Knife #3!

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Seffers93

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Hey everyone!

Just finished this knife tonight! I've always wanted to try out a Kramer 10" chefs knife but have never been able to, so I tried making something really close to that same profile. If you've seen my "blade finish" thread over in Shop Talk, you'll know I had some nasty scratches on this thing starting out and boy were they a pain to get out! But I eventually got to a finish I'm satisfied with!

1084 heated in the forge to non-magnetic and then soaked for just a bit longer. Quenched in 130ish° canola oil and then tempered at 400° for two one-hour cycles. Had a bit of a warp in this one after quenching so I clamped it between a couple angle irons while tempering. Seemed to do the trick!

It's still a little thick behind the edge like my first two knives, but I think this one is definitely an improvement. Just something I'll have to keep working at!

The handle is African Blackwood, G10 and purple dyed Poplar I believe. I'm actually quite disappointed at how dark the purple turned out to be. The more and more I sanded the handle shape, the darker it got. At first I thought maybe that's just how the block of wood was toward the center, but I still have some left and it's nice and bright all the way through. I think I remember reading that wood will darken if it gets too hot on the belt grinder even when you've hand sanded down past your belt grind surface. If that's true, it would make sense as my little 2x42 isn't variable speed.

Anyway, I'm happy with the finished project overall. Just have to keep practicing! First Wa handle coming after my next project!

Thanks for looking,

- Seth

Edit: I forgot to mention it hasn't been sharpened in these photos (I need to stop doing that lol)
 

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Really nice Seth! Each knife shows growth in your skills. This does look thinner then the first 2, without the shoulder. More convexed. I bet you will notice the difference when you take it out for a spin
 
birdsfan said:
Really nice Seth! Each knife shows growth in your skills. This does look thinner then the first 2, without the shoulder. More convexed. I bet you will notice the difference when you take it out for a spin
Click to expand...

Thank you!! I really appreciate the feedback! Hoping to get it sharpened this weekend and we'll see how it goes on the cutting board!
 
Looks great, Seth. I like what you did with the handle.
Seffers93 said:
I'm actually quite disappointed at how dark the purple turned out to be.
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I could be burned, but depending on the final sanding grit, it could also be sanding dust. How fine of grit did you take the handle? In my experience, when conmbining a lighter material with a darker one, the darker colored dust from sanding the handle can get in the sanding grooves, darkening the lighter material. I find this starts to go away around 1000 grit. I usually take my handles at least to 2000 grit when using contrasting colors to avoid this.

You might want to try scrubbing the handle with a toothbrush under somne running water to see if that hleps clean out some of the dust and brighten the purple.
 
Damn good knife, especially considering it's only your 3rd! Where do you go from here? ;)
 
billyO said:
Looks great, Seth. I like what you did with the handle.

I could be burned, but depending on the final sanding grit, it could also be sanding dust. How fine of grit did you take the handle? In my experience, when conmbining a lighter material with a darker one, the darker colored dust from sanding the handle can get in the sanding grooves, darkening the lighter material. I find this starts to go away around 1000 grit. I usually take my handles at least to 2000 grit when using contrasting colors to avoid this.

You might want to try scrubbing the handle with a toothbrush under somne running water to see if that hleps clean out some of the dust and brighten the purple.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Very good to know.. I only took it up to 800. I never know how far to go with handles. Maybe I'll take it back out and try going higher. I'll also try scrubbing it! I noticed it got much darker after applying boiled linseed oil too. Almost to where it doesn't even look purple. I appreciate the tips!
 
Dave Martell said:
Damn good knife, especially considering it's only your 3rd! Where do you go from here? ;)
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Thank you! I appreciate that! I have one more coming after this that I'm making for a friend. He said he wants to buy a "1st Generation" knife, meaning he wants one of my "practice" knives lol. I thought that was pretty cool! So after that, I'm going to start testing my luck with Wa handles. And then I need to start getting my belt grinder situation figured out and start working on different grinds.
 
Awesome job Seth.
Really cool to see so much progression on each knife.
Really enjoying each of your projects.
Keep it up
 
Whoah--that's only knife #3?!
I betcha that one will be a blast to use. Definitely has that "put me to work" profile (reminds me of if a Kramer and a KS got together)!
Don't forget to round/polish the choil at the finger notch :)
 
Dave Martell said:
How will you shape the wa handles?
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As in what method will I use or like literally what shape? I honestly haven't done much research for a shaping method yet. I was just going to cross that bridge when the time comes to make a handle lol. I thought about following a video from Simple Little Life on YouTube where he shows his method. I should probably be more prepared!
I'm going for an octagonal handle for my first one but I've seen some others I'd like to try. Super excited to see how the first one turns out!
 
McMan said:
Whoah--that's only knife #3?!
I betcha that one will be a blast to use. Definitely has that "put me to work" profile (reminds me of if a Kramer and a KS got together)!
Don't forget to round/polish the choil at the finger notch :)
Click to expand...

Yes I'm definitely looking forward to getting it on the cutting board! I'm sure it'll be a blast!

Also, good call for the choil. I'll get that rounded off and polished before I use it.
 
Seffers93 said:
As in what method will I use or like literally what shape? I honestly haven't done much research for a shaping method yet. I was just going to cross that bridge when the time comes to make a handle lol. I thought about following a video from Simple Little Life on YouTube where he shows his method. I should probably be more prepared!
I'm going for an octagonal handle for my first one but I've seen some others I'd like to try. Super excited to see how the first one turns out!
Click to expand...

I was asking about what method/equipment you'll be using but I should have also asked about what style wa handle too. You answered both anyway - cheers!
 
billyO said:
Mosaic damascus with integral bolsters??? :cool:
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Ignorant question from someone with no metal-working skills: I'm assuming that's some sort of joke regarding a serious jump in degree-of-difficulty. What makes integral-bolsters especially difficult or rare?

OP: Looks pretty cool!
 
Again really impressive, great job! (And you'll probably find that a lot of people, myself included, prefer handles without too much bright colour anyway.)
 
cotedupy said:
Again really impressive, great job! (And you'll probably find that a lot of people, myself included, prefer handles without too much bright colour anyway.)
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Thank you!! And yes, I’ve started to notice a lot of people here stay away from bright colored handles. It can go either way for me. Just depends on the color I suppose. But I really do think a nice simplistic handle has a much more classy look than something with bright colors!
 
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