What's on my Bench Today?

Oh I gotcha, and thank you as well Brad Did I somehow miss the new handle ya made for the Ichinomon? I've missed a few of your recent YT vids so not sure if ya posed it on there. Do ya got the "before" pic of that knife too? I'd be interested ta see the profile adjustments and other changes.

Hey, on a "somewhat" related note, do you still use an XXC DMT diasharp stone for setting(or tweaking) any of your bevels/geometry work? I've seen you and one other guy from "Crossed Heart Forge" aka "Islandblacksmith" (forget his name) using one in a similar fashion, and was intrigued by it.. I also wonder how long does it last with use like that? I have a coarse and X fine DMT diasharp for sharpening, and don't really wanna experiment with them as they were a bit pricey (for me) Anyway, sorry ta get off topic a bit, it's just been floating around my mind for a while now after seeing it in one of your facebook pics I think..

~Paul

 

Heya Paul!

The handle was one I made for another knife for Robert. When we switched projects we kept the handle for him to use on another of the projects I'm doing for him. The Itinomon ended up with it.

As for the original knife, here it is before I started:



And now:



It's actually still 212mm...so no effective length was lost. The edge profile is a substantial improvement though, along with a few other tweaks I made .

On the DMT plate, I mostly use my grinder for it now. I still use the DMT to do the last 1" before the tip though so I don't burn them up. I'm still using the same DMT plate I bought originally...what, two years ago??

And now...I thought I'd share what's on my bench today .



Two handles out of @JIm Broom's three knife set! The third handle is all cut and ready to to be glued....and I'm not looking forward to it lol. These two fought me in every way imaginable. The grey one shifted on glue up, leaving me JUST enough room to get a clean handle out of it, and the orange one didn't glue 'straight' for some reason. I don't know if I missed squaring something or what, but the spacers were misaligned to the blade. Luckily I had enough 'extra' on that one that I was able to realign the blank (taking material off one corner, as well as the opposing corner) to give me a clean, aligned rectangle. Burning in the knife at a new angle sucked though. Oak dowels are pretty resistant to that sort of thing, which is why I use them :/.

Anyhow, here's the third all ready to glue up. Just need to make the nickel spacers and it'll be good to go.



And the top two in this picture are two of the knives of his set. A 210mm gyuto, and a 155mm petty. The third is the 80mm paring knife that was up for sale awhile back.



And...lookie what came in from Mark!!

]]

See, you guys pay me for knives, and I pay Mark for wood. It's a natural order/food chain type thing.

 

And these are looking awesom. Thanks Chris for the hard work and awesome craftmanship. Now if I only get to use them!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaahaha

 

It won't be too long man...I had the blades mostly finished when you ordered them. All they need is taken up from where they're at (600g) and then the saya done.

Got the third handle glued, and working on oiling the others lol.



As long as I gave myself enough room on the spine, this one should go pretty smooth lol.

 

Wow, awesome work Cris! Definitely glad I jumped on the wait list.

 

I am too!!



So...here's how those handles finished out:



The blue. This one is going on the 210 gyuto.


The grey one is going on the 155 petty.


The orange is going on the 80mm paring knife...which I have a sneak peak of below, since the blade was already rough polished lol:


I'm going to shorten the neck just a hair as the blade feels different with this handle than with the wa handle that was on it...but even without, it feels even better than it did before. Really, really loving this handle design, and it seems to be really useful in multiple applications.

So there we are! Tomorrow I'll build the saya (I've got a surprise for you guys there too!), then go ahead and polish out the gyuto and petty.

All together this has been a really fun group of knives to put together .

 

Cris, is that blue burl the one I sold to you? It looks really nice.

 

Awesome!!! BAK's

 

Yes sir! This was the project I had in mind. I've got like four of these blue blocks...but yours had lots of orange eyes in it...which I figured would make a nice tie in for the orange spacer. If you look, the grey piece does as well. The orange piece was from Craig Stevens (I got it from a customer like I got yours)...and was ridiculously overpriced. By HIS pictures...it had blue in it. Of course when I got it it was all grey. This is the third piece of his that the picture was so ridiculously post processed that the colors weren't even close. I won't be going down that road again. I generally buy from Mark and Myron only (and Pete from PetesKustomKoa lately), but sometimes other vendor's colors draw me in.


This was the picture from Craig. He says these pictures are just 'wet'. However...


...this is the same block of wood after taking it to 1200 grit on one side, and wiping it with mineral oil (the color should pop even more than just 'wetting'). Obviously the figure is the same, but that piece wasn't bought for figure lol.

Anyway.../rant off. The customer I bought that from paid $120 if I recall...for a smallish 4.5"x1"x1.5" oblong cut blank. I guess Mark and Myron have just spolied me with their accurate colors and large, square cut blanks for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost .

Thanks brother!

 

Ooooohh!! Lookie what was in my mail box today!!



And a better picture with the Tootsie Roll opened lol:



That's a mango/lychee laminate from Peter Rushton of Pete's Kustom Koa in Hawaii, and a piece of Don Hanson III W2 (ironically, I used a knife I made from Aldo's W2 to open it lol) from @coldsteelburns . I was thinking of making something from the two of them together...but sadly the laminate is already spoken for on a customer's knife.

I also had a serious blast prepping dinner tonight with @JIm Broom's gyuto:





Honestly, even unpolished the thing was just a beast. Some of you might notice I raised the spine profile a hair on this one to get some weight into the front of the knife (this is a definite struggle I face with each and every knife lol...light is thin, and thin cuts. Hitting the perfect middle ground is a genuine challenge!). I like the look a lot to be honest, beefy and aggressive...and the effect is noticeable.

Anyhow, thank you Paul for the W2, and Pete if you happen to be browsing here, thanks to you as well! I'll keep you all updated on what comes from these two pieces as I use them .

 

haha, I'm glad the W2 made it to ya alright, and you're welcome! And what can I say man, I was bored. All I ask in return is that ya take a few WIP pics on the forging process whenever ya get around ta using it.

I'm gonna say it one more time, that new handle profile with those geometric facets looks just amazing, and it really fits with your knives and style. The side facets that taper the handle add another dimension that seems to make the colors and figure in the wood "pop" even more than before.

Man that's a bummer regarding the colors of that piece of wood, that's just plain false advertising in my mind when ya filter the picture that much. It almost looks like some type of stone in his pic! Oh well, still a great piece of wood and I'm sure you'll make it look even better. :cool1

Also, thanks for posting the before/after pics on that Ichinomon. I don't really have that great of an eye for the subtleties on kitchen knife profiles that can really make a big difference in performance (probably cause I never use them lol) but it looks like ya straightened out the edge a bit, raised the bevel height and thinned the edge in doing so? Did ya use your grinder on that knife or was most or the work done with stones?

Well alright man, I'll be waiting ta see what becomes of that tootsie roll! Take care bro

~Paul

 

It would take a month to do what I did on stones brother, lol!! It was 95% grinder work, 5% stones. Your comments about the work done were pretty close. By straightening the edge it made it much more friendly to push cutting and pull cutting, because the edge will contact the board in a larger area, limiting its ability to 'miss' part of the food being cut. Basically, with the old profile, you HAD to rock to get a clean cut. With this profile, a simple push or pull or chop will cleanly separate the food due to the amount of edge contact on the board. Imagine using a flat knife on a warped board, and you can maybe picture what I mean. The food that sat below the flat edge wouldn't be cut, because the edge wouldn't contact the board in those areas.

I'm thinking I might do a small hira tanto to match my hira ko-wakizashi that's being heat treated here soon with that W2 btw...wrought iron fittings (tsuba, fuchi/kashira, and maybe even the habaki if I get ambitious lol). I'll keep you updated for sure .

 

Cris
You just keep pushing the envelope. awesome

 

Cant wait to see that W2 in action. Looks like there may be enough for a cleaver

Bummer on the wood, that is the second color issue I have read about that vendor in the last month...but, I am sure you can do something cool with it.

 

Thanks Mike!! I've never really been one to sit on things I've done...and I hate the thought of doing something even equally as good as what I did last...so it sometimes works out that way. Other times it bites me...hard . But that kinda comes with the territory lol. The handle I'm working on now for example, is borderline both scenarios. Mammoth tooth, 5460yr old bog oak, and nickel silver. The customer gave me a lot of leeway, only offering input or direction when I asked him for it (I find that communication while working helps really tailor the project to the customer...which is what you're really paying for in a custom, right??). Between his requests though (mostly his main requirements were length, and a straight wa handle...the rest was up to me), and inspiration from the materials...we came up with something I think will be really beautiful when complete.


The materials. We were going to use the oosic, but decided the color just didn't quite fit with the overall theme, so it got left out in the final handle iteration.


The initial concept. We were going to put the oosic between the two diagonal mammoth tooth spacers.


Making the cuts. THIS SUCKED lol. That tooth is hell on tooling. Luckily I'd ordered some diamond hole saw bits for the slot, but it killed my brand new bandsaw blade in 3 seconds, and so far has ate six Cubitron III 36 grit belts. To give you perspective...the 300mm blade in this picture took two 36 grit belts to grind, from fresh forged (including forge scale!), through rough shaping, heat treat, and final grinding the hardened W2. Mammoth tooth is nasty stuff lol. To cut it I ended up using (multiple) 4" cutoff wheels in a hand held angle grinder.


The initial photoshop proof that made us decide against the oosic. I used my first suji blade (which belongs to @ChuckTheButcher) for the template, as it's of similar size and shape and I figured it would give a nice overall feel to what the new blade will look like.


A second photoshop proof, eliminating the spacer. None of these showed the nickel silver I intended to use between each seperate segment (including between the two pieces of mammoth tooth in the middle).


Final dry fit up of the pieces. The misalignment in the pieces is incredibly annoying, and is my own fault...but I'm not horribly worried about it, as everything is still centered on the dowel, and should have plenty of material for a straight wa handle.


The final proof before glue up, including the nickel silver liners. If you noticed, we made the angled butt cap longer. I was initially going to trim it down as in the second proof, but this looked so good we decided to keep it long.


And allll glued up!

Thanks Matt!! I've talked to Craig before, and he's a really nice guy. If the blocks cost $50-$60 like typical blocks from other reputable vendors, I don't think anyone would complain. Wood vendors are hard pressed to show the actual color and figure of the woods that they are selling, which is what SELLS them. So they use photo editing and/or lighting and water tricks to get them to 'pop'. Normally this isn't bad, as a good maker can at minimum get the woods to closely approximate the vendors pictures (even if they're a LITTLE less 'vibrant'). With Craig's stuff though, there is NO CHANCE of ever getting those colors out of the wood, and the fact that it costs what three or more pieces from Mark, Myron, or others would cost...makes it something worthy of raising issue over. I'll be posting a video here shortly of my collection of buckeye burl, including the last piece I'll likely ever buy from Craig. Needless to say, it's truly nowhere near the advertised colors.

Anyhow though, I did manage to make something nice out of that piece regardless. It's on the paring knife in the pictures above .

 

I love the combo of these old materials... 20,000 years or so and 3,000 years or so. No better match for mammoth tooth than bog oak.

 

That's luvy duvy!

 

Lol...the handle is done...but you'll have to either check IG, or wait till Dinsdale sees the video before I post it .

It turned out I suppose. Not much else to say about it.

 

Post away, its a beauty.

 

Will do my friend, and thanks!



As I said to Dinsdale...I sound kind of like an idiot, but every time I'd start to day something, some other aspect would catch my attention and I'd lose track of what I was saying. Plus it was 5am or so and I hadn't been to sleep lol.

Anyhow...I think this one's going to finish out nicely .