Black snot and steel splinters #2

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RDalman

RDalman

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I'm real tired and slow right now so that's the best I can do for thread title :). It's the "general" thread over at my kkfora sub.

What's up:
Hustle for a fair up in northern Sweden, Lycksele 27-29/5
Having a break from custom orders to review my process and numbers for a bit. I want to focus on what makes both me and customers most happy.


Coming up:
Passaround
Elmax peeling knives
A dive into chukas and maybe nakiri
Play with new steels and heat treatment. I'll stay with the vacuum ht for stainless/aeb-l, atleast for a good bit, possibly indefinately :) but I'm setting up oven and things.

Contest time! Best advice or joke (or general creative stuff that makes me smile) in 24 hours gets this "second". I have a big plastic bag on the shop wall with knives I'm not happy to sell. This one is a full tang field knife with juma scales and nickelsilver corby rivets, kydex sheath. Aeb-l 63 hrc, which is a bit hard for a knife like this, but edge holds up :) DSC_2137.jpg

I'll probably not setup the subforum properly until after that fair, if you're curious about my knives have a look at instagram as that's where I post most of what I'm up to. I'll post some here too. I'll try to make some timelapse videos when I work today.
 
'You, and only you, should set the value of your talents, ideas, services, and/or product. Don't ever expect anyone to pay or give you more than they have to.' As an entrepreneur, you have to get used to the fact that, quite often, you'll be faced with an offer that seems less than the value of your talent, ideas, services, or product. That's business. You are the sole arbiter of what you, your ideas, services, or product is worth. Therefore, what you get is what you are willing to settle for. You have to fight for what you feel you're worth.
 
That's some solid and relevant advice Bkultra. Thank you, much appreciated. I am learning to claim my value, and express myself a little better. I will however continue to try and "be myself" also :)

In sweden we have something called "jantelagen" which is mentality rooted in many of us here, it's basically about "not believing you're something special".
 
RDalman said:
That's some solid and relevant advice Bkultra. Thank you, much appreciated. I am learning to claim my value, and express myself a little better. I will however continue to try and "be myself" also :)

In sweden we have something called "jantelagen" which is mentality rooted in many of us here, it's basically about "not believing you're something special".
Click to expand...

But you are special :/ you make special things everyday, think about how many people's lives you've changed. As a cook my knives are like family. I spend more time with my tanaka in my hand than I do talking to my family. It's literally my partner, arguably my best friend. A lot of chefs feel this way and I presume more so as you provide them with custom knives that many people believe they helped bring to life. Your a creator my friend. Like it or not you are special. :knife: it's the fact that your knives are special that got people so excited, your grind is unlike that of anyone elses. It's so unique, it blew my mind when I first saw it. Combine that with your use of local materials, your basically the noma of knives.
 
Greetings Robin! I was wondering when you would get your own space here. I'm on your list for a custom sometime in the near future, looking forward to it!

The only advice I can give comes from my experience as a doctor, researcher, and an engineer: You can alway tell if a project is worth your time if you ask yourself how excited are you to show the world the result. Pursue those ideas that excite you. No matter the outcome, you will rest easy.
 
Godslayer said:
But you are special :/ you make special things everyday, think about how many people's lives you've changed. As a cook my knives are like family. I spend more time with my tanaka in my hand than I do talking to my family. It's literally my partner, arguably my best friend. A lot of chefs feel this way and I presume more so as you provide them with custom knives that many people believe they helped bring to life. Your a creator my friend. Like it or not you are special. :knife: it's the fact that your knives are special that got people so excited, your grind is unlike that of anyone elses. It's so unique, it blew my mind when I first saw it. Combine that with your use of local materials, your basically the noma of knives.
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Daaaamn that's the best compliment I've got. Thanks!
 
ash987 said:
Greetings Robin! I was wondering when you would get your own space here. I'm on your list for a custom sometime in the near future, looking forward to it!

The only advice I can give comes from my experience as a doctor, researcher, and an engineer: You can alway tell if a project is worth your time if you ask yourself how excited are you to show the world the result. Pursue those ideas that excite you. No matter the outcome, you will rest easy.
Click to expand...

Steel is in! I'll cut it tomorrow and show :)
And your advice is true, this is some seriously good advice here. You kind of set an idea, maybe we can try it for your knife. Email inbound tomorrow.
 
bkultra said:
Show-off :biggrin:
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Heh, I like to change it up every 5 years. I think 3/4 of my extended family has no idea what my profession is at any given time.

RDalman said:
Steel is in! I'll cut it tomorrow and show :)
And your advice is true, this is some seriously good advice here. You kind of set an idea, maybe we can try it for your knife. Email inbound tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Aww, yeah!
 
"Assumptions are the mother of all **** ups" -Stephen Segal
 
If I could add one last thing to my above statement, it's to avoid stagnation at all costs. Youve done well with the idea of playing with new steels and blade shapes. Btw the nakiri has been waiting for you. Your grind + that shape is going to be incredible, a true laser that will strike fear in veggies the whole world over. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and where the iron takes you. Keep up the good work and the rest will take care of itself. As I said before in the knife world your something different and I(we) kinda like that. :knife:
 
Again thanks for all the great advice. I was sort expecting a bunch of jokes :)

I'm sending the knife to BKultra, as he hit it off, and refreshed my thoughts on that subject.

I'm feeling very optimistic today, much thanks to you guys. Hope you'll have a nice friday.
 
With your inspirational help, coming up is playing with a handle material I believe will make love with the hands - birch bark. It's probably a big pain to work, but it's sexy.
 
I was driving a bit today to pick up a wool rug (my girlfriend is on some wool craze) and I was thinking about knives as usual.

I don't see competition between knifemakers, I believe quality knives will just expand the (very marginal) market for high end knives, and the more good knives out there the better.

So something like this, when I began i did a bunch of trialing to figure out what kind of geometry I wanted on my knives, as you can read in the other forum. I consider this to be like a recipe, and I don't mind sharing it, and if someone want to try making a knife based on that recipe they should not hesitate.
I don't see it as "copying" or anything like that, because it all comes down to execution. And freehanding a good grind on a knife does take some practice/skill/talent/effort etc.

And then there's the shape, handle, materials, how they're treated... Everything comes together (and matters) to make a nice knife.

Back to work. Cheers!
 
Wow, very nice Robin. How much time did it take you to get from 400 grit to 3000. And what equipment did you use?
 
About three hours from 600 I think. Foundation work is key, and as hard backing you can. Rhynowet paper is balls... And this is what my setup looks like:
View attachment 31955

Edge and bevel is finished on stones and sharp, before polishing.
 
Thanks, but I guess the attachment isn't working.
 
That's weird. I get HTTP error 500: www.kitchenknifeforums.com is unable to handle this request.

I have no clue why you can view it and I cannot, bkultra, but thanks a lot for posting it.

Robin, if more people have this problem (do you guys, or is it just me?) You may want to use an external hosting company, like Photobucket. What are we seeing in this pic, Robin, except for a large knife?
 
Pictured is the clamp setup I use. For backing I use a radiused wood paddle for the hollow section, steel bar for the flats, rubber backing for finishing strokes. I wrap rhynowet sandpaper around these backings and do it wet (water).

For refinish a knife with handle I prefer something rubber to wrap paper around, and usually just hold the knife against some cardboard on a table.
Worth mentioning is that it pays off to go through the sandpaper quickly, they dull quickly.
 
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