Cheeks1989's 260mm W2 Honyaki XH Gyuto

Sooooo!

Would it surprise you all to hear that this blade began its life as a Mizuno rehandle lol? No joke! Sam contacted me about buying Ferry's rehandle spot for the Ikazuchi. They'd already worked out the deal and wanted me to approve it. Needless to say I was fine of course. So the Mizuno arrived, and around the same time Ferry backed out on his spot for a 260mm XH (in favor of an even bigger project lol...gotta love that guy!). The blade had JUST been hardened, so it immediately achieved 'stock knife' status. I happened to be texting with Sam at the moment, told him what happened, and was quickly hit with a flurry of texts, with the gist being 'Pictures? Wait, price? Nevermind, what's your PayPal??!' lol.

This knife was a lot of fun to make, and I gained yet another great friend out of the whole deal .

Steel - AISI W2 tool steel from Aldo at NewJerseySteelBaron.com

Handle - Red dyed stabilized redwood burl, with ancient walrus tusk, copper/nickel mokume, and nickel silver.

Saya - Red dyed giraffe leather.

So without any more explanation, here are the pictures which do the thing absolutely NO justice at all .



So, thank you again Sam for doing me the honor of allowing me to create your knife. It is very, very much appreciated!!

 

Oops! Also...I was in such a huge hurry to get the blade out in the mail today, that I forgot to take a post completion video!

I do have two other videos of the knife though...both prior to it being finished. I think they get the point across well enough however, so I'll share them here.

The first is a post polish video so you all can see the hamon. This was also before the handle was fit, so if you see any gaps that's why.



And this video was of me cutting with the blade pre-sharpening. This knife actually has a barely visible edge (meaning edge on, not the edge bevel) from the deburring process in the video. I was pretty happy with the results given the fact that it was in that condition:



As you can see, the handle is kind of crazy. The thing is the most reactive handle I've ever seen in regards to color change depending on ambient light, lol.

Thanks for looking everyone!

 

Cris I want to say thank you for the amazing experience and ride that we took to achieve in my opinion one awesome gyuto. Also I want to give a huge thank you to Ferry because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get something from Cris.

 

Absolutely my friend! I think you know how happy I am to be able to make these things for you guys . The friendship part is like a bucket of icing on the cake, lol.

 

Err... Can I pls have the blade back and Cheeky can keep the handle?

 

Lol, you'll have to work that out with him man...I just make the things

 

Congrats on a fine looking knife, Sam. The sheath is quite pretty too.

 

Stunning!! Congrats Cheeks :cool1

 

Mate I really love your knives! I'm a big fan of how unique they are and how they perform

 

@V1P lol

 

@XooMG thanks

 

@FinnEdge thanks

 

Congrats! Big fan of the mokume and tusk on that handle

 

Thanks guys!!

Robert, that poor sheath probably won't get the love it should next to the handle lol. That leather is really, really weird. It started out almost suede-like...but with a spongy texture on the actual top grain, vs a velvety texture. Honestly it almost felt fake lol. I did a lot of testing with wax, dye, and oils to get it to the finish it is now...and even so it would probably soak up another 20 minutes or more worth of saturating it in hot beeswax.

Joe, the mokume and tusk turned out soooo much better than even I expected together, lol. The contrast of the black and white striping worked with the yellow/ochre in a way I didn't quite expect. I figured it would be pretty, I just didn't figure it would be pretty exactly the way it is lol.

 

The inspiration for the wood is from this

 

Great looking blade!

How big is the blade you are going for? 300mm?? =P

 

Thanks Mike! Also Ferry lives in Australia he has to fend off things like drop bears snakes etc. Bigger the knife the better.

 

Same size lol...just something...other than Cheek's knife .

That's not a knoife! THIS is a knoife!!

 

Wow. Congratulations all around. Love the fact that what I think is an outstanding handle complements, rather than eclipses, your great blade.

 

Awesome work as always Cris. And i am really digging your Mokume work lately.