One for a buddy. >>> One for G4

Well it's just a quick shot of the two.

The top Shallot Knife is for a very good friend of mine that I consider to be my brother.
We lived in the same home and cooked 100's of meals together for over 7-years; he is an amazing chef and person.
He now lives in Los Angeles and had ordered a knife from me, so this one will be going off to him tomorrow.

The bottom is a Camp-Chef-Fighter.
I did one similar to this sometime back and had another blade forged and hanging around the studio begging to be finished.
Part of my flow on the road to G4 was a promise to myself to clear my bench of older projects first..
....not sure that was the best idea, but I feel like I am getting organized & less cluttered in the shop of older ideas.....still...., I have always liked this design & is a sweet knife that can certainly take care of business!
I hope you enjoy the image.

Two Petite Gyuto Chef Knives

Two new ones of the bench. Both of these came out really nice.
The top knife with the walnut handle & rosewood inlay has a singing blade... Awesome!

The little petite gyuto exhibits some tulip wood w/ bloodwood inlay.
This is the first time using tulip wood and boy is it neat stuff.

Both are forged to shape out of 1084-m with satin finish.
the medium-small gyuto is 11.50" OAl
the petite gyuto is is 10.50" OAL.
...& now that I see them side-by-side, I wish I had done the blind pin on the small one as well.

I hope you enjoy the image.

-DON:)

Deluxe Shallot Knife

This Shallot Knife is a real beauty. It was created as a special order for a customer who liked the looks of a blade I created with a mustard finish that had been polished back and re-etched, so this was done applied to this knife. The customer also wanted their initials engraved into the blade and custom carved handle....so they got the whole works.

This particular Shallot knife is actually a Jumbo Shallot. This means that it was forged out of 3/16" thick material rather than the 1/8" material that the original Shallot Knives were designed to be created out of. This makes this a robust and yet compact chef knife. The blade steel is 1084-m and the handle material is Kingwood. OAL of this knife is 11.5" with a 6.5" blade.

Thanks for taking a look:)

Wet Forging Blowing the Scale Off

 Even though I make my chef knives in an entirely different way than the Japanese do, there is still much to learn from them! I was watching some videos of modern Japanese smiths creating chef knives and saw them near the end of the forging cycle placing some water on the anvil.

I realized that this was nothing new and has been done for centuries, but for me it was a real leap forward in that I forge all of my blades to about 90% of their final geometry and remove the scale by means of a hand stone and water, then draw-file the final geometry. 

Having less scale formulated throughout the forging process is a real bonus. 

I shot this video of myself "Blowing the Scale Off" of a large 10"+ Chef Knife Blade. 

This video represents a beginning for me in presenting information about my approach as a bladesmith specializing in chef knives.

Below the video a shot of the first two blades out of my new furnace which shows some fairly-clean, freshly forged blades, that represent this process of "Blowing the Scale Off" using water on the anvil. And another shot of how I descale by blades...pretty simple and yet effective. 

And finally a comparative shots: the top blade where I used no water on the anvil and progressing down to the bottom blade that came out practically scale-free!

Enjoy!  -DON:)

Bloodwood Chef Knife

This one is fresh out of the shop and is one of the few blades I have done with a fully hardened blade & satin finish.

OAL is 11,3/8" with a forged-to-shape 6" blade out of Aldo's 1095.
The handle is some nice Bloodwood with tulip-wood inlay, a blind-pin hiding under the small inlay.

This knife is light and quick in the hand & would certainly be a wonderful addition to any kitchen.
The classic French Knife Blade Pattern can do plenty of amazing cutting and detail work too. A cool size for daily meals for sure.

As with all my knives it comes with one of my trademark slip sheaths and makers certificate.

Thanks for looking. -DON:)       This knife is currently available.