As I sit on my couch with gauze in my mouth from my recent double wisdom tooth removal, I figured I'd have plenty of time to jot down a few things about some of the various knife projects I've finished and this should give me a place to continue to document my knife journey.
Martell Nakiri 01 Tool steel180mm
For this one, I purchased a 01 tool steel Dave Martell nakiri blank from BST via this posting SOLD - Dave Martell Nakiri Blank 01 180mm
I've done plenty of hand thinning and tinkered with a 4x36 on a few eBay refurb blades, but this would be my first venture into stock removal. With this blank being fully hardened to Rc 60-61, grinding this was not a walk in the park. After sitting on the shelf for a few weeks, I finally started to grind in some bevels. As life does, it got in the way from constant hobby work. Between work, family, a few handles and rehabbing our home, it took almost a year to complete this knife. I didn't keep track of the hours, but there were many, many hours in front of that 4x36.
Once I got the blade to a point where I liked with the sander, I hit the stones to finesse the geometry. After many more hours of stone work I was able to start playing with the finish. I decided to go with a 320 grit hand sanding finish. I wanted a right bias blade to see what I could play with for food release. I did a full convex on the right side with a slight convex on the left. I definitely feel that the sanded finish helps with foot not sticking to the blade.
For the handle, I used some leftover ox horn I had picked up for my Watanabe handle, and decided on some snakewood scales with black G-10 liners.
With this being my first full tang/scales handle, I got humbled pretty quickly and learned a lot for the next one. I got a bit over excited and forgot to put a piece of liner between the horn and wood. Not a big deal, but I would have preferred the little hint of black in there. My biggest regret was making the neck too long. During use, it's not much of an issue as I did round the neck and choil area, as well as the spine. Visually, its too long and looks off to me. Starting the handle in the less than optimal place, also caused the first pin to end up in the joining area of horn and wood.
Lessons were learned, it's far from perfect, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It feels comfortable during use, has a good balance and definitely cuts well. Although it doesn't have the Martell name on it, I hope it's something Dave would be proud to see.
With the new year just beginning, I'm looking forward to the next project.
Cheers,
Glen
Martell Nakiri 01 Tool steel180mm
For this one, I purchased a 01 tool steel Dave Martell nakiri blank from BST via this posting SOLD - Dave Martell Nakiri Blank 01 180mm
I've done plenty of hand thinning and tinkered with a 4x36 on a few eBay refurb blades, but this would be my first venture into stock removal. With this blank being fully hardened to Rc 60-61, grinding this was not a walk in the park. After sitting on the shelf for a few weeks, I finally started to grind in some bevels. As life does, it got in the way from constant hobby work. Between work, family, a few handles and rehabbing our home, it took almost a year to complete this knife. I didn't keep track of the hours, but there were many, many hours in front of that 4x36.
Once I got the blade to a point where I liked with the sander, I hit the stones to finesse the geometry. After many more hours of stone work I was able to start playing with the finish. I decided to go with a 320 grit hand sanding finish. I wanted a right bias blade to see what I could play with for food release. I did a full convex on the right side with a slight convex on the left. I definitely feel that the sanded finish helps with foot not sticking to the blade.
For the handle, I used some leftover ox horn I had picked up for my Watanabe handle, and decided on some snakewood scales with black G-10 liners.
With this being my first full tang/scales handle, I got humbled pretty quickly and learned a lot for the next one. I got a bit over excited and forgot to put a piece of liner between the horn and wood. Not a big deal, but I would have preferred the little hint of black in there. My biggest regret was making the neck too long. During use, it's not much of an issue as I did round the neck and choil area, as well as the spine. Visually, its too long and looks off to me. Starting the handle in the less than optimal place, also caused the first pin to end up in the joining area of horn and wood.
Lessons were learned, it's far from perfect, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It feels comfortable during use, has a good balance and definitely cuts well. Although it doesn't have the Martell name on it, I hope it's something Dave would be proud to see.
With the new year just beginning, I'm looking forward to the next project.
Cheers,
Glen
