Well i have been tossing around the idea of making some larger kitchen knives, outside paring knives, and decided to post up the results here. All were forged/ground, out of a rusty old 30 inch mill saw blade (non carbide). As for steel, i dont actually know what the composition is, and as much as i hate found steel and recommend against it, i decided to do some testing. I cut up a bunch of strips, and went through a few different heats and soak times to see what worked best. Being that its a forge, i can only be as accurate as the thermocouple inside my muffle pipe, but settled on a 6-8 minute hold at 1500, and into 140 degree canola. The strips at this stage came out dead hard, snapped like glass and laughed at a nicholson file. Tempereed back until i has happy with the brass rod test and antler chop, right around 380 according to my thermometers, and called it good. One has been in use for about a month now and the owner seems to love it. The first is the one curently in use. Basic cocobolo handle, brass pins, cork belt finish and forge finish flats. about 10.75 overall. Personally wasnt happy with the end result of the handle shape but the guy that bought it loves it so i guess thats what matters. This one is a santoku / honesuki bastardizaton, so im not really sure what to call it. Handle and pins are the same, as are the bevel and flats. Also about the same size overall. The last one is a larger knife at 12 inches overall with a 7 inch blade. Same steel, belt finish and flats, but this one got cocobolo scales, with Black paper micarta bolster and a 30 thou toxic green G10 accent spacer. This one is my favorite of the three based on handle shape and the material combo. Thanks for looking guys.
Thank you SD, these were outside my normal scope, being that there is so much blade to flat grind. Its like grinding 3 of my normal 4 inch hunters all in one knife. Not really ann more difficult, just more time consuming.
Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I am planning to make a few more large kitchen knives in the near future, and eventually some hidden tang Wa handles.
Brandon, those are some very good looking knives. The combo on the last is stunning, really like the cocobolo and micarta. I am taking possession of a small forge this Friday, I assume that its' possible to get the same hammed forge finish starting with a piece of 01. Do you know of any tutorials or videos on how this finish is accomplished? Cheers.
