Latest handle work

[Darkhoek]

Here are a couple of my latest rehandles. The western ones were also total regrinds of some e-bay blanks I bought. VG-10 raindrop damascus blade and Seki made, but that's another story. The western handles are African blackwood with brass and mosaic pins.

The octagonal handle is a cocobolo handle with buffalo horn and pewter-silver and red fiber spacers. On the octagonal handle you can see a white line in the horn on the rear bolster. It's not a crack, but a natural occurence in most buffalo horn.









DArkhOeK

http://***********************

[JohnnyChance]

Did you thin those ebay blanks? they look different than the sellers pictures. how do you like them?

[Darkhoek]

Did you thin those ebay blanks? they look different than the sellers pictures. how do you like them?

Yes. The edges were deeply hollow ground and deeply etched like the blade body and had the worst factory grind I have seen! I thinned and flattened the blade roads to a Heiji like geometry and gave the blade roads a Japanese natural finger stone finish. I kept the thickness of the spine to keep the etching in the damascus for the good looks, but rounded and polished the spine and rounded the choil to a more Pierre Rodrigues shape . I have kept the blade roads flat all the way to the edge and only given it a very light secondary bevel to make the edge a bit more resilient to chipping. Both knives perform really good. The cutting feeling of the gyuto is the best I have experienced and compares to the Shigefusa gyuto. Really amazing blanks these. I can recommend them if you need a blank for a project like this.

DArkHOek

[Dave Martell]

Nice

[ecchef]

Hey Dark, what's the country of origin on those blanks?

Oh, and, nice work on them handles too!

[Darkhoek]

Hey Dark, what's the country of origin on those blanks?

Oh, and, nice work on them handles too!

Thanks

The ebay store states it is Seki-made, Japan. The knives get exceptionally sharp and performs very well, so the VG-10 core is very well hardened and tempered anyhow. This is where I bought the blanks from.

http://cgi.ebay.com/San-Mai-Chef-Kni...item3363f02782

DARKHoeK

[Marko Tsourkan]

We need to form hanle-makers guild.

[apicius9]

I'm in

[Darkhoek]

And our punchline will be "We can (re)handle everything"

DarkHOeK

[kalaeb]

Have you ever dinged the bolster while rough sanding or shaping? How are you guys shaping the piece of wood right before the bolster? I have done a few handles of my own, they fit very well and look great, but I will be darned if I can get the bolster to look shiny as new. Any thoughts?