Last Few for 2012

It has been a really BIG YEAR for me! In many ways both professionally and personally.

I am finalizing the works on a few knives then I hope to rest in the final weeks of 2012, regroup my energies, and plan out my next year.

So I thought I would post a few process shots of some knives I am making for customers.

On the top is an integral slicer. This is one of the more complex knives I have made to date as it features a rear integral bolster. This is the first time I have done on eof these and I think it is coming along nicely.

The other two knives are versions of my compact camp knife. I hope you enjoy seeing a few process shots. I'll have more to post soon:)

-DON:)

Tiber Canyon Ranch Holiday Craft Fair

Well...it's time again for the:

Tiber Canyon Ranch Holiday Craft Fair!

I invite you to come out and visit the ranch from 11Am-5PM on the weekends of: 

November 17th &18th and November 24th &25th

There will be amazing glass blowing demonstrations and glass art available plus many other artists selling their works including ceramics jewelery textiles & much more!!! 

Including culinary foodstuffs...

......like Chaparral Gardens Vinegars and Tiber Canon Ranch's famous olive oil!

Fortunately and unfortunately I sold this entire group of knives just before the show! 

The good news, the sale of this group of knives will get me much closer to making the purchase of a new piece of equipment that will aid me in creating these fine knives.

My sincere apology to all of you attending the Tiber Event for not having these! 

I do however have  a set up & will have a small selection of knives for sale.

AND 

I will have a list for you to sign-up for guaranteed delivery of a custom knife for your gift needs at the 2013 Tiber Canyon Ranch Holiday Craft Fair. 

Please stop by my booth to talk about the details & order a knife for next years event.

See you there:) -DON:)

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The blades just after Heat treatment:

 The Blades getting handles assigned and
the tangs of the blades were tapered and refined for final fit:

Below, the blades are pre-fit to the handles and the handles are shaped.
Now it's time for the final blade finishes, some detail sanding to the handles & then
mounting of the blades to the handles. Then on to creating a trademark slip-sheath
for each knife and final sharpening.

 

Something Different....The NYC Harpoons for the New York Custom Knife Show

I have been thinking of trying out some new ideas. I did these as an exclusive design for Duane at EDC knives. These will be available at the NY Custom Knife Show.

I was not sure what to call them for a long time, but I now like "The NYC-Harpoon"..since I made them for the New York Show

Forged to shape out of 1065 carbon tool steel and featuring African Blackwood handles with Maple Inlay and epoxy-impregnated woven cotton cord all concealing three blind pins that have been peened.

OAL is like 10" with a 5.5" blade. The one with no skull-piercer is about 9.5"OAL.

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OK so here we go.
From concept drawing & preform layout to completion.

 First two preforms cut....then Duane wanted one with out the spike, so I took it off & then made a third as I really wanted to do two
similar knives.

 Second one forged. This is it right off the anvil with no clean-up to the profile as of yet.

 Descaling with a hand stone and H2O

 Comparison of the first two...

 3-rd one forged & normalized

 
                                                              I just liked this shot.

 Dialing-in the Clip.

 All three heat treated.

 Handles after creating the inlay recess.

 
Creating the registered -space for the woven cotton line.

 Next step....Pins then Peening, then wrapping.....

 but not before making a little channel for the cord to sink into 

so it does not have a bump when finally wrapped

 First two wrapped.

 And Finally the finished knives: "The NYC Harpoon"

"The Special Ladies" ~ French Knives

 I forged and Heat Treated these blades about 18-months ago & they have been waiting to be finished all that time! I stared out to make two sets of three knives, a paring, this medium size French/Utility Knife and a full-size Chef knife.........well as I was making the others they just kept getting bought out of the studio before I could ever finalize a whole set...but these two blades remained.

So here they are & I am glad I waited as I adapted a different style handle to these borrowed from the Shallot Knife design. I created two beautiful slicing knives recently with a similar style handle & these were the follow up to those two knives. I think they came out really nice.

These Special Lady French knives are 11" OAL with 6.25" blades of 1095 with beautifully polished blades revealing Gunome Hamon.

Both are desert ironwood with ironwood inlay and detail carving.

I hope you enjoy the images.

-DON

California Custom Knife Show

Greetings All,

  I just wanted to announce that I will be exhibiting the knives in the images below and also some that are not posted here at the:

California Custom knife Show

October 6 & 7 2012

I invite you to come out and see what is available and meet many other makers, 

and have a great time!

I hope to see you there. -DON:) 

 

Modern French Knife

Forged out of 1095 high carbon tool steel and featuring a new finish for me I am calling "rustic". The finish though called rustic is actually quite refined. I did a mustard finish, polished it back and then re-etched the blade to show the temper-line than polished the entire blade. A long process that resulted in a very beautiful blade surface.

OAL is 13" with a 8" blade.

This knife features a composite handle in a traditional Japanese styling utilizing golden desert ironwood and very nice birds eye maple, with matching ironwood inlay.

This Camp Knife is perfect for the culinary enthusiast or professional chef!

Perfect for all your culinary adventures:)

A knife for me....!

Well It only took me 6-years to finally make myself a knife!...one to keep for reals!

Anyhow, this knife was a journey, that headed was intended to be a large integral chef knife.

I started with a 1" square bar that I forged down at my buddy Jerry's shop. Jerry has a hydrolic press.....so i figured it would be great to diminish this large bar down a biut there first, then finish the forging back at my shop.

Well.....since I am not used to using a press, I got what was to be the Bolster-part too thin.

This piece of steel...intended to be a knife, out of that 1" square 1095 bar, sat in my studio for over a year. Finally I cut off the handle and integral bolster, leaving a blade-shaped piece of steel. This to sat for another 6-months..... I finally said what the heck, I will make myself a knife out of it. So I cut the handle shape into the blade, and forged-in the taper to the tang. And it sat again for 4-months, because I was not sure I would like the foat bottom to the handle. I thought it would be uncomfortable, and was reluctant to finisht eh knfei at all.

BUT I figured why not just heat treat it, and finish it anyhow....since I was going to keep it, no one would see it and I would have a perfectly fine knife of my own to use in my kitchen, a place where I spend lots of time.

So I finished it.

Time goes by and I love this knife! I have many friends that are avid cooks and some professional chef friends that visited my kitchen when I would have food events, All fo them loved that knife!

...I I made it part of my regular line-up.

I have added in some more recent images of knives I have made, patterened after the original forged blade. Only a few have been forged sice then, and none out of 1" square bar.

This new Model is called The Personal Chef.

Ehibits a blade with 7" of cutting edge
and the OAL is 12.25"
Plenty of clearance for knuckles over the cutingboard for detail cuts, and is weighted just for me:)
Featuring some side-cut Westinghouse Linen Micarta with peened bronze pins and detail carving.

I hope you enjoy seeing it.

More will be made and mostly all will be stock reduction and be in stainless steel.
>>> See the new images blow this original posting to see some of the new ones, that were stock reduction 52100, the next generation will all by as I said, in stainless steel.

Thanks for looking.

Blessings of Health and Goodness to You All

-DON:)

And...because this started as an integral, I posed this shot with one the largest integral knives I have forgd to date. 1 16.5" long slicer I made for s customer:) You can read more about the journey in making that big slicer HERE.

 

A Few Shots of the Personal Chef Model in it's new incarnation. Stay Tuned for more to come!

Top image is a father and son set I made for my massage therapist (who is also a chef) and his son who he is teaching to cook. The smaller knife is my Tribal Utility Model.

And here is the only XL Personal Chef Made to date with an 8.25" blade.