What I Have Been Up To Lately

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Marko, do you able make a custom knife use DT Damascus AEB - L with "chevron" or "feather" pattern ??
-Charles
 
Not sure about feather, but definitely chevron or ladder in 52100 damascus

M
 
Hello Folks,
I guess, I should start by saying that I think I have arrived at a good point at my R&D, and will concentrate now on production and getting knives out of the door. The experimental heat treatment is now permanent till I find a way to top it. The grind is also permanent. There will be variation of the grind, weight and thickness, based on customer's preference.

Single beveled knives are in prototype phase now, but I will move faster on these, as I mostly need feedback on geometry - sharpness and wear resistance has been already determined.

Western handled knives will come after single-beveled knives and will be offered right away. I just need to shape a few handles to work out the process.

I will primarily offer two monosteels - 52100 and PM stainless, but choice of DT damascus, AEB-L and DT mystery carbon steel will also be available upon request.

I will phase out using horn in my handles, despite the fact that it has been such a part of the look my handles are recognized by. I have a difficulty securing quality horn and after spending hundreds of dollars and still unable to get a stable supply of quality horn, I am loosing hope.

I haven't come across a perfect horn substitute either, so I might have to resort to change a design of my handles and to use blackwood for the ferrule, topped with a mokume tip. This would put my handles close in look to Bob Kramer meiji, but I want to emphasize that this is a practical move rather than a desire to copy. I will continue taper ferrule on both sides and keep the butt of the handle straight. I am not sure if I keep the spacer between the handle body and ferrule (like in my previous handles) if there is a mokume tip as well, as I am not in love with the look but maybe it will grow on me.

Also, all ready-made knives will come with D-style handles. Octagonal handles will be only available upon request.

I know it has been a long wait for some of you, and I apologize for it. I want to make sure I leave no stone unturned in my R&D, so I choose to err on the side of cautions and proceeded slowly, rather than get knives out quickly and make improvements as I go. Ultimately, a longer wait will lead to a a better knife.

I will understand if some of you find the wait be too long and will want to cancel your order. That will be fine, just shoot me an email.

Best regards,

M
PS: Here is some of the new horn I received:

DSC_0497.jpg

DSC_0496.jpg
 
I have around 15 knives ground and rough finished and about the same number of practice knives that need a final finish. This and making handles is what I am going to occupy myself between now and Christmas. Will try to get out everything I took a payment for in time so they can arrive by Christmas (except int. orders).

Will have a few extra knives for sale, will post details in Knives For Sale thread. In addition to 52100, there will be some knives in 19C27, and A2.

M

PS: there is some 52100 damascus (in ladder and possibly chevron, don't remember) and mystery carbon steel on the way from Panaca, but I won't be able to work it until after Christmas.
 
I put the knives with Western handle on backburner, but will revisit after the New Year.
 
Marko, I have never used horn, but I can tell you that I LOVE blackwood. I jokingly (well, not really :wink:) tell people that it is my substitute for ebony AND black paper and linen Micarta.:doublethumbsup:
 
Horn polishes to a higher luster than blackwood and stays shinier, but it also moves at a different rate than wood. I don't like the idea of exposed end grain of natural woods, so capping it with mokume or nichel silver is a logical step.

M
 
Haven't posted updated for a while, so here are some.

Back on Track With Making Handles
Made some changes to design to minimize (and hopefully avoid all together) failures. Still tweaking the design (and buying new tools), but so far so good - the first two have been successful. This week will try to get as many done as possible and to get some knives out.

Getting Electricity Upgrade
My landlord finally caved in to my threats of leaving and I will be getting electricity upgrade to the shop - a big deal for me, as I operate on a next to nothing electricity. I finally can start using some equipment that I purchased but was unable to use and I will b expanding my metalworking shop and adding a woodworking shop.

Salt Pods
This has been on a back burner for a long time now, but hopefully in the next 2-3 months, it will become a reality.

New Types of Knives and Handles
Western handle scimitar, Western handle bread knife, a couple of versions of D handle honesuki are in a pipelines. At this time I won't be taking orders for these, but I will make some now and then and post them for sale. I have a number of 52100 Damascus blanks made by John Thomas and will be adding some stainless when Devin is back on his feet working.

Cutting Boards, Blocks, and Magnetic Strips
I finally found somebody to help me with making cutting boards and other accessories. This guy has the right attitude and attention to detail (and requires little training, as he makes circular stairs for living, this would be his side-gig a few hours a week). It will be a limited production, 5-10 boards a month. I will do a good share of the work - wood selection, grain alignment, gluing and all detail and finishing work. Having my worker do all prep work and cutting would be a huge help. I will start with the boards (I still have some lumber from days I was making them) and gradually add more accessories. Board will be 2" thick, but will be a low-profile with recessed silicone feet and cutouts for easy lifting.

Knife workshops in NYC
Working with a few people on the forum on putting together workshops on sharpening, knife skill demonstration and general knife education in NYC. This is still in works, so stay tuned.

This is going to be a busy year and hopefully a successful year.

This is all I can think of right now.

Thanks,

M
 
Wow, so many things to be excited about but I think the bread knife is what I'm most eager to see.
 
Wow, quite an update. No moss on your stones. Really good news about the electricity. I know that's been holding you back. Cutting boards: put me down for one. Workshops: I'd be interested in those too. I'm actually going to a knife skills class next week at ICE (Institute of Culinary Education).
 
I would definitely be up for one of those prototype Honesuki's.
 
Good to hear Marko, I feel you on the electricity thing, I can't even use my vita prep at work. Have to turn off my immersion circulator when vac/packing. Things being out of your own control but constantly affecting your business is a frustrating thing, hopefully you will be using your new toys soon enough. Have fun!
 
I have 20Amp circut and 3Phase 20Amp for everything in the shop. I have been going crazy jockeying between the tools.
 
A short update.

Accessories
I took a short time off from knife making and finalized design of magnetic knife holders and contemplated a design of a counter top knife stand. The latter is still in works, though a prototype should be upcoming. My cutting board design remained unchanged - low-profile, finger recesses and recessed feet. I plan on having a full line of accessories available (boards, holders and stands), as well as some sharpening supplies and care-and-maintenance supplies.

Steels
There will be a couple of knives in Devin's mystery carbon coming up, but it is likely not going to be a steel I will use often, due to a difficulty of hand-finishing it and its cost. 52100 and A2 will be my go-to carbon steels, latter geared toward those who would prefer more stain resistance. I am reviewing a list of stainless steels to offer, as some are much harder to obtain that I thought, and I might have to look for some quality substitutes. There will be a few knives made in JT damascus steel (52100 and 15N20 mix), but damascus won't be a my go-to steels due to the cost and a demand.

Geometry
I will offer two versions - thinner and thicker, but other than that, there is not changes to how I grind my knives.

Heat Treatment
I am aiming for a combination of sharpness (and toughness or edge-stability, as these go hand-in-hand) and wear resistance. All my steels will be heat treated for this combination. Salt pods are in the plans.

Handles
I barely make any octagonal handles these days, mostly D style, which has been well received and therefore, is to stay unchanged. There will be a western style handle coming up (still in prototype stage, but close to finalizing design). All western knives will feature a guard that will be ground to resemble an integral bolster. I am considering including a contrasting end-cap on the western handle as well as some other embellishments, at least on some. One such handle would be made out of layers of birch bark and will feature a spacer as well as an end cap - Michael Rader influence.

New Types of Knives:
These are not that new, as I aired them in my subforum already, but they still need to be made - a bread knife, a scimitar, and a new version of honesuki knives. I will probably add a garasuki version for those who would prefer a heftier, larger version of a bird splitter.

Wait list and long overdue orders
Wait list is long and includes orders that have been placed (few are paid but most are not) as long as 2 years ago. There is not a good excuse on my part, other than to say that I rather err on a side of caution and proceed slowly to get better knives out. How better, is a rhetorical question, though I think that cumulative experience has been very helpful.

I would like to ask for a little more patience and will do what I can to make up for a long wait. Whatever I quoted at the time of placing an order, is the price we go by. People are also free to cancel their orders.

I apologize for an excessive wait time. I wish I could make knives faster. Knife-making is not something I can do day-in-day-out mindlessly - there good days when I am very productive, there are bad days, when things go wrong and I get discouraged. Ultimately, I go back and redo/redesign/correct things and move on, but trying new ways, new things carry a risk of a failure, and failure is something I don't take lightly.

Price for 2013
There will be a price increase due to the fact that I am unable to keep up with my orders at the 2012 pricing. I try to do my best to keep my knives affordable, but the reality - low output and high labor intensive process makes the prospects of a very affordable knife dim. I have so far resisted the idea of price increase, but I don't know how much longer I can do that. A long list of orders is also keeping me from pursuing new markets, something I have to do if I am to continue making knives.

Sole Authorship Work
Just to remind you guys that all that I offer I make myself. I tried a couple of guys for woodworking, but they each didn't last a day. I am difficult person to work for, and it would require to similar demands to oneself for me to consider investing my time in training people.

Sole authorship work, on one hand, is a good thing, as I can guarantee a certain quality, but on the other hand, there are only so many hours in a day I can work.

My pricing for accessories might appear to be higher than comparable items on the market, but everything I make I put to a highest scrutiny in design, performance and to a some degree, a common sense. I am sorry if I priced some people out, but the amount of work that goes into these, the material cost, the quality, make up the price. I appreciate when people recognize that.

Thanks,

M
 
Got timed out.

Just one thing to add - all work is done in the house by me. I don't subcontract any of the work (heat treating, pre-grinding, handles, woodworking, etc)
 
I could say that all my 52100 are honyaki - they are monosteel blades quenched in fast oil and hardened to 62-63RC (that's after tempering). :D

I am not interested in shallow hardening steels, similar to white and blue steels and W2. 52100 is a deeper hardening steel, so it won't show hamon like shallow hardening do. There is a way to heat treat 52100 with a torch (like Bill Burke does it), but it takes a considerable skill to do it well and even then I would guess there would be some variations in quality. I on the other hand, am moving toward molted salts, just to get a little more performance over heat treating in a convection oven.

So in short, there will be no blades with hamon any time soon, but I will continue squeezing performance out of steels I like.

M
 
Marko Tsourkan said:
I know, I have heart that they could approximate an erupting volcano (lava)
Click to expand...

Kevin Cashen had some horror story about saltbaths on his homepage, didn't sound like something one would tinker with when hungover... :S
 
You can't be stupid with salts or you will learn the hard way. At best, you will have a small fire, at worst, bodily damage.
 
Salts... absolutely no moisture on the blade, one drop of water equals molten salt everywhere from the steam release/explosion. lay your blades on top of the salt pot to preheat, and drive out moisture.
 
someone please educate me what is advantage use molten salts for heat treatment, quench, annel, and temper steel. ??:dontknow:
 
Uniform heating. When you heat treat in convection oven, the temperature inside will vary somewhat (don't listen to people who claim that temperature inside is +/- 5F the probe temperature, in an Evenheat type oven, that's BS), so to get to optimum hardness you have to do a lot of testing and adjusting before you get a good HT recipe. Salts, on the other hand (provided you don't have any frozen spots at the bottom of the tube), will show temperature more accurately and heat steel more uniformly and faster. Devin told me that advantage going salts is about 10% improvement. The process includes tempering in salts as well.
 
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