What's on my Bench Today?

I've got a couple things to share today, lol.

First, a hurry up and get it done magnetic knife rack for my dad's gyuto and petty I made him two Father's Days ago (those are 'Cris Anderson kitchen knives #1 and #2' by the way, lol):



It took literally 20 minutes, and cost me less than $10 tops. The wood is Arizona Desert Ironwood ($8/lb from the scrap bin at Woodworkers Source) which I actually got at the same time as the handle wood for his knives (which came from the same scrap bin btw!), lol. Total thickness was about 1/2"...which is a bit thicker than the magnets, which are Empire All Purpose Magnets from Home Depot ($2/pair). I slotted the wood for the magnets with a radial arm saw since I don't have a router, rough sanded the face of the wood on an 800 grit belt, and buffed it on an 8" loose buff with brown tripoly compound. From there I glued the 4 magnets in the slot with Titebond III, and used DAP Weldwood to stick a piece of 2oz leather scrap on the back so it wouldn't scratch their refrigerator. I didn't even bother to let any of the adhesives dry, lol...as the knives hold the wood to the magnets, and the leather is smashed between the refrigerator and magnets.

Not too bad for 20 minutes of my life, and $10 I think!



And a few pictures of the current condition of Anton's gyuto:



That's all for tonight, since I've decided I'm GOING TO BED before 4am for once...lol.

See you all tomorrow .

 

That doubles as artwork too! Beautiful piece of wood

 

Thanks Jason! I think it turned out pretty freakin cool myself .

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





And a few pictures after I rubbed the oxides off:



Keep in mind, this is at a very dirty 600 grit belt polish....there's a TON of activity left in this one. The edge is pretty close to zero right now, like .02mm...which actually may as well BE zero since the first swipe with 400 grit sand paper will literally take it to sharp. The customer wanted koa for this one...deep compression from Pete Rushton to be specific...so that will be the first piece of work on the agenda tomorrow. I actually have to make two, as somehow the handle on Ferry's gyuto failed. I'm EXTREMELY grateful it happened in my possession rather than once it arrived in Australia...but even so, I'm heartbroken. That was a gorgeous piece of wood....and it suited the knife beautifully.

Ahh well, life gives you lemons...you throw them at the mail man, right? The next handle will be even better .

 

beautiful. anxious to see the finished knife!

 

damn shame. Any usable scrap from the broken handle? That was one of the more gorgeous pieces for sure.

 

Me too Mike!!

Unfortunately, no. What happened was that for some reason...the glue joint at the ferrule failed. I'm guessing that grinding the thick wrought spacer generated a BUNCH of heat. Soooo...I cleaned it the best I could (the dowel being in the way makes this difficult), and glued it back up. The problem though...is the blade had already been fit, and the slot in the dowel was full of beeswax, which acted like flux on subsequent grinding to clean up the lines after re-glueing. The wax was getting drawn into the heat compromised glue joints and was acting like a release agent.

By the time I figured it out, the handle had been repeatedly reground to clean up tiny misalignments in the glue joints when they were re-attached.

Ahh well, it is what it is. The problem wasn't in the wrought iron...I think it was in having literally almost 20mm of wrought iron in one spot. LOTS of heat generated there.

Anyway, the new handle I have planned should be glorious . More as I get going with it!

 

I love the grind on Anton's gyuto! Seems like a hollow ground behind the edge. Is it?

 

Should be a subtle convex.

 

What Robert said. I don't do hollow secondary bevels, for maintenance purposes as far as my customers go, convenience in polishing for me, and for the fact that I need every bit of weight I can get in my blades lol. A hollow cuts out at minimum 1/3 of what would've been possible without it (one reason I went completely away from the now popular hollow shinogi ji type grinds). Added to that, I've found the few hollow secondary bevel knives I've used (Forgecraft) don't really support the kind of general performance I prefer, though they were both great knives and really quite well ground. Simply put, they wedge badly in tougher or taller product. The only place they really seemed to excel for me is in cutting product that is shorter, or very very soft (tomatoes, carrots, etc)...and even then the performance difference was marginal compared to a good, thinly ground knife with a bit of well placed convexity. On taller or denser product, a hollow grind has an exponentially increasing force curve to get past the shinogi. It gives a different feel, and on things like sweet potatoes can literally stop the knife in its tracks.

Plus they're a &!%(# to grind on a long, thin knife .

 

Mmmmmmm....deep compression koa!!


First the handle blank for the big 270 gyuto-hiki. Spacer is 165yr old wrought, and nickel silver. This one is going to be the flared butt, similar to James piece but without a live edge.


And the replacement getup for Ferry's 200mm extra heavy gyuto. I was doing some work on it prior to shipping it out, and the ferrule literally snapped off. Soooo, I took it apart and cleaned it, then glued it up. Ground it lightly to clean up any minute misalignment, and saw a gap...so I twisted, and it snapped behind the metal. Pulled it apart, cleaned it up, and reglued it. I did this four times, with three different kinds of high heat epoxy, and it failed repeatedly. All I can figure was the initial joints were compromised by 3yr old glue and the high heat generated by grinding the thick wrought iron spacers to shape...and since the handle had already been mounted and was full of beeswax, the heat from the subsequent grindings made the wax wick further into the joints like flux...at which point it acted like a release agent for the epoxy/glue. I was pretty devastated...it was my first full failure on a handle, and the block of koa was...well, lets just say 'not cheap'. But I'm grateful it happened in my hands, rather than in Ferry's all the way in Australia.

Anyhow, this handle is deep compression koa like his first one, with 165yr old wrought iron like his first one as well. The copper/nickel mokume is my apology for the delayed shipping.

I think he's ok with the delay .

 

Oh, speaking of mokume...here's a few pictures of the billets:




And a close up so you can see how fine the layers are. Almost like fingerprints .

 

DAMN!!!

 

Thanks brother! If you liked that, maybe you'll like this more:



And a closer look at that koa and mokume:


I left the copper oxides from etching on the wrought and even on the nickel silver spacers. I think it adds to the overall look of the piece myself. Ferry agreed, so...there it is!

 

Stunning handle! Just keeps getting better and better!

 

What Jason said! :like ump :cool1

 

Wow Cris, you've been a busy guy! Sorry it's been so long since I've said hi, not trying to be a stranger er anything. Hope everything's been goin good for ya, I've just been out enjoying the 'rare' beautiful weather we've been having this summer.. usually pretty depressing and gloomy up here near Seattle so I gotta take it while I can lol. Speakin of weather, could you describe to me what it's like standing next to a 2000*F forge during an Arizona summer? Man I was dying when trying to forge during some 90*F days, I couldn't imagine how hot and dry it gets where you live!

I'm glad to see you were able to make that new W2 from Aldo work for ya, that hamon on Anton's gyoto is wild! Seriously, it reminds me of some "wild style" graffiti. I'm sure it resembles some official Japanese flower or clover type hamon (choji?) or something like that but I'm sticking with "Cris' wild style"

I'm really enjoying what you've been doing with your handles too, the materials you use and the way you shape them never get old! Those last two shots of that koa and mokume are gorgeous, and the way you've incorperated that gnarly "live edge" wood is just too cool! Have you ever thought of giving the wrought iron a really deep etch in ferric (using a resist on the faces and tang hole) after shaping it and just before final glue up? I bet you could get some pretty cool results messing around with that technique if you used a dab of super glue to temperarily attach everthing to do the bulk of shaping then knocking everything loose with a light hammer tap. Although I'm not sure of all your specific steps and processes so... just a thought! :cool1

Anyway, I'm still looking foward to seeing some of that san mai you mentioned quite a while back, and seeing what you come up with using that hunk o' W2 I sent ya, and I'm holding ya to it! lol jus playing, I know you got a very full plate As always I'm looking forward ta seeing what's next :like Chat with ya later

~Paul

 

Hey, just thought I'd show ya what I'm talkin about with that deep wrought iron etch. This is a lil WI/L6 san mai kiridashi I made a few years ago, and after I put it in my FC etch tank, I forgot about it till the next day lol. But as Bob Ross would say, it was a "happy little accident" .



Btw, sorry if I'm not supposed to post any pics here, let me know if you want me to delete it after you see it. I just wanted ya to see how cool it looks with a deep, deep etch

~Paul

 

Hey Paul! There would be no way to separate the handle segments after shaping. It would never go back together properly. That said, I've done moderate etches in wrought before on my handles. I'm currently applying a patina to that mokume/wrought spacer that should look pretty cool. I'll probably be able to post up some pictures later tonight .

 

Cris your work is nothing short of amazing

 

Thank you Alex!!