Bob Kramer a "Kitchen Bladesmith" Paying my respect

[templehound]

I am not sure where to post this, but I am sure Glen will find the right place.

I am full time for 30 years now and I learned the profession of a traditional German cutler/Bladesmith by trade.

(that's nothing particularly great, in Germany there are still lots of traditional cutlers who learned the profession by trade)

but under the influence of this learned knowledge I found confirmation of theory and practice.

Here is finally a story of a knife maker who did imho everything perfectly right, according to my learned knowledge and practical experience.

The aspects of western and traditional japanese cutlery, the differences between the food and the knives that are used for it, the story about sharpening steels,

the alignment of the edge (so often overlooked and done wrong) and much more.

It is the first time I had nothing to complain about the subject and that means something.

I enjoyed reading every line and last but not least because of the exeptional good writing of the story by Todd Oppenheimer.

Cheers

https://craftsmanship.net/the-kitchen-bladesmith/

[Latticino]

Well, I got up to this line so far and was a bit confused:  "The standard blacksmithing image has the smith beating the red metal with a hammer at this point; while many still do this, to eliminate bubbles and other irregularities, it’s seldom necessary with today’s industrially rolled steel".  Instead the author notes that Kramer does an initial normalizing heat and drops his sawed out blank on the floor...  I think he needs an editor, but maybe I just haven't been at this long enough to experience bubbles in my steel that can be removed by pounding on them. 

[JHCC]

That would explain why so many of my blades have turned out excessively frothy.

[George N. M.]

Ooo, frothy steel!  That has so many possibilities!  Insulation, light weight blades, etc..

I wonder if the steel bubbles are like the head on beer or root beer and if you wait awhile they will burst and the froth will go down.

;-)

G

[Mike BR]

Maybe bubble steel is something like blister steel?

[Steve Sells]

or like bubble tea?

[LarryFahnoe]

Thanks for posting this Daniel, I found the article to be very interesting. Some years back I contacted Bob Kramer out of the blue to ask some questions and found him to be very generous with his time and experience, so it was neat to read more about him. Seems like they must have gotten the photos mixed up though as that self-contained hammer is clearly not a 500lb Little Giant...looks more like a Say-Mak to me. The side-bar article about Alfred Pendray was also interesting.

--Larry

[JHCC]

I remember reading that article when it first came out -- it was the first time I ever heard of the ABS. I also really enjoyed the short film Anthony Bourdain did of his visit to Bob Kramer: https://youtu.be/4x0f2b_0kn0

[templehound]

5 hours ago, LarryFahnoe said:

Thanks for posting this Daniel, I found the article to be very interesting. 

Larry, you are welcome! Glad you liked it!

[templehound]

Yes the bubble thing...that's the problem with journalists and metalurgy....they write down what you tell them and mixing it all up to crinching non sense

Even despite the fact Oppenheimer did a good job he never understood what he was writing about, especially when it comes to steel metalurgy.

I am convinced Kramer never talked about bubbles and the irregularities are a such a thing as well.

What he actually repeated correctly is that modern produced steels are comparable clean....

so when steel is seen as our earth, in iournalism earth is still a disk... we have to see this generous when the rest of the article is written well.

 

 

[templehound]

The software cut me off when I still was not finished writing, here is the continuation

 

......... we have to look at this generously when the rest of the article is written well.

....of course it's worth a laugh

 

JHCC : I started looking the video from A. Bourdain which is quite a well made one.

but when he said Bob Kramer  " makes the finest chef knives  in the world" I started to feel annoyed....means there is no one making equal good knives?

 there are always guys who talking about"the best in the world" , "the finest of the world" .... how presumptuous!

I know a few knifemakers in Germany they are as good as well....difference is, they never had a well written article about them and their work.

There is an army outside there who make world class knives, we don't know about them dosen't mean they do not exist, right?

I am pretty sure even Bob Kramer would confirm this....but  maybe I look at some statements a bit strict and thin-skinned, but anyways

JHCC, thanks for adding the link it makes the thread much more rich in content cheers

 

[Latticino]

It was just a little laugh at something that obviously somehow made it past the editors.  The balance of the article was written pretty well for someone who only has a passing understanding of black and bladesmithing.  I read it all, and am a fan of Mr. Kramer's as well (have his book). I've never touched one of his knives, but expect they are quite good.  I agree that there are certainly others that make extremely good knives as well, and get a fraction of the credit.  Thanks for sharing the article.

[Frosty]

The author obviously didn't understand much of what Mr. Kramer told him and being a "journalist" spiced it up some. I'm betting the "bubbles" were as close as he understood when he was told about silica inclusions in wrought. Possibly a little side conversation about refining wrought or tamahagane while waiting on a heat or similar.

Very interesting article I've read it a couple times, thank you for posting the link.

Frosty The Lucky.