Made a butchers knife. It is a bit too big for deboning chicken drumsticks. But that was the task at hand.

Looks like it had a good weight behind it.   What steel did you use?

Finishing up a custom build for a chef in Chicago when I go back to visit the family next week.  Another experiment in my "stormy waters" series.  This time I used powdered steel instead of a san-mai approach for the spine to try to mimic a cloudy sky.  I'm kinda linking it...Now I need to find an appropriate handle block. 

 Thanks for looking.

On 3/16/2024 at 7:32 PM, Chad J. said:

Looks like it had a good weight behind it.   What steel did you use?

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see it till now. It's made from an old circular wood saw. No idea on the steel.

Better late than never.   Did you end up having to heat treat it?  

Yes, I hardened it in the forge and annealed it in the oven. That is the first time I annealed in the oven I usually do it by colour at the forge.

Here's the final version.  African Blackwood handle

Blade length: 8-1/2" (220mm)

Height @ heel:  2" (51mm)

Spine thickness @ heel: 0.095" (2.4mm)

I like how the powder turned out, especially at the tip.  To me it looks like a mountain over a lake.
Have a good rest of the week, all.  

yeah, I really like the pattern also. I see what you mean about the tip, really beautiful! the handle is really nice

Latest blade so far:

 

I'm getting a fair bit of time in the shed while I'm on holidays, so I knocked out my first blade in quite a while. I'm a keen fisherman so I've been wanting to challenge myself to make a filleting knife. I have made one previous attempt, but it snapped in two places after tempering, having somehow survived the quench.

This one is only small and I did a blacksmith handle, because it is mainly proof of concept. The blade is about 4 inches and it is made from garage door spring. I'm super happy with the results and I've got plenty more spring, so I think I'll have to make a longer one with a more significant handle! (those aren't temper colours in the first photo, just reflection)

Cheers,

Jono.

Provided you have decent grain from heat treatment and no stress risers due to design or construction, flexibility without snapping is primarily a function of the blade thickness.  If your material selection or heat treatment is off you may have other problems (difficulty keeping an edge during use, taking a set after bending, corrosion concerns...), but it looks like in your trial piece you have hit the thickness target.

Yes, it certainly is thinnest grind I've done. I tried not to work it too hot and I normalised twice before quenching and tempering so hopefully the grain is fairly fine. Time will tell, I guess!

I know it's a trial piece, but I still can't bring myself to snap it to inspect the grain.  I'll just have to give it lots of practical testing on whatever fish I bring home!

I just finished this one.  I consider it my first forged knife.  Heated and squished from a leaf spring until it looks like this.  Has bronze guard and pommel. Handle is pinned and threaded.  

I can’t claim these to be recent, they are my first knife making efforts from a few years ago and I made them during a Damascus knife making course so I had help - but I’m still pretty pleased with them and haven’t been able to part with them. Steel is 17N20 and 4140 and the handles are Pacific Ebony/Queen Ebony and Huon Pine:

 

 

Handles and blade profiles are extremely nice, I can see why you are keeping them.  I'm not a big fan of using 4140 as a knife steel, particularly for kitchen slicers where you typically want a slightly harder edge.  How are they holding up in use?

Thanks Latticano. We’ve only been using the bottom one (I don’t really like the blade profile on the top one - I’ll get around to fixing it one day) but it holds up as well as any of our shop bought knives. I can’t say that it needs sharpening any more or less than any others as far as I’ve noticed but we are probably a little more careful with what it’s used for. When it is sharpened it takes a very sharp edge.

I really like both blades patterns, the top on is very interesting.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.~ Semper Paratus

Thankyou Irondragon

For what it’s worth here are a couple more. Handles are stabilised Huon Pine.

For anyone not familiar with Huon Pine but interested - it is a rare and beautiful ancient pine from Tasmania that won’t rot and is very stable in itself.

Illegal to be logged now but available from one or two specialist timber suppliers who have the license to recover windfall and old sunken logs and trees from rivers and dams in Tasmania. It smells wonderful when worked, sort of a buttery smell, and is absolutely beautiful to work with. By far my favourite timber to work with.

It was once a very popular boat building timber and I’m currently restoring a 60 year old 28' Huon Pine sail boat.

Larks, your knives are quite handsome & thank you for the description of the Huon Pine, always something new to learn about! You might consider looking into stress risers caused by sharp corners such as those at the transition to the blade. A small radius instead of the sharp 90º corner would mitigate a potential weak point in the knife.

--Larry

Thanks Larry, I appreciate the feedback. They are actually rounded for that reason but do you think perhaps the radius isn’t large enough? I’ve been using much the same on all of my knives since I learned that way (but that doesn’t mean I learned correctly of course )

That might be enough radius to prevent breakage but the purpose of the radius is to distribute the force of flexing from one are to an area of a different flexion. The shorter the distance over which force changes are made, the greater the difference between the sides.

While maybe not necessary a more visible radius will do two beneficial things, first it'll distribute the force over a greater volume and second it'll be easily visible so the customer can easily see the precaution you've applied to make these the best blades you can.

Frosty The Lucky. 

Following up on what Frosty said, it's worth keeping in mind the use to which the knives will be put. A smaller radius is quite appropriate for something like a kitchen knife that will be primarily used for slicing. A hunting knife, on the other hand, would be subjected to much heavier stresses (from batonning firewood to defending yourself from a hungry bear) and would therefore benefit from a larger radius.

Good point John. Having to defend yourself from a hungry bear in your kitchen is pretty rare. On the other hand I have had to baton a blade through a poor cut of meat. That's a different story though, maybe another time if anyone is interested.

Frosty The Lucky.

My dad was poking holes in a leg of lamb once (to stuff it with cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary) when he hit a frozen spot and broke off the tip of the knife. We chewed that meal carefully, you can be sure.

Going to vary from Frosty on this one.  As I see it the radius you have included should be more than adequate for anticipated use of the knives.  Also, it is something of a "badge of honor" to keep the drop for the heel as close to the ricasso as possible (or to drop the heel of a kitchen knife "straight" down") in the knife making community.  It shows greater skill in forging bevels.  A larger radius at that location runs counter to that.  This feature is actually one of the things in your knives that I find attractive.