WIP - my first knifemaking projects (#3, #5, #7)

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Wow, that choil shot looks great, Matus. And the profile shot, too.
 
Thanks Mark. The measure during thinning on Atoma 140 was the thickness 10 mm behind the edge. Now the knife has around 1.15 mm. I have just sharpened it (and of course scratched the left side, grrr). Tomorrow it shall cut :)
 
I have got a little further with the 240mm D2 gyuto. The handle is finished (design is practically the same as on the small kitchen knife) and the blade is being hand finished. Since I have finished the bevel grinding after HT (most of that has been done prior to HT) I have put quite some scratches on the blade (it did not look quite as bad) and I apparently did not manage to remove them with higher grit belts. Therefore I had to start all the way down with grit 80 sandpaper to have any chance of removing the belt scratches. I needed 3 hours of grinding to get to grit 600. Now I am working on the other side and hope to get the knife finished soon. One way or another - I will not be doing a knife in this size from D2 anytime soon :)
 
To D2, or To not D2, that is the question.
 
After quite a few hours of filing and sanding - the D2 240 gyuto is finished and only needs final sharpening (OK, and a small tip repair - stuff like that just happens so easily). I have made many mistakes once the knife was back from HT, mostly because I just lack the experience. The knife took much more work that I anticipated and I will only attempt to make a knife in this size from this kind of steel once I will have a grinder to mach it (which should be within 2-3 months). I will no concentrate on O1 carbon steel and learning to make more consistent grinds. My next attempts with stainless steel will be AEB-L and Niolox.

The profile was originally motivated by the knife from Dan that I had a chance to try recently during a passaround. But I am not sure it is still recognisable - it lost more than 10 mm to tip damage and grind errors and also some 3 mm in blade height. The flat spot is not as flat as it should be either. Oh well.




This time I tried through-drilled ferrule - it has advantages and disadvantages over the one where only slot for the blade is cut. I still need to find a more liquid, slow curing epoxy though. The handle turned out rather nicely. Applying the experience with the previous WA handle I managed to have the handle thrown into my face only once this time :) But hey, using a disc grinder with just 125 mm diameter is tricky. And the size is right this time :)



Hand finished to 600 grit. This was literally never ending story. I had to start at grit 80 because I did not manage to remove the coarse grinding marks with the belt grinding for technical & lack-of-skill reasons.



Obligatory choil shot. Yes - the blade is ground asymmetrically - but not by intention. It is now right-hand biased as the left face is flatter than the right one. The grind is rather thin too - cca 1.1 mm @ 10 mm from the edge.

 
Thanks :) Well, it's a start. But I also have a long list of what needs to be improved for the next time.

For the first time in quite a while I wish I would NOT be having a vacation right now as I can not make knives for the next 2 weeks. I did not tell that my wife, but she can probably guess it :D
 
Really nice work Matus!

Have you considered 'fixing' the tip now that you've finished the knife? It would be really easy to make it look a tiny bit better by grinding a little bit of steel off the spine closest to the tip. You only need to touch the spine of the knife doing this so it won't affect the edge or your finish at all.

It can fix a lot of the problems people run into when polishing and sharpening this area of the knife.

MIfF2Ny.jpg
 
Thank you :) I will indeed fix the tip while putting an edge on the knife. It is a minor fix. I will indeed take some material off the spine.
 
You can always take a slow curing epoxy and hit it with a hair dryer after you mix it up. It will become much more fluid and easier to pour into the tang slot.
 
I tried that and it helped a little, but since the glue cools dwn quite fast upon contact with the handle, the effect was somewhat limited.

There is epoxy from BladeBond called HT that is supposed to have low viscosity, but it id not yet available in EU. Guys from english-handmade-knives.co.uk may introduce it (they already offer other types of BladeBond epoxy) after their own testing.
 
Matus, you should be SUPER pleased with yourself here! I wish my first knife looked this good. Keep at it, you can only get better. :)
 
Matus, you should be SUPER pleased with yourself here! I wish my first knife looked this good. Keep at it, you can only get better. :)

I don't have the knife making experience of Dave, but I fully agree. I definitely wouldn't be able to make something like that.
 
I tried that and it helped a little, but since the glue cools dwn quite fast upon contact with the handle, the effect was somewhat limited.

There is epoxy from BladeBond called HT that is supposed to have low viscosity, but it id not yet available in EU. Guys from english-handmade-knives.co.uk may introduce it (they already offer other types of BladeBond epoxy) after their own testing.

Have you thought about using an epoxy resin? Unlike the glues, you can thin them with methylated spirit. The resin has all the adhesive properties of the glue, though it does take several hours to set.
 
You're welcome. I use it for fibreglassing, so look for fibreglass supplies. About 20% will thin the resin to water like viscosity.
 
Pretty good job for the first knife.
Like the profile, like the handle, like it overall.
You have to make a test cut video though. :)
 
Well, I'm not an established knife maker who can compliment you with you first knife ;) , but it still looks like a great first knife to me. Congrats!
 
Really enjoyed catching up on this WIP.
And what a fabulous result.
 
I finally managed to finish the article on the already mentioned 240 mm D2 gyuto. I would be interested to hear your feedback.

I have several projects going on - the 180 mm O1 petty knives are being ground, but will probably only get finished after out vacation in August.
 
Well done. d2 gyuto is ambitious. Why change the scratch pattern from perpendicular to the edge to parallel? Is there an advantage to running scratches the length of the blade i wonder? I can see that as i clean my own blades as i use them i may empart a few scratches along the length that might be covered by longitudinal scratches. Ive also switched to a vibrating sander for the 400 grit and up to 2000. Seems to work well, saves the hands and time and produces no scratch pattern in any direction. More of a muted tone.
 
I assume you are talking about the scratch pattern that is left on the blade once it is finished. The perpendicullar scratch pattern is ususallz left by a belt grinder and most people fine one that is parrallel to the edge more pleasing and shows that the blade was finished by hand.

The idea with a vibrating disc sander is a great one - I may give it a try as I actually do have such a sander (I think it makes little circulr motion).
 
Matus, how did you get the sanding lines so straight and consistent?

I was sanding the blade before the handle was mounted, so I could start the sanding motion higher up the tang. Once I have managed to get up to 400 grit and remove all previous scratches, I have used continuous strokes from tang towards the tip to get a consistent scratch pattern. I have used a 3x1x25 cm bar of wood and sanding paper with width of about 7-8 cm tightly rolled on the bar and I have made pulls with both hands towards me.
 
Try rubber backing for final strokes, I like it.
 
Great straight and consistent sanding lines, indeed! Congrats with what looks like a very well finished knife.
 
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