# Test Kiritsuke in 15N20



## daizee (Jul 9, 2019)

I whipped up this odd kiritsuke to test some 15N20 - my first taste of this steel.
It was a bit of an adventure. It was going to be a K-tip double-ground chef knife, but the edge waved so badly in heat-treat that I had to cut it back and re-grind it hard. Ended up with a kiritsuke-sized double-ground knife, so I gave it a single-side bevel on an already tapered blade, and sharpened it on one side. It's wicked light. Just a flat back instead of hollow this time. Mostly I'm interested in the edge properties and how food and water affect 15N20, so... standards shmandards. 

Gave it a quick vinegar etch to check for a hardening line/hamon - yup! Other side is belt finished bright to see how food acids affect this steel. Some pretty white oak on the handle is overshadowed by the ironwood and in-your-face G10 bolster scrap from another project:























At one point it looked like this! 






And....

it will cut (limes). Cheers!:


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## milkbaby (Jul 9, 2019)

From how flat the edge profile is, it looks like a micro sword, pretty cool... Looks like your hamon will turn out pretty nice with more work. Where/who is the steel from?

That bacon edge...  been there, done that, LOL.  Nice save!


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## Beanwagon (Jul 10, 2019)

Awesome. I am currently making a load of knives out of 15N20. Did you heat treat yourself? I am going to send mine away for heat treatment so fingers crossed I do jot get warpage like yours. Good to see you made a recovery.


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## Danzo (Jul 10, 2019)

Empress gin?


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## Kippington (Jul 11, 2019)

Ahh the ol' bacon edge.... Bad luck.
15N20 is a good steel, the nickle goes a long way in regards to corrosion resistance.
Very nice hamon!


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## daizee (Jul 13, 2019)

It was a risk grinding it completely pre-hardening, and I think the spine needed to be hotter OR cool slower - tricky to do in the forge without clay - which I used the second time, after grinding out all the waves. Turns out there isn't a market for kitchen kris knives.  Doing it in a kiln most likely would have dodged the wavy bullet in the first place, but one of my goals was to have a simple carbon steel in kitchen thicknesses that I could heat-treat quickly in the forge. You'll probably be fine sending it out for heat-treating.

The gin is the signature stuff from the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC. Fabulous indigo color in the bottle. My former ship used to stop in Victoria several times a year, so it became a bit of a thing with the crew.

Cheers!


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