OXYS Knives - Our Work

[OxysKnives]

Hi everybody,

My name is Dennis and I am 1/3 of Oxys Knives. We are a collective of kitchen knife making geeks from Ukraine (Sergey), Hungary (Grisha) and Australia (me). We like working with weird specialty steels like HAPs, Bohler's Ms and Ks, CPMs, Ukranian PM steels, etc, and hoping to find others here that are into that sort of thing.

Although our most seasoned knife maker, Sergey, has years of experience working on his own from his home in southern Ukraine, we as OXYS are still a new name on the block. I am hoping to find chefs or knife enthusiasts here who would be willing to take couple of our knives for a spin and provide feedback. When I eventually get out of a quarantine here in Sydney, A passaround in Australia and EU of couple of our knives will happen in the near future.

Will be using this thread to showcase some of our work.

K-tip Gyuto:

• Steel: Ukranian DI103 powder steel (ДИ103-МП) laminated in stainless damascus
• Handle: Ironwood with G10 liner
• Bolster: Carbon fibre
• Steel hardness: 63HRC
• Knife weight: 200 g
• Blade length: 200 mm
• Blade height: 47 mm
• Blade thickness: 3.09 mm
• Edge grind type: V (flat)

200 mm k-tip gyuto intended as an all arounder. The D shaped handle for better feedback and control. The choil was designed for a pinch grip and a stronger precision of movement. Really happy how it turned out. Made in Ukraine and traveled all the way to Australia with me.

 

[Geigs]

Nice looking knife, in a useful size and interesting steel. If you do an Aussie pass around I'd love to be included.

 

[Nemo]

Welcome to the forums and welcome to Australia.

Quite a few KKF members in Au.

Are you settling in Sydney or elewhere?

Tell us a bit more about DI103 steel.

 

[Matt Zilliox]

Welcome

 

[LostHighway]

Welcome. Please tell us more about your work and the alloys you use.

 

[daveb]

Glad to have you here.

But.

Your kiritsuke is what we refer to as a K-tip Gyuto. (And it should be relatively flat) Some of the big name manufacturers have bastardized the name to Kiritsuke cause it sounds cool and presumably sells more knives. A "real" Kiritsuke is a single bevel knife, very flat, intended to do yanagiba and usuba duties. If your target market is enthusiasts, pls learn the vernacular. If your target market is housewives, then you can call it anything you want. Signed: Knife Grammer Police (hehe)

To be fair you won't be the first specialty maker to misuse the term. I just cringe whenever I see it. A quick explanation from Korin may be informative:

https://www.korin.com/japanese-knives/styles/kiritsuke


Good looking knife btw.

 

[Barmoley]

Welcome, I love all sorts of weird specialty steels, looking forward to seeing more of your work.

 

[OxysKnives]

Welcome to the forums and welcome to Australia.

Quite a few KKF members in Au.

Are you settling in Sydney or elewhere?

Tell us a bit more about DI103 steel.

Thank you for a warm welcome. I am in Sydney now with the family but eventually will move to Melbourne. Hopefully the borders will reopen soon.

DI103 is a PM steel produced by a Ukranian manufacturer "Dneprospetsstal". Together with DI90 (ДИ90-МП) it is popular among Russian and Ukrainian knife makers. Not so well known outside of post USSR countries as far as I know.
It is a high speed tool steel with good impact strength, aggressive cutting edge and strong edge retention. Its main problem is very low corrosion resistance. Prone to pitting and such. We like it best laminated in stainless.

 

[OxysKnives]

Your kiritsuke is what we refer to as a K-tip Gyuto. (And it should be relatively flat) Some of the big name manufacturers have bastardized the name to Kiritsuke cause it sounds cool and presumably sells more knives. A "real" Kiritsuke is a single bevel knife, very flat, intended to do yanagiba and usuba duties. If your target market is enthusiasts, pls learn the vernacular. If your target market is housewives, then you can call it anything you want. Signed: Knife Grammer Police (hehe)

To be fair you won't be the first specialty maker to misuse the term. I just cringe whenever I see it.

Thanks for the welcome and the k-tip (pun intended Indeed it is always a learning curve for us when it comes to the vernacular. Bridging the lingo and terminology used by Russian knife makers and English speaking ones is a particular challenge. Always fun though.

 

[Nemo]

Thank you for a warm welcome. I am in Sydney now with the family but eventually will move to Melbourne. Hopefully the borders will reopen soon.

I hope you are right bit I'm not holding my breath.

DI103 is a PM steel produced by a Ukranian manufacturer "Dneprospetsstal". Together with DI90 (ДИ90-МП) it is popular among Russian and Ukrainian knife makers. Not so well known outside of post USSR countries as far as I know.
It is a high speed tool steel with good impact strength, aggressive cutting edge and strong edge retention. Its main problem is very low corrosion resistance. Prone to pitting and such. We like it best laminated in stainless.

Its composition seems a little like HAP40 but more W, less Co and Mo.

 

[Dull_Apex]

How do you divide work across 3 separate countries? Do each of you have a speciality or make a knife end to end?

 

[cotedupy]

Very nice! Looking forward to hearing some more about these steels...

 

[juice]

Thank you for a warm welcome. I am in Sydney now with the family but eventually will move to Melbourne. Hopefully the borders will reopen soon.

February, maybe? OTOH, if you're moving, you may be able to get a permit (but would probably involve some self-isolation depending on exactly where you're moving from and where you've been).

 

[OxysKnives]

How do you divide work across 3 separate countries? Do each of you have a speciality or make a knife end to end?

Great question!

Short answer:
Sergey (Ukraine) - Seasoned knife maker
Grisha (Hungary) - Steel and tooling procurement, woodwork (packaging, saya and some handles)
Dennis (Australia) - Beginner knife maker + Internet

Long answer:
All three of us make the initial design for the next project together. Currently the final build happens in Ukraine in Sergey's workshop. Grisha (who is coincidentally also my father in law) started building a workshop in Hungary with the intention that all of us can work and learn there together several months a year. Unfortunately, the pandemic disagreed with this plan for now.
We often work with local Ukrainian or Russian suppliers for materials, and forgers for additional or external HT + cryo. Hopefully give the local craftsmen other there more exposure through collabs. They are usually well known within the Russian speaking world, but not outside of it. Which is unfortunate, since they have a lot to offer in the field of specialty steels.
We started working together on OXYS 1.5 years ago and made about 50 knives so far. 2020 really messed up our planning for going forward. We had to slow down and figure out the process again. Didn't kill us! So I can only assume it made us stronger

 

[OxysKnives]

Here goes another one:

K-tip Gyuto or Bunka

• Steel: CPM S90V
• Handle: African blackwood
• Bolster: Carbon fibre with G10 liner
• Steel hardness: 63HRC
• Knife weight: 190 g
• Blade length: 201 mm
• Blade height: 49 mm
• Blade thickness: 2.5 mm
• Edge grind type: V (flat)

Sand blasted CPM S90V blade. D shaped (or egg-face aka Long half of a prolate spheroid, joined to a short half of a roughly spherical ellipsoid, or even a slightly oblate spheroid) handle. We all quite liked the matte finish. Will definitely do more sand blasted blades.
The steel is not so much fun to finish.. Takes a very long time. Not as bad as CPM S125V though. Price to pay for that edge retention.

 

[Matt Jacobs]

your handles and they way the knife fits into them are simply stunning!!!

 

[cotedupy]

^ What he said. Very smart handle work, and beautiful knife

 

[adam_Cullen]

These look incredible! Have you done any variations on steel finishes? I personally am a fan of the pear skin and the hammered finishes myself, but could be fun to do a more decorative style.. maybe? Idk, but i will say your work looks great!

 

[OxysKnives]

These look incredible! Have you done any variations on steel finishes? I personally am a fan of the pear skin and the hammered finishes myself, but could be fun to do a more decorative style.. maybe? Idk, but i will say your work looks great!

Thank you for kind feedback

Our approach to finishes in general is "keep it pure". Given we only work with specialty PM steels, we try to keep any interference post heat treating to a minimum. Also these steels are very VERY hard That being said, we did do couple of special finishes on custom projects. I'll post something in this thread to illustrate.

 

[OxysKnives]

K-tip Gyuto

To showcase a different finish:

• Steel: HAP 72
• Handle: Carbon Fibre
• Bolster: Damascus steel
• Steel hardness: 69HRC
• Knife weight: 234 g
• Blade length: 197 mm
• Blade height: 43 mm
• Blade thickness: 2.93 mm
• Edge grind type: V (flat)

Has to be one of my absolute favourites. Incredible steel this is. Very hard blade that we finished with a forced patina. Looks damn cool. Not a hammered look but something different still.

 

[mc2442]

That is a great looking knife, the handle and bolster really match the forced patina look.

 

[jeffr]

I keep eyeing that knife Dennis.

 

[AlexxTB]

OxysKnives, awesome design.

 

[jeffr]

OxysKnives, awesome design.

.. and great in the flesh too!

 

[henkle]

This finish is stunning.

 

[OxysKnives]

Couple of new knives that I am taking to the Sydney knife show in August:

A rather curious Chef from DI90-MP steel, ironwood handle and carbon fibre bolster:

• Steel: DI90-MP
• Handle: Ironwood
• Bolster: Carbon fibre
• Steel hardness: 63HRC
• Knife weight: 164 g
• Blade length: 200 mm
• Blade height: 49 mm
• Blade thickness: 2.6->1.6 mm
• Edge grind type: Hollow

 

[OxysKnives]

Very thin and nimble mini Chef with lots of taper. CPM S90V, ironwood and carbon fibre:

• Steel: CPM S90V
• Handle: Ironwood
• Bolster: Carbon fibre
• Steel hardness: 63HRC
• Knife weight: 92 g
• Blade length: 175 mm
• Blade height: 44 mm
• Blade thickness: 1.9->0.9 mm
• Edge grind type: Hollow

 

[OxysKnives]

Showing off these beautiful photos of our knives by Jim Cooper.

First one is a compact chef from HAP72 at 70HRC, carbon fibre and zircuti.
Second is a special three piece set from CPM S90V at 62HRC and blonde Arizona ironwood.

Hi res for a fully immersive experience:
View attachment OXYS_large.jpg
View attachment UA_SET_large.jpg

 

[Troopah_Knives]

I hope you are right bit I'm not holding my breath.



Its composition seems a little like HAP40 but more W, less Co and Mo.

It's essentially a low vanadium modification of T-15 which it seems like they also exchanged a bit of the tungsten and chromium for molybdenum (Which probably doesn't make any huge differences).

 

[Blank Blades.]

Showing off these beautiful photos of our knives by Jim Cooper.

First one is a compact chef from HAP72 at 70HRC, carbon fibre and zircuti.
Second is a special three piece set from CPM S90V at 62HRC and blonde Arizona ironwood.

View attachment 196248

View attachment 196249

Hi res for a fully immersive experience:
View attachment 196250
View attachment 196251

Man I never see hap72 get used! I bet those hold an edge like crazy