WTS PRICE DROP 07/03/2023-ZWear/304SS San-Mai 235mm Gyuto Semi-Custom

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MSicardCutlery

MSicardCutlery

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Hello Everyone,

This is a real milestone blade for me. High alloy san mai is something that many bladesmiths attempt and a seemingly small proportion ever succeed at. After many hours of careful reading over several months, (not to mention many more hours of anxiety induced procrastination) I finally tried my hand at it, and succeeded.

For those of you unfamiliar with CPM CruWear/ZWear, it's a semi stainless tool steel with a similar composition to 3V, but higher in carbon. It has roughly the same edge retention as MagnaCut, though is tougher at lower hardnesses than are typically seen in kitchen knives.

Given the somewhat unique nature of this blade I've decided to offer it as a semi custom. The neck length, final point of balance, and handle material are all in the hands of the customer on this one

This blade I would classify as a very light mid-weight, there isn't a tremendous amount of taper to the first half of the spine, but quite a bit in the second half. This is also one of the flattest edges I have ever put on a knife. The first 10cm are pretty well dead flat, and the next 5 have only the slightest upwards curve, perhaps only 1mm before the tip begins and the rate of curvature increases.

  • Blade: 235mmx50mm CPM CruWear/ZWear (63-64 HRC)/ 304 stainless steel san-mai 600 grit hand finish
  • Neck: 17mm X ?
  • Handle: ?
  • POB: ?
  • Spine: 3.5mm 20mm behind the heel (at the neck), 2.75mm at 13cm, .7mm 1cm from the tip
  • Grind: flat to convex, right hand bias
  • Weight: ?
  • Relieved choil and spine
  • Edge: .14mm@1mm, .25mm@2mm, .55mm@5mm, .96mm@10mm Measured at the midpoint.
The final price is somewhat dependent on the handle material selected, but for a base price, with a typical burned oak handle, I'm asking $600 $500 U.S + $30 U.S for shipping with insurance anywhere in North America. International will be in the ballpark of $50-$75 U.S depending on the area.
20230202_082117.jpg

20230202_082158.jpg


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I'll be working with other high alloy steels to use in san mai in the coming weeks, with special attention on reducing the core thicknesses as much as possible to ease sharpening and thinning difficulty later in the blade's life.

Thanks for taking a look! Have a great day!

-Matt
 
Last edited:
Neutri said:
I suppose Fast Fourier Transform. A mathematical function that gives you frequencies in a wave pattern
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Ah.

1" diameter drawing "die", <1/16" reduction at a time, ~1/2" material advancement per squish. Original thickness 5/8", final thickness 1/4". There are ripples within ripples in that blade. The deeper it gets ground the less obvious the layers of ripples there are.
 
hendrix said:
Gorgeous! How’s the steel with conventional aluminum oxide stones?
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Thank you!

And I suspect difficult. I find it harder to grind than MagnaCut, but that could be more to do with the relative carbide size than the composition itself. It is a bear to hand finish, but it's been so long since I've hand finished any MC that I can't say how it compares. I would lump them into the same category as far as sharpenability is concerned. @Troopah_Knives do you feel that's an accurate assessment?
 
hendrix said:
Gorgeous! How’s the steel with conventional aluminum oxide stones?
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In my experience, Shapton Glass 500 works great on it. About 6k+ is pretty pointless. Glass 4k and SP 2k work great though.

My favorite edge on Z-wear is Venev 400, followed by a Washita though.
 
MSicardCutlery said:
Thank you!

And I suspect difficult. I find it harder to grind than MagnaCut, but that could be more to do with the relative carbide size than the composition itself. It is a bear to hand finish, but it's been so long since I've hand finished any MC that I can't say how it compares. I would lump them into the same category as far as sharpenability is concerned. @Troopah_Knives do you feel that's an accurate assessment?
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Hmm, I agree with your assessment on the grinding front. As far as sharpening it's a bit difficult but certainly not impossible. I find personally sharpen the ability of conventional stones (assume the knife is pretty thin BTE) is more linked to MC carbide volume than anything else. In my experience, it is a bit easier to sharpen than Magnacut and 3V but a bit harder than the PM 1%MC steels like Z-Tuff. Definitely doable but as has been mentioned before on this forum as you get to higher grits it gets less effective. If you want to do conventional stones I think the above recommendation by @M1k3 is spot on Shapton Glass 500 or so and I'd strop with 2000grit ish diamond paste.
 
Troopah_Knives said:
Hmm, I agree with your assessment on the grinding front. As far as sharpening it's a bit difficult but certainly not impossible. I find personally sharpen the ability of conventional stones (assume the knife is pretty thin BTE) is more linked to MC carbide volume than anything else. In my experience, it is a bit easier to sharpen than Magnacut and 3V but a bit harder than the PM 1%MC steels like Z-Tuff. Definitely doable but as has been mentioned before on this forum as you get to higher grits it gets less effective. If you want to do conventional stones I think the above recommendation by @M1k3 is spot on Shapton Glass 500 or so and I'd strop with 2000grit ish diamond paste.
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I did some reading yesterday afternoon. I discovered that of the carbides formed in Z-Wear, about 60% are CrVC type, which are softer than aluminium oxide, and the remainder being the harder than AlO MC type. MagnaCut appears to have a lower overall carbide volume, and smaller carbide size, but the entirety of the carbides formed are MC type. So that should mean then that Z-Wear will be more easily cut by AlO than MagnaCut overall. Not sure how much that translates into subjective ease of sharpenability, but I think I've interpreted the data properly.
 
Carlos Rangel said:
That Choil shoot is Crazy!! I love Knives with good edge retention,
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Thank you!


Also,
Geigs said:
thats really nice. can you posta pic that shows the edge flat on a surface to highlight profile? think it's a little flatter than I'd like but man it's tempting
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20230204_103118[1].jpg

It might be in need of just a little flattening but it could be my counter top too...
 
Gshep91 said:
Calling dibs if you ever make a 180mm version of this as a long petty/short gyuto! Beautiful knife
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I have enough Z-Wear and 304 left to make something 200mm or under with. By all means PM me. And thank you!
 
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