Chipped My Carter in Only 4 Days

Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Advertise with us
Shop Knives and stones on ebay
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Lefty said:
Thanks for the info.
I figured he'd grind to 60% (or so) and HT, then finish grind. He must blow through belts!
It is a good way to keep warpage down (right Pierre and Butch?) and keep your hardness consistent.
Click to expand...

It's a rare occasion for Murray to use a new belt, actually. Being able to use the waterwheel and grind the edge without overheating the steel is what allows him to heat treat this way.

There are exceptions, of course. I think there is a large Damascus deba that (I can't wait for Murray to finish this! It will be one of the first Carter deba's I've seen available to the public in forever) had to have some of the profile ground before heat treat because of the thickness.
 
Jason, are you actually Murray Carter?
 
Are you the guy who hasn't responded to my emails? Haha
 
Lefty said:
Are you the guy who hasn't responded to my emails? Haha
Click to expand...

That would be me. Send me a pm, or an email, I'd be happy to help in anyway.
We generally try and answer any email we receive as soon as possible (within a day) but sometimes they fall through the cracks.
Sorry if we didn't respond to you!

[email protected]
 
Hey Jason,
Welcome! Nice to have a direct line to MC. Good to have you here!!
 
Thanks! Oh yeah, welcome and all that stuff too. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the welcome, guys. I'd be happy to help in anyway.
I've been lurking on here for a while now and using the feedback about the knives everyone receives in hopes to better serve everyone.
It's nice to get unadulterated feedback, and I'm hoping that outing myself won't change anything.
 
It will help. I appreciate the complete honesty, and I'm sure we all do!
 
I'm in! Make it the slim wabocho, though.
 
It's a bummer, a slim wa just went out during the sale, I think.
I'll have to see what Murray thinks, but I like the idea. If it turns into something substantial I'll create a thread for it in the few days.
 
OOH OOH!! Me too!! I live just across the west hills from him!
 
If anything, these forums are nothing but honest! You're sure to get honest feedback from this crowd.
 
jason said:
Murray heat treats before grinding, the thickness of the steel is the same. A customer examined the hardness on his neck knife and reported back that the finds from two areas on his knife were 63.6 and 63.3.

Murray heat treats in water.
Click to expand...

Just curios how the customer came up with such a precise reading. Can you elaborate?

M
 
Marko Tsourkan said:
Just curios how the customer came up with such a precise reading. Can you elaborate?

M
Click to expand...

He had it tested at a laboratory he used to work for. I don't know what his specific job was, but in talking with him, I guess he was an inspector for an agency in California where they had this equipment.
I really can't say how he came up with such a precise reading.
 
Jason, you said he does his grinding after heat treat, and I know he does, but he doesn't grind from bar stock either though. Doesn't he forge most of the bevels in during the forging process, and ergo still have thinner metal near the edge at heat treat than say after the knives have been sharpened back a mm or so?
 
Oh, this forum has a direct line to MC! Ah, we're really moving along! Welcome to the forum Jason. I got an email from you a while back... still patiently waiting. :)

I think everyone here generally speaks their mind... Pretty easy to read back what most people think about the knives. I'm just glad more people got around to discussing MCs knives again recently. Was a bit quiet on that front for a while. I like having the noise just before the package arrives... kind of builds up the tension in a good way when people discuss a maker whom you know has something coming up for you.
 
UglyJoe said:
Jason, you said he does his grinding after heat treat, and I know he does, but he doesn't grind from bar stock either though. Doesn't he forge most of the bevels in during the forging process, and ergo still have thinner metal near the edge at heat treat than say after the knives have been sharpened back a mm or so?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how he forges his kata-ha bevels, but he doesn't forge his the bevels on his knives (sfgz, high grade, KU, or IP). Or rather, the knives that I've seen go from heat treat to grinding have a consistent thickness spine to edge by my eye.
 
jason said:
He had it tested at a laboratory he used to work for. I don't know what his specific job was, but in talking with him, I guess he was an inspector for an agency in California where they had this equipment.
I really can't say how he came up with such a precise reading.
Click to expand...

It would be very difficult, even in a laboratory setting, to get an accurate hardness reading on a finished knife. Angle of the exposed core, thinness of the core, cladding are likely to throw off reading. Plus, this would require to make indentations into the core steel in both Rockwell and Vickers test (normally 5 readings that then are averaged out). Hard for me to imagine anybody doing it to their priced knvies.

Murray would be better off backing up his hardness claim with scratching soda lime glass (bottles) with his knives. If it scratches, it's over 63RC. Not particularly glamorous, but works.

Rockwell test is a standard test in industry. Normally hardness is tested on an uniform thickness and uniformly hardened material. Can't be done easily on clad knives, as cladding is softer than the core and it would result in a not-accurate reading (even in mono steel one has to remove a thin layer of metal that is carburized, as it will affect reading). Measuring hardness on a honyaki, on the other hand would be fine, as long as a blank is of uniform thickness in the tested area.

M
 
Marko Tsourkan said:
Murray would be better off backing up his hardness claim with scratching soda lime glass (bottles) with his knives. If it scratch, it's over 63RC. Not particularly glamorous, but works.
Click to expand...

No, not glamorous or scientific, but it kinda fits Murray's whole deal. Rustic craftsman who does things the traditional way. No rockwell or vickers tests back in the day, but scratching glass seems fitting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top