Some of my knives

Since I can post here now, here are pics of some of my knives. Woohooooooo

Current magnetic rack line up. Just the things I'm using most often at the moment live on the rack.






Knives and sayas. Two sayas came with the knives, one was a generic I bought, and the other five I made. The plan is to eventually make a saya for all my decent knives so they can easily rotate between protected storage and the knife rack.








And the knives I'm proudest of aren't necessarily my best performers, but I use them the most because I made them and it's more satisfying to use these.






And lastly technically shouldn't be here, but a knife and saya I made for my dad for Christmas. I think it's the prettiest knife and saya I've made so far.






Thanks for looking, cheers!

Nice!

Your collection is looking nice!

How do you like your Jelle Hazenbergs? Are the handles comfortable for multiple grips? I've thought about picking up one of his blades before, but the handles and the lack of a decent flat spot have held me back.

tgfencer said:

How do you like your Jelle Hazenbergs? Are the handles comfortable for multiple grips? I've thought about picking up one of his blades before, but the handles and the lack of a decent flat spot have held me back.

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I like them a lot. I think Jelle has been refining his blade geometry and handle shapes a lot since I got this custom set. On chef's knife or gyuto, I mainly use pinch grip and am a home user only, so I'm relatively insensitive to handle shape since not much of my hand is on the handle per se. The spines and choils are very nicely rounded. The petty I usually use in a finger pointing grip which is part of why I commissioned it with the swedge. The longest prep sessions I'll have are usually on the order of an hour, probably 90 minutes max, so I can't say how comfortable they would be if you're a pro using them hours every day. I personally feel the handles are extremely comfortable for me.

I think Jelle is taking custom commissions still? If you have some fun money, you could ask for a custom with long flat spot where you want, but of course a commissioned custom to your specs will always be a dice roll, even from a very well established maker. My chefs knife works very well if you do a bit of a locomotive push cut or if you like to rock. It does wedge a bit in tall hard food like super large carrots, hard squashes (acorn, butternut), more so on push cutting the carrot versus a rocking cut. I've only touched up the petty so far, otherwise just stropped on color newspaper. Used the chef on a decent amount of acorn and butternut squash as well as on some face grain board and was happy no microchipping.

While the blades feel light, they aren't lasers. There is some mass at the spines but a decent distal taper. And then the profile is one that you'd think be a bit more handle heavy. IIRC, the chef balance point is at the choil just beyond the handle (I'm not home right now, so can't confirm).

I discussed my impression of the knives at length with him, and it seems he's made some refinements in the newer knives he's made? You can definitely see it in the shapes of the handles. I would be interested in another custom from him in the future when I have more play money for custom knives.

Great collection! What woods do you used for your sayas?

Ivang said:

Great collection! What woods do you used for your sayas?

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Thanks, I've used balsa, basswood, and pine. I have some poplar but haven't used it yet. The balsa and basswood I've stained and applied a finish whereas the pine I've flame scorched like sho sugi ban. My latest kick is basswood with leather or wood veneer applied to the outside. This way the saya wood is softer and gentle on the blade but I can get an exotic wood look on the exterior.

I just got some desert ironwood big enough for sayas but it feels like a waste to me not to use it for handles.

Thanks for the feedback on the hazenbergs. And save the ironwood for handles, imo, unless you've got a real kick*** blade needing a rehandle, then you could do matching handle/saya.