Catcheside Cutlery - Works in progress.

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WillC

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My updates thread is getting a bit much to put all in one place. So I have decided to have a general works in progress thread for WIP pictures and leave the updates thread to keep customers informed as to order progress etc.:D
Here are some progress pics to kick the thread off.
Leading on from here. latest feather billet. This got welded up and drawn out somewhat, into a loaf, which I got 2 big slices and a medium/small slice.
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The soap bar sized chunk of feather dammy is forged out to shape.
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The taper is also mostly forged. I stopped forging at about 3.6mm at the back 2mm at the front.
If I am clever and avoid to much scale on the last forging stages its only a few passes on a narrow 36 grit belt and i'm down to clean metal.
20120707_113942.jpg

I then give it a run over with a 50 grit belt and make sure the taper is nice and even.
After that I gave the blade a quick test etch to see how it came out. Forging a blade to size and taper is I find a more pleasant process and has structural advantages in a pattern like this with the grain flowing with the knife. Of course more forging means more distortion of the pattern, but this is something I accept and feel its part of my style of working.
Anyway, this is what I had after an etch. The blade is a 300mm Suji Carving knife for my latest carving set commission.
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Here is what the taper looks like at this stage, pre HT.
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In feather damascus all the welds cross the edge. Makes for a toothy edge. Great for slicers.
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Have a lovely weekend all.:)
 
That's going to be a stunner, you do beautiful work man!
 
Cheers Mike:biggrin:
Eamon, nope, these big thin beasts are hard enough to keep straight during Ht as it is. So I leave a bit of taper to go and the bevels to grind. The HT generally consists of 3 normalizing cycles, checking for straightness after each, followed by an oil quench, I'll probably give this one a dunk in LN as well as its there, hardness checking. 3 x temper cycles, hardness checking. I normally clamp the knife in between 2 plates in the press after this with part of the spine and tang exposed and torch temper this part back to just over 50hrc. I'll then check the profile again, making sure I take a bit more off where the edge will be, then grind the rest of the taper and bevels.
There are so many advantages to not grinding the bevels before HT, no worries about de-carb, easy to check for straightness, and for hardness near the edge, the ability to plate clamp it during HT or after for a differential temper. If it does move very slightly during HT you can straighten the spine and the edge will come right when grinding.
You would be surprised how much you can hog off an edge with a 25mm wide 36 grit ceramic belt without getting anywhere near overheating it. It gets easy to overheat the tip when its very thin, but you would have that problem still if you had partially ground it prior to HT.:biggrin:
 
Hi Will: Beautiful work as always. Is this one spoken for already?
 
This one is a commission and the Gyuto is as well, but I got an extra lump. Enough for a 180mm fairly deep Petty at least. This Mix of steel is 1080/15n20. If no-one claims it it will be turned into a Hunting style knife which I've been putting off. Now there's a threat:lol2:
The Next commissions in feather dammy will be in 15n20/01 as requested. I've been playing with this mix and it gives crisper contrast. I believe edge holding will be improved in a very close high layer pattern with a higher percentage of 01, in a bold pattern I have not noticed much difference, but it does take a wicked edge possibly less of a toothy edge than 1080/15n20 but the pattern will have to be more subtle and fine to get the most of the mix . I'll see what LN does for it also. So far the 01/15n20 mix also is slower to take a patina, more things seem to turn it blue rather than dark.
 
That's some badass forging,loads of distal taper :D in the third pic I thought you might have been doing a western handle for this one.

Any reason for the narrower belt on the grinder?
 
Yep 2hp over 1inch hogs much faster than over 2. I've been using the narrow belt to get the bevels set too.:D
 
Well not much WIP it was a bit hectic getting these done in time. But they are done. Some dark phone pics, but my desire to share is strong.:D I'll get some proper pics in the morning for the Gallery.

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lol is that a Kramer D-handle on the fork? Looking good!!
 
Really eye catching set, loving the suji of yours I have, is a carving machine
 
Thats right Liquid Nitrogen, doesn't generally do much for carbon steels I don't think, its there for the stainless 14c28n, where it does make a big difference. Also I sometimes like deep frozen cherries on my lunch break. Mmm they stick to your lips:lol2:
Yes certainly a Kramer influence in the handles. The Knife is a "diamond D" and the Fork is more octagonal on the sides with a bit more girth to fill the hand with a side grip and stop it twisting. I delivered these today. They were blown away with them. They will be presented as a present to their Father on his birthday tomorrow. I got some brief pics this morning. I'll pop them in my Gallery in a bit.:biggrin:
 
Thanks Fellas. The Forks are so fun to forge, an utter Pita to hand finish:lol2:
 
That set is brilliant. Reminds me in the best possible way of a set of knives that Devin Thomas made for a forum member who designed his website awhile back. Both yours and his look to me to sit right at the apex where art meets function. Nice work!
 
Thank you very much, thats quite a compliment. :biggrin:
 
Right, building up some momentum again... In the works we have 3 large billets started in 01/15n20 these will be for 2 huge billets of feather damascus, they will have a solid 01 edge as the end layer is a 15mm piece of 01.
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Stainless damascus for cladding in 304 and 430, just split open the can, looking good.
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Some extras here, from left over bits of material. Will finish these and add them to my shop. There are 2 Petty/Suji in carbon damascus/01, a small petty in stainless damascus clad blue 2. A little petty in 14c28n and a Nakari in 14c28n. I have something different planned for the grind on this one.:D
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And I have got myself some recession transport, for blatting on the lanes to my workshop.

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She's a beast:viking:
 
Is that a moped? If you'd bought it a little earlier you might have got yourself a job at the cycling in the Olympics
 
Wow Will!

I am impressed! Maybe in the future we can start a project! Really like the suji feather and those projects seem promising!

Please keep us on the loop with WIP, ok?
 
OMG its Puch i had 2 of those :bigeek: :viking:

Right, building up some momentum again... In the works we have 3 large billets started in 01/15n20 these will be for 2 huge billets of feather damascus, they will have a solid 01 edge as the end layer is a 15mm piece of 01.
20120803_135053.jpg

20120803_131328.jpg


Stainless damascus for cladding in 304 and 430, just split open the can, looking good.
20120803_135507.jpg


Some extras here, from left over bits of material. Will finish these and add them to my shop. There are 2 Petty/Suji in carbon damascus/01, a small petty in stainless damascus clad blue 2. A little petty in 14c28n and a Nakari in 14c28n. I have something different planned for the grind on this one.:D
20120803_131305.jpg


And I have got myself some recession transport, for blatting on the lanes to my workshop.

20120803_130604.jpg


She's a beast:viking:
 
Lol, yep a Puch, its been a bit tuned, thankfully or it would only do 25mph, this one does 50!!!:bigeek: But the engine does sound like it is going to melt at that rpm, a comfortable 40, which is plenty for the lanes. It has been making me grin in any case.:biggrin:

I have been missioning on with damascus and forging out more blanks.

I had a break from the forging to grind this one, as i'm looking forward to trying it out.
It has a very soft hollow grind behind the bevel, a little Takada esc... but ala grinder. I'm just flatting the bevels now on the stones I'll take it all the way and pop a tiny micro bevel on there. This is forged 14c28n mono stainless @ 62hrc. Small Nakari.

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Mid grind, shows where the geometry was headed better.


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Because of the hollow geometry, there is no need for such a dramatic taper over the length. It tapers from just under 3mm to about 1.5mm over the spine. It is a sturdy feeling blade with zero flex, yet I hope it will give that Takeda effect with very little cutting resistance. Proof will be in the pudding of course.:D
Let me know what you think about this one. Cheers
Will
 
That is very interesting! It should be a great cutter, I think.
 
That nakiri looks flippin' fantastic. This reminds me of some of the cleaver ideas that we where kicking around awhile back...
 
Thanks Spike, will find out shortly, The bevel has been flatted, starting to move up the stones....:D

Justin, yeah I've had this in my head for a while. I've chickened out on forged hollows for the time being. It is going to need some custom die blocks making for the hammer. For my current hammer that could be pricey. I'm hoping to be adding a small spring hammer to my workshop soon, which will be cheap and easy to make tools for and be pretty much perfect for the job, bit like a Japanese hammer with very soft radius die blocks, the top one smaller than the bottom, making it very versatile for drawing the tang, then drawing in all directions, or making hollow parts to a blade.

But I need to sell a big press first....

For now I'm seeing some scope with ground hollows in Nakari and Cleaver. With some nice texture and finish differences in mono....and some interesting reveals on damascus. The hollows would be a great way to reveal the nice bit of the pattern in a multibar twist. That was kinda what I was thinking of for your cleaver......:groucho:
 
Flatted and polished the bevel. And had a brief test. Its a very sturdy blade with a nice weight, yet cuts very nice, with very little resistance and sticking. I'll get it finished and shoot a video. May go a bit further with the hollows.
At the moment the hollows are a belt finish, I would like some contrast between the bevel and the hollows. So I think I'll go for a cloudy finish on the hollows and a high polished stone/ near mirror finish on the bevel.
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