Three Different Kitchen Utility Knife Models

 It pleases me to see how things progress in my own creational-realm. While this may sound borderline narsicistic, I think it is just a matter of time until certain designs start to feel like "keepers".

As an artist, I tend to always push on to new ideas and new territories. This makes the creation of things more slow and methodical...which is honestly how I enjoy to work, 

and yet, after a few years of trying out new styles of smaller kitchen knives, 

These three models of "Utility knives" seem to stand-out.

.....and I just happened to  have all three of them at one time and took an image that I really liked:)

________________________

So, on top you see my latest design the....

New Utility Model: 
This knife was influenced by the Japanese Honesuki, but with a more "compressed" blade-shape. Overall Length (OAL) on this model is 11 & 7/8" with a blade that is 6 &1/8" long and 1 & 3/8" wide at the heel.
This particular knife is out of 1095 with differential clay heat treatment and etched & polished surfaces revealing a fine Hamon, and features a dyed and stabilized Maple Burl with Translucent G-10 inlay and rosin-impregnated (sealing out moisture and food and making it totally cleanable while providing a sweet grippy-ness right where it counts)
1mm woven cotton line that has been registered into the handle over a blind-pin.

In the Middle is the...

Tribal Utility Model:
This knife was created as that go-to knife for every-day cutting of smaller meals.
The OAL is 11.5" and with a blade that is 5.25" long and 1.5" wide at the heel.

This particular knife is out of 1095 with differential clay heat treatment and etched & polished surfaces, revealing a fine Hamon, and features African Blackwood handle with Black Mesquite inlay and rosin-impregnated (sealing out moisture and food and making it totally cleanable while providing a sweet grippy-ness right where it counts)
1mm woven cotton line that has been registered into the handle over a blind-pin.

On the bottom is the...

Classic French Utility Model:
This is a classic Kitchen Utility created in a  timeless blade-shape with a very fine tip for detail cuts. An overall fantastic knife for any kitchen!
OAL on this knife is 11.5" and with a blade that is 5.25" long and 1 & 5/16" wide at the heel.

This particular knife is out of 1095 with differential clay heat treatment and etched & polished surfaces, revealing a fine Hamon, and features African Blackwood handle with beautiful and very rare Arkansas Chittam Wood inlay and single bronze pin.

___________________

Of course keeping in mind that all my knives are all one-of-a-kind, the measurements may vary slightly. But I am certainly getting better at repeating these patterns that I have been inspired adapt and create from my own experiences of being a chef, artist, and bladesmith.

I welcome any of you who are interested in getting a similar knife 

(as of this writing, the top and middle knife are available) 

to contact me via the phone or email information on my website 

and I would be happy to make one special just for you:)

Thanks for taking a look and as always...

Many Blessings of Health and Goodness to You and Yours

 

Forged Four on A Full-Moon !

Well this Full Moon was a special-one for so many reasons, Vesak Full Moon, Full-Moon in Scorpio to name just two biggies that many of you know about already.

So I decided to do something that I rarely ever do,
 I forged 4-blades in a row today! It was about 3.25-hours at the forge to do this.
Temps outside today were a sweet 86-degrees-F, and I drank about 1.5-gal. of H2O:)

Each one is out of 52100 carbon tool steel and I am very pleased with the results so far.
I have only done once before when I challenged myself to create 4-chef knives in 3-days!

I can tell you this though....I will not be completing these four knives in two more days! That experiment I did last year to see what was possible, and although that challenge was fun, it seriously pushed the envelope on what is physically possible for me to do and still maintain sacred space and sanity while producing a very fine chef knife! You can click the link above if you feel like reading about that little adventure on a previous post!

For now I share this one image with you of the blades with the profiles cleaned-up and scale still intact! More to come so stay tuned!

Blessings of Health and Goodness to You All! :)

-DON:)

I thought I would ad in some more images on this post so you can see how the two smaller knives came out. The larger-ones are still in process and I will post some images of those as well very soon.

Tribal Utility Pair with Tribal Wrap details

This is a beautiful pair of knives I recently finished. 

I love this model and will be making more of these for sure.

These two have very nice hamon activity and wonderful African Blackwood Handles with Mesquite Inlay. Each features a 1mm woven cotton line that has been registered into the handle, meaning that, the 1mm line is actually counter-sunk into the wooden handle, which also conceals a pin that sets the tang of the blade into the handle. The blades are stock-removal out of 1095. I am doing a few stock removal blades these days to see how I like it. So far, the results have been excellent and the feedback is also very positive.....

And, speaking of feedback:

This Tribal Wrap is something I was trying out last year. I liked the idea of having the extra grip right where you would like it on a kitchen knife. This is a process that takes WAY more time than even I initially anticipated to do, but there has been so much excellent feedback from those who have knives with this seemingly simple detail. People like Artist & Blademith David Broadwell (who makes some excellent culinary knives himself among other amazing creations) that has one of my fine Veggie Cleavers with a similar handle design and remarked that it was a joy in the kitchen and that he likes it very much and encouraged me to continue doing this one some of my knives. I considered not continuing to do it because of the perception that water or food would get into the wrapping>>>BUT, I do seal the entire area with epoxy, so actually mo water or food would be stick in this wrapping.

These knives are small-ish, but not tiny at 11.5" OAL (overall length) and with 5.25" long blades that are 1.5"-wide at the heel; They are Very comfortable, very useful for making daily meals and detail-work as well:)

There is a quick shot at the bottom of what the recess looks like for the Tribal Wrap. This is a shot of the handle from the first pair fo these I made last year. The recess is created all by hand with fine Italian Riffler-files. Removing .5mm of material all by hand with my eyes to see is fun, but exacting work!

 I hope you enjoy the images.

-DON:)