A Main Chef Knife in 1095

I have been enjoying making full size chef knives at the beginning of this year. Creating a more dramatic distal taper was something I wanted to experiment with more. I realized that starting with thicker stock was one of the things that this would require. So I moved into some 3/16" thick material to create this knife.

The weight is more on-par with what a main working knife in a commercial kitchen would and possibly "should" feel like. I say 'possibly' because Chef knives are individual to the user & everybody has their likes and dislikes.
Ultimately this is my rendition of a classic European Style Chef Knife. Knives like this are weighted to make hours of food prep not as exhausting to ligaments and tendons. Light knives feel great when you first pick them up, but if hours of chopping and detailed preparation are what a knife is needed for, having a bit more weight in the blade is essential. This still remains very nimble at the tip and in the hand, with one tons of character and feels like the type of knife any skilled chef would for sure enjoy using.

The blade is just shy of a 9-inches, plenty wide to get the job done and is 13.75" OAL. It exhibits some nice desert Ironwood handles with carved texture and domed bronze pins.

I hope you enjoy the images.

Two New Integral Knives

I am excited about these two knives! One is for a customer and the other I made for fun. The top knife is a style and size I have been thinking about for some time. It reminds me of the Gents Knives That Don Fogg was making some time back. This knife also represents a new beginning for me in the realms of making my own non-ferrous furniture on my knives.

I took a trip out to visit my mentor Tai Goo a few months ago and we went through a whole aray of basic to advanced jewelery making processes. Many of these processes can be applied as aspects of the knife handle details and constructions. It was great to visit my mentor and friend Tai Goo and we had a blast. I finally got the time and a table to start practicing! Please visit the previous post to see my simple and new studio space for doing non-ferrous work.

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As for the knives.....

Top knife: Forged from some Don Hanson W2 .75" round bar and drawn down to just over .50" square, a sweet integral with my first non-ferrous attribute, which is a piece of cable-mokume that is copper and silver. The knife is 11.75" OAl with a 5.75" blade. It has a nice golden desert ironwood handle, some of my favorite of what the ironwood has to offer color-wise.

Bottom knife: Forged out of the last piece of steel I had recycled from an antique automobile starting crank. I made a few integrals from this same crank a few years ago and they were all really cool & heat treated wonderfully. I think this one turned out sweet.
OAL it is 10.25" and the blade is 4.75" with carved ball ferrule and premium African Ebony.

I hope you all enjoy the images:

A New Non-Ferrous Studio is Born

I took a trip out to visit Tai a few months ago and we worked primarily on non-ferrous techniques. Much of this is what jewelers do on a regular basis, much if it most knifemakers do not do on a regular basis.

My background as a sculptor who cast bronze sculptures for 16-years has just been aching to get into this part of my knifemaking practice. After my return trip from visiting Tai, I procrastinated on building a non-ferrous studio space. I needed a table and all the little tools that essentially added up to making a whole new studio aside from my bladesmithing space.

Ultimately I kept it simple and I'm glad I did. A friend was giving away this all steel office table that so far is working really well, and I bought a small torch and a few tools to do the job. The next big purchase will be a rolling mill, as this is essential to making sheet and mokume-gane' and reducing ingot for pulling to wire etc...

For now I leave you with a shot of my new studio space. A Shot of some goodies I made when I went out to visit Tai, cuddle-bone casting, retiuculated silver quarter and a piece of (non mokume-gane') mokume. And an in-process shot of a sliver and copper "cable-mokume" ferrule for an integral knife I just finished up.
This is my first project in my new studio You can see the finished knife in the above post along with another new integral I just finished for a customer.

FUN!

Enjoy the shots.