There's always some project that has a way of lingering and doesn't seem to get done. Things go wrong, there isn't time...new ideas redirect it.... more things go wrong...
For more than a year, my nemesis project has been a handle and saya set for a Gyuto and Honesuki from Nakaya Heiji. My favorite knives to use, finally, dressed up and finished.
The handles are D-shaped with compound tapers (they taper heel to front, but have sort of a wide spot in the middle so the D ridge follows my hand. This is pronounced on the Honesuki and more subtle on the gyuto). The handles are mounted with hide glue so they can be removed if ever needed.
The saya's are pressure fit and have inlays on both sides. The inlays without the story behind the patterns: cherry trees with origami cranes for the blossoms on both, and, on the honesuke, a kind of ghosted tiger sitting under the tree. The tiger is slightly different on the two sides, but otherwise the inlays are the same from either side on each knife. The inlays in the sayas are abalone, coral, and copper leaf in highly figured ziricote wood. Handles are through-doweled with African Blackwood body, a thin copper spacer and dyed, stabilized sugargum burl for the ferrule. Saya pins are also African Blackwood.
Finishes on handles and sayas are both primarily tung oil based.
Pictures are just cell phone pics.... so quality not ideal but best I have for now:
For more than a year, my nemesis project has been a handle and saya set for a Gyuto and Honesuki from Nakaya Heiji. My favorite knives to use, finally, dressed up and finished.
The handles are D-shaped with compound tapers (they taper heel to front, but have sort of a wide spot in the middle so the D ridge follows my hand. This is pronounced on the Honesuki and more subtle on the gyuto). The handles are mounted with hide glue so they can be removed if ever needed.
The saya's are pressure fit and have inlays on both sides. The inlays without the story behind the patterns: cherry trees with origami cranes for the blossoms on both, and, on the honesuke, a kind of ghosted tiger sitting under the tree. The tiger is slightly different on the two sides, but otherwise the inlays are the same from either side on each knife. The inlays in the sayas are abalone, coral, and copper leaf in highly figured ziricote wood. Handles are through-doweled with African Blackwood body, a thin copper spacer and dyed, stabilized sugargum burl for the ferrule. Saya pins are also African Blackwood.
Finishes on handles and sayas are both primarily tung oil based.
Pictures are just cell phone pics.... so quality not ideal but best I have for now: