Old Sabatier blanks - from hunks of steel to knives

[Carl Kotte]

So, after seeing @stringer posting pictures of a giant carbon Sabatier, me (and a couple of other guys I will not expose here) felt a need to get hold of some of those blanks too. And we managed to, thanks to one fantastic KKF member who will not be named (unless he wants to). Below you see pics of the blanks. They are rough unfinished blanks forgotten in a warehouse in the us (don’t ask for more details). They need grinding, heat treatment and handles. These 3 arrived about a week ago:

I’m not sure you can tell from the pictures but there’s a lot of steel to remove. The chef knives weigh about 500 gr each and they are about 3 mm at the edge.
And that’s where dedication comes in. These are going to be great cutters.
I will share some pics from the process, start to finish. Those who have tamed these beasts before me, or are in the process of doing it, please feel free to contribute. It would be fun seeing the differences between the end results!

 

[Caleb Cox]

Cool project! Do you plan to use any power tools or will these be hand ground?

 

[Carl Kotte]

Cool project! Do you plan to use any power tools or will these be hand ground?

Hand grinding only [emoji854]

 

[Caleb Cox]

Oh wow, bless your soul, and fingers/hands/wrists/shoulders/etc!

 

[stringer]

For what it's worth I never heat treated mine. And it holds an edge just fine. Although if I had to do it over again I might anneal it, grind it, re-heat treat. Grinding all that hardened steel with steel files and hand sanding was not fun. I have a belt sander now, but then you gotta be real careful not to overheat it. Anyways good luck.

Here's some inspiration. Looks like that was about a year ago when I finished. I bought it a year before that, lol.

Stringer WIP

Instagram pics
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs6EdWlBNZI/?igshid=s79ejrx4a0wr

Here's a more recent shot. Not pretty, but it fills a role that few Japanese knives can lay claim to.

 

[Gregmega]

I had Fell finish a few for me, and one underway now with Graydon... check these babies out.

Started as the full tang with bolster. Had him cut the lip at the heel and save the bolster, then heat treat them honyaki (or as he calls it, rainbow quench). African black wood.

 

[Gregmega]

Here they were before work began:

And a pile of them at the forge:

 

[Carl Kotte]

Oh wow, bless your soul, and fingers/hands/wrists/shoulders/etc!

Thanks, I’ll need it [emoji23][emoji16]

 

[Carl Kotte]

@Gregmega Wow! They look amazing! Knife beauty eye candy. How do they perform?

Also, I kind of regret requesting pictures now that I’ve seen yours. [emoji22] You raised the bar a bit.

 

[lemeneid]

Amazing knives you guys have, makes me envious! 500g for a blank is a lot of metal to remove by hand, good luck there, you might break an atoma or two there just thinning it

I would definitely do what Greg did and get rid of that annoying full bolster too.

 

[Gregmega]

@Gregmega Wow! They look amazing! Knife beauty eye candy. How do they perform?

Also, I kind of regret requesting pictures now that I’ve seen yours. [emoji22] You raised the bar a bit.

Ha! They’re great- he ground them really thin behind the edge and left all the heft in the spine. To be fair- I sought professional help- so don’t measure yourself against that!!

 

[HRC_64]

Profiles on all Sab's look amazing...!!! just saying

 

[SeattleBen]

I have a petty and one of the full size and I've been scared of them for a year now. Now I'm more scared after the good lookers in here.

 

[Carl Kotte]

Profiles on all Sab's look amazing...!!! just saying

The profiles are really cool. With the right amount of time, know-how and tools you can shape them in many different ways. I like the flexibility of it [emoji16]

 

[Carl Kotte]

I have a petty and one of the full size and I've been scared of them for a year now. Now I'm more scared after the good lookers in here.

Haha, why scared? The amount of work? The sweet reward of a sharp gentle giant or petty petty?

 

[childermass]

Mine still rests in my project drawer, let’s see when I find the time.
@Gregmega Great idea to cut the lip at the heel, I was already thinking about how to handle this and this seems to be the way to go.

 

[SeattleBen]

Haha, why scared? The amount of work? The sweet reward of a sharp gentle giant or petty petty?

The work and mess. I live in an apartment where my workspace such as it is, is shared with my wife. The amount of time on a 140 or coarser is daunting, more so is the "what's that awful noise??", queries coming every few minutes. Recently though my wife found out that we might have access to a forge and belt sander, albeit over an hours drive from us. So I might take it up and the pics of these project knives are inspirational.

 

[Carl Kotte]

The work and mess. I live in an apartment where my workspace such as it is, is shared with my wife. The amount of time on a 140 or coarser is daunting, more so is the "what's that awful noise??", queries coming every few minutes. Recently though my wife found out that we might have access to a forge and belt sander, albeit over an hours drive from us. So I might take it up and the pics of these project knives are inspirational.

I hear you (and our loved ones hear us). I’m doing this at home, with wife and kids, in a small apartment. So power tools are out of the question due to noise and mess anyway. But time is on my side. Or not even that. [emoji16]

 

[SeattleBen]

She's fine with the noise in general but doesn't really love the sound of the really coarse stuff.

 

[Caleb Cox]

The yelping of a file is always a big hit too!

 

[inferno]

it would be wise to re-ht these i think. and then you can use powertools at high rpm too. without ruining any temper. its probably close to 1095 i'd guess.

 

[Carl Kotte]

it would be wise to re-ht these i think. and then you can use powertools at high rpm too. without ruining any temper. its probably close to 1095 i'd guess.

Thanks, I don’t think power tools is an option, sadly, but re-ht might very well be.

 

[M1k3]

it would be wise to re-ht these i think. and then you can use powertools at high rpm too. without ruining any temper. its probably close to 1095 i'd guess.

It's pretty much 1075.

 

[Carl Kotte]

It's pretty much 1075.

Oh! Are you sure? If it is 1075, that would be very good to know. [emoji1303]

 

[M1k3]

XC75 is what I've seen it labeled as. Which is the same or ever so close to 1075.

http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/xc75.shtml

 

[Carl Kotte]

XC75 is what I've seen it labeled as. Which is the same or ever so close to 1075.

http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/xc75.shtml

Thanks!

 

[M1k3]

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/wip-custom-carbon-sabatier.5913/

 

[Carl Kotte]

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/wip-custom-carbon-sabatier.5913/

Oh, should have been more thorough when starting a new thread. Thanks again! Great old thread!

 

[M1k3]

You and that thread piqued my interest. Need to resist... for now..

 

[kayman67]

I have a side project with something similar. I guess about 10 knives. There's a lot of work unfortunately. Might take me a year. All manual labour.