Matus Knives - finished projects

[zetieum]

Hey, I see I miss this post. I am the happy owner of the knife. Matus did and amazing job. now the knife cuts like a dream. Moreover the handle Matus made is absolutely gorgeous and feels very good in the hand. Matus went through a lot to achieve this project and I am extremly grateful. More importantly, the project around this knife made me meet a great guy, led to fruitful exchanges!

Recently, I sharpened and refinished it. Bevels are perfect and it took no time on the stones. And what a pleasure to polish it to get a nice kasumi. I will share some pic, if i find where they are.

 

[Matus]

I am very happy that you still like the handle. I hope to meet you in your workshop one day [emoji106]

You also reminded me that I have some more blog articles to finish and post here. All 3 of them

 

[vxd]

Beautiful work!!

 

[Matus]

I am trying to catch up with some 'blog backlog" I finally finished a post about 2 magnetic knife holders. It is nothing ground breaking, but a few details might be interesting to some.

 

[Matus]

I have not posted on a while here it would seem. I have been doing work that often did not warrant writing another blog article as there wasn’t enough new stuff to write about, but over the next few days I will st least post some of the work I did over the past year.

First some work that actually made it to my blog:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnFH9i1AxoV/?igshid=uufuzp72crvp

This is a little gyuto my friend ordered for his wife as a birthday present (https://matuskalisky.blogspot.com/2018/08/project-28-150-mm-damasteel-petit-gytuo.html?m=1)

 

[Matus]

Then there were several more finished knives:

210 AEB-L gyuto my sister order for a friend. I had the hardened and partially ground blank laying around for ages (still have one in D2 and Niolox with identical profile). It is not very Japanese-like in profile, because I did it fairly early when I started to make knives:

More details here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxGQgsNBKWt/?igshid=yuu9ghauigqp


These 2 Niolox blades were a custom order I took a bit longer than 2 years to finish (no, I am not proud of that). It was a tough one - I broke both blades in process and while both could have been re-used, I made new ones. It was a lesson learned for me:

More details here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx53GxXHzfb/?igshid=myo5efz1jc87

Here is a knife where I broke the tang off, but it was welded back on with a laser:

More details here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ZTCQDHvne/?igshid=c1zof3n7bol8

 

[daddy yo yo]

Nice work! I particularly like the first forged knife...

 

[Matus]

Thank you

I did attach the photo of the forged petty, but not description;
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxsSbobHmeW/?igshid=1rfqx2tha6m47

 

[Dhoff]

Great work!

Will you start selling some of these at the forum then?

 

[Matus]

Thank you. I would definitely like to offer some knives here - I may have one or two later this year (I still have to finish some custom work - for example a refinishing and rehandling of two Mizuno gyutos - that is quite some work)

 

[Matus]

And one more project - this was a refinish of an old gyuto that was deeply rusted. The owner did some rust removal with vinegar and coke (at my advice, at that point I was sure that the handle was bust, but later it turned out that it is in a much nicer shape than I thought).

I have cleaned up the blade on the grinder, touched up the geometry behind the edge (there was not all that much material to work with as this is a rather thin knife) And sanded, polished and oiled the handle:

Here you can find some more photos and before / after comparison:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0YOPxcnluO/?igshid=imzazft9s9oe

I would mention that this was a fun project and the aim was to restore the knife to a usable condition, not to make it look like new - what at least for the blade would not have been possible because the pitting was too deep

 

[drsmp]

Thanks The birch bark handles have a particular look to them, but feel so awesome in hand. One day I may find the courage to put one on a gyuto

No, the handle on the Carter is just spot on - it is indeed rather slim, but the knife is very light, so it fits well. The handle I have made for the petit gyuto would suit a 200+g 240 gyuto. I was just too scared to sand it smaller. The length on edge is approximately 160 mm and height some 37 mm. The mistake I did design-wise was to make the axis of the handle near parallel with the edge at the heel. I changed my designs afterwards.

If you want to make the handle smaller just protect the blade with masking tape and sand then refinish the handle. I’ve done it for a few of my knives and they turned out very nice

 

[Carl Kotte]

Matus, your refinish of the old Gyuto was very very nice. I’ve saved/refurbished a few knives myself, but none of them looked as beautiful (when I was done with them) as yours.
Your own work is magnificent! Very nice!

 

[Matus]

If you want to make the handle smaller just protect the blade with masking tape and sand then refinish the handle. I’ve done it for a few of my knives and they turned out very nice

I know, I did that once ... and need to do it again as the handle is still too big somehow. It seems to be a beginners mistake to tend towards oversized handles.

 

[Robert Lavacca]

Beautiful work! Would love a petite gyuto like one day to keep at my station permanently at work. Would be perfect.

 

[Matus]

Beautiful work! Would love a petite gyuto like one day to keep at my station permanently at work. Would be perfect.

Thank you. Just drop me a PM and maybe I can help you out

 

[Nino-chan]

Project #10 - WA handles for two 165 mm single bevel funayuki knives

The story behind this project is the following. I had a Single bevel Ittetsu petty on order from Jon and a friend of mine was in similar situation. None of us had much (if any) experience with single bevel knives and both of us cook/filet whole fish too rarely to buy a proper 180 deba. So I came up with the idea to buy some cheap (sub $100) 165 mm funayuki knives so that we can learn to use and sharpen single bevel knives, as well as have a knife to test kasumi finish. I threw away original handles (with plastic ferrules) and use them to try to make a new (to me) handle style.

The knives did not only get new handles, but I also worked on the spine and choil.

I have used 5mm thick brass for ferrule and Mora and Purple heart wood for handle. I am officially in love with Mora - it has fantastic color, fine, very nice grain pattern, finished lovely and is surprisingly cheap. Not easy to find though (I got mine from Dictum.de)

The challenge was - since the ferrule was press-fit onto the tang, the handle could only be shaped after it was epoxied to the tang. So making a mistake that could not be corrected or accepted would necessitate a very unpleasant process of handle removal.

The result is again far from what it could be - the biggest mistake being not gluing properly the mora onto the ferrule and creating a gap on the back of the handle. I have also many things to learn to put a more even finish on the brass ferrule.


Original condition of the knives:








After rehandle:

nice handles

 

[Robert Lavacca]

@Matus i just got done reading your blog for the finger stones. I was wondering if the mud from flattening was able to be saved. I saw one of the tips from Jon was to save the mud. That’s good to know. Does he mean save the mud from flattening with the JKI diamond stone only? I’m guessing you can’t save the mud from the other stones you used to flatten and condition the finger stones just because it might be mixed with grit from those stones no? Where as that big pile of ground up powder on the JKI plate can definitely be saved. Before I start flattening mine I would love to know technically what mud I can save so I don’t waste anything.

 

[Matus]

Yes, you can in principle save the mud or powder that is produced in the process, but there is always a risk that it will contain some loose diamonds from the plate that will later scratch the surface you are trying to polish.