270mm W2 Sujihiki!

Excellent post Cris!

 

I can't imagine wanting that. The well known makers have been the well known makers for a long time. We all know how to get cookie cutters from them. I have dozens of cookie cutters.

When a new (ish) maker like Cris comes along, I want what Cris has in mind.

 

DAMN, Cris, it must stink where you are, cause you are the SH_T!!! Thanks for posting all this stuff, it is absolutely fascinating.

Al

 

Thanks guys!! Honestly though...for me it's more about the learning process. I love love love the finished pieces!...but I learn something new on every single knife I make. Sometimes it's as small as how to make them more efficiently, sometimes its even something entirely new. I know guys who have been making knives for 25yrs and more who still feel the same way. I think that will be me lol. If the day comes that I ever feel I know it all...and I'm NOT still learning from the knives I'm making, I'll probably go do something else!!

Thanks Neal! Its so refreshing to see this outlook...and I'm very lucky in that most of those who have contacted me for work feel the same. I know my style isn't a lot like others...and I'm grateful for the fact that I can impose my own aesthetics while maintaining (if not improving on!!) a top notch level of efficiency and performance on these blades. For me...middling performance in any aspect just isn't an option. I want my knife to be the one a person grabs to use instinctively from their collection...day in and day out. That's a very tall order considering the skill and knowledge of my peers....

...but working to meet it certainly keeps me busy!!

 

Neal......... PLUS ONE!!!

 

i hope that you know, my outlook is not a dislike on yours. I love the knives you are producing. If any, I am your #1 fan. I helped you with the design on your first suji and I want you to succeed in any way. My criticism only comes because I am trying to see your work at every angle possible and see what is the best thing to produce period. You are the ******** Cris. And your work speaks for itself, its amazing.

 

Thanks Brad . I know you don't mean anything negative my friend...although it does come across that way sometimes lol.

As for the knives...I genuinely have very little interest in the hamon being produced on Japanese honyaki. My polishing processes are very unlike theirs as well...because their process doesn't produce the results I'm looking for. Clay hardening is an incredibly violent...incredibly stressful...yet incredibly beautiful process. Kind of like cooling a volcano in your hand. You're basically flash freezing steel from 1500°F. I want you to visually see the currents induced in the oil by the superheated steel...to see the evidence of the trial that the blade survived written plain on its surface. I want the beauty of the line between the completely restructured crystalline edge and spine of the steel (you know that all steel is a crystalline structure right?) to reach out and grab your attention...and hold it.

For me a muted...perfectly painted on line just doesn't much represent that very well. Besides...the Japanese weren't the inventors of differential hardening. They took the process from others...and refined it to their liking...subduing it and making it fit their culture. We western bladesmiths have simply brought it elsewhere. My goal for myself...is to take it and make it my own.

Maybe that helps it make a bit more sense.

 

Kind of like seeing the beauty in a scar .

 

Kind of...yes. Although we seem to associate scars with 'flaws' for the most part. It's hard to find an appropriate analogy. In order to achieve a differential hardening...I have to force the blade through some incredibly stressful procedures. But if it lives...the evidence of its trials that nature leaves us are both graceful and beautiful. I'm not really sure exactly what I'd equate that to .

 

Choil.

That is all .

 

Ok...not quite all...


Hamon at 220 grit...no etch. This one's going to be fun .

 

1200 grit. Still needs to go to 1500 for a number of cycles...then be hand rubbed out with iron oxide and metal polish. I'm pretty pleased with it so far though. There's a ton of activity both above and below the line of the hamon that the camera isn't picking up. You can see a little of it in the video below though.

 

That is looking seriously good! can't wait to see it finished

 

Thanks Warren!

Here's a bit better picture as far as the activity goes.

 

looks even better! it must be frustrating when the camera doesn't always pick up what the eye can see?

 

Very frustrating lol.




All done etching. Now it just needs about 400 hours of hand rubbing to polish it lol. This is NOT my favorite part...as I always end up bleeding lol. This picture's what remains on my shop floor from the LAST one I polished .



The trail goes from my polishing bench to my first aid kit. Thank God for superglue!

 

WOW. That looks sick. Are you using like a polishing kit/pad that is used on car chrome or whatever?

 

Thanks man! And no sir...just my fingers lol. Thus, all the blood. I stop grinding when the entire edge is < .1mm. By the time I'm done hand sanding...the edge is invisible. I've tried dozens of ideas for substitute polishing methods/materials, and nothing works like my poor abused fingers!

 

Ha ha! I meant what kind of polishing compound are you using? I can't think of what that stuff is called that they use on cars/chrome?

 

Ahhh! I see!

I like Brasso, but others have used Flitz with gorgeous results. I've never tried it.

This one may still be here when you get here. In person it looks like one of those oil/water wave boxes. Really cool .