First crack at freehand grinding

My first attempt at freehand grinding. These are only rough ground and I've left some meat (0.8mm) at and behind the edge to prevent distortion during the heat treat. I'll grind them thinner (carefully) once they're hardened/tempered.

They're all full flat grinds, with some subtle convexity for food release, 180mm gyuto profiles with wa handles (cocobolo, nickel spacer and Blackwood ferrule). The steel is Bestar 1.2519, high carbon tungsten vanadium, very similar to Blue #2.

Fun! Nice taper along the spine. Can get a sense of the grind from the light reflecting in the leftmost blade. Classy choice of handle materials. Looks great, looking forward to seeing the final product

Okay, I'm impressed.

Thanks. It'll take a few weeks to get them back from the heat treat, and provided they survive the process I'll get them finished shortly afterwards.

With free hand grinding you mean that you are not using a belt sender? If yes that must be incredible amount of work! Please keep the photos coming, this is very cool

No, I've got a 2x72 grinder, though I did use a mill file to tweak sections. By freehand I mean grinding freehand, without a jig to aid in keeping the angle. I wanted to have the flexibility to introduce some convexity and that's difficult with a jig. So I ruined a couple of practice blades and then managed to get these fairly close.

I've just got a set of drawing out and flatting dies for my fly press so the next project is to start forging some blades and making some damascus.

Good job, you send them to Peters?(just curious but I don't know if your in the states or not)

Welldone Sir... You gotta have steady hands.

Well, I'm showing the successes, not the failures...

Originally I cut out four blanks. In a momentary lapse of concentration I nicked the spine of one of them while pulling it away from the belt. Instantly ruined... It would still make a nice enough knife, but the line down the spine is ruined. It's frustrating, but not a total waste as I'll use it for a destruction test after the heat treat. I'm based in the UK so can't use Peters; I send them to another knife maker here who offers heat treating services.

Eventually I'll get a kiln but they are literally double the price in the UK (£1300, or USD1900! for an Evenheat or Paragon 18"). I'd have to be selling blades to warrant spending that sort of money..

When I get the fly press working on some forged stock I'll post some pics. I'm keen to forge in the distal taper rather than grind it.

Handles are taking shape. Using the Cris Anderson method, with a slotted dowel. I've got a compound table on the drill press though and have milled the tang slots. Hopefully they'll fit neat.

Hadn't seen this thread before. This is what it's about. Look good and fun

Heat treat finished and ready for final grinding..

Nicely done. The distal taper looks great, and your grind looks even and well executed. They should turn out to be nice little cutters .

CrisAnderson27 said:

Nicely done. The distal taper looks great, and your grind looks even and well executed. They should turn out to be nice little cutters .

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lus1:

I also like the heel height and handles.

Looks like you are having fun

Sure am, but I just wish I had more time as the bug has well and truly bit.

Bill13 - the heel will be 43mm once I'm done (blade length is 180mm). I like a bit of knuckle clearance, even on smaller knives.

Can't wait to see finishad knife

Butters said:

Handles are taking shape. Using the Cris Anderson method, with a slotted dowel. I've got a compound table on the drill press though and have milled the tang slots. Hopefully they'll fit neat.

Click to expand...

Oh also is the main handle section milled out if so how far down can you do it

The dowel goes into the cocobolo about 75mm, so with the ferrule there's 100mm of tang in there which gives good balance. I drill it on a drill press with a right angle vice to keep it all square and straight.

I mill the slot where the tang goes through the ferrule to keep it square and true, but I've done it slightly under size with a view to burning it in later, so it's essentially a press fit with no gaps.

This is a ferrule before glue up and shaping


And this is one almost finished.. I just need to hand sand the blade properly before finish sanding and waxing the handle. Then I can burn in the tang all the way and take it to the stones for the final edge. It's the first blade I've made completely freehand, but not the last!

Beautiful work, I especially like that little extra height at the heel for a knife that length.

Beautiful stuff congrats on first one

Butters said:

The dowel goes into the cocobolo about 75mm, so with the ferrule there's 100mm of tang in there which gives good balance. I drill it on a drill press with a right angle vice to keep it all square and straight.

I mill the slot where the tang goes through the ferrule to keep it square and true, but I've done it slightly under size with a view to burning it in later, so it's essentially a press fit with no gaps.

This is a ferrule before glue up and shaping

And this is one almost finished.. I just need to hand sand the blade properly before finish sanding and waxing the handle. Then I can burn in the tang all the way and take it to the stones for the final edge. It's the first blade I've made completely freehand, but not the last!

Click to expand...

Great looking handle and the knife. We have similar taste)))

Yep, knives like pizza. Three ingredients, and maybe a metal spacer for desert

Seriously though, thanks for the kind words. I've taken a lot of motivation from knives seen on this site. Marko, Devin, BB, Catchside, HHH, Martel, Harner and so many others.

Sweet knife and handle. Where do you get the steel foe this type of project?

Steel for these is 1.2519, a tungsten & vanadium alloy, very good for steep but stable edges with great edge retention. I bought it from Germany (but I'm in the UK).

Oh, but it's a nightmare to finish. I knew it would be wear resistant, but this stuff just laughs at abrasives. I'm trying to get them really thin behind the edge as they'll be difficult to thin later unless the user has ceramic stones. And patience.

Essentially O1 on steroids. I sent them out for heat treat and asked for a temper at 150C, which 'should' give 64RC. I've tested the edges and there's enough flex that they won't chip easily which was a relief.

It'll be interesting to test them and see if the potential extra edge holding is worth the extra effort in finishing them, plus the extra effort that will be required in future to thin and sharpen. It's a compromise.

C - 1.12%
Cr - 1.2%
W - 1.2%
V - 0.2%

I used to like knives super hard, but I'm now realising it's not the end game I thought. I re-handled and sharpened up an old K-Sab recently and it was such a joy to sharpen. A couple of swipes and it was a razor. As opposed to half an hour on the stones, only to end up with a convex edge from fatigue and a dished stone...

Ok cool, but who supplies it? What business, website, street address in germany?

Really? Google brought me to this forum so that I could informed people specific questions. My question was where did you get that steel, not where can I get steel. You've obviously had success with the steel you purchased and that is do in part to where you got it.

I thought it was funny.

I bought it from the second listing on the link above. Schmeideglut.