Honesuki in the works...

Here's a honesuki that I am working on, which is made out of 5/32 O1 stock. It will be deba-ish in terms of thickness so we'll see how she does in testing. This knife will also be my first with a wa-handle. Any questions or concerns with the shape of the blade or the tang? I also hollow ground this knife as it will be strictly for protein prep, primarily deboning chickens, any issues? Also, any suggestions as to what hardness and why?

Thanks in advance for looking :wink:

My inspiration


Pre-heat treatment grinding finished

Looks real good Pete! FWIW, the one thing I would be concerned about is having too fine a point. One unintentional poke into a bone or board will do it in. Kiritsuke style tip grind may add a bit of strength.

Looks nice and clean Pete well done , I would grind after heat treatment to avoid warps but that's jut preference


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The blade profile looks really good - has some belly, but not too much. I second the fragile looking tip - though we can not see how thick it is. The hollow ground will however be not possible for user to maintain and may make the edge too thin (sorry for going too far with guessing here).

I like it. When Adam Marr started making knives, he made a honesuki for me, and it is still one of my favorite knives. Good work sir.

k.

looks like you are putting that new grinder to good use! More fun than files?

JMJones said:

looks like you are putting that new grinder to good use! More fun than files?

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I feel like the two knives that I made completely with files last year were sort of my way of paying dues to the knife makers that came before me. Every time I use my grinder, I get closer to better understanding its nuances and the techniques needed to create what I have in my mind. I am a long way from where I hope to be one day, but I enjoy seeing the progress every time I grind a new knife.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Seriously though, any idea on what hardness I should take this O1 honesuki to?

I would settle at around 60Hrc with that hollow grind, if you made it flat/convex i think 62-63 would be possible

mr drinky said:

I like it. When Adam Marr started making knives, he made a honesuki for me, and it is still one of my favorite knives. Good work sir.

k.

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I remember that knife very, very well. Still love it.

I think this could be a really, really nice piece, Pete.

For hardness, I'd hit 60, more or less. Get it to O1's comfort zone of 63ish, then temper it down to 60, rather than shooting right for it.

Lefty said:

I think this could be a really, really nice piece, Pete.

For hardness, I'd hit 60, more or less. Get it to O1's comfort zone of 63ish, then temper it down to 60, rather than shooting right for it.

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I've settled on having Peter's take the heat treat to 59-60 and we'll see how she performs. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to comment or provide feedback.

Decided I would use the remaining bar of O1 to make two more honesuki's, here they are profiled out.

Pete those look really nice. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

Is one a lefty...?

Looking good Pete!

If these go smoothly, are you going to sell off the extras? if so, put me on the list I gave my old honesuki to a buddy so, I'm in the market for a new one

Ramenlegend,

Thanks for the kind words! Currently I am just beginning to learn the art of knife making and I have yet to produce a knife that I would be comfortable selling with my name on it. Perhaps one day I will get to the point where I will be confident in the performance of my knives to the point of branding them and selling them. Right now, I'm focused on learning how to grind evenly, how to recreate the geometry of my favorite kitchen knives and the workmanship in the handles. There's also much testing to do. Luckily, the internet provides a great deal of this information through accomplished blade smith's who share their knowledge, so hopefully my learning curve won't be too bad.

Best Regards,

Pete

Here's a flat ground Honesuki in the works. It's currently been taken to a 120 grit belt finish and has been ground to HT thickness.

The blade shape looks really nice

wow! looking great!