What's on my Bench Today?

So when does this passaround start in Australia

 

Well, considering I haven't gotten it back from the US passaround yet, lol...I'm not exactly sure . If everyone takes 2 weeks with it, it's going to be like 34 weeks before I get it back!

 

I should never have moved back from Australia to Europe... Now I'm gonna miss this passaround.

 

It's going to Europe as well...probably on the way to Australia as there's fewer members there than here.

 

:BF

 

How about...a little exercise in photography??



I recently sold this little handle, and the new owner asked me to take some high resolution photographs of it before shipping it out. I just received payment today, so I thought I'd build a little light box and do something kind of nice for him, while getting in some practice for me. All pictures here are taken with my cell phone (every picture I've ever posted on this board was taken with the same phone lol), and a literal $20 lighting setup and 'studio' that I built in about a half hour tonight.

First the pictures:



Robert has the sister piece to this buckey burl (first piece of wood I ever bought from Mark lol) on his Itinomon.

Now, the 'studio' lol:



Not too bad for a couple lights, a box, some tissue paper, and a bit of black felt .

 

Serious handle & PHOTOGRAPHY envy! Way cool. :like ump

 

Lol, thanks my friend . I'm an absolute amateur, and these are just cell phone pictures in a light box, but the quality of my pictures has increased 150% in just a couple weeks. I was given some pointers on controlling light, both in and out of the camera and the difference is night and day I think.

 

Wow man, 8 days since a "what's on my bench today" update?! Gotta be a new record.. and not the good kind either ...

Haha that's pretty cool man, that lil quick homebrew light box ya made, it seems to work pretty nicely. Those pics really show that handle off beautifully, nice work there btw:like. I was actually waiting to see the glamor shot of that blade you showed all set up in the box in the above pic! I know this is a kitchen knife forum, but dang man, your edc's & kiridashi & hunters (oh my!) and others are just too sweet not to post about! :cool1

Feels like it's been a a little bit since I've said hi, although I have checked here a few times since my last post. I've actually been out doin some forging myself lately as well . Got bit by the "steel squishing" bug again and have been messing around with forging out some small 52100 integrals, and a non traditional/ traditional-ish-looking shorter tanto blade lol.. Also been turning my 3/4" round wrought iron into barstock, hopefully for some guards, and maybe some fittings or something as well. BTW, I posted a short WIP of one of the integrals I forged out a little over an hour ago on my FB page in case you're interested in checking it out

Speaking of wrought though, you smentioned in your last reply to me that ya got some "new" (more) wrought, I'm curious, where do you usually get yours from, and what form & size do ya got? I've only gotten mine from ebay in the past and I recently saw some 1/2" thick by ~ 2"x4" or so sections for an "alright" price. It's just one of those things that's good to stock up on.. I don't know why, but I love wrought! I need/want to get some thicker stuff someday.

Anyway, I'm countin on ya to have a fair amount of pictures posted by the next time I check back , gettin a bit of withdrawals goin on from lack of your hamon action lol
Hah, alright bro take care, it's 87 up here in the Seattle area right now, so I could only imagine how "nice" it is in Arizona !!

 

Lol, no pictures lately because almost nothing has been made! I've been struggling with my heat treat process for some reason...I think my oil has deteriorated to a level where it is unusable. I checked it for water content and filtered it twice today, to zero benefit. The hamon just goes where it pleases. I've hardened a control blade in brine at the same temperatures, and it through hardened (I actually snapped one in half with my hands to verify the hardening). I will be doing one more test for temperature tomorrow, but will be ordering a new bucket just to cover that base.

Anyhow, since you wanted pictures!!


An example of the kind of line I've been getting with my oil. You can see the heel hardened (and even followed the clay), but from there it just goes everywhere. Down to the edge, back up...all over. Completely unacceptable.


A different blade I hardened in brine, which literally through hardened under the clay. I noticed a very small crack along the spine (note the darker color on the thicker portions?), so I snapped it to take a look at the grain. Nice, even pearly grey. All is well on that front.

Anyhow, there it is. Hopefully my new oil arrives before Friday, so I can spend the weekend catching up on the work I missed out on. In between I'll probably be forging out and grinding all of my knives currently on order, and probably then some, lol. So hopefully the time won't be a total loss.

 

Ouch. Looks like time for new oil indeed!

 

Yes sir. The thing is I shouldn't be 'wearing it out' this quickly. I know guys going on five years with their same five gallons of oil. Mine has lasted eight months?? Ahh well. I'll know soon enough if the oil was the issue lol. Just kind of sucks to pay $150 to find out!

 

So...a more positive 'What's On My Bench' for tonight .

During my quest to fix my quench oil...I did a couple of orders in brine as 'control' pieces to verify my temperatures. One of those was a project that is going to be...interesting, to say the least. The customer had originally ordered a nakiri...but later he changed it to a bunka type profile. He still wanted the double bevel nakiri grind however. A bit later, he asked me if I could make the blade a single bevel...while keeping it laserishly thin. He wants to use it for peeling and chopping cucumber and other vegetables from my understanding. So I forged and profiled out a blade for him a few weeks back, to make sure it was the profile he wanted




...and then as I said, the blade was hardened over this past week. The results were very interesting...but we decided to keep them and run with it, since the visible pattern matches his chosen handle wood nicely.



Today, while waiting for my oven to come to temperature...I began grinding the ura oshi.



Obviously it still needs ground more...but I've found the process to be sort of back and forth. Grind a nice oval, clean it up...find some spots that need addressed...address them...clean it up...lol. The end goal is to have the hollow as near to the edge, spine, and heel as it is to the nose. The whole process has been rather enjoyable to be honest. Particularly after my recent frustration with my hardening process .

 

Interesting piece! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

WOW!!! :cool1

 

yes interesting. is the concave oval ground in or forged in? is the purpose food release? what happens when the owner after a decade has shaprened the edge up to the oval?

 

That's one of the strangest knives I've seen in a while… a single bevel bunka with some belly?

Over time new owner would bring back side to stones. The more you grind that back side, the less concavity remains there. At some point it might became flat. But that would probably take many years of constant usage and sharpening.

Basically the concavity is there to make sharpening of the back side faster (as there's much less contact between blade and stone).

 

Ahh sorted. Thanks Anton

 

Anton pretty much covered it. It's ground in after heat treat (at least the way I'm doing it, lol).

As far as belly, the edge is actually flat for the majority...like I said, more of a nakiri or even a ko-gyuto edge profile. should be an interesting blade when finished. I haven't decided whether to put my compound grind on the front face (this seems to have become rather popular in the last year or so, with Bloodroot, Haburn, and others doing their own versions), or stick with a more traditional single bevel look. The hamon on this one is all over, so I like the idea of a smoother appearing front face for aesthetics.

Guess we'll see when the time comes.

 

OMG! BAK!!!