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:)

 

A Beautiful Engraved Utility Knife

This is something very different for me.
First-off...I bought this little wood turning lathe about 2-years ago and finally got around to using it.
I had fun making some smaller paring knife handles with it & figured why not make a larger utility knife with this style of handle-build.

The idea of a turned handle is that a piece of metal can be mounted as a ferrule, with the wood running through it to strengthen the knife where the tang is inserted into the handle. On this particular knife I also recessed a piece of translucent G-10 (a very tough man made material) in the front of the copper ferrule to both add to the looks, but also to seal out any moisture and at the same time strengthening the whole construction even more-so. Finally I contrasted that with an inlay of the same material in the end of the handle as well.

BUT Wait....there is more! :)
That copper ferrule was just screaming-out to be engraved!
So I had Bill Rice of Morro Bay do some fine hand engraving on it. I had some ideas of my own, but decided to just let Bill do what he felt like doing, and the results are really amazing!
 I took some fairly quick shots of this knife, and will have to re-shoot it to get better images, but for now I'll post these.

This is a great utility knife, but not a small knife either. With a Blade that has a 5.25" cutting-edge ((5&5/8" to the ferrule) and an Overall Length of 11.25", this is a great knife that is very strong and very light and nimble despite what it looks like. The Handle is Rosewood and the blade is fully hardened 1095.

I Hope you enjoy seeing these first images I took of it. I will try to get better ones posted soon.

Enjoy! :)

Finally Back at the Forge part-2

Well instead of adding on to the first post about the Gyuto Blades I started, I figured I would give them their own post:)

I am very pleased with how these came out! Some new processes have been finding their way into my work-flow and the results are very positive.
These results include:
*Heat treating these thin chef knife blades in a slightly thicker state than I used to in the past. Now doing a bit of post heat treatment stock reduction.

*Thus leaving me more room to create an exacting geometry, resulting in a fine edge that is even keener than I was establishing in the past!...keeping in mind that we are talking about percentages of Millimeters of changes as my blades come down from the spine to the final cutting edge.

*Plus I believe that my overall fit and finish is getting better too!...practice,practice, practice:)

AND...I'm sure there is more, but these are the main high-points.

Two are in African Blackwood that has been sculpted for an amazing feel in the hand, and detail carved & with a nice pin layout.
Then I did one with a clay heat treatment and resulting Hamon; and placed some nice Golden Desert Ironwod Handles with Ebony inlay that hides a Blind-Pin that is peened. This handle was also sculpted and detail carved for enhanced grip and beauty.

These are all forged-to-shape out of 1084 Carbon Tool Steel with etched surfaces to reveal the quench lines (hard & soft portions of the blades). I did a deeper quench on the two in Blackwood than I have done in the past on this model. Since these are thin and quick blades I wanted them to be also tough and resilient, and the deeper quench really makes them so.
* this group has blade that range from 9.25" to 9.5" in length, 14.5"-15"OAL, and....
.... are amazingly quick, stable, and comfortable in the hand.

 OK, Enough Gab, on to the images.
I hope you enjoy seeing these three fine Gyuto Chef Knives:)

Finally Back at the Forge!

Well after taking a long break I am getting some work done:)

I had the preforms sitting around for over a year now...and have been meaning to get them forged....and finally did. I forged one each day for the past 3-days.

My initial thought with these was to do three different finishes to the blades to have as an example of the different levels of possibilities for my knives. Now I am not 100% sure what I will do, it's just the artist in me. At this time, I think I will do two with Honyaki clay heat treatments, and one just a straight edge quench with possibly a simple satin finish.

Stay tuned & I will add in images and comments to this post as I go along on these.

-DON:)

A Colorful Start to 2014

Well the end of the year brought some serious changes in my life and I gave myself about a month to reflect on life, love and the business of teaching and making knives.

______________________

One thing I did manage to get done was to have a bit of the wonderful Maple I had stashed stabilized and dyed. Stabilization for those who do not know is a process of taking a fairly light and porous wood and submerging it in a thing acrylic resin under a vacuum, thus impregnating it with a material that "stabilizes" it. 

I had this maple wood but found it to be a bit too light in weight for my knives, but the stabilization process results in about a 20% weight-gain..... AND you can dye the wood too making the grain really pop, and the overall joy and uniqueness of a knife that is made with this type of material on the handle can really be striking. I posted an image of a Damascus slicing knife I did to illustrate how great this can look on a knife.

Anyhow, time to get back to it. 

AND what a colorful year it will be!

Tiber Canyon Ranch Holiday Craft Fair 2013

Well it's that time of year again! 

For The the Tiber Canyon Ranch Holiday Craft Fair.

one more weekend to go, so come visit with your family and have FUN!

It has been a really busy year for me with new additions to my shop and new knife designs too.

>>> I send a BIG THANKS to all of you who came out to the first weekend of Tiber Canyin Ranch Holiday Craft Fair and bought knives!
It is a Blessing to me that my knives find loving-homes and are being given as special gifts, so Thanks again to all of you who supported my craft and appreciate my work.

We have one more weekend to go! NOV 3oth & Dec 1st  >>> 11AM-5PM Sat & Sun

I invite you to come out and visit and enjoy the fun times and see all the other amazing talent that is there and to enjoy seeing old friends and meeting new ones.....and of course eating some awesome food that is there when you feel peckish.

Below are some of the knives I have created for this years fair. Some of these have been sold already, but I have plenty of paring knives still and the Beautiful Norwegian Spruce French Knife that so many oogled over is still here, and all the utility knives, the top one will have some engraving on the copper bolster next time you see it as Bill Rice is creating his magic on it this week!

I hope to see you all there!  :)

Please look beyond the images of my knives to read more about all that is happening at this years 

Tiber Canon Ranch Holiday Craft Fair!

Imperial Utility Knives. The Top one SOLD (Thanks Mike!) but the sweet little pink one on the very rare Vintage Eastman Kodak Pink Tennite is still here as of this writing. 

These sweet Tribal Utility knives are a hit! I'll make more for next year. 

The bottom on sold (Thanks Cricket!) 

But the top on in the beautiful Maple Burl is till here as of this writing!

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Annual Craft Fair and
Glass Blowing Extravaganza

Two Weekends

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

November 23 & 24  

and 

November 30 & December 1 

11:00am to 5:00pm

We hope you can make it out to the ranch to enjoy the day browsing the creations of over 30 local artists.

Edible offerings include

award-winning Tiber Canyon Ranch olive oil,

Chaparral Gardens amazing flavored vinegars,

Nibbles yummy cookies and

delicious Tropical Chocolates.

On-going glass blowing demonstrations will take place throughout the day by various local glass blowers.

Artists showing work at this year's show include:

Ceramics:  Eddie Cosko, John Rose & Janice Stone and Paula TeplitzBlown Glass: Chris Anderson & Will Carlton, Rich Lasiewski, George Jercich, and Rubi GlassBook Arts: Michelle Saber

Concrete Planters: Lisa Knutson

Fiber Arts: Lorraine Conlen, Nancy Lehman, and Suzi ThomasHerbal Products: Elfin Herb FarmFused Glass: Melissa Campbell and Rich & Kersti LasiewskiJade Sculpture:Oceans Art Jade

Jewelry: Shannon Len, Rich & Kersti Lasiewski, Margareta Lund, Lustrous Metals Jewelry, Ocean Arts Jade, Maggie Pickering, and Briana SheanMillinery: Cari BourquinMosaic: Sharon CollinsMetal Arts: Harold Collins, Brian Bennett

Metal Engraving: Bill Rice

Hand-Forged Knives: Don Carlos Andrade

Hoops: Briana Shean

Silk Painting: Cathy Orduno, Claudia Wagemann, Beverly Johnson and Eileen Stegeman

Oil Paintings: Debra Sievers

Repurposed Art: Cork Couture, Janelle Younger

Weaving: Ayers Handwoven 

Wooden Furniture: Robin Anderson (first weekend only), Barn Boy (second weekend only) 


Will Carlton and Chris Anderson
Tiber Canyon Ranch
280 W. Ormonde Road
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
(805) 781-0827