Sanmai Gyuto

[DanielC]

My bread and butter is traditional construction sanmai kitchen knives. Particularly Gyuto. Although I make nimai Deba, yanagiba, usuba, etc...

 

This is a recent sanmai gyuto made with a 1095 core and 1018 jacket. The finish is kuroichi that has a forged finish flat and a wide bevel that is polished for kasumi (hazy) using natural japanese stones.

I have quite a massive collection of japanese natural stones for full polishing progressions of kitchen knives, tools, razors, and even japanese swords. When I make this style of knife I typically polish it on stones, which brings out the contrast between both steels without the use of etchants. It's very skill and stone dependant to pull off. I've trained stone polish like this for nearly 4 years.

This particular Gyuto is what's considered a work horse. It's a special category of Japanese chef knife popularized by the famous kitchen knife Smith in Japan, Kiyoshi Kato. It is his methods that I have trained for many years now on traditional forgings of sanmai kitchen knives.

This knife also has hamaguri geometry. Which is a clamshell shape, somewhat like convex, but a lot more complex and difficult to grind and polish successfully.

The handle is desert ironwood, stabilized maple and titanium. Extra long to both balance the heftier knife at the pinch grip, and because the customer wanted it that way. I have been making these for kitchen knife collectors and chefs around the world.

 

And a sample of my stones. There is around $12k sitting right there as it is. Not a cheap endeavour, but one that is very satisfying for both me and my customer base.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Mod30
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[JHCC]

Yowza.

[Frosty]

Do you take your own photographs Daniel? This series shows this beauty off in excellent detail and effect. It isn't easy to get a good shot of polished steel let alone capture detail within the polish. 

The shot down the blade shows exactly what you mean by somewhat clam shell. There is a lot going on in the changing radii(?)

Is this all free hand? Do you use guides for some, any?

Frosty The Lucky. 

[pnut]

Hamaguri or clamshell ground knives have an amazing feel when they cut. I have a wakizashi that has a hamaguri grind and it feels different cutting with it than with a hollow ground blade. 

That is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. My hat is off to you. 

Pnut

Oh yeah I love the orishigane thread.

[matthewfromers]

Wow it's amazing!

[DanielC]

I do take my own photos Frosty. I have practiced a lot of this for my IG. Where selling a knife can sometimes be dictated by how well a photo of it is taken.

And yes, this is freehand. I only use a work rest to profile a blade some pre-HT, and then toss it after that. I dont mess with jigs.

Thank you all for the kind words.

 

Here is another I just recently mostly finished with polish. Just a little touch up left. This one is W2 and 1018. I used a curious looking lightbulb in the background to play with the reflection. 

 

The obvious contrast and boldness in one angle and reflective mirror in another angle is a staple of stone polish.

[J.P. Hall]

Beautiful polish. I'm sure you can't get *exactly* the same effect with conventional abrasives, but do you think something more cost effective like EDM stones could give something similar (provided they come in high enough grits)?

I'm also curious if this is purely polish or if you used any etching.

[DanielC]

The closest thing are synthetic water stones, and even then it's a noticeably different look, and if I remember correctly, they don't leave the jacket iron/steel a reflective surface at one angle, but I could be wrong. Either way, you know when the polish was done with synthetics and when it was done with naturals. 

These are purely stone polish. I dont let etchants come anywhere close to my steels when I commit 10-20 hours polishing a single blade.

It's also really hard to give naturals a grit number, but in the stone world, these finishes are in the 6-8k range.

[J.P. Hall]

Great info. I have a natural coticule that I use for sharpening, if it breaks or becomes unusable for that then I may try using it for polishing.

[DanielC]

Good stuff, and good luck. Coticule are fine stones for sharpening. Not the greatest mud generators, but are still nice.

And dangit, if I didnt already hit the quote function on accident. Habit 

[DanielC]

It is the mud of Japanese natural stones that makes them shine. There truly is nothing quite like the series of combinations of flake grit, muddy binder and varied hardnesses of the stones themselves that lend to a truly unique polish and experience overall.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Mod30
resize large photos.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Wonderful work, the polish is amazing. Hope you keep it up.

I see your pictures have been resized. We have members from the world over and many have to rely upon dial up internet and/or pay for data. Excessive quotes and large pictures are data hogs and with dial up take forever to load. That is one reason the Admin. requests that be held to a minimum. I've learned with this forum one way to minimize quotes is to just highlight a word or two that is important to the thought and a button appears that says quote this, especially helpful when my answer is several removed from the post I'm replying to.

[DanielC]

Ill need to search for the picture resize option in the forum tools. If it isnt there, I simply cannot post pictures any more because it is too exhaustive to do it on my phone.

[pnut]

I haven't been able to resize pics either. I do everything I'm supposed to do and the file size never changes so I haven't been able to post any pictures. It worked the first few times but not anymore. I have an old phone that has been acting strange so it's probably the phone.

Pnut

[Frosty]

Resizing is pretty easy. Once you upload a pic and click the + to add it to the post at the cursor. The pic will appear in the post. Double Click on it and a menu will offer options. Resize is by pixel. Don't ask I don't get it either but set it to match the two dimensions, horizontal and vertical. There is a 3 digit number, change the first of three, say 887 to 587 and select "update."

The picture in the text window will resize in a couple few seconds. If it's still too large repeat and change it to say 387 and update. If it came out too small repeat and put some back, say 687. or you can restore and start over.

Do all this before you SEND it to the forum. Yes? 

Frosty The Lucky.

[DanielC]

Thanks Frosty!