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Blank Blades.

Blank Blades.

Blank Blank.
KKF Supporting Craftsman
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I figured I should start one of these to put pictures of finished blades.

First the two Cpm 10v honesukis I completed
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This next one is sad. It's a honesuki bunka in 1095. I got everything done, and decided. I wanted to retry the heat treat to change the hamon, and the blade cracked. A shame.

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This is a reblade for my para 3 I just finished. The steel is magnacut. I went for around 64 or 65 hrc with the heat treatment.

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A couple knives i did a while back i forgot to upload to this.

This one is a little meat cleaver i did for a tiny knife contest. Its in cpm m4.

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This is a 180mm nakiri i did in magnacut. Zebra bone ferrule, and texas ebony handle.
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This is the latest completed knife.

An 8 inch gyuto in CPM 10v. Stabilized spalted maple from upscales (i really liked this wood, i'm definitely buying more from him in the future.). Zebra bone ferrule, and a white g10 spacer.

It has an s grind i smoothed over the transitions on to try to curb any wedging, and also give it the look of a full convex blade. You can see it in the second picture.
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Probably lol. I mean, its a functioning knife. Just tiny. Though i left it thicc because of the kind of knife it is.
 
One i finished sunday. I didnt really take proper pics of it. Someone asked me to make something for a charity auction. And covered the costs for the materials. In the end it took enough time that i had to rush some details unfortunately. Because until it was finish i couldnt really get the knives done that I'm going to sell for profit. Though i am happy with it overall.

I kind of went all out on a few parts of this, and this is really outside of my normal kind of builds.

Its my take on a buck 119. The steel is m2, with natural linen micarta scales, and mokume-gane fittings, and pins i made.
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Here is the mokume guard before i put it on the knife. You can see the insane grain that showed up on it after polishing and etching.
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Also. I finished another today. That I'm going to take proper pics of, and maybe make a listing in the b/s/t here of. But ill definitely post it here no matter what.
 
Lil sneak preview of the m4 gyuto.

Got. A mokume-gane bolster, ferrule thing. I soldered it on then did a museum fit with the handle.
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Here is a personal project I just did. I have needed a new kitchen knife for a while. Ive been using the same gyuto for years now. And over that time. Its been sharpened down.... A lot.

So i wanted to just make myself something. I would love one of ones in the expensive, high wear resistance steels i use. But i can't afford to spend the time, and money on doing that for myself at the moment. But i did have a piece of w2 leftover from 3 honyaki attempts (all of them cracked).

So i told myself ill make myself one with that, as quickly as possible.

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So i started with that, and fid my best to get an ok sized knife out of it.

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What i ended up with is a 210 gyuto with a forged in s grind.
 
This whole thing has made me wonder if people would be interested if i did something similar.

If i made a batch of gyutos with a forged s grind like this. Probably some 210, some 240. I would use 52100 if i did. Because i just think thats a better steel. And the higher hardenability makes more sense for doing this.

The other main changes I would make would be the handles would probably either be some kind of single piece construction. Or could be made to order. The neck would definitely be wider. It being so thin on these was just out of necessity because of the limited ammount of steel.

And also. I think i would change the choil shape. That was also out of necessity to keep the most edge length for the knife.

But if i did this, it would be to make a bunch in a fairly short ammount of time. Which would allow me to drop down the price per knife to a couple hundred dollars shipped. Rather than the 4-600 im having to charge for the high alloy ones.

And this would alloy me to put more effort into the ones i really find interesting.
 
Wanted to show the one I'm replacing.

I stopped polishing it back after thinning didnt seem like there was much point to it.

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The cpm m4 9 inch gyuto i did recently.

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Didn't see as much interest in this m4 one as i normally do with other steels. Which i think is a bit unfortunate. Because i think it would make for a very well balanced kitchen knife steel, good wear resistance, hardness, and toughness, and decently enough corrosion resistance at least compared to carbon steels.

Maybe i will use some again in the future when I'm in a better position financially. So it won't matter if it sells right away.
 
I think it is not the steel necessarily, but the dimensions. High heel is the flavor of the year around here. I bet if it was 51-55 mm tall, it would sell much quicker. Very cool steel is just not enough of a draw for this gang. I think M4 is an excellent steel for a gyuto.
 
Honestly M4 is pretty perfect for a chef knife...most just don't know it around here unless you are into folders. Honestly if I didn't have a few PM knives like an s90v and magnacut I would have grabbed it. I'd love a cool PM carbon like m4, 10v, or k390. Agreed with the heel height too, and also people are attracted to common names/brands they are used to. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest going for a lesser known maker but maybe others are too scared lol. Keep at it, I'm a fan.
 
jedy617 said:
Honestly M4 is pretty perfect for a chef knife...most just don't know it around here unless you are into folders. Honestly if I didn't have a few PM knives like an s90v and magnacut I would have grabbed it. I'd love a cool PM carbon like m4, 10v, or k390. Agreed with the heel height too, and also people are attracted to common names/brands they are used to. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest going for a lesser known maker but maybe others are too scared lol. Keep at it, I'm a fan.
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Just grabbed more steel.

Couldnt find any 10v at the moment in a reasonable thickness. So i had to get k390, which is unfortunately double the price of 10v.

Yeah, the heel height may have effected it. Which, idk i don't get it really tbh, since the profile will effect how high your hand is from the board more than the heel height.

This k390 is a little taller, so i can try to make it work with a taller heel.

Oh yeah, besides it costing more $ for steel. Taller heels mean i cant fit them in my dewar. So i have to pour the ln2 out into. Separate container. I will still do it anyway. But all that stuff adds up.
 
All understandable, but unfortunately, heel height is overly important around here. Partially because it is hard to tell from pictures how the knife will feel in hand and if there is enough clearance. Higher heel sort of lets us know that it should be fine. This of course is just a proxy same as choil shots don't really tell you what the grind is. For example a 52 mm heel with 20 mm neck could have same knuckle clearance in pinch grip, where your middle finger rests against the choil, as 47 mm heel with 15 mm neck. The profile itself could make a difference as could the handle width, if it is western or WA, neck no neck, handle angle, etc

Steel price itself even doubled I suspect is a minor difference when dealing with these types of very wear resistant steels as time and other supplies probably account for most of the expense. Of course, it all adds up.
 
Barmoley said:
All understandable, but unfortunately, heel height is overly important around here. Partially because it is hard to tell from pictures how the knife will feel in hand and if there is enough clearance. Higher heel sort of lets us know that it should be fine. This of course is just a proxy same as choil shots don't really tell you what the grind is. For example a 52 mm heel with 20 mm neck could have same knuckle clearance in pinch grip, where your middle finger rests against the choil, as 47 mm heel with 15 mm neck. The profile itself could make a difference as could the handle width, if it is western or WA, neck no neck, handle angle, etc

Steel price itself even doubled I suspect is a minor difference when dealing with these types of very wear resistant steels as time and other supplies probably account for most of the expense. Of course, it all adds up.
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When I'm charging the prices i am. It very much makes a big difference.

Even that m4, with it going for $450. The money for the time i put into it, is like so far below minimum wage its crazy.
After materials are taken out.

Even at the origional $600, the time and effort put into it doesnt get me a great wage with everything factored.

Now. With low alloy steels where every part of making a knife is easier and cheaper. Sure material cost doesnt matter much.

But this piece of k390 cost me $120 shipped
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jwthaparc said:
When I'm charging the prices i am. It very much makes a big difference.

Even that m4, with it going for $450. The money for the time i put into it, is like so far below minimum wage its crazy.
After materials are taken out.

Even at the origional $600, the time and effort put into it doesnt get me a great wage with everything factored.

Now. With low alloy steels where every part of making a knife is easier and cheaper. Sure material cost doesnt matter much.

But this piece of k390 cost me $120 shipped View attachment 249863
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Yeah, $450 was a total steal and I almost broke down and bought it, even at $600 would've bought it at a different time. Looks like a great knife with great steel.

I just think that your theory that the steel is the cause of it not selling fast might be incorrect. Granted low alloy steels are more popular around here, but my theory is that in this case steel wasn't the main issue, but rather the dimensions.

I obviously don't really know one way or another. I am much more interested in high alloy steels rather than another execution of more popular steels. Ultimately, other attributes of a knife are more important than the steel, but at some point how many 52100 or 26C3 knives can one have.

Given the choice and timing M4, k390, 10V, Z-Wear, MagnaCut, etc would always be my preference over low alloy steels. Low alloy only wins for me when it is something like integrals or such where the shape is not practical to create outside of forging or a smith who's knife I am interested in only works with low alloy steels.
 
Barmoley said:
Yeah, $450 was a total steal and I almost broke down and bought it, even at $600 would've bought it at a different time. Looks like a great knife with great steel.

I just think that your theory that the steel is the cause of it not selling fast might be incorrect. Granted low alloy steels are more popular around here, but my theory is that in this case steel wasn't the main issue, but rather the dimensions.

I obviously don't really know one way or another. I am much more interested in high alloy steels rather than another execution of more popular steels. Ultimately, other attributes of a knife are more important than the steel, but at some point how many 52100 or 26C3 knives can one have.

Given the choice and timing M4, k390, 10V, Z-Wear, MagnaCut, etc would always be my preference over low alloy steels. Low alloy only wins for me when it is something like integrals or such where the shape is not practical to create outside of forging or a smith who's knife I am interested in only works with low alloy steels.
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Yeah, thats why i spent the extra money on this also, i wanted to do one with more length, as well as a taller heel. Having that extra .1 inch (about 3mm) does really help when i am adjusting then profile, to get a final heel height a bit taller.

Also, i should say. When I am saying the thing about the steel. I also list all these knives on instagram, and thats where the last few have sold. I do think it definitely makes a much bigger difference there.

Here tbh, I don't ever have super high hopes of my high alloy stuff selling that well. But i put it up for people if they are interested.

On that topic, i did buy a 4ft long piece of 52100 yesterday. So I'll be making some stuff with those, and probably wrought iron cladding if i have enough. Also probably some monosteel for cheaper. Havent fully decided.
 
While the heel is a little lower than 'normal' it's not that uncommon in this knife length. Could be an issue for those with big hands, but may be okay. Best way to know is for a variety of people to try it out. ECG on July 16 is a great venue for that...

Here it is, with some new friends:
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Very cool. I had a hard time not buying it. To me the heel is high enough and I really like m4 plus the balance was perfect for me. I wish I were buying knives instead of selling.
 
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