Test Kiritsuke in 15N20

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daizee

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I whipped up this odd kiritsuke to test some 15N20 - my first taste of this steel.
It was a bit of an adventure. It was going to be a K-tip double-ground chef knife, but the edge waved so badly in heat-treat that I had to cut it back and re-grind it hard. Ended up with a kiritsuke-sized double-ground knife, so I gave it a single-side bevel on an already tapered blade, and sharpened it on one side. It's wicked light. Just a flat back instead of hollow this time. Mostly I'm interested in the edge properties and how food and water affect 15N20, so... standards shmandards. :D

Gave it a quick vinegar etch to check for a hardening line/hamon - yup! Other side is belt finished bright to see how food acids affect this steel. Some pretty white oak on the handle is overshadowed by the ironwood and in-your-face G10 bolster scrap from another project:

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At one point it looked like this! :p

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And....

it will cut (limes). Cheers!:

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From how flat the edge profile is, it looks like a micro sword, pretty cool... Looks like your hamon will turn out pretty nice with more work. Where/who is the steel from?

That bacon edge... :eek: been there, done that, LOL. :D Nice save!
 
Awesome. I am currently making a load of knives out of 15N20. Did you heat treat yourself? I am going to send mine away for heat treatment so fingers crossed I do jot get warpage like yours. Good to see you made a recovery.
 
Ahh the ol' bacon edge.... Bad luck.
15N20 is a good steel, the nickle goes a long way in regards to corrosion resistance.
Very nice hamon! :D
 
It was a risk grinding it completely pre-hardening, and I think the spine needed to be hotter OR cool slower - tricky to do in the forge without clay - which I used the second time, after grinding out all the waves. Turns out there isn't a market for kitchen kris knives. :p Doing it in a kiln most likely would have dodged the wavy bullet in the first place, but one of my goals was to have a simple carbon steel in kitchen thicknesses that I could heat-treat quickly in the forge. You'll probably be fine sending it out for heat-treating.

The gin is the signature stuff from the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC. Fabulous indigo color in the bottle. My former ship used to stop in Victoria several times a year, so it became a bit of a thing with the crew.

Cheers! :D
 
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