Works in progress

Serious eye candy . How is Damasteel to work with?

 

I works the same as CPM 154CM because they use RWL 34 which is almost identical. Of course you have to do a warm acid etch followed by ferric etch to bring out the beautiful contrast as opposed to carbon Damascus which just needs ferric etching.

 

Of course! Is it because the Damasteel responds as stainless as opposed to carbon? Is it to much to ask how the warm acid differs from ferric chloride? Your etching really pops.

 

It's a harder steel with more nickel and chromium in the "dark" portion than in the darker steel in a carbon Damascus. Needs more oomph in the etching process than just ferric alone. Ferric alone makes the pattern visible, but not contrasty enough.

 

Setting bevels Ina 240mm CTS-XHP kiritsuki tip gyuto. Rosewood Burl and box elder Burl bolsters.

 

CPM 20CV super steel 175mm with mammoth tooth bolsters and double dyed box elder Burl.


210mm Damasteel stainless gyuto with maple Burl and carbon fiber bolsters.

 

This one is about 7-1/2" blade form CTS-XHP. .22at the spine. Handle is pretty dramatically tapered.



This is spalted Texas Pecan with black box elder Burl and kirinite/G10 trim. Blade is 240mm CPM 154CM stainless gyuto.


Two 180mm CTS XHP gyutos. One with double dyed box elder Burl and black Palm bolsters. Other is Amboyna Burl with chaktekok bolsters.

 

Dang, that XHP knife looks impressive! Is it going to be a camp knife/chopper?

Do you use wenge unstabilized? I think Japanese knives are often unstabilized wood, and wenge is semi-common bolster/ferrule for their factory handles?

Gorgeous work as always! :cool1

 

Thanks!

I only use stabilized wenge. I don't think it's oily enough to be used unstabilized like cocobolo or rosewood or ebony. I think the XHP will be more a fighter/camp knife. Or maybe I'll just use it to open mail and peel oranges.

 

I love the pictures of the progressing work and the knives are beautiful

 

210-220mm CTS--XHP with a slightly narrower handle and a Fujiwara notch per customer request. This one will have a kiritsuki tip after handling.




Two of my favorite 250mm profiles. Both in CPM M4 steel. Crazy steel! Blows away practically every other steel for edge holding except two others and I'll be doing knives out of those as well.

 

Love your WIP's

 

Love the handles!

 

Cutting in bevels. Rounding the finger side of the handle.

 

A brief WIP. This is my super blue knife. I wanted to complement the stainless clad super blue steel 250mm blade with as much special blue materials as I could manage. This maple Burl is as close to a representation of Starry Night as I have ever seen and have been hoarding it for years until the right project. The carbon fiber is a one-off I had made with blue, black, and white. It is the protective front Bolster cap to protect the mammoth tooth. The dyed mammoth tooth is a special extra thick cut, 0.4" thick, perfect for bolsters. I added blue lapis stone and G10 trim because...why not!



Scales affixed to tang




Shaping the scales to fit.



Shaped to my octagonal-ish beveled handle. 120grit at his point. Colors and really poppin here.


2000 grit hand sanded and buffed here. It's BLUE!!!



Shaped the front to a kiritsuki tip and gave it a ferric dip to hilight the San Mai construction. It is hellaciously thin super blue edge and still retains 80+% stainless cladding. Now for an edge and imprint.

Hope you folks enjoyed the process!