Matus Knives - finished projects

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Great work, Matus! I find it impressive how you progressed from a knife enthusiast like myself to an (it seems) good knife maker in such a short time.
 
Mark, thank you, but I would not call myself a good knife maker just yet :) Still too much trial an error. But it is so much fun :)

jessf said:
Payed well for it. Can you elaborate?
Click to expand...

I had the logo designed via Designcrowd - it was about 250€ in total.
 
After some silent period I have managed an article on a knife that was finished and delivered by the end of August.

So - the Project #19 - a 210 Niolox gyuto with a western style handle.

This particular project was a bit special for me. I was thinking of it since I started making knives, but now I was able to actually make it happen. But let me explain.

There is a small Italian restaurant in the (small) city where we live called Buon Giorno. It is a family run business. The offer just handful of starters and main courses (plus a very respectable selection of vine and whiskey). We have eaten there shortly before our first daughter was born and have been their regullar guests in the past 4 years - having a lunch there at least every other Saturday, their food is really delicious and they are very nice people. So I decided that I would make a knife for the chef as a symbolic expression of our appreciation.

I have delivered the knife a few weeks ago and it felt great to see the chef surprised and deligted. He took it home as he was worried his stuff would 'use it for everythinig' and toss it around. I have also offered him sharpening service for it.

The knife is 210 mm on edge, 160g, handle made from buffalo horn, micarta spacer and dyed maple burl. Center of mass is about 1cm in front of the heel.The flat spot is not quite as long as the first photo would suggest. There is a touch more belly towards the tip than I would tend to make, but since the chef is using a 'normal' western kitchen knives, I wanted to make a blade that he would feel comfortable with.

From the making point of view this project went rather well (apart from the necessaity to re-finish one side of the blade what brought the total handsanding time to nearly 6 hours). The leather sheath is my first and I definitely need to improve there, but it works.

Here are a few photos of the said knife:







 
Nemo said:
Nice work Matus. Lovely handle. But what impresses me most is the mirror finish on Niolox. You are very patient.
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Thanks. It looks like a mirror, but it is still quite far from it. It is a #2000 grit finish. I would actually prefer lower grit finish, but it just does not look good on Niolox. At least when done by wet sanding by hand. I have seen some really nice finish on Niolox from Jürgen Schanz (who does the HT for all my stainless blades) - I need to ask him how he does it.
 
Beautiful work Matus. You definately have an aesthetic eye. The lines are terrific.
 
That's a beautiful knife. The handle is especially nice to my eyes.
 
Looks great Matus! Nice and classy imo! Also like the logo!
 
Great work again Matus. And you can definitely see you spent a lot of time on sanding :doublethumbsup: . I'm also interested in the grinds you apply to your blades.
 
mark76 said:
Great work again Matus. And you can definitely see you spent a lot of time on sanding :doublethumbsup: . I'm also interested in the grinds you apply to your blades.
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I am attempting something that is a blend of a wide (ca 10 mm) grind to a near-flat grind above. This results in a convex grind whre you can slightly feel the 'shoulders' if you run your fingers from the spine to the edge. I am far from having perfect control over the process (that is why I go back to stones to finish the grind), but this kind of grind is something I am able to do and it seems to cut well. I am trying to mimic a bit the grind of Itinomonn StainLess as I found that knife to cut exceptionally well. I would like to attempt a wide bevel grinds in the future (like on Munetoshi or like Bryan Raquin does them), but for that I need to achieve a much better control over my grinding. I hope that it will get easier once I start to use my 2x72" (which should be ready to go in a few weeks - 90% of parts were delivered already).
 
Congratulations .. yr real belt grinder has arrived. I am amazed with your work on the 1 x30 belt grinder.. Sheer grit and determination i suppose.. rgds z
 
Few weeks back I finally finished a different kind of project - thinning, refinishing and rehandling a Takeda santoku (The blog post is here).

I was approach by zetieum after someone we all know too well here on KKF pointed him my direction with something like "There is one guy who will probably say he isn't comfortable with it, but should be more than capable... Matus from KKF " - how could I say no to that :D

Anyhow - I did accept the challenge (as that is what it was for me) and after a LONG time I actually managed to finish it. The project was not without some new lessons learned, but I managed to correct my mistakes and the result is actually not that bad.

I have adjusted the filing jig (which I made when I started to make knives) to hold an Atoma 140 plate and used it to re-grind the bevels. The rest of the work was finished on stones. The handle was a bit of a new design for me, but turned out nicely - also thanks to a very nice piece of reindeer horn from Robin.

I am glad I had a chance to make this kind of work - made me appreciate more the effort that goes to a refinishing of a blade (and this was just the bevel, not a whole blade). I am thankful to zetieum for the trust and a lot of patience.

Here are a few photos:

original condition of the knife




finished knife







blade finished with a softer uchigumori fiingerstone from nutmeg

 
Thank you :) The full progression was: Atoma 140, Bester 220, Gesshin 400, Gesshin 2000, Gesshin 4000, Uchigumori HS50 from Watanabe, Fingerstone HS47 from nutmeg
 
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