Grinding in Sweden (Warning: very photo heavy)

Last weekend Robin Dalman welcomed us in his workshop for a grind in. Apart from endless knives related talks, the main purpose was to learn knife making. I took some photos, so here's how it looked

Robin welcomes us in his shop

Just unpacked package from Taiwan. Cleavers were everywhere in the shop.

Plan for the two days and some branding ideas



Some very expensive knives blanks in stainless


Unfortunately Robin hasn't allowed me to use it for my first knife

Templates that Robin is using for grinding


Each of us got two pieces of carbon steel. One 210mm gyuto, and the other is 175mm mini-gyuto. This is how it looked when we arrived.


And here are 2 pieces that I got. You can see profiles scribed on the steel. Our first step was to cut profiles using band saw and grinder.


Band sawing


And grinding on a 60grit ceramic belts. This thing cuts steel like butter






I'm intolerant to sharp spines/choils/tangs, so I used files to quickly ease everything


After cutting the profiles, it was time to put makers mark


I wasn't fully satisfied with the stamps, so decided to do some chisel work. My makers mark ended up being too big and I had to alter grind later to save it.



Then it was time to put pre HT grind.




The end results looked something like this:



After rough grind it was time for HT. We applied thin layer of special clay



Baking some steel



Oil and water to play with


While blades were annealing, we started making handles.



Most of us have chosen Masur birch, reindeer for ferrule and birch bark for spacers. Lathe was used to shape handles and fit ferrule. I haven't took any pictures of the process itself, so here's only the picture of how handle looked while gluing.



While we were making handles, blades were ready after HT.


One out of four blades survived water quench without cracks, but it was bent so needed some work.



And then it was time to final grind. It was the most time consuming part. Each of us spent several hours near grinder.
Robin explained us his method and we tried to replicate it. With mixed success









There were about 10 full hours of work in the shop on day one. And here's what we had at the end of day



We couldn't finish two knives in 2 days, so we took the risk of water quench big blades for hamon. And if it cracks, then we finish small blade (which were oil quenched). So we woke up early next day and continued making sparks.







Then we shaped handles and started polishing blades


EDM stones allowed to put a decent polish in less than one hour. I wasn't trying to make it perfect, just good enough, so mine looked like this


Polishing blade


Fitting handle


My handle after polishing and putting coat of oil


And then it's sharpening time.



Happy participants with their knives




Overall it was an awesome experience and I'm super grateful to Robin for making this.
Maybe others will add some more pictures and share their experience

 

Thanks for posting this, Anton! A real pity I couldn't be there.

 

Nice, I saw these on your IG last night. Looks like fun. Ultimate question, how do they cut?

 

Looks like an awesome time......... WAY COOL!!! umpopump

 

Great pics Anton, looks like you had great fun.

 

Envy

 

I haven't tried them all, just mine and Matthew's. Mine wasn't impressive during my first testing… either because there was some beer involved, or because of poor sharpening. However I put a proper edge on it today and it performed pretty well. I cut some potatoes and there was no cracking or wedging. The only issue seems to be food release…
But for the first knife I couldn't be happier

 

Glad you all had a good time, and glad my package arrived in time for you to pick up that muteki.

 

We had indeed a great time there. @Anton summarised very well this fantastic weekend. Here is a view of Anton water quenching a blade in view of differential hardening... with mixed success.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c4guustir2p1vw9/IMG_3510.MOV?raw=1

 

Hell I had a good time just looking at the pictures! I love the stool of belt fuzz.

Thanks for sharing!

 

It was like I was there with you! Awesome!

 

Haha yea running water had stopped working, good timing.

 

Some more porn videos from the meeting. Grinding pre HT:


HT theory:


and practice:

 

You guys must really have had a great time !

 

Few additional pictures from another lucky participant:

The surroundings of the workshop




The building of the workshop


Some radom beauty in the shop:








Some people at work:

 

Nice shots, Matthew!