My first knives

[merlijny2k]

This holiday I finally had time finishing some projects that had been going for about a year to a year and a half. From left to right:

Petty: 2x? 440C stock removal, handle is cherry with blue linnen micarta tang extension spacer. Symmetrical. Idea: just shallow enough for in-hand cutting, just enough clearance for some minor board work, hence the thin handle.

Short rocker chef: C75, forged during a forging class. Left handed assymetry. Burned in ashwood handle. Burnt on front part for an 'apparent ferrule' effect. Idea: make something usefull from whatever I was able to forge in the 90 minutes allowed.

Chef with finger rest: 40x4.3 O2 stock removal. Left handed assymmetry. Purplewood handle and cherrywood tang extension spacer. Idea: chef knife with some pronounced curves and a little 'swing'. Handle is inspired by the upsweeping Wusthof handle on the Ikon and Grand Prix 2 series. Upon completion the handle looks way too big for the blade but the balance is just right, not sure if or what to change.

I'm not going to make a list of things to do better/different next time as the list is just too long this being the first time.

Thanks for watching.

 

[Tim Rowland]

Looks like your off to a nice start.
I think my favorite is the sheepsfoot petty.

 

[merlijny2k]

Looks like your off to a nice start.
I think my favorite is the sheepsfoot petty.

It sure is the simplest blade. Works pretty well too although I might thin it some more. It wedges in a carrot bit more than my Robert Herder of similar size.

The chef knife with the curved handle isn't quite up there in performance but it taught me a lot. The upward curve in the handle gives a very secure grip, which is nice. It isn't uber comfortable to hold for a long time but it does feel it really isn't going anywhere. The blade is very stiff. It surprised me how much more secure and precise that makes the handling compared to a 2.5mm blade. Thought it would make little difference but it does. It is really nice having no noticeable flex whatsoever. Worked cauliflowers with it yesterday. Very nice and effective. Plenty of downsides too. At 40mm it is on the low side to chop. Makes me fear for my fingers using claw grip. My Kanso gyuto I normally chop with is quite tall at 54mm and I miss the extra height. Foodrelease is fine but wedging is nothing short of terrible. Horizontal cuts in onions is horrible too. It is quite interesting to use a knife with dimensons a bit out of the usual bounds and experience the various tradeoffs at work so clearly.

 

[Tim Rowland]

I hear you on the thicker blade giving a more controllable or drive-able feel. If the blade is tall enough you can have a good grind still for a nice thin edge.
I tried an experiment a few weeks back just to see how flexible/thin of a laser gyuto I could get and how it would feel on the board. I started with .040" AEB-L stock.....it is absolutely useless on anything other than soft vegetables and fruits or boneless chicken/fish but it was a fun learning lesson.
I look forward to seeing your knives progress. It is a time consuming/money losing/sanity losing hobby.....But it's so much fun.

 

[milkbaby]

Nice job!

I agree with Tim, the petty is my favorite of the bunch. I can see some people really digging the short chef, many home cooks love the short knives.

The longer chef looks like a western suji but with two flattish sweet spots like some gyutos. For handle ergonomics, you can try shaping some modeling clay, carving soft wood like balsa, or gluing multiple layers of cardboard together and carving prototypes. That can give you a better idea of what works for what purposes.

Keep it up, I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised how much better your knives get with more under your belt! It's definitely addictive!

 

[merlijny2k]

I agree the petty is the most successfull and least compromised of the bunch.

The short chef is too short to really perform, but I really like how the handle turned out. It feels good and the part burned turned out really nice. It doesn't give as clean a seperation line as using two different parts but it is real easy and quick to do and does add something.

The longest was the most ambitious project but it is just too plagued by planning mistakes and tradeoffs. Essentially it started with not being able to get 50mm wide bar (found it since) so settling for 40. Then was affraid to do an integral handle as I had never done one so I settled for a partial tang pinned model that I do have experience with from doing rehandles. It works somewhat but comfort level is too low to be a keeper this way. I think I will try a very different handle style later, along with improving the taper. The size and profile of the blade still appeals to me after some use. It takes patina in a nice way too. Somehow it looks better than on the Herder blades but no idea why. Curious how that develops over time. Polished carbon steel is just such an addictive material.

Good idea with the cardboard! Would have saved my 20 year old piece of purplewood. Will definitely do that next time.

 

[merlijny2k]

I hear you on the thicker blade giving a more controllable or drive-able feel. If the blade is tall enough you can have a good grind still for a nice thin edge.
I tried an experiment a few weeks back just to see how flexible/thin of a laser gyuto I could get and how it would feel on the board. I started with .040" AEB-L stock.....it is absolutely useless on anything other than soft vegetables and fruits or boneless chicken/fish but it was a fun learning lesson.
I look forward to seeing your knives progress. It is a time consuming/money losing/sanity losing hobby.....But it's so much fun.

My first chef knife before I got into the hobby was 0.05" thick. My wife's still is. It seems the majority of the flex comes from the handle to blade connection area. Perhaps a handle style that overlaps the blade a bit would work in such a case like for instance a Wusthof Gourmet has. Don't like the looks though.

 

[merlijny2k]

After using the knife I can report that a very short chef's doesn't work that well. Couldn't get used to it not having any room for a slice and retired it from the bar after a few days.

The western suji hybrid actually grew on me by quite a bit. It is the first strongly lefty biased knife I own and it is so great finally having a knife with decent food release. It doesn't glide through food as effortlessly as my kanso gyuto but except for onions which really need more taper than I provided for the horizontal cuts it does quite well for general kitchen prep. The curved handle even allows me to grip it more to the back and really hammer away like a knife much bigger than it actually is. Very nice for chopping a whole pumpkin.
The thinness behind the edge and the thick spine combine to give a very clean cut that still requires some pressure and effort increasing the ammount of control I have over the cut.

I guess I just discovered the benefits of a workhorse knife.

I also now really don't understand why symmetrical chef knives are still being sold with assymmetry opening so many new opportunities and variables to dramatically improve a knife.

And now (of course) want to make a bigger one. I just can't get my head around how do the grind. This one is roughly 2cm of bevel to 2cm of flat side on the blade face. Back is full flat edge to spine. To me that worked just fine. Now I want to go for a 5cm high blade. I think if I raise the bevel, food release will suffer, especially for thinner/smaller foods to cut. If I don't raise the bevel I will have 3cm of 4mm thick flat steel on the face which just seems too much and too heavy.

Making an S-grind seems an elegant solution but I consider it above my skill and tooling level so I don't consider that a good option.

I would appreciate your thoughts on face bevel height and the considerations that go into it that I might still overlook. I can of course blend the flat and bevel without too much trouble but in my mind that is just an esthetic thing and will affect performance only as a nuance and not as a primary feature. Is my dilemma the reason so nany J-blades have Tsuchime or is that also just a gimmick?

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[milkbaby]

To me, everything is a compromise. Some people hate the short bevel on a Takeda, I guess they hate the wedging when the knife hasn't been forged thin enough.

You can grind the blade thinner or even grind in distal taper.

 

[merlijny2k]

What height would you put the bevel for a 4mm spine and 50mm blade height? Stock removal of course.

I'm thinking A2 steel, blade and handle profile copied from this one:

https://www.blokker.nl/p/herman-den-blijker-koksmes/1130583

Never bought the original because it is cheap stainless with a thick edge but I always liked the profile. Shops here used to be full of these but they since moved to a newer model.

Length should be some 225mm. Full or hidden tang I'm yet undecided.

If I order the steel soon I might get the pre-heat treatment grinds done before summer, do the most tricky grinding during summer brake and have it fully done before Christmas.

Sorry, just thinking out loud.