# Matus Knives - finished projects



## Matus

In this thread I would like to share my finished projects. At least at the beginning I will be posting detailed posts on my blog how the projects were done - *Knifemaking for beginners* - that is meant to be of help for those that just like me less than a year ago, consider starting to make knives and wonder what is it all about.

Since I have a few finished projects at this stage - I will briefly mention them here and then will continue to post new ones as they come. 

For now I number the projects I start, though that usually does not reflect the order under which they are finished, so do not wonder if some numbers appear to be missing.

Please do not hesitate to post comments and questions. Should you have an idea on a project I should try - bring it on! :knife:


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## Matus

*Project #3 - Petit Gyuto Kitchen Knife*

This was my first attempt to make a kitchen knife. I have used a filing jig to grind the blade from a 2.2 mm thick O1 steel. Since I did not grind the blade thin enough prior to HT, I have spent about 6 hours on Atoma 140 to give the knife a more useful geometry. I have then finished the blade up to 400 grit wet sanding paper.

The handle is made of curly birch and stabilized Oregon Maple bolster. I made the handle too large. In the mean time (after the photos below were taken) I have sanded it down, but will probably do one more iteration. The handle was originally finished with just board butter, but I went with Tung oil after re-sanding.

All in all - many beginner mistakes, but that is where I am right now 













Next to my Carter funayuki - here is it made quite obvious that the handle is too large.


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## Matus

*Project #4 - Birch Bark Handle for a Puukko Blade*

OK, this is not a kitchen knife project. I was long intrigued by the birch bark handles on puukko knives. I have one on my Iisakki Aito - which is a great workhorse when working with wood. I have watched tutorials online how to make one, but still did not expect how much work it will be to clean dried birch bark (all cool guys on youtube use fresh one).

I have used a Polar blade (for about 8) that had a full-thin tang that was perfect for this kind of blade. I have decided to use brass bolster and end-cap. Towards the end of construction I have realised, that I did not prepare enough bark, so had to improvise with a piece of stabilised wood. 

It was a lot of work, but (save for the few scratches I have put on the blade - lesson learned), it turned out really well (NOT perfect, but better than I have hoped)













N ext to my trusty and well used Iisakki Aito.


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## JaVa

Looks great! 

The gyutos profile looks very purposeful. Nice grind too.

The birch bark handle looks spot on. For some reason I've seen a few a little here and there in my time.


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## milkbaby

That birch bark handle looks incredible, great job! I think it actually looks really cool with the extra piece of different wood at the bottom. :doublethumbsup:

Your little gyuto looks excellent as well, super clean. How long and tall is the blade? What are the handle measurements? Maybe the Carter has a handle that is too small?


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## Matus

Thanks  The birch bark handles have a particular look to them, but feel so awesome in hand. One day I may find the courage to put one on a gyuto 

No, the handle on the Carter is just spot on - it is indeed rather slim, but the knife is very light, so it fits well. The handle I have made for the petit gyuto would suit a 200+g 240 gyuto. I was just too scared to sand it smaller. The length on edge is approximately 160 mm and height some 37 mm. The mistake I did design-wise was to make the axis of the handle near parallel with the edge at the heel. I changed my designs afterwards.


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## Matus

*Project #5 - 240 mm D2 gyuto*

This project learned me quite a lesson (several, actually). The blade was ground with a filing jig and the D2 being a wear resistant steel it took me about 4 hours to get the basic grind done. What followed was draw-filing to finish the blade geometry, but left DEEP scratches that I spent a lot of time taking out - only really finished that after HT with my than-new 1x30" gelt grinder. Making mistakes on the way led to the profile being slightly altered (sometimes you just thin too much).

The handle design is nearly the same as the petit gyuto from Project #3, but I did not 'hide' the dowel.

All finished the knife came out with cca 235 mm cutting edge and weight of just under 200g. The blade is thin and cuts well and was hardened to HRC63 (by Juergen Schanz). I went up to 600 grit when finishing the blade. I will be probably using 800 - 1000 grit finish in the future, but 600 is already a lot nicer than 400 I did on the petit gyuto.

The knife was used by a friend (a chef living in Prague) and I was happy to get mostly positive feedback (there are things to improve of course).


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## Matus

*Project #9 - Making finger-stones*

This is one of those not strictly knifemaking projects. But all I did here is to follow what Maxim explains on his Wiki. I have since improved a bit the stone chipping. I now cut them into small blocks that have cross section of the size of a finger stone I want to make. This also makes the stone very easy to chip into nice evenly thick pieces with relatively little loss of stone material. The photos below do not reflect that 'upgrade' yet.


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## Matus

*Project #10 - WA handles for two 165 mm single bevel funayuki knives*

The story behind this project is the following. I had a Single bevel Ittetsu petty on order from Jon and a friend of mine was in similar situation. None of us had much (if any) experience with single bevel knives and both of us cook/filet whole fish too rarely to buy a proper 180 deba. So I came up with the idea to buy some cheap (sub $100) 165 mm funayuki knives so that we can learn to use and sharpen single bevel knives, as well as have a knife to test kasumi finish. I threw away original handles (with plastic ferrules) and use them to try to make a new (to me) handle style.

The knives did not only get new handles, but I also worked on the spine and choil.

I have used 5mm thick brass for ferrule and Mora and Purple heart wood for handle. I am officially in love with Mora - it has fantastic color, fine, very nice grain pattern, finished lovely and is surprisingly cheap. Not easy to find though (I got mine from Dictum.de)

The challenge was - since the ferrule was press-fit onto the tang, the handle could only be shaped after it was epoxied to the tang. So making a mistake that could not be corrected or accepted would necessitate a very unpleasant process of handle removal.

The result is again far from what it could be - the biggest mistake being not gluing properly the mora onto the ferrule and creating a gap on the back of the handle. I have also many things to learn to put a more even finish on the brass ferrule.


Original condition of the knives:














After rehandle:


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## mark76

Great Matus! You're becoming an accomplished knife maker. Good to see the knives are pretty thin behind the edge.


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## guari

Lovely rehandling


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## Mrmnms

Matus, these last 2 came out beautifully. Completely changes these knives.


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## Matus

Thank you  I have to admit that I find it easier to grind a blade thin, than to remove all the scratches afterwards. But a proper 2x72" should help me there.

I am working on 2 new handles and several new knives, I just wish I had more time


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## mise_en_place

Great stuff, man! So many talented people on this forum.


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## cheflivengood

Matus said:


> Thank you  I have to admit that I find it easier to grind a blade thin, than to remove all the scratches afterwards. But a proper 2x72" should help me there.
> 
> I am working on 2 new handles and several new knives, I just wish I had more time



quit your day job haha


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## Matus

cheflivengood said:


> quit your day job haha



 I did a quick calculation ... no way


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## Dave Martell

Matus said:


> I did a quick calculation ... no way




What, you like to eat?


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## Matus

Dave Martell said:


> What, you like to eat?



You bet - twice a day


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## Matus

I have managed to finish project #15 and #16 (the blog articles will be finished in a course of few days). I have taken my first 'comissioned job' (basically for the cost of materials) and I would like to thank to the owner of the knives for the trust 

The job was to rehandle a Kato 80 mm petty and a small Watanabe mukimono. With the Kato the choice of materials was brass and ironwood, with the mukimono I was given a free hand and finally decided to use buffalo horn and stabilized maple burl (I am testing a new source from Russia as importing from US is not really feasible and it looks good so far).

It is not all perfect and I did some mistgake on the way (most of which could have been corrected). I have also learned a lot - if anything I have identified steps in the process I definitely need to concentrate more on. I am far from 'perfection'.

Here are the results:

Kato petty:














Watanabe mukimono. The violet part of the handle appears too dark here - apparently this part of the spectrum is not well represented in our LED lamps in the living room. I guess I will need to get better lamps and some sort of softbox in the future.



















These 2 photos are from the process:


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## Bill13

Matus,

Don't know how easy they are to get in Europe but SORAA makes the best LED light bulbs. https://www.soraa.com/


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## Matus

Bill13 said:


> Matus,
> 
> Don't know how easy they are to get in Europe but SORAA makes the best LED light bulbs. https://www.soraa.com/



Thanks, there seem to be some available around here, but man, those are some really expensive bulbs. On the other hand, they will probably last for a very long time.


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## Matus

I have managed the blog entry on the *Project #15* - custom handle for a Kato 80 mm petty.


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## TheCaptain

Beautiful handle and much better suited for the knife IMHO. The blog post was very informative. Thanks!


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## Matus

And here is another one - *Project #16* - making a WA-style handle for a Watanabe mukimono.


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## milkbaby

Nice work and excellent write up! :doublethumbsup:

I'm pretty sure all epoxies are liable to fail due to heat build up. Some may be a bit better than others, but I bet the trick is managing the heat buildup when working metal.


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## mrlinh1511

thank you for share


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## Dave Martell

Matus said:


> And here is another one - *Project #16* - making a WA-style handle for a Watanabe mukimono.





I love how you leave your mistakes/mishaps in your blog. I can attest to learning the same hard knock lessons too. :scared4:

The handle came out wonderful on this one, thanks for sharing!


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## Matus

Thank you Dave. Describing the mistakes is half of the point of my blog. It will not necessarily prevent others from making the same mistakes, but show them that it is OK to make them


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## Kingkor

Matus what do you think about the belt grinder you are currently using, in terms of grinding power, speed and every other aspect of it?


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## Matus

Kingkor said:


> Matus what do you think about the belt grinder you are currently using, in terms of grinding power, speed and every other aspect of it?



Let me give it a try. First of all - the grinder could indeed use bit more power - 1/2 hp instead of 1/3 would be nice, but it still allows for reasonable material removal. The point is to use high quality belts - I have bet experience with Norton Blaze 60 and 120 and 3M Trizact (normal and 'gator'). The speed is medium - fast enough given the power - can also be used very well to grind handle blocks to shape what is a great plus and saves a lot of time. With handle materials you can not push too hard as otherwise they will burn, so the speed or power is not really an issue there.

Also - when shaping blanks after you have cut them with a hack saw or with a angle grinder (I made eight 180mm petty blanks with angle grinder) the speed with a sharp belt is incomparable to what it would take with a coarse file.

The particular model I have had problems with running stiffer belts - they would roll-off the wheels because the only degree of freedom you have is the angle of the back small wheel and the range was not enough. I used a brute-force approach and bent the whole frame a little. It works not, but the belts are running a few mm off the platen. This could of course be fixed by making a proper platen for the grinder, but I did not bother as I am not grinding plunge lines and I have a 2x72" on order.

I may have spend just 80 on the grinder, but I have spent about 200 on the belts (though I still have a decent stash of them). That is something to keep in mind.

I have ground a few of the 180mm O1 petty blanks, one 180 Niolox gyuto and currently working on three 210 mm gyuto knives - and the grinder keeps working. I would wish for a more speed there as the gyutos are made from 3.0 and 3.5 mm thick stock, so a lot of material needs to be removed. With the 180 mm gyuto which is from 2.2 mm stock it was OK.

In total I would say - if you do invest in a good quality belts than a grinder like this is a very good starting machine to learn grinding and to make some knives and see how you like it before you would get a more powerful and more flexible grinder. The price is worth it. And even should you later get a big 2x72" the narrow 1" belt is practical when shaping handles (with or without platen).

What I dislike about mine is that the work rests are both made from aluminium - I had to put a glossy tape on them otherwise they stain & scratch handle material. But most 1x30" I have seen online seemed to have steel work rests.


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## jessf

Where's the latest matus knife?


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## Matus

I apologize for the delay  

The latest knife is actually already finished, but I was in such a hurry, that I did not manage to snap a few photos of it. Now it is being tested by a friend of mine who will hopefully take some photos over the weekend. Even the blog entry is already finished and waiting to be published. It is a 180mm Niolox WA gyuto.

Few more projects are in the making, most notably a workbench (65 cm tall) for a 2x72" grinder (which should be finished sometimes next month, or so I hope). I was not too motivated to build one myself, just did not find any other way - and it is taking a lot of my time as I never did anything like that before.


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## nwdel

That Matus, a real renaissance man. The workbench will turn out great.


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## Castalia

I built a Paul Sellers style workbench with hand tools last year as well as a stand for my drill press. Good luck on the workbench project.
[video=youtube;ru2ZiNs_Wek]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2ZiNs_Wek&index=1&list=PLD39949332C7FB168[/video]:cool2:


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## Matus

That is a great video, thanks. I should have watched it before I got started. I will post my 'bench project' should it turn to be at least acceptable.

Anyhow - I have finally managed to finished my third knife - a 180 mm Niolox guyto with WA handle made. It went mostly rather well, though I am not sure about the blade finish (although it looks a bit better in person, but it still needs improvements). You can read about the details on my *BLOG*, here are a few photos.


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## valgard

Looking good!


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## milkbaby

Niiice... Looks quite thin at the choil already, how much of a distal taper do you do? Love the handle because I totally dig bocote, way underused IMHO. Not sure if it's the photography angle, but looks like the people had two long sweet spots, one at the heel the other at the front? Sweet looking knife!


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## Nemo

Nice work Matus. Is that a mirror finish in Niolox? Supposed to be super hard to do. Was it difficult to sand? How's the steel perform?


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## chiffonodd

Handle is well executed, grind looks great, and like the finishing touches, the work you did rounding/polishing the spine and choil. But for me, the stand-out on this knife is the profile. I will be honest--it is not the _prettiest_ profile i've seen. I've definitely seen some that have a more aggressive beauty. But what this knife has--and what I appreciate so much about it--is how obviously well-thought out the profile is. Seems to me you designed this to combine elements from several different types of profiles, to arrive at something that a true knyfe knut could appreciate. You have a very functional belly breaking late toward the tip, allowing the knife to rock gently forward into a bit of a delayed push cut, or to rock chop from the near the tip, allowing for maximum contact with the board when coming down from the rock chop. That is backed up with a really substantial flat spot, allowing for really effective straight-up push cutting, as well as chopping. Then you've got a relatively pointy tip, allowing for detail work like peeling citrus or de-ribbing peppers. And finally there is good height, creating easy knuckle clearance, and so, stress free cutting from a variety of angles and orientations. 

Dunno man--just really impressed with the amount of thought you put into this knife. Clearly the result of a lot of accumulated experience actually _using_ the damn things. Really fun to see. Good work


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## Matus

Thank you all 

To answer some of your questions and comments:
- This particular blade does not have a too pronounced distal taper (though it of course tapers considerably towards the tip), because it was made from a rather thin stock - 2.2mm
- Yes - the profile is up to certain extent a two flat-ish spot connected. I have seen this kind of profile before (e.g. on the recent knives from Andy Billipp) and I was curios how it will work.
- No, the blade is not mirror finished. It would appear that mirror finish could be achieved more easily than with e.g. O1 or D2. In person the finish is ... particular. A rather shiny background (in the photos you can see a partiall reflection - after grit #400 (!) ). I will experiment more - I would love to get to a nice satin finish for the future (I am not a 'mirror' guy, but I will surely give that a try too)
- The grinding and sanding of the steel felt easier than D2. While handsanding hardened steel I felt that sanding paper would get dull faster than on O1, but I did not compare side-by-side
- The judgement on the performance and edge holding is still out - a friend of mine (a pro chef) should be getting his hands on the knife this weekend and I will let him to keep the knife folr longer time so that he can asess it.


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## Matus

A little more information: The knife weights 122g and the balance is neutral with pinch grip.


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## mark76

You seems to be improving! Great!


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## Matus

OK, here a few quick videos that a friend of mine (a chef in Prague) took. He is testing the knife and his feedback is so far very positive. His words are _"The knife has managed 2 full shifts and had not needed a sharpening yet. The steel is easier to sharpen than D2 (HRC 63), but has comparable bite. The profile works well for this size of knife (otherwise he would prefer more belly towards the tip), the handle fits the size and weight of the knife well. The only weakness so far is the rather thin neck of the knife where the knife may flex"_

Well, I am curios how long will the edge last - as you can see in the videos he has a rather 'energetic' cutting style  About the flex - he is spot on. The reason is a very thin stock of the steel (2.2 mm with scale). I will use 3mm next time and use a different design of the neck.

So, while not perfect, but it looks pretty usable 

So, the videos:

[video=youtube;B_78lt1cUus]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_78lt1cUus[/video]

[video=youtube;69kqg9jhYCg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69kqg9jhYCg[/video]


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## mark76

Wow, that looks impressive!


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## Mute-on

Damn! Nothing wrong with that blade. You must be thrilled. 

Congratulations :thumbsup:


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## Matus

Thank you guys. Yes, I am happy with the knife. Last update - after 3 full days of heavy duty cutting the knife needed sharpening. My friend estimated that the edge would last about 1 month of home use. That should be ok I think, or? I will test that later myself 

I have just finished one non-knife project that I will publish in a few days and keep working diligently on several more knives
I alsi feel it is time to start to test the 1.2442 I got some time ago 

I really hope that the 2x72" will finally arrive this month.


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## krx927

I was not checking this part of the forum lately. In this time you managed to make a bunch of great knives and handles in your small workshop, with basic tools, great resourcefulness and will.

I must congratulate you Matus, amazing work and amazing knives! I just love the profile on your gyutos!


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## Krakorak

I was the other guy who had the opportunity to test the knife for some time and I have to confirm the words of my other friend, the pro chef - the only weakness is the too thin neck (and the resulting occasional flex), due to the equally thin template, I am really loking forward to an eventual somewhat thicker, 3 mm option, I am sure that would be even better! But otherwise - a really good cutter which was very comfortable to use, nice aggresive, finely toothy edge (Matus has finished on his Gesshin Synthetic Natural before he gave it to me, I took it then to my Maruo shiro suita), even my wife, who normally does almost never use my J-knives, liked it...And I still tend to reach for it to the place on the holder where it was located...although its already gone..


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## Matus

Guys, you are too kind


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## Krakorak

No, no, you are too modest!


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## Matus

I am trying to be, otherwise how would I keep improving? Comparing myself with pro makers and the quality they produce (Dave, Robin, Ian and many others) is a great way to keep my knifemaking ego in check  

When I manage to make a nice handle or a well cutting blade I am happy, but not proud. Happy is good enough for me


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## TheCaptain

There is nothing wrong with being proud of a job well done.


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## Matus

A project #17 is finished. This time not a knife, but a wooden base for a lovely Shiro-Suita for a friend of mine. This is yeat another one note-that-perfect project, but this is also my first 'bigger' woodworking project. 

You can find all the details on my *BLOG*, here just a few photos:

The raw material:






Design of the holder:






Bottom side of the stone evened-out with epoxy:






Taking Proxxon to get the depression milled:






Finished holder with the stone:






Splashing some water on the stone to reveal the real beauty of it


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## valgard

the base looks pretty good, your blog is a very nice resource for people trying to DIY like me. It helped for me making my first wooden base for a Red Aoto and I'm following your handle making projects since I haven't gathered myself to start one (I lack a ton of tools and the $$ to buy them). It's great for someone like me that uses the head to work 12-14 h a day to be able to use my hands from time to time, I think that's why I enjoy cooking so much. Keep up the good work.


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## krx927

That's what I call a beautiful base!


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## Nemo

Nice work Matus


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## TheCaptain

I've been thinking about making bases for some of my stones but had no idea on how to start. This is perfect!


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## jessf

Is there long term risk of cracking the stone when glued to a wood base exposed to wetting? Glue all corners or just the centre to allow for expansion?


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## Matus

Good question. I thing (hope) the stone does not expand much with the little water it absorbs. I naively thing that should it tend to expand too much than it would break by itself. I think we need input from a more experienced person on this topic.


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## jessf

I would be more concerned with the wood expanding. Depending on how effective the epoxy is at securing the stone to the base. If expansion does occur something will give, either the base the glue or the stone. Just some thoughts of course. I do see stones secured to plastic which tells me the stone expansion is likely not an issue.


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## lely1103

wow look so good!!!
thank you so much for sharing this information
:wink::wink::wink:


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## Matus

lely1103 said:


> wow look so good!!!
> thank you so much for sharing this information
> :wink::wink::wink:



Thank you  

I have been slow on updating this thread and my blog in a while, but I am working on several projects that should get finished within a few weeks and I HOPE to finally get that 2x72" which is long overdue. I did finish one smaller project recently that I will put here in the next few days.


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## BloodrootVW

Very nice work, Matus!


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## mark76

Very nice, Matus!


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## Matus

I have finished a few more projects recently and I am finally getting around to write the blog posts.

First a project that was finished a while ago - Project #8 - just a simple WA handle from black locust and purple heart for a 240 Kurouchi blue #2 Tanaka gyuto. You can read more about it *here*.

A few photos of the finished handle:


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## Matus

And now something a little different - Project #23 - a western style handle for a small DICK bread knife. This was a rather evolved project (for me) - details can be found on my *blog*.


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## Dave Martell

Nice western there Matus!


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## jessf

Didn't expect Matus to be the first to post DICK pics.


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## Matus

jessf said:


> Didn't expect Matus to be the first to post DICK pics.



You know Jess, sometimes I am such a ...


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## daddy yo yo

jessf said:


> Didn't expect Matus to be the first to post DICK pics.


:lmao:


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## valgard

love the western on the bread knife


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## merlijny2k

Wow I wasm't following this part of the forum but was clearly missing out!! Great stuff Matus. For what it's worth I agree with jessf about the wood expansion. Perhaps best to keep wood in an application like this varnished or otherwise prevented from soaking up water. Expansion of the stone would cause compressive stress which isnt damaging. Wood expands and you get tension in the stone.


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## merlijny2k

Love how tight you make those brass plates fit the handle. And scratches really are the bane of our existance are they. I just realized watching your work that those Japanese style handles are free of my other bane: metal dust getting into the handle wood. I rehandle mostly three rivited scales and sanding down the rivets and getting the wood flush with the tang always end with some metal dust in my wood that is really hard (impossible) to get rid of. Have you had that problem too making the metal-fronted handles?


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## Matus

I indeed experienced the same problem as you describe - in particular as one goes to finer sanding paper. Somewhere past #600 I started to get brass dust embedded in the ironwood and I was not able to remove it. With a metal bolster one could try to sand only in one direction and clean (or change) the sanding paper regularly, but with brass pins there is little one can do. Maybe it can be removed during buffing, but I am really not sure. I guess we need to ask the more experienced makers around here.


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## jessf

Steel wool should clear the grain but you need to be carefull not to wash out the wood around the metal pin or you get a noticable lump where the pin is. I can feel this on my Neeman and it's obvious they hand sanded without blocks.


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## Matus

You are absolutely correct Jess.


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## Matus

And now for something completely different  This is officially my first full custom project. I started working on it back in March. As usually it took me longer than expected - even without any major setbacks or misshaps. There was a lot that was new to me - blade shape, design, material, handle design, etching, etc. 

The blade is from Swedish Damasteel, the handle from stabilised & dyed ulm burl and stabilised white ebony. Spacer is white G10.

I am very grateful for being given all the time I needed to finish. I tried to do my best to communicate in detail what is going on and what is to be done next. I have enjoyed the design process - from the blade to the handle materials. I found the communication not only enjoyable, but also vital to the whole project.

It goes without saying that the result is not 'perfect' and I will definitely be making adjustments to my process in the future - but I think that the knife turned out nicely and the positive feedback from the customer is what counts 

Of course all the details can be found on my *BLOG*.

Here a few photos of the finished knife:


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## Nemo

This is beutiful, Matus


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## Mute-on

Whoa!!!

That's spectacular. 

J


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## krx927

Really beautiful!


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## valgard

The customers are very VERY happy with the result Matus. You may say it's not perfect but it's all we envisioned and you saw my wife's reaction... it's been caught in camera, nuf said. You beat me to publishing it :O, I've been really tired and thrown off by jet-lag so I still haven't taken decent pictures. Communication with you was amazing, fast, detailed and very interesting (you even took the time to read my lengthy emails lol).


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## Matus

Thank you valgard, the pleasure was all mine 

Thank you guys


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## merlijny2k

Man that damscus etching is top notch. Makes you wanna reduce the contrast setting on your monitor. You could make a zebra jealous with that blade. Like your makers mark too.


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## Matus

This was the only time so far I have etched damascus blade - I etched in 37% HCl, room temperature, 5 minutes. I did not do any further sanding after the etch - that would have brought the contrast down a bit. I somehow did not realise that I could have (after HT but before the grind was finished) played around and tested. I was also trying to finish the knife up to certain date (which I did, surprisingly).


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## valgard

Matus said:


> I was also trying to finish the knife up to certain date (which I did, surprisingly).


 :O I owe you that meet up.


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## Matus

valgard said:


> :O I owe you that meet up.



I will be looking forward to the next chance


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## qjlforever

great job.make knives more beautiful.


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## milkbaby

That came out awesome!!! :doublethumbsup:

The blog post was great too. I really enjoy reading all the details, knowledge is power! 

How did you feel about possibly botching up a 90 euro piece of Damasteel?


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## jessf

Awesome work. You need props on the maker's mark as that takes a lot of time and thought to get something you want to put on a blade. It's got cache.


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## Matus

Thanks  

Yeah, that 90 piece of steel - that is why I also made a second blade from Niolox - to test how I want to grind it and see whether the profile I have designed together with valgard will sit well in hand.

The Logo was a lot of work for me even though I have payed well for it  I suppose it will evolve & change in the future, but I like it and will keep it for a while I guess.


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## jessf

Payed well for it. Can you elaborate?


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## mark76

Great work, Matus! I find it impressive how you progressed from a knife enthusiast like myself to an (it seems) good knife maker in such a short time.


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## Matus

Mark, thank you, but I would not call myself a good knife maker just yet  Still too much trial an error. But it is so much fun 



jessf said:


> Payed well for it. Can you elaborate?



I had the logo designed via Designcrowd - it was about 250 in total.


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## Matus

After some silent period I have managed an article on a knife that was finished and delivered by the end of August.

So - the *Project #19* - a 210 Niolox gyuto with a western style handle. 

This particular project was a bit special for me. I was thinking of it since I started making knives, but now I was able to actually make it happen. But let me explain. 

There is a small Italian restaurant in the (small) city where we live called Buon Giorno. It is a family run business. The offer just handful of starters and main courses (plus a very respectable selection of vine and whiskey). We have eaten there shortly before our first daughter was born and have been their regullar guests in the past 4 years - having a lunch there at least every other Saturday, their food is really delicious and they are very nice people. So I decided that I would make a knife for the chef as a symbolic expression of our appreciation.

I have delivered the knife a few weeks ago and it felt great to see the chef surprised and deligted. He took it home as he was worried his stuff would 'use it for everythinig' and toss it around. I have also offered him sharpening service for it.

The knife is 210 mm on edge, 160g, handle made from buffalo horn, micarta spacer and dyed maple burl. Center of mass is about 1cm in front of the heel.The flat spot is not quite as long as the first photo would suggest. There is a touch more belly towards the tip than I would tend to make, but since the chef is using a 'normal' western kitchen knives, I wanted to make a blade that he would feel comfortable with.

From the making point of view this project went rather well (apart from the necessaity to re-finish one side of the blade what brought the total handsanding time to nearly 6 hours). The leather sheath is my first and I definitely need to improve there, but it works.

Here are a few photos of the said knife:


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## Nemo

Nice work Matus. Lovely handle. But what impresses me most is the mirror finish on Niolox. You are very patient.


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## Matus

Nemo said:


> Nice work Matus. Lovely handle. But what impresses me most is the mirror finish on Niolox. You are very patient.



Thanks. It looks like a mirror, but it is still quite far from it. It is a #2000 grit finish. I would actually prefer lower grit finish, but it just does not look good on Niolox. At least when done by wet sanding by hand. I have seen some really nice finish on Niolox from Jürgen Schanz (who does the HT for all my stainless blades) - I need to ask him how he does it.


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## dwalker

Beautiful work Matus. You definately have an aesthetic eye. The lines are terrific.


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## Bill13

That is very nice Matus. Not sure where the leather sheath needs improvement, it looks great to me.


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## valgard

I like that profile Matus. Good job overall.


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## Edge

That's a beautiful knife. The handle is especially nice to my eyes.


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## YG420

Looks great Matus! Nice and classy imo! Also like the logo!


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## Dave Martell

VERY nice looking knife Matus, impressive for sure!


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## Matus

Thank you for your kind words guys


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## ashy2classy

Nice work!


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## milkbaby

That is gorgeous work and a thoughtful and generous gift! :doublethumbsup:


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## mark76

Great work again Matus. And you can definitely see you spent a lot of time on sanding :doublethumbsup: . I'm also interested in the grinds you apply to your blades.


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## Matus

mark76 said:


> Great work again Matus. And you can definitely see you spent a lot of time on sanding :doublethumbsup: . I'm also interested in the grinds you apply to your blades.



I am attempting something that is a blend of a wide (ca 10 mm) grind to a near-flat grind above. This results in a convex grind whre you can slightly feel the 'shoulders' if you run your fingers from the spine to the edge. I am far from having perfect control over the process (that is why I go back to stones to finish the grind), but this kind of grind is something I am able to do and it seems to cut well. I am trying to mimic a bit the grind of Itinomonn StainLess as I found that knife to cut exceptionally well. I would like to attempt a wide bevel grinds in the future (like on Munetoshi or like Bryan Raquin does them), but for that I need to achieve a much better control over my grinding. I hope that it will get easier once I start to use my 2x72" (which should be ready to go in a few weeks - 90% of parts were delivered already).


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## zitangy

Congratulations .. yr real belt grinder has arrived. I am amazed with your work on the 1 x30 belt grinder.. Sheer grit and determination i suppose.. rgds z


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## Matus

Few weeks back I finally finished a different kind of project - thinning, refinishing and rehandling a Takeda santoku (The blog post is *here*).

I was approach by zetieum after someone we all know too well here on KKF pointed him my direction with something like "_There is one guy who will probably say he isn't comfortable with it, but should be more than capable... Matus from KKF _" - how could I say no to that 

Anyhow - I did accept the challenge (as that is what it was for me) and after a LONG time I actually managed to finish it. The project was not without some new lessons learned, but I managed to correct my mistakes and the result is actually not that bad.

I have adjusted the filing jig (which I made when I started to make knives) to hold an Atoma 140 plate and used it to re-grind the bevels. The rest of the work was finished on stones. The handle was a bit of a new design for me, but turned out nicely - also thanks to a very nice piece of reindeer horn from Robin.

I am glad I had a chance to make this kind of work - made me appreciate more the effort that goes to a refinishing of a blade (and this was just the bevel, not a whole blade). I am thankful to zetieum for the trust and a lot of patience.

Here are a few photos:

original condition of the knife






finished knife













blade finished with a softer uchigumori fiingerstone from nutmeg


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## valgard

very nicely done Matus


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## valgard

How did you finish the bevels? What stone if bench stones ?


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## Matus

Thank you  The full progression was: Atoma 140, Bester 220, Gesshin 400, Gesshin 2000, Gesshin 4000, Uchigumori HS50 from Watanabe, Fingerstone HS47 from nutmeg


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## milkbaby

That looks excellent!


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## TheCaptain

+1 really upping your game!


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## FoRdLaz

Awesome!!!


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## jessf

Im a fan of antler.


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## Bill13

MAtus, that bevel looks much improved and the handle is no slouch either! Very nicely done.


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## Dave Martell

Awesome work Matus!


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## Matus

Thank you guys, I am happy you like it.


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## krx927

Great work Matus. That finish is gorgeous.


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## zetieum

Hey, I see I miss this post. I am the happy owner of the knife. Matus did and amazing job. now the knife cuts like a dream. Moreover the handle Matus made is absolutely gorgeous and feels very good in the hand. Matus went through a lot to achieve this project and I am extremly grateful. More importantly, the project around this knife made me meet a great guy, led to fruitful exchanges!

Recently, I sharpened and refinished it. Bevels are perfect and it took no time on the stones. And what a pleasure to polish it to get a nice kasumi. I will share some pic, if i find where they are.


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## Matus

I am very happy that you still like the handle. I hope to meet you in your workshop one day [emoji106]

You also reminded me that I have some more blog articles to finish and post here. All 3 of them


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## vxd

Beautiful work!!


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## Matus

I am trying to catch up with some 'blog backlog"  I finally finished a post about 2 magnetic knife holders. It is nothing ground breaking, but a few details might be interesting to some.


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## Matus

I have not posted on a while here it would seem. I have been doing work that often did not warrant writing another blog article as there wasn’t enough new stuff to write about, but over the next few days I will st least post some of the work I did over the past year.

First some work that actually made it to my blog:







https://www.instagram.com/p/BnFH9i1AxoV/?igshid=uufuzp72crvp

This is a little gyuto my friend ordered for his wife as a birthday present (https://matuskalisky.blogspot.com/2018/08/project-28-150-mm-damasteel-petit-gytuo.html?m=1)


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## Matus

Then there were several more finished knives:

210 AEB-L gyuto my sister order for a friend. I had the hardened and partially ground blank laying around for ages (still have one in D2 and Niolox with identical profile). It is not very Japanese-like in profile, because I did it fairly early when I started to make knives:






More details here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxGQgsNBKWt/?igshid=yuu9ghauigqp


These 2 Niolox blades were a custom order I took a bit longer than 2 years to finish (no, I am not proud of that). It was a tough one - I broke both blades in process and while both could have been re-used, I made new ones. It was a lesson learned for me:






More details here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx53GxXHzfb/?igshid=myo5efz1jc87

Here is a knife where I broke the tang off, but it was welded back on with a laser:






More details here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ZTCQDHvne/?igshid=c1zof3n7bol8


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## daddy yo yo

Nice work! I particularly like the first forged knife...


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## Matus

Thank you  

I did attach the photo of the forged petty, but not description;
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxsSbobHmeW/?igshid=1rfqx2tha6m47


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## Dhoff

Great work!

Will you start selling some of these at the forum then?


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## Matus

Thank you. I would definitely like to offer some knives here - I may have one or two later this year (I still have to finish some custom work - for example a refinishing and rehandling of two Mizuno gyutos - that is quite some work)


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## Matus

And one more project - this was a refinish of an old gyuto that was deeply rusted. The owner did some rust removal with vinegar and coke (at my advice, at that point I was sure that the handle was bust, but later it turned out that it is in a much nicer shape than I thought).

I have cleaned up the blade on the grinder, touched up the geometry behind the edge (there was not all that much material to work with as this is a rather thin knife) And sanded, polished and oiled the handle:






Here you can find some more photos and before / after comparison:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0YOPxcnluO/?igshid=imzazft9s9oe

I would mention that this was a fun project and the aim was to restore the knife to a usable condition, not to make it look like new - what at least for the blade would not have been possible because the pitting was too deep


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## drsmp

Matus said:


> Thanks  The birch bark handles have a particular look to them, but feel so awesome in hand. One day I may find the courage to put one on a gyuto
> 
> No, the handle on the Carter is just spot on - it is indeed rather slim, but the knife is very light, so it fits well. The handle I have made for the petit gyuto would suit a 200+g 240 gyuto. I was just too scared to sand it smaller. The length on edge is approximately 160 mm and height some 37 mm. The mistake I did design-wise was to make the axis of the handle near parallel with the edge at the heel. I changed my designs afterwards.


If you want to make the handle smaller just protect the blade with masking tape and sand then refinish the handle. I’ve done it for a few of my knives and they turned out very nice


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## Carl Kotte

Matus, your refinish of the old Gyuto was very very nice. I’ve saved/refurbished a few knives myself, but none of them looked as beautiful (when I was done with them) as yours. 
Your own work is magnificent! Very nice!


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## Matus

drsmp said:


> If you want to make the handle smaller just protect the blade with masking tape and sand then refinish the handle. I’ve done it for a few of my knives and they turned out very nice



I know, I did that once ... and need to do it again as the handle is still too big somehow. It seems to be a beginners mistake to tend towards oversized handles.


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## Robert Lavacca

Beautiful work! Would love a petite gyuto like one day to keep at my station permanently at work. Would be perfect.


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## Matus

Robert Lavacca said:


> Beautiful work! Would love a petite gyuto like one day to keep at my station permanently at work. Would be perfect.



Thank you. Just drop me a PM and maybe I can help you out


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## Nino-chan

Matus said:


> *Project #10 - WA handles for two 165 mm single bevel funayuki knives*
> 
> The story behind this project is the following. I had a Single bevel Ittetsu petty on order from Jon and a friend of mine was in similar situation. None of us had much (if any) experience with single bevel knives and both of us cook/filet whole fish too rarely to buy a proper 180 deba. So I came up with the idea to buy some cheap (sub $100) 165 mm funayuki knives so that we can learn to use and sharpen single bevel knives, as well as have a knife to test kasumi finish. I threw away original handles (with plastic ferrules) and use them to try to make a new (to me) handle style.
> 
> The knives did not only get new handles, but I also worked on the spine and choil.
> 
> I have used 5mm thick brass for ferrule and Mora and Purple heart wood for handle. I am officially in love with Mora - it has fantastic color, fine, very nice grain pattern, finished lovely and is surprisingly cheap. Not easy to find though (I got mine from Dictum.de)
> 
> The challenge was - since the ferrule was press-fit onto the tang, the handle could only be shaped after it was epoxied to the tang. So making a mistake that could not be corrected or accepted would necessitate a very unpleasant process of handle removal.
> 
> The result is again far from what it could be - the biggest mistake being not gluing properly the mora onto the ferrule and creating a gap on the back of the handle. I have also many things to learn to put a more even finish on the brass ferrule.
> 
> 
> Original condition of the knives:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> After rehandle:


nice handles


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## Robert Lavacca

@Matus i just got done reading your blog for the finger stones. I was wondering if the mud from flattening was able to be saved. I saw one of the tips from Jon was to save the mud. That’s good to know. Does he mean save the mud from flattening with the JKI diamond stone only? I’m guessing you can’t save the mud from the other stones you used to flatten and condition the finger stones just because it might be mixed with grit from those stones no? Where as that big pile of ground up powder on the JKI plate can definitely be saved. Before I start flattening mine I would love to know technically what mud I can save so I don’t waste anything.


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## Matus

Yes, you can in principle save the mud or powder that is produced in the process, but there is always a risk that it will contain some loose diamonds from the plate that will later scratch the surface you are trying to polish.


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