Catcheside Cutlery - Works in progress.

[WillC]

Finally got these two feather billets drawn out and well on the way.
After forging and trimming the profiles.
Andrey - 240 mm Gyuto

Ben - 220mm Gyuto

After grinding the taper and a quick etch.

Andrey

Ben

And a little carbon group, all heat cycled, ready for HT in the morning.:biggrin:

 

[WildBoar]

Great looking damascus :thumbsup:

 

[zitangy]

Hi Will

Nakiri question: whats the blade height and length of the "nakiri" ? From the pic.. it does seem to be higher than the gyuto in the "group" picture of your present project and thus not a typical nakiri

More information as to the hollow grind wld be appreciated as it seems to be of a different ball game altogether? Perhaps testing a new profile?

Tks adn rgds

D

 

[WillC]

Hey David, Yep I think I went fairly tall on the Nakiri, I'll have a measure tomorrow, from memory, 55mm. Its a nice cutter. I wanted to do something like this since trying out a hollow forged Takaeda Gyuto. There is very little cutting resistance. I need to get a handle on to test it properly. I'll shoot a video of some cutting with it.

 

[zitangy]

Will..

I like the idea of a taller nakiri.. May be excellent for light chopping and mincing and also a scooper....

curious as to the hollow grind . Unless the blade is fairly thick to start with, it may be too thin.. need to know the thickness of the edge from 1mm above the edge.

Will need to figure out how to effectively sharpen a hollow grind of this knife size.... experience only on my straight razor and an EDC.. cold steel.. could be interesting and challenging...

rgds
D

 

[Eamon Burke]

I think he's talking about a shallow hollow forged into the blade face ABOVE the secondary bevel, not the area that you sharpen.

 

[WillC]

Yep Eamon has it, the section above the bevel is hollow ground, the bevel is flat, so its easy to thin and maintain. The hollow is there above the bevel to reduce friction and sticking.

 

[zitangy]

thanks ... I get it now... its the first time that I come across this type of grind

now pondering with what needs to be done when the regress reaches the flat bevel?.

look fwd to your video and look fwd to the choil picture....if it is not too much trouble..

rgds

D

 

[Eamon Burke]

now pondering with what needs to be done when the regress reaches the flat bevel?.

Nothing, it will just get pushed up naturally. If the knife ever got worn down to the point that you are well into the face of the blade(and kudos to you if you ever manage that), then you will end up hitting the spine as a natural extension of the secondary bevel thinning, just like a straight razor, and the hollow will manage itself.

The hollow is VERY slight. As in you can hardly tell by looking at it, pretty much only becomes obvious when you put it to a stone. I polish my Shigefusa with an Ohira Uchigomori fingerstone and I noticed that if I held it horizontally on the blade, I didn't hit the bottom of that slight hollow. Otherwise I may never have known it was there.

 

[Aphex]

That is some really tight looking feather you've made there Will, really consistant work.

The grind on the nakiri is really interesting. In my head it seems like a hollow grind maybe more suitable for kitchen knives as it should be easier to combine laser like performance with good food release as taller stuff like potatoes would be less likely to stick to the hollows. With a convex grind it seems like its more of a battle between great food release but more wedging, or average release but more laser like performance. That's what my brains telling me anyway, i don't know though as iv'e never used a hollow ground knife before. It's going to be interesting to see wether the theory works or not.

 

[TB_London]

Looking good, the bike's going to be fun when winter hits
Ground in hollows? What was stopping you doing it on the Anvil

Looking good though, want me to put a 'normal' nakiri in the post for comparison? Will be interesting to see how it does on higher stuff, though with the extra height you gave it I doubt there'll be much that would hit the spine.

Need to find someone to buy that press off you

 

[WillC]

The Hog is for summer use only I've been finding myself taking a slightly longer way to work in the mornings, and arriving with a grin. Also zapping down the road to sit somewhere nice to eat my sandwich.
Yay, send me a Nakiri, that would be cool, also for comparison on the video. Got a handle glued together so should be able to test it properly at the weekend.
I will try forging the hollows at some point. Didn't fancy doing it by hand though with 14c28n mono, loving this steel btw.:bliss:

 

[SpikeC]

Hey, you Brits invented riding in the rain! Why hang it up when summer is over?

 

[Bulldogbacchus]

So, you're liking the mono?

 

[WillC]

Sorry Matt, I managed to miss that one, yep i'm very confident of the HT and steel now. Its much finer grained than anything else I have tried, including 01 carbon, which is pretty darn fine. As a result it takes a super fine edge, maybe too fine for some uses, in which case a final stropping with a lower grit stone gives it a bit more bite and bite which lasts. Its very easy to sharpen, only a touch tougher than blue paper 2. And comes fantastic with a few licks of the strop again.
The toughness is very good, it does not chip, and is resistant enough to folding. Though when pushed to destruction, say a fine edge hammered through a nail, yep I had to try it, it does distort rather than chip. Actually damage was quite fixable on this extreme test. I believe that the non-chippyness is also down to the fine grain structure.
Anyway , you will find out soon enough and be able to let me know what you think.:biggrin:

 

[Bulldogbacchus]

Anyway , you will find out soon enough and be able to let me know what you think.:biggrin:

:doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup:

 

[WillC]

This batch of blades are being worked through, i'm handle making all weekend. There are two Feather damascus Gyuto commissions, the rest are stock for my shop.

Next week i'll make some more progress on the next feather batch, and the stainless commissions.
On a personal note, I finally pulled the handle off my Massamoto, it is getting thinned and convex ground a little more going into the edge, there is not much material to work with, so softly softly. Then I will hand finish it, i'm going to etch it to see if there is any differential hardening at all on these, you never know

many thanks.:biggrin:
Will

 

[Bulldogbacchus]

Looking good, Will.

 

[WillC]

A healthy busy day today, spent hand rubbing, etching logo's, more hand rubbing....and etching damascus...and more rubbing.
Here are some sneaky pics up upcoming pieces.
Carbon

And this, Catcheside Cutlery- stainless dammy, blue paper core, with a pure nickel accent.

I'm working all weekend to make some progress, so I'll keep you all posted.

 

[Eamon Burke]

Will, why does your Damascus look so dang clean? Is it the camera? A secret etchant? Different metals?

I noticed on the Slicer I used from you about a year ago that the pattern behaved very strangely, and showed up best at a high polish, which is kind of backwards from what I normally see. :scratchhead:

 

[zitangy]

Looks lovely...

I noticed the "over grind" of the Stainless Damascus on the heel..
Another good foutune incident?

I like it. I can't help but notice that creative juice is flowing to the metal..

have fun and a a nice week-end

rgds
~D

 

[WillC]

Thanks Eamon, my methods have evolved allot since I started, in order to keep the damascus cleaner. As I remember the passaround Suji, was different steels, I had infact muddled up the steels, and used two very similar ones, which is why the contrast was not like these. But of course there was no effect in use, it just made a more subtle pattern. The stainless dammy is fun, the pattern reveals with just polishing, the etch just gives it some extra bite. The 304L in the stainless mix and the pure Nickel will take a high polish and not be effected by the etch at all, giving it lots of bling potential The downside is, with buffing, I lost the black in my logo, but I can live with that.:biggrin: Got lots of handles to make now....:running:

 

[WillC]

Looks lovely...

I noticed the "over grind" of the Stainless Damascus on the heel..
Another good foutune incident?

I like it. I can't help but notice that creative juice is flowing to the metal..

have fun and a a nice week-end

rgds
~D

Your totally right, I had a misshap with the heel on the buffing machine, so it got more rounded off than usual....Glad you like it....was a good warm up for your 2 stainless damascus ones, getting the finish right....:biggrin:

 

[WillC]

Feels like I have not posted for ages. I have been plodding on in the workshop, and making the best of the rest of the summer getting out of the house in the evenings.... i'm getting ready for a big push on commissions,,,, thanks for all your patience, it makes the work a pleasure rather than a choir.
Here are a few WIP shots, two huge feather billets on the way for commission pieces, need to do one more stack to 4...then the final big stack and split...:viking:
These billets are in 01/15n20 with solid 01 to one side of the W's, so these blades will have a solid 01 edge.

01 requires more precise temperature control on the welding soaks
Here is the bit off the end of the billet after forging out... testing progress.

Ready for the next stack of 4 of each

And do it all again

Also this one prepped, a tasty sandwich of stainless damascus clad, with pure nickel separating a core of 14c28n...mmmmmmm yummy.

Thanks All:biggrin:

 

[TB_London]

The HC lasted longer than I thought it would without tinkering
Is the Nickel keeping all the Carbon in the core of the stainless? Have you got a new camera too?

 

[Burl Source]

Feels like I have not posted for ages.

You haven't. It has been nearly a month.
Sure, you have been busy. But we have needs too.

Just teasing you Will.
I have really missed seeing photos of the new stuff you are working on.

 

[WillC]

Thank you Fellas, Tom, your right the nickel stops the carbon escaping, I have seen copper used as well for this purpose. It adds a bit of bling, but the 304 is very bright too so really its just a practical measure.
I'm just finishing some knives up, two feather for commission and a couple to add to my web shop, will get some pictures up light allowing later.

 

[DeepCSweede]

Glad you are back Will, love to see your WIP's.

 

[WillC]

General picture updates.
Thanks Dude, good to be back at it, ... after more set backs with the hand i'm missioning on, with a combination of commissions and a few extras to put on my site, trying to make up for the down time.
Finally got the next to last stage in these two feather billets done, friday I will reweld and forge each into a nice loaf, to take slices. The billets are BIG, so thats good, and I've managed to keep the solid 01 on the edge, also good:biggrin:

 

[WillC]

Further to my experiments for Mark's Nakiri, I decided to do a twisty composite Cleaver, to make alongside and add to my Site. I may need some cleaver advise, I think it will be a meat chopper with double bevels, a fairly robust edge and the hollow ground faces, to shed some weight, and work with the pattern more than anything else, its currently, 210mm long by 70mm tall, 4.5mm over the choil and 2.5mm at the tip.
The pattern is pretty involved, Its a 9 bar composite, Top bar is a soft twist is 15n20 and 1080 with pure nickel, then the central 7 bars, a tight twist of 01/15n20 and pure nickel, then the edge bar, which is 01.
Some WIP on that one, I'll HT it when I do Marks next week probably now.
The Stack

Welded and cleaned up, interesting to see the pattern clearly from different aspects.

Loads of material, but to get the best of the pattern, its quite wasteful.

Blank forged, tapered and ground clean...
The Pattern is called Persian Twist btw,old Skool stuff, but a first for me.:bliss:

I have some finished pieces done also, I'll get some pics on the morrow. Thanks all:biggrin: