardened.

 

so chuck gets all the badass sujis from you i guess. lemme get a single bevel?!

 

Good to see you back at it, brother. Knives are looking just as stunning as always.

Al

 

Soft tangs will bend. Hard will snap. This is regardless of where you place the pressure. I would think the Japanese don't fully immerse their through hardened blades when quenching. The machi area being hardened would be a bad thing.

Chuck has one suji...my first. This is my second...and the 270 will be my third. We've talked about single bevels. I don't do them right now, but if you want to order one I might be willing.

Thanks my friend!!

Back on topic though, I said I'd post up some pictures of the results i got when I hardened the above ko-gyuto and utility. I know why the ko-gyuto failed, but the utility is a bit of a mystery.

Here's the pictures:



Utility. This one had a completely unhardened section at the tip. The pattern was "ok"...but not what I wanted even without the failed tip. Because of this I changed the angle of entry on the ko-gyuto.



Ko-gyuto. This one is a failure due to how far down the edge the line ran from the heel to midblade. Very unbalanced. This failure was due to the angle of immersion, and the oil's interaction with the clay.

So you see...even after doing every single blade I've ever done with this method of hardening, its still a gamble every single time. Luckily neither of these cracked though, so they can be rehardened.

 

Bravo! Keep at it, my friend, looking better & better every day.

 

And a short video

http://instagram.com/p/vUQay2GOqQ/

Actual length is 312mm. The customer told me he wanted a 'barbaric' hamon lol...I think this nailed it!

 

That turned out very interesting. Can't wait to see what the transition zone looks like when it's all finished up.

 

Damn you Cris! I already have too many knives but you keep seducing me. Awesome job

 

I agree on all counts, lol. It has a ton of that wispy 'smoke' effect that W2 is best known for all through it. I love the asymmetrical hamon on it...it's just a beast of a knife, and the hamon fits it beautifully.

Thanks brother! With as long as it's taken me to get those templates done, I should probably just send you one for the wait!!

 

DUDE........ I think I just had a KNIFEGASIM!!! That hamon is SICK, brother!

 

Thanks my friend! Hopefully the final pictures below will do your appreciation justice!!



All that's left is to mark it, edge it, and send it off to the new owner to work his handle making magic on . I'll be sure to get you guys final pictures once he's done!

 

That is ridiculously thin. I can't wait to see it

 

You mean from the Instagram video? If so...yes it's absolutely thin behind the edge . It's not a crazy thin blade though....something like 2.5mm at the thickest part over the heel (NOT the spine lol).

 

Yeah the video from instagram was crazy.

 

Virtually all of my knives will do that to some degree. Knives that are thin behind the edge cut better than knives that aren't...it's physics lol. But to be like that...the heat treat needs to be dead on. If you miss in either direction, you have a chippy knife (and I mean chunks of edge missing), or a knife that will roll the edge when you cut butter with it.