New Maker from Renton Washington

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
May 26, 2012
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Hi,
I'm a relatively new maker, I started in December collecting tools, making a firebrick kiln, and playing around with O1 steel. I use a 2x42 craftsman benchtop belt grinder with a modified platen. It's been a learning experience for me, I've made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I think I'm really getting the hang of it. I've done metal work since 2000, mostly with copper, brass, and silver. I'm still refining my methods for making a super thin chef's knife or santoku. The last 2 I've worked on have warped, the first because I didn't stress relieve, the second because while stress relieving I accidentally tapped the edge of my pipe muffle while heating to critical, which caused a tiny ripple in the blade after quenching. My paring knives are turning out great though and I recently did a cleaver I'm pretty proud of.
Anyway, here is some of my work:

My first knife


These are from my 3rd round of making, they're okay, a little thick at the blade edge, but practice makes perfect.




This is one I had to re-handle for my dad, the Lignum Vitae I used shrank on me because it wasn't fully dried. Another lesson in woodworking. I used a small brass bolster and epoxied it on without pinning it.


This one I'm proud of, its a bird's beak peeler. Peened brass bolster and walnut Dymondwood handle. It's my 11th knife.






And my cleaver: the brass pins either didn't spread out enough in the bolster or there was some epoxy that got between them that made them pop out from the rest of the bolster.



Here are the bird beak and cleaver together:


Thanks for checking them out!

-Matt.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome! Care to share your full name? lol

Matt from Renton isn't too specific.
 
Welcome Matt, hope you join up so we can check out pics of your knives.
 
Well, I wasn't aware I couldn't post pictures in the meet and greet section. Definitely wasn't advertising anything. But anyway, I'll have to figure our where I can post my pics.
My name is Matt Vielbig, I grew up in Yakima Washington, went to school out here in Seattle and I've settled in the Renton highlands.
Thanks for the welcome. I look forward to contributing to and learning from others.

-Matt.
 
You are in good company up there. Michael Rader, Bob Kramer, Murray Carter, David Lisch, Nick Wheeler...to name a few!
 
Welcome! And i second Eamon on the great maker's in your area!!!
 
Back
Top