A small haphazardly thrown together biography.

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RDalman

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I had need for, so I threw this together.. Figure it doesn't hurt to share if some of you are interested.


I grew up with my mother and two elder sisters in a town called Katrineholm, 150 km south of stockholm.

My interest in knives started when I was four years old, and my mother gave me my first knife. A small mora scout, that I used for carving bark boats. Looking at pictures from my childhood, this knife is always on my hip when we where out in the woods.

So my mother sparked it, and as for the kitchen knives, they where the thin stainless kind that is common. These also did recieve some kind of sharpening, and quite frequently. A whetstone for scythes which the knives where vigorously rubbed against in circles. Looking at that now, they probably never got really sharp, but they where continuously "thinned" behind the cutting edge, and probably cut pretty well.

I went to school with music direction in the later years, as I played electric guitar. Me and some friends had a punkrock band in the teenage years, and it's a little in my personality, that I strive to get as good as I can when I do things. So the guitarplaying was enriched with lessons and alot of practice. The band only lasted a couple of years, but I was playing with another couple of bands for fun during my twenties. Mostly metal, as that's the kind of music I enjoy the most.

When I moved into my own at 18, I got a whetstone at a thriftstore, and occasionaly sharpened on. I have always been cooking and baking alot. I left school at 19, not completing my last year, and started working instead. Life went on, I ended up working in elder care, and later got education for that as well.
Love brought me to Stockholm, and a couple bad job experiences made me leave the care-sector for a job in industry, building electricity backup cabinets for telecom industry. In this workplace I moved to quality work, and ended up making quality controls on incoming parts. Measuring and checking tolerances towards drawings, and checking functionality. I did this for a couple of years until the company had to downsize.

During these years (2012-2013) I "found" a interest for craft. It begun with me designing a computer chassis in wood, for my slightly special built computer I had built myself. A silent air-cooled gaming system. I ended up building this in our apartment, with the help of knife, chisels and a dremel. I attach a picture.
This left a lust for more. My girlfriend suggested as she had read in some paper recently, I make a knife. Said and done I got a mora blade blank, a piece of brass and a piece of juniper. It was fun, and it sparked the knifemaking obsession. I got in touch with stockholms knife association, which turned out to have their shop five minutes walk from me. So I joined them and could make knives there. I did however want to make the blades as well, which I started doing. And maybe that didn't land all that well in the woodworking/meeting shop. In this time I met with Andre Rybak, who was quickly a great inspiration, and always helpful. A couple of years earlier I had
bought my first japanese kitchen knife. A 240 gyuto (chef knife), hand forged carbon steel. This knife had been quite a disappointment, but after I had spent a good bit of time with it on the whetstones I got it to behave a little better.
So I wanted to make a chef knife for myself, and tried making a couple. These came out a little too thick behind the cutting edge and didn't work as I had hoped in my kitchen. I was grinding them on a very small underpowered grinder, and it got fairly expensive in abrasives. At any rate I did get a taste for it, and figured I could probably do it pretty well by hand if I only had the tools.

I had another kitchen knife enthusiast that I had lended my first made kitchen knives to for feedback, and we had gotten fairly friendly. So when I lost my job I mentioned it, and maybe I mentioned some loose thought of knifemaking. He immediately offered to help me make a business plan if I wanted, as he had worked with that previously. Said and done, business plan got made, with a fairly naive budget. I gave it a shot and presented the business plan in order to recieve a small state startup funding, which I got. From there I got on the quest to find a shop space, this proved VERY difficult in stockholm. I ended up renting a 25 square meter room in a barn, a 30 km drive from where I live, but it was enough :)
When I had the space, I invested all my savings into the tools I needed, and a batch of steel to work with. I was optimistic.

I started making full time, and reached out to more enthusiasths to try the knives I made. I was happy to find some. I wanted to make kitchen knives consistently that "cut well", and was as much "performance" they could be. So I had to do alot of testing, on grinding techniques, finishes and treatment of steel. The heat treatment was outsourced to facility with vacuum furnaces in the beginning. They had very good control and could deliver at the hardnesses I requested. I ended up going with a grind that is a little difficult to do, a compound hollow grind also called "s-grind", this in conjunction with a strong distal taper was both cutting very easy, and offered some food release. And most importantly; I found I could grind it pretty consistently.
The steel I found to give me the performance I wanted was aeb-l, but heat treated to be very hard.

I didn't spend much thought on aestetics, but much later it dawned on me people really liked the swordlike look my blades got from this.

When I had settled on this "prototype" I sent two knives out on "passarounds" for people to try, these knives traveled the world. And the feedback was great, and orders started coming in faster than I could make. From there I have been making custom orders up until now. In nov 2016 I stopped taking custom orders, and will change over to only selling what I make instead.

These days I do my own heat treatment also. I do some carbon steel knives for nice hamons, which is a little exciting. I do hamons on chef knives by "freehand", without clay, waterquenching selectively. It produces a natural hamon I like the looks of, in addition to that I like this way of making hamon the best, in terms of getting control.
You can see this quench in this small process video:
[video=youtube;qLGe0mrLH4Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLGe0mrLH4Y[/video]

I still focus on function, but have evolved my grind, finish and techniques a little bit. I also have moved to try and stick with swedish/scandinavian materials. The octagonal handles I make in swedish wood and with reindeer antler as ferrule.

I am also widening the steels I use. Testing out optimal heat treatments and such.

The goal is to keep this up, and eventually move to either a larger shop, or if we move the family out of stockholm and get a house. Because I can probably not stop making knives.

And some pics; Ugly knifemaker and some knives https://imgur.com/gallery/IdUX4
 
Thanks :)

Mucho, I'm getting there, today was sick-kid day, so I got a chance to write this on nap time :)
 
Thanks Robin. Great story, great video and great pics. Really enjoyed it. :doublethumbsup:
It's interesting that two women in your life influenced your path: your mother gave you your first knife at the tender age of four (scary when I think about it), then your girlfriend suggested that you make a knife. Glad you listened!

The only things I currently have with the Dalman touch are a kiridashi blade and a handle on a Yu Kurosaki gyuto. Both lovely but now I need something more. I need to give your story life... well, that's my excuse.
:wink:
 
Thanks for sharing & nice looking blades!
 
Thanks Robin. Great story, great video and great pics. Really enjoyed it. :doublethumbsup:
It's interesting that two women in your life influenced your path: your mother gave you your first knife at the tender age of four (scary when I think about it), then your girlfriend suggested that you make a knife. Glad you listened!

The only things I currently have with the Dalman touch are a kiridashi blade and a handle on a Yu Kurosaki gyuto. Both lovely but now I need something more. I need to give your story life... well, that's my excuse.
:wink:

Sweet thanks. I hope to have more stuff for sale in reasonable time. Yes I like those women 😛
 
Nice write up, interesting story and very nice to see you have found what you love to do and have succeeded pursuing it.
 
Love the read. Saw the pictures on your instagram feed. Love the fact that you posted pictures in protective gear when there are so many bad examples out there of people trying to look cool rather than be smart.
 
Love the read. Saw the pictures on your instagram feed. Love the fact that you posted pictures in protective gear when there are so many bad examples out there of people trying to look cool rather than be smart.

thanks, yes the hobby is on the rise. So is probably the real bad shop accidents, as well as the "slow dangers". I'm a member in a facebook group for hobby knifemakers, and it's almost daily you see bad accidents, and most don't seem to use respirator.
 
Love the read. Saw the pictures on your instagram feed. Love the fact that you posted pictures in protective gear when there are so many bad examples out there of people trying to look cool rather than be smart.

This right here! Exact thoughts I had when looking over your Facebook/Instagram. Was shocked at the respirator pic, wouldn't have thought it was that bad.

Back to topic at hand, awesome life journey, happy for you that things have worked out, needs allot of dedication for a craft like yours! Impressive blades and 1 day I will own 1!
 
Very nice write up and interesting to see the path toward what you are today. Thanks a lot for sharing this piece with us all. It is nice to know other sides of you than your great knives.
Beyond making knives that are gorgeous pieces and great performers, you are a very knowledgeable human being. Thx again for the knife you made for me and for the "process"!
 
Thanks for sharing! Nice to know a bit more about the maker of one of my favourite knives.
 
Thankyouthankyouthankyou :)

That imgur album went crazy btw, internet is strange sometimes
 
What a cool story. Looks like you were pre-destined to become a knife maker. Just tell me - where do you find a girl that actually tells you to try making knives :D
 
Stay safe and you will be making great knives that you are proud of for a very long time!

You are very fortunate to have found a vocation you really love. Enjoy the ride!

Cheers,

J :)
 
Love all the comments in Imgur 😂. Thank you for sharing Robin!
 
Cool story. It's always good to get to know a knifemaker a bit closer.
Most of us knows how you turn swedish metal into knives, but i guess only a few of knows how you make swedish metal. :)
[video=youtube;XncN35RwhXU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XncN35RwhXU"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XncN35RwhXU[/video]
 
Aww haha. Yea that was the last I played with, younger guys, maybe I didn't love the music, but it's fun to play.
 
Aaaahahaha that's looking cheesy enough :D

I do like metal, just more the "progressive" (?) kind, like meshuggah, or after the burial as american sample.
 
Great story and great knives. I particularly like the thin tip and how easy it is to sharpen your aeb-l. Thank you!

Thanks Marcelo. Maybe I can have something new interesting soon :)
I've turned my elmax disappointment into optimism, and for carbon the Rigor (a2/sld) is promising. Also a fun project steel I'll keep to myself so long :)
 
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