Open Source Idea -- Custom Butter/Table Knives

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WildBoar said:
That is funny coming from the guy who seems to camp out on eBay :lol2:
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i never buy anything though, i like to look at the prices that the stuff I have in storage goes for. Apparently I got a lot of stuff. I don't spend near as much time as I used to since I found this place
 
hehe. You are right. I just got a rush when I see things I want.

There are mainly to posters here I really shouldn't read posts from: Mr Drinky and Chef Niloc. When ever I read a post from those guys I know its gonna cost me... :(
 
I've been waiting for this post for a long time. Unless you want to be the only kid with the coolest table knives, I would be really happy to get on board with this project and get a set of my own. If you organized a group buy, you could pad the cost a bit and discount your own set :)

My vote is for the monolithic look of steel blade, bolster and handle all made out of a contiguous Damascus chunk.

I do kinda like the idea of each knife being each makers own interpretation of the specs, but the other option would be to just get the raw billets from each maker and have one guy do the forging.
IMO, fully forged, integral bolsters are essential for the ultimate table knife.
Rader makes the best that I've seen and his prices are reasonable... Just sayin'...
 
Justin0505 said:
I've been waiting for this post for a long time. Unless you want to be the only kid with the coolest table knives, I would be really happy to get on board with this project and get a set of my own. If you organized a group buy, you could pad the cost a bit and discount your own set :)

My vote is for the monolithic look of steel blade, bolster and handle all made out of a contiguous Damascus chunk.

I do kinda like the idea of each knife being each makers own interpretation of the specs, but the other option would be to just get the raw billets from each maker and have one guy do the forging.
IMO, fully forged, integral bolsters are essential for the ultimate table knife.
Rader makes the best that I've seen and his prices are reasonable... Just sayin'...
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Let's see how this develops. In the end, there might be a few style options and then I price them out. Or maybe different makers make different styles: long table, short table/condiment, and Oivind's curvy condiment spoon-knife. But I fully agree that having a complete damascus knife would be extremely cool.

As for Rader, I'm not sure he has much damascus lying around for this. I threw the idea past him last week.

k.
 
I need these knives to be stainless.
Open for makers, as long as its stainless. However Devins damascus is my favorite.
if we can decide in mars what we end up with then we might have some really cool xmas presents for our selves this year :)

I will post my thoughts when I have them and send one to drinky and one to Justin.
However Im not sure about steel butter knives as it doesn't have the flex that wood have. THen again, the right maker will make some cool flex into the blade :)
 
Got two knives today. Fount out they are bought here: http://hatthi.ocnk.net/product/180

They are really small, and felt uncomfortable in my hand. The curved blade got it cons and pros, however the use Ive had so far have made my impression more cons than pros. Ill try and take som pics during the weekend and write a review. However Mr Drinky: Can you PM me your data, so I can ship one to you?

So far of all my butterknives this is the winner:
http://images.staples-eu.com/App_Themes/no-NO/images/product/70843_1_xnl.jpg

Anyway Mr Drinky, Im sending both knives to you for your impression and to hunt down the forum butter knife :)
 
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oivind_dahle said:
I got to mention that my GF thinks Im an idiot willing to use a lot of dollars on handmade butterknives.
She googled and came up with that I was allowed to buy this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006M1HCVG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Anyone got any experience?
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Not with the butter-knives, but Lagioule is pretty well known.
More of a fancy-pants-drink-your-tea-with-your-pinkie-out kind of a knife, but nice indeed.

But i've only handled the one my Chef uses to open boxes with.
 
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I though Lagioule was similar to Sabatier -- many producers under the name, with a bit of variation in materials and quality?
 
WildBoar said:
I though Lagioule was similar to Sabatier -- many producers under the name, with a bit of variation in materials and quality?
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Might be completely true.. that i did not know.
The one i've had in my hand was built good. Although i wouldn't buy one.
 
Candlejack said:
Might be completely true.. that i did not know.
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"The word laguiole is a generic term, not legally restricted to any one company or place of manufacture. Such knives are produced by a number of unrelated companies in southern France, with some 70% of production coming from Thiers, a long-established centre of the cutlery industry."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguiole_knife
 
I have a set of Laguiole steak knives that definitely not "thee" Laguiole steak knives. They look like a stilletto and have the bee but thats about it.
 
oivind_dahle said:
I got to mention that my GF thinks Im an idiot willing to use a lot of dollars on handmade butterknives.
She googled and came up with that I was allowed to buy this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006M1HCVG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Anyone got any experience?
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I have a very nice set of laguiole steak knives I love them. There are a handful of good producers out there, but the ones in that link look really cheaply made. I think those bolsters are hollow tin, and the craftsman ship looks pretty bad over all.

If you wanted a good set of Laguiole butter knives, it will still probably cost you a few hundred.

k.
 
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Btw, I was just trolling google image search and found this table set in Damascus. It is cheap damascus out of Pakistan and probably low quality, but the set gives some idea of what roughly things could look like. Imagine better damascus, better shape, and better handle. I think they would look pretty amazing.

k.

damascus_table_set.jpg
 
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Couldn't edit my last post.
Apparently Lagioule folders and non folders have a pretty similar look.
 
This is a very nice idea, I have been thinking about something like this for a long time. A long time ago I purchased a blade which needed to be returned to the maker for service, by way of apology they included a "small table knife" which I was pleasantly surprised how useful it is. It looks like a butter knife but is sharp as heck, great for cutting steaks and any kind of food at the table. Here is a picture of it:

kkf007.jpg

kkf006.jpg


I would like to see something like this, not just a butter knife but sharp and useful as a steak/table knife as well.

Over time I have collected photos of knives which I like or can be inspiration for projects, I will share some pics of various handles which are similar to this style of knife:

8F_12_B.jpg

B6_12_B.jpg

19_12_SB.jpg

knife3650alt2.jpg



Note that judicious use of some SIMPLE shaping/filework can make a handle quite elegant without getting overly complicated.

I did some cutting and pasting, hopefully some of these pics will inspire others here as well.

Obviously real ivory or MOP would be expensive, IMHO synthetic substitutes for these would be esthetically acceptable as well as environmentally friendly.

Personally my favorite is ladder pattern damascus, but it would have to be stainless.

PS01.jpg

PS02.jpg

PS03.jpg

PS04.jpg
 
Of all the pictures you have posted Pappy, my favorite blade/handle combination is the one you actually own. (If I could order six of those right now, I would.)

Pretty nice "apology," however it would have cost me some money (after I ordered another 5-7 to match). ;)

Do you know what type of steel it is made out of?
 
man I have to quit looking at this thread. love that oops gift. have to agree with johnny prob the best butter knife on the thread, but there are others that I drool over too.
 
If you are considering ivory, take into account that it is illegal to buy, sell, or otherwise trade it in the EU unless you have a special permit ( which are very hard to come by)
 
Johnny.B.Good said:
Of all the pictures you have posted Pappy, my favorite blade/handle combination is the one you actually own. (If I could order six of those right now, I would.)

Pretty nice "apology," however it would have cost me some money (after I ordered another 5-7 to match). ;)

Do you know what type of steel it is made out of?
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It is carbon steel, not sure what kind. Blade length: 5.5" Handle + ferrule: 5"

Damasteel has a nice selection of stainless damascus

http://www.ssdamascus.com/Products.html
 
olpappy said:
kkf007.jpg

kkf006.jpg


I would like to see something like this, not just a butter knife but sharp and useful as a steak/table knife as well.
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This is pretty much exactly what I am aiming at. I have a really nice set of steak knives, but I find that I don't use them unless I really need them. Most of my proteins are cooked tender enough and cut in a way that bringing out steak knives isn't really worth it. So in the end I use table knives more, so an upgraded table/butter knife with an edge yet had the rounded tip to serve other purposes appeals to me.

Several months ago, i bough some junk vintage butter knives and put an edge on one side and tried sanding the handles. It got nice and sharp, but the metal wasn't meant for such purpose and with all the oil in the handle, I burned through quite a bit of sandpaper.

Thanks for posting. I too like the 'apology' knife and even your other pics got me thinking about incorporating horn into the handle. I have a horn wine opener that is pretty sexy.

k.

Edit: Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of damasteel either. I guess I have been thinking of a 'forum set' with different makers of Damascus. But in the end, it may be that price prohibits that and going with one maker using different types of damascus steel is more affordable with options for plain steel. But Pierre does work with damy so that might be an interesting route depending upon price. I thought damasteel was still pretty spendy though. I could be wrong.
 
olpappy said:
It is carbon steel, not sure what kind. Blade length: 5.5" Handle + ferrule: 5"
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Thanks Pappy.

Can you identify the handle materials? (Hard to tell from the photos, not that they're not good!)

I even like the plain carbon look.

Have you sharpened it?
 
mr drinky said:
Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of damasteel either. I guess I have been thinking of a 'forum set' with different makers of Damascus. But in the end, it may be that price prohibits that and going with one maker using different types of damascus steel is more affordable with options for plain steel. But Pierre does work with damy so that might be an interesting route depending upon price. I thought damasteel was still pretty spendy though. I could be wrong.
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Yeah, Damasteel is expensive, but AFAIK all stainless damascus is.....

How many different knives would consider for a "set?" 4? 6?

Regarding doing this project at a reasonable cost, Ed VanHoy and his wife do custom work using stainless damascus from various makers including Devin Thomas, and they sound like just the ticket for a project like this:

"We specialize in one of a kind or limited edition runs and sets of the highest quality knives made to our customers design. We are only limited by the customer's imagination and their choices of materials."

Their web site is here: http://www.stamascusknifeworks.com/About_Us.html

They have access to a wide variety of stainless damascus from different makers and since they make the knives, they can easily make a set of similar style knives which will be esthetically consistent. Also with various handle materials.

We should try to agree on a design and figure out how many knives would be involved in the order before we contact them.

Actually my concern with stainless damascus is that in many cases for some reason the stainless damascus doesn't look the same as carbon damascus, the contrast between light and dark is more often sharp and clear, whereas with carbon damascus there is some shading between the areas where the etching fades in. Like having your printer set to gray scale vs. black/white, or the tattoo artists on "Ink Master" having to do black and gray shading. I want a stainless that has the same look as carbon damascus, if possible. Devin's spoons achieve this look successfully, but some of the fancier patterns are more black/white looking.

The handle on that table knife is buffalo horn. I was thinking what about a set with the same damascus eg. random damascus or ladder damascus, and all different handle materials? That would also be another option which would lower the end cost.

I suppose there might be 2 groups of customers, some which want different damascus blades, some which might like same pattern for blades with just different handles?
 
olpappy said:
Regarding doing this project at a reasonable cost, Ed VanHoy and his wife do custom work using stainless damascus from various makers including Devin Thomas, and they sound like just the ticket for a project like this:

"We specialize in one of a kind or limited edition runs and sets of the highest quality knives made to our customers design. We are only limited by the customer's imagination and their choices of materials."

Their web site is here: http://www.stamascusknifeworks.com/About_Us.html
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Hmmm their prices used to be very reasonable, however I checked the knives on their site and seems like things are quite pricey now!

Thus far for choices of damascus steel we have Devin Thomas, Pierre Rodrigue, Damasteel, any other makers of stainless damascus?
 
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