# Catcheside Cutlery - Works in progress.



## WillC

My updates thread is getting a bit much to put all in one place. So I have decided to have a general works in progress thread for WIP pictures and leave the updates thread to keep customers informed as to order progress etc.
Here are some progress pics to kick the thread off.
Leading on from here. latest feather billet. This got welded up and drawn out somewhat, into a loaf, which I got 2 big slices and a medium/small slice.





The soap bar sized chunk of feather dammy is forged out to shape.












The taper is also mostly forged. I stopped forging at about 3.6mm at the back 2mm at the front.
If I am clever and avoid to much scale on the last forging stages its only a few passes on a narrow 36 grit belt and i'm down to clean metal.




I then give it a run over with a 50 grit belt and make sure the taper is nice and even.
After that I gave the blade a quick test etch to see how it came out. Forging a blade to size and taper is I find a more pleasant process and has structural advantages in a pattern like this with the grain flowing with the knife. Of course more forging means more distortion of the pattern, but this is something I accept and feel its part of my style of working.
Anyway, this is what I had after an etch. The blade is a 300mm Suji Carving knife for my latest carving set commission.












Here is what the taper looks like at this stage, pre HT.




In feather damascus all the welds cross the edge. Makes for a toothy edge. Great for slicers.




Have a lovely weekend all.


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## mhenry

That's going to be a stunner, you do beautiful work man!


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## Eamon Burke

Whoa, you don't do any bevel grinding pre-HT?


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## WillC

Cheers Mike:biggrin:
Eamon, nope, these big thin beasts are hard enough to keep straight during Ht as it is. So I leave a bit of taper to go and the bevels to grind. The HT generally consists of 3 normalizing cycles, checking for straightness after each, followed by an oil quench, I'll probably give this one a dunk in LN as well as its there, hardness checking. 3 x temper cycles, hardness checking. I normally clamp the knife in between 2 plates in the press after this with part of the spine and tang exposed and torch temper this part back to just over 50hrc. I'll then check the profile again, making sure I take a bit more off where the edge will be, then grind the rest of the taper and bevels.
There are so many advantages to not grinding the bevels before HT, no worries about de-carb, easy to check for straightness, and for hardness near the edge, the ability to plate clamp it during HT or after for a differential temper. If it does move very slightly during HT you can straighten the spine and the edge will come right when grinding.
You would be surprised how much you can hog off an edge with a 25mm wide 36 grit ceramic belt without getting anywhere near overheating it. It gets easy to overheat the tip when its very thin, but you would have that problem still if you had partially ground it prior to HT.:biggrin:


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## pitonboy

Hi Will: Beautiful work as always. Is this one spoken for already?


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## WillC

This one is a commission and the Gyuto is as well, but I got an extra lump. Enough for a 180mm fairly deep Petty at least. This Mix of steel is 1080/15n20. If no-one claims it it will be turned into a Hunting style knife which I've been putting off. Now there's a threat:lol2:
The Next commissions in feather dammy will be in 15n20/01 as requested. I've been playing with this mix and it gives crisper contrast. I believe edge holding will be improved in a very close high layer pattern with a higher percentage of 01, in a bold pattern I have not noticed much difference, but it does take a wicked edge possibly less of a toothy edge than 1080/15n20 but the pattern will have to be more subtle and fine to get the most of the mix . I'll see what LN does for it also. So far the 01/15n20 mix also is slower to take a patina, more things seem to turn it blue rather than dark.


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## TB_London

That's some badass forging,loads of distal taper  in the third pic I thought you might have been doing a western handle for this one.

Any reason for the narrower belt on the grinder?


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## WillC

Yep 2hp over 1inch hogs much faster than over 2. I've been using the narrow belt to get the bevels set too.


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## WillC

Well not much WIP it was a bit hectic getting these done in time. But they are done. Some dark phone pics, but my desire to share is strong. I'll get some proper pics in the morning for the Gallery.


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## WildBoar

Very, very nice. Great-looking stuff!


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## Crothcipt

lol is that a Kramer D-handle on the fork? Looking good!!


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## TB_London

Really eye catching set, loving the suji of yours I have, is a carving machine


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## tgraypots

Will, what is LN?


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## kalaeb

tgraypots said:


> Will, what is LN?



I believe it is liquid nitrogen.


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## WillC

Thats right Liquid Nitrogen, doesn't generally do much for carbon steels I don't think, its there for the stainless 14c28n, where it does make a big difference. Also I sometimes like deep frozen cherries on my lunch break. Mmm they stick to your lips:lol2:
Yes certainly a Kramer influence in the handles. The Knife is a "diamond D" and the Fork is more octagonal on the sides with a bit more girth to fill the hand with a side grip and stop it twisting. I delivered these today. They were blown away with them. They will be presented as a present to their Father on his birthday tomorrow. I got some brief pics this morning. I'll pop them in my Gallery in a bit.:biggrin:


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## EdipisReks

killer stuff!


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## macmiddlebrooks

That fork is mind-numbing awesome as is the knife...I'm in awe as usual.


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## WillC

Thanks Fellas. The Forks are so fun to forge, an utter Pita to hand finish:lol2:


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## heldentenor

That set is brilliant. Reminds me in the best possible way of a set of knives that Devin Thomas made for a forum member who designed his website awhile back. Both yours and his look to me to sit right at the apex where art meets function. Nice work!


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## WillC

Thank you very much, thats quite a compliment. :biggrin:


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## WillC

Right, building up some momentum again... In the works we have 3 large billets started in 01/15n20 these will be for 2 huge billets of feather damascus, they will have a solid 01 edge as the end layer is a 15mm piece of 01.









Stainless damascus for cladding in 304 and 430, just split open the can, looking good.





Some extras here, from left over bits of material. Will finish these and add them to my shop. There are 2 Petty/Suji in carbon damascus/01, a small petty in stainless damascus clad blue 2. A little petty in 14c28n and a Nakari in 14c28n. I have something different planned for the grind on this one.





And I have got myself some recession transport, for blatting on the lanes to my workshop. 






She's a beast:viking:


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## stevenStefano

Is that a moped? If you'd bought it a little earlier you might have got yourself a job at the cycling in the Olympics


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## The hekler

Sweet hog! Nice metal in the works too.


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## Customfan

Wow Will!

I am impressed! Maybe in the future we can start a project! Really like the suji feather and those projects seem promising!

Please keep us on the loop with WIP, ok?


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## maxim

OMG its Puch i had 2 of those :bigeek: :viking:



WillC said:


> Right, building up some momentum again... In the works we have 3 large billets started in 01/15n20 these will be for 2 huge billets of feather damascus, they will have a solid 01 edge as the end layer is a 15mm piece of 01.
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> Stainless damascus for cladding in 304 and 430, just split open the can, looking good.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Some extras here, from left over bits of material. Will finish these and add them to my shop. There are 2 Petty/Suji in carbon damascus/01, a small petty in stainless damascus clad blue 2. A little petty in 14c28n and a Nakari in 14c28n. I have something different planned for the grind on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And I have got myself some recession transport, for blatting on the lanes to my workshop.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> She's a beast:viking:


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## WillC

Lol, yep a Puch, its been a bit tuned, thankfully or it would only do 25mph, this one does 50!!!:bigeek: But the engine does sound like it is going to melt at that rpm, a comfortable 40, which is plenty for the lanes. It has been making me grin in any case.:biggrin:

I have been missioning on with damascus and forging out more blanks. 

I had a break from the forging to grind this one, as i'm looking forward to trying it out.
It has a very soft hollow grind behind the bevel, a little Takada esc... but ala grinder. I'm just flatting the bevels now on the stones I'll take it all the way and pop a tiny micro bevel on there. This is forged 14c28n mono stainless @ 62hrc. Small Nakari.






Mid grind, shows where the geometry was headed better.







Because of the hollow geometry, there is no need for such a dramatic taper over the length. It tapers from just under 3mm to about 1.5mm over the spine. It is a sturdy feeling blade with zero flex, yet I hope it will give that Takeda effect with very little cutting resistance. Proof will be in the pudding of course.
Let me know what you think about this one. Cheers
Will


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## SpikeC

That is very interesting! It should be a great cutter, I think.


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## Justin0505

That nakiri looks flippin' fantastic. This reminds me of some of the cleaver ideas that we where kicking around awhile back...


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## WillC

Thanks Spike, will find out shortly, The bevel has been flatted, starting to move up the stones....

Justin, yeah I've had this in my head for a while. I've chickened out on forged hollows for the time being. It is going to need some custom die blocks making for the hammer. For my current hammer that could be pricey. I'm hoping to be adding a small spring hammer to my workshop soon, which will be cheap and easy to make tools for and be pretty much perfect for the job, bit like a Japanese hammer with very soft radius die blocks, the top one smaller than the bottom, making it very versatile for drawing the tang, then drawing in all directions, or making hollow parts to a blade.

But I need to sell a big press first....

For now I'm seeing some scope with ground hollows in Nakari and Cleaver. With some nice texture and finish differences in mono....and some interesting reveals on damascus. The hollows would be a great way to reveal the nice bit of the pattern in a multibar twist. That was kinda what I was thinking of for your cleaver......:groucho:


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## WillC

Flatted and polished the bevel. And had a brief test. Its a very sturdy blade with a nice weight, yet cuts very nice, with very little resistance and sticking. I'll get it finished and shoot a video. May go a bit further with the hollows.
At the moment the hollows are a belt finish, I would like some contrast between the bevel and the hollows. So I think I'll go for a cloudy finish on the hollows and a high polished stone/ near mirror finish on the bevel.


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## WillC

Finally got these two feather billets drawn out and well on the way.
After forging and trimming the profiles.
Andrey - 240 mm Gyuto






Ben - 220mm Gyuto





After grinding the taper and a quick etch.

Andrey





Ben





And a little carbon group, all heat cycled, ready for HT in the morning.:biggrin:


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## WildBoar

Great looking damascus :thumbsup:


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## zitangy

Hi Will

*Nakiri question:* whats the blade height and length of the "nakiri" ? From the pic.. it does seem to be higher than the gyuto in the "group" picture of your present project and thus not a typical nakiri

More information as to the hollow grind wld be appreciated as it seems to be of a different ball game altogether? Perhaps testing a new profile?

Tks adn rgds

D


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## WillC

Hey David, Yep I think I went fairly tall on the Nakiri, I'll have a measure tomorrow, from memory, 55mm. Its a nice cutter. I wanted to do something like this since trying out a hollow forged Takaeda Gyuto. There is very little cutting resistance. I need to get a handle on to test it properly. I'll shoot a video of some cutting with it.


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## zitangy

Will..

I like the idea of a taller nakiri.. May be excellent for light chopping and mincing and also a scooper....

curious as to the hollow grind . Unless the blade is fairly thick to start with, it may be too thin.. need to know the thickness of the edge from 1mm above the edge.

Will need to figure out how to effectively sharpen a hollow grind of this knife size.... experience only on my straight razor and an EDC.. cold steel.. could be interesting and challenging...

rgds
D


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## Eamon Burke

I think he's talking about a shallow hollow forged into the blade face ABOVE the secondary bevel, not the area that you sharpen.


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## WillC

Yep Eamon has it, the section above the bevel is hollow ground, the bevel is flat, so its easy to thin and maintain. The hollow is there above the bevel to reduce friction and sticking.


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## zitangy

thanks ... I get it now... its the first time that I come across this type of grind

now pondering with what needs to be done when the regress reaches the flat bevel?.

look fwd to your video and look fwd to the choil picture....if it is not too much trouble..

rgds

D


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## Eamon Burke

zitangy said:


> now pondering with what needs to be done when the regress reaches the flat bevel?.



Nothing, it will just get pushed up naturally. If the knife ever got worn down to the point that you are well into the face of the blade(and kudos to you if you ever manage that), then you will end up hitting the spine as a natural extension of the secondary bevel thinning, just like a straight razor, and the hollow will manage itself.

The hollow is VERY slight. As in you can hardly tell by looking at it, pretty much only becomes obvious when you put it to a stone. I polish my Shigefusa with an Ohira Uchigomori fingerstone and I noticed that if I held it horizontally on the blade, I didn't hit the bottom of that slight hollow. Otherwise I may never have known it was there.


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## Aphex

That is some really tight looking feather you've made there Will, really consistant work.

The grind on the nakiri is really interesting. In my head it seems like a hollow grind maybe more suitable for kitchen knives as it should be easier to combine laser like performance with good food release as taller stuff like potatoes would be less likely to stick to the hollows. With a convex grind it seems like its more of a battle between great food release but more wedging, or average release but more laser like performance. That's what my brains telling me anyway, i don't know though as iv'e never used a hollow ground knife before. It's going to be interesting to see wether the theory works or not.


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## TB_London

Looking good, the bike's going to be fun when winter hits
Ground in hollows? What was stopping you doing it on the Anvil  

Looking good though, want me to put a 'normal' nakiri in the post for comparison? Will be interesting to see how it does on higher stuff, though with the extra height you gave it I doubt there'll be much that would hit the spine.

Need to find someone to buy that press off you


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## WillC

The Hog is for summer use only I've been finding myself taking a slightly longer way to work in the mornings, and arriving with a grin. Also zapping down the road to sit somewhere nice to eat my sandwich. 
Yay, send me a Nakiri, that would be cool, also for comparison on the video. Got a handle glued together so should be able to test it properly at the weekend.
I will try forging the hollows at some point. Didn't fancy doing it by hand though with 14c28n mono, loving this steel btw.:bliss:


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## SpikeC

Hey, you Brits invented riding in the rain! Why hang it up when summer is over?


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## Bulldogbacchus

So, you're liking the mono?


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## WillC

Sorry Matt, I managed to miss that one, yep i'm very confident of the HT and steel now. Its much finer grained than anything else I have tried, including 01 carbon, which is pretty darn fine. As a result it takes a super fine edge, maybe too fine for some uses, in which case a final stropping with a lower grit stone gives it a bit more bite and bite which lasts. Its very easy to sharpen, only a touch tougher than blue paper 2. And comes fantastic with a few licks of the strop again.
The toughness is very good, it does not chip, and is resistant enough to folding. Though when pushed to destruction, say a fine edge hammered through a nail, yep I had to try it, it does distort rather than chip. Actually damage was quite fixable on this extreme test. I believe that the non-chippyness is also down to the fine grain structure.
Anyway , you will find out soon enough and be able to let me know what you think.:biggrin:


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## Bulldogbacchus

WillC said:


> Anyway , you will find out soon enough and be able to let me know what you think.:biggrin:



:doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup::doublethumbsup:


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## WillC

This batch of blades are being worked through, i'm handle making all weekend. There are two Feather damascus Gyuto commissions, the rest are stock for my shop.




Next week i'll make some more progress on the next feather batch, and the stainless commissions. 
On a personal note, I finally pulled the handle off my Massamoto, it is getting thinned and convex ground a little more going into the edge, there is not much material to work with, so softly softly. Then I will hand finish it, i'm going to etch it to see if there is any differential hardening at all on these, you never know




many thanks.:biggrin:
Will


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## Bulldogbacchus

Looking good, Will.


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## WillC

A healthy busy day today, spent hand rubbing, etching logo's, more hand rubbing....and etching damascus...and more rubbing.
Here are some sneaky pics up upcoming pieces.
Carbon





















And this, Catcheside Cutlery- stainless dammy, blue paper core, with a pure nickel accent.


























I'm working all weekend to make some progress, so I'll keep you all posted.


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## Eamon Burke

Will, why does your Damascus look so dang clean? Is it the camera? A secret etchant? Different metals?

I noticed on the Slicer I used from you about a year ago that the pattern behaved very strangely, and showed up best at a high polish, which is kind of backwards from what I normally see. :scratchhead:


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## zitangy

Looks lovely...

I noticed the "over grind" of the Stainless Damascus on the heel..
Another good foutune incident?

I like it. I can't help but notice that creative juice is flowing to the metal..

have fun and a a nice week-end 

rgds
~D


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## WillC

Thanks Eamon, my methods have evolved allot since I started, in order to keep the damascus cleaner. As I remember the passaround Suji, was different steels, I had infact muddled up the steels, and used two very similar ones, which is why the contrast was not like these. But of course there was no effect in use, it just made a more subtle pattern. The stainless dammy is fun, the pattern reveals with just polishing, the etch just gives it some extra bite. The 304L in the stainless mix and the pure Nickel will take a high polish and not be effected by the etch at all, giving it lots of bling potential The downside is, with buffing, I lost the black in my logo, but I can live with that.:biggrin: Got lots of handles to make now....:running:


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## WillC

zitangy said:


> Looks lovely...
> 
> I noticed the "over grind" of the Stainless Damascus on the heel..
> Another good foutune incident?
> 
> I like it. I can't help but notice that creative juice is flowing to the metal..
> 
> have fun and a a nice week-end
> 
> rgds
> ~D



Your totally right, I had a misshap with the heel on the buffing machine, so it got more rounded off than usual....Glad you like it....was a good warm up for your 2 stainless damascus ones, getting the finish right....:biggrin:


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## WillC

Feels like I have not posted for ages. I have been plodding on in the workshop, and making the best of the rest of the summer getting out of the house in the evenings.... i'm getting ready for a big push on commissions,,,,  thanks for all your patience, it makes the work a pleasure rather than a choir.
Here are a few WIP shots, two huge feather billets on the way for commission pieces, need to do one more stack to 4...then the final big stack and split...:viking:
These billets are in 01/15n20 with solid 01 to one side of the W's, so these blades will have a solid 01 edge.




01 requires more precise temperature control on the welding soaks
Here is the bit off the end of the billet after forging out... testing progress.




Ready for the next stack of 4 of each








And do it all again

Also this one prepped, a tasty sandwich of stainless damascus clad, with pure nickel separating a core of 14c28n...mmmmmmm yummy.





Thanks All:biggrin:


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## TB_London

The HC lasted longer than I thought it would without tinkering 
Is the Nickel keeping all the Carbon in the core of the stainless? Have you got a new camera too?


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## Burl Source

WillC said:


> Feels like I have not posted for ages.



You haven't. It has been nearly a month.
Sure, you have been busy. But we have needs too.

Just teasing you Will.
I have really missed seeing photos of the new stuff you are working on.


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## WillC

Thank you Fellas, Tom, your right the nickel stops the carbon escaping, I have seen copper used as well for this purpose. It adds a bit of bling, but the 304 is very bright too so really its just a practical measure. 
I'm just finishing some knives up, two feather for commission and a couple to add to my web shop, will get some pictures up light allowing later.


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## DeepCSweede

Glad you are back Will, love to see your WIP's.


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## WillC

General picture updates.
Thanks Dude, good to be back at it, ... after more set backs with the hand i'm missioning on, with a combination of commissions and a few extras to put on my site, trying to make up for the down time.
Finally got the next to last stage in these two feather billets done, friday I will reweld and forge each into a nice loaf, to take slices. The billets are BIG, so thats good, and I've managed to keep the solid 01 on the edge, also good:biggrin:


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## WillC

Further to my experiments for Mark's Nakiri, I decided to do a twisty composite Cleaver, to make alongside and add to my Site. I may need some cleaver advise, I think it will be a meat chopper with double bevels, a fairly robust edge and the hollow ground faces, to shed some weight, and work with the pattern more than anything else, its currently, 210mm long by 70mm tall, 4.5mm over the choil and 2.5mm at the tip.
The pattern is pretty involved, Its a 9 bar composite, Top bar is a soft twist is 15n20 and 1080 with pure nickel, then the central 7 bars, a tight twist of 01/15n20 and pure nickel, then the edge bar, which is 01.
Some WIP on that one, I'll HT it when I do Marks next week probably now.
The Stack




Welded and cleaned up, interesting to see the pattern clearly from different aspects.












Loads of material, but to get the best of the pattern, its quite wasteful.




Blank forged, tapered and ground clean...
The Pattern is called Persian Twist btw,old Skool stuff, but a first for me.:bliss:












I have some finished pieces done also, I'll get some pics on the morrow. Thanks all:biggrin:


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## cclin

very nice pattern:doublethumbsup:! I'm enjoy reading your WIP', keep updating!!:lol2:


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## WillC

Thanks Charles, its an oldie, but one I've always wanted to try out. Will be interesting to see how much the pattern changes in the grind, I think the stars will become more fully formed as its ground closer to the core of the twists.:scratchhead:


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## barramonday

Interesting, can't wait to see the finished cleaver.


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## JMJones

Very impressive! thanks for showing.


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## Bulldogbacchus

That's fantastic stuff Wiil. Bravo!
Keep us posted.


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## Crothcipt

cool love the work that goes into damascus knives.


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## kalaeb

Cool patterns.


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## Don Nguyen

Will, what's your background? I don't see many people doing your kind of thing with stainless patterns, and your work is _incredible_. Your shop is jaw dropping too.


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## WillC

Wow, thanks guys,:biggrin: Its fun to work on something different.
Don thanks man, Yes I have a background in hot forge work, after my blacksmithing course at Hereford I did a few years working for someone else, then set up my workshop in hereford, I have made forged gates, railings, and sculpture for the past 10 years, all fairly involved forgings and of my own design, I've had lots of ups and downs financially, but have always been proud of what I produced. I've dabbled with Damascus in the early years and made the odd blade, but only really got hit by the bug around 2 years ago. I only really make kitchen knives, and dabbled with razors, which I plan to explore more....I find Kitchen knives my biggest passion and challenge, as the geometry is so extreme, and these are knives we use every day. Its been a crazy journey and i learn day by day:biggrin:All credit to this great forum, it has been a hub and focus for my learning and continues to be.:doublethumbsup:


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## Justin0505

Will is BACK!! Great to see that you are operational again and finally getting to that amazing cleaver idea that I know you've been thinking of for awhile.

You always have the best WIP and shop porn...and I guess the knives are nice too


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## Don Nguyen

What do you do with that excess material that you don't use?


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## WillC

There is very little off cut waste, in mosaic, a little off the end after each 4 stack is cut off as its folded over during forging. These are the pieces I normally polish up to show pattern progress. Other than that, waste is in the form of scale and dust I forge blades to size in most cases so there is minimal material to trim back. If I do have reasonable off cuts I hang on to them for bolsters or small knives:groucho:


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## WildBoar

Glad to see you are healed up enough to play in the shop again. Your WIP pics are always nice to see!


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## Don Nguyen

Ah, ok. I thought you had a giant billet and cut off half of it as scrap or something.



WillC said:


> Loads of material, but to get the best of the pattern, its quite wasteful.


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## WillC

The log of progress...:laugh:
From left to right, Billets for ferrules and end caps, Feather damascus blades for commission ready to be ground. And some soon to be finished and available ... Cleaver and two mosaic petty. Feather billet lumps on the end, One will soon be a Gyuto for Robin, will be enough for another full sized blade too. I'm on the Burke blades mostly this week, after that I will get all these rolling.




This is the end of that big octagonal piece,, based on fire within, this will be for the endcaps. It is 01/15n20 mosaic enclosed in mild steel.




Quick peak at the feathers, they are fairly fine so wont really do the pattern justice until its all properly finished, These are 01/15n20 with more 01 on the edge. The edges all tested to 65hrc fully hardened so thats good. I have tempered back to 61 hrc.


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## brainsausage

I love seeing these WIP pics Will. Glad to hear your hand is doing ok. And I'm VERY excited to get my Burke/Catcheside!!! Christmas is coming early this year:doublethumbsup:


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## RobinW

How small and insignificant the little lump looks. And soon it will go from the ugly duckling to the beautiful swan.....
Looking forward to seeing it take shape!


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## WillC

Grinding...grinding...grinding...grinding....and more grinding....hope I dont run out of belts:eek2:
Feathers and cleaver




The cleaver is going to be a vegetable one. Its really a giant Nakiri. Still thick on the spine 4mm to 1mm, but with some extreme geometry, a real mans Nakiri












Having given it a test run, I'm going to take the hollows even further, so that was a bit of a waste of the beginnings of a hand finish




This will be a true one off, I will be making a tight twist 3x3 composite for the ferrule/endcap in pure nickel and 01, i'm even considering putting some copper in the mix. Jade color spacers and nickel silver, with a piece of high grade koa I have been saving.
Sorry for my self indulgence on this, but I get easily side tracked.:lol2:


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## RobinW

Which one should i be looking at? ;-)


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## WillC

Yours not forged out yet Robin, It will be though...soon...bit of a juggling going on here Your wood however arrived today:biggrin:


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## RobinW

:bashhead:


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## WillC

Patience man:laugh:
I've had a long weekend of work, the composite cleaver pics will have vanished, I am organizing them into a single WIP.:biggrin:


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## RobinW

Don't worry, I'm in no hurry. just pulling your leg
Although i love pics!


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## WillC

As it happens I forged out your Feather lump today
Here is some progress on Robin's Feather Gyuto.




Blade carefully forged out and tapered.




There is another lump there too enough for a 240-250 Gyuto, hint hint nudge nudge.
Rough forged profile




After a bit of a trim, pretty close to the template, let me know if you want any final tweaks, it can stand a little more drawing out so there will be a little wiggle room.


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## RobinW

Lets see what the group says first.
I think it looks pretty nice, but i will relook tomorrow morning.


Ohh, and on the other lump, you offering a 2 for 1 deal?:laugh:


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## RobinW

Also, what do you think?

And if there is too much material, you could always make it longer right?


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## WillC

I think it feels good, the taper is currently 4mm to 2mm. It is pickling clean overnight so i'll give it one more light run under the hammer to true the taper and stretch it a couple of mm so we have enough length to play with for final tweaks, Best to leave these complex patterns a bit thicker before grinding down to near final taper, then heat treatment, regrinding again after HT aiming for around 3mm 2mm 1mm on the spine. Taper wise, sound good?
2 for one...mmmmmm.... cheeky monkey:laugh: i need to sell the other bit...I have holes in all my trousers:sad0:
I do like this profile though, If you don't mind I may do the other bit the same profile, there will be subtle differences in the pattern from the forging process so you can then have the pick of either, I'll finish and put the other for sale. 
Unless someone wants to jump in and commission the extra bit for something, this material takes a LONG time to produce so it would be a good cue jump. :groucho:


----------



## Crothcipt

Just out of curiosity how is my little knife going?


----------



## WillC

On its way my friend, I gave it a loving final hone and packaged it up. I'll post it in the morning.


----------



## Crothcipt

:jumping::excited::thankyou::bliss:


----------



## RobinW

WillC said:


> I think it feels good, the taper is currently 4mm to 2mm. It is pickling clean overnight so i'll give it one more light run under the hammer to true the taper and stretch it a couple of mm so we have enough length to play with for final tweaks, Best to leave these complex patterns a bit thicker before grinding down to near final taper, then heat treatment, regrinding again after HT aiming for around 3mm 2mm 1mm on the spine. Taper wise, sound good?
> 2 for one...mmmmmm.... cheeky monkey:laugh: i need to sell the other bit...I have holes in all my trousers:sad0:
> I do like this profile though, If you don't mind I may do the other bit the same profile, there will be subtle differences in the pattern from the forging process so you can then have the pick of either, I'll finish and put the other for sale.
> 
> Unless someone wants to jump in and commission the extra bit for something, this material takes a LONG time to produce so it would be a good cue jump. :groucho:




Feel free to use the pattern, i am flattered you like it... Also, if i get two to choose from, seems like a win to me.
Taper proportions sounds fine. Basically I like thin knives w/o too much flex and hitting the sweet spot between food release and drop through food. Tall order, i know! but that is the target.

I'll trade you a pair of pants (without holes) for the second one :happymug:


----------



## WillC

I only wear solid gold trousers for allergy reasons, But second hand ones would do.:laugh:
Some pics of yours Robin after another quick run under the hammer and a quick dirty grind and etch to check its all looking in the right place.





















And profile check, little more wiggle room, I probably wont tweak to final size till after HT now.


----------



## RobinW

Nice! Starting to look really good!

On the pants, will spray paint do?


----------



## WillC

Lol I could just spray paint my legs and pretend i'm wearing trousers, or ask everyone else to pretend I'm wearing trousers...Its all gone rather surreal:spin chair:


----------



## RobinW

You think? I have a 6 year old that loves a series of books called "Captain Underpants". The hero is a hypnotized principal that flies around in his underwear with a red curtain as cape to save the world. 
On your idea of painting the legs, when i was a id there was a story about the kings new clothes. You are right up his alley!


Keep the photos coming though! :laugh:


----------



## WillC

Feather blades - Now doing the handles for Ted, Kwong and Daniel's feather blades, and the extra cleaver and a Truffula damascus Petty. Getting Ferrules and endcaps, spacers and fittings sorted.




Blades will remain at 180 grit hand finish until the handles are done, then I'll finish and etch them.
Daniel, 180mm Petty and a 300mm Suji




Kwong, slim profile 230mm Suji




Ted's 180mm deep profile petty




Robin's and Scots will hopefully progress next week after I get this lot finished. 
Those waiting for feather blades from this batch, here is a teaser of the fine pattern on a small hunter I did from this batch. Needs a bit longer in the etch, but you get the idea.:groucho:


----------



## RobinW

Nice!
There are more blades heading to Sweden?


----------



## WillC

The pair and Ted's are heading to the States and the narrow Suji to Japan ... Then yours, I should send that to Sweden, would be a good start And Scot's to to Scotland. A fine distribution of the feathers.:bliss:


----------



## RobinW

OK wrong Daniel...


----------



## WillC

After a bit of dashing around this morning realizing I had run out of this......and that, I got down to some handles.
The Suji and Petty pair first...
Slots done and fit up on the ferrules..












With the handle parts dry jigged, parts are ground square with the right taper and close to dimensions, then ground in at 45 degrees with a nice fresh ceramic belt to shift the damascus.








With that done and trued up... I carefully shape the front taper.
First the sides.




Then the corners washed in to match.












Next step Gluing and final fit up and finish..
Looking forward to polishing up that red Koa and of course etching all the damascus parts


----------



## WillC

More Handle progress on Ted's and Kwong's....




















Have a great weekend all:biggrin:


----------



## Burl Source

I am enjoying watching these come together.
Thank you for posting the photos Will.
I envy the future owners.


----------



## statusquo

These are great wip pics of some awesome pieces coming out of your shop. Just a question on those damascus ferrules, are they solid and if so does this dramatically effect the feeling of the knife? I saw that you use a dowel method to move the balance point around but does this still leave the blade with a more substantial feel?


----------



## WillC

Thanks Mark,  
With the dammy ferrules, They are made from a solid piece, drilled through for the dowel, leaving a few mm for the slot to be shaped, then of course more material is removed on grinding, but they do add weight, but the weight is absorbed in the balance of the knife. The big Suji is balanced around an inch ahead of the choil, where as the smaller 180 petty front of handle. But it would depend on the customer, if someone requested a medium size knife with a blade biased balance with a wide diameter handle as they have big hands damascus would not be advised for the ferrule.


----------



## WillC

4 Carbon Blades on the bench, hopefully all but nearly finished by the end of the week.
Blades now all rough ground ready to start on the handles before finishing/etching etc.
Robin's feather Gyuto.




Scot's Feather Suji




Murray 01 Gyuto




Clayton, 01, Suji/Honesuki hibred, (sorry for the delay on this one)




Handle parts getting laid out ready for drilling etc.





Guys waiting on stainless blades, sorry again for the delay, it has much to do with working in batches. So all the stainless will be done at once blades next week. Many Thanks :biggrin:
Will


----------



## steeley

Cool pictures Will . Thanks


----------



## Chcmuzza

Looking good!


----------



## WillC

Thanks Guys, have been a bit slow so far this year I know. seem to have spent allot of time mending things, but i'm getting there, some finished pieces will emerge at last this week. Have also been laminating some bohler n690 between 304L to see how I like it. Sorry for delays, sometimes this is a tricky time of year. Will be flying back into things now.:biggrin:


----------



## WillC

Nearly done on these Guys.
A little progress from earlier.




















Just some final finish and Handle damascus etch to go.:biggrin:


----------



## RobinW

Whhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!:happymug: 

By the way, how many layers?


----------



## WillC

Your Handle has come out good too Robin, I worked it on the diamond back to octagonal so as to have a nice top/bottom 50/50 ish of the dark. The balance is a little further forward as its all wood. Its 25mm ahead of the choil as i remember. If this is too far forward i can add a piece of round brass bar drilled into the butt.
Layers, cant remember now, the same as the competition billet. Will be about 15-20 x 6 x 4 x 4 x 7 so 10,000 plus.

I have some more news, I'm sorting some lighting out, but I have a fairly decent camera now, to attach to my head to make a series of videos going through all the knife making processes. Catcheside Cam:lol2:

Stainless mono batch takes priority next, but alongside I am starting the next damascus batch.

Next up on the damascus front is More Feather damascus, a basket weave/micro W's composite and some nice damascus clad san mai in carbon and stainless.

Oh and Spoons!:biggrin:
Thanks all.


----------



## knyfeknerd

Gorgeous steel Will.


----------



## van Zanten

shiiiit...... that feather pattern is very very very beautiful!!! Did you laminate feather over a core? What's in the core?


----------



## RobinW

WillC said:


> Your Handle has come out good too Robin, I worked it on the diamond back to octagonal so as to have a nice top/bottom 50/50 ish of the dark. The balance is a little further forward as its all wood. Its 25mm ahead of the choil as i remember. If this is too far forward i can add a piece of round brass bar drilled into the butt.
> Layers, cant remember now, the same as the competition billet. Will be about 15-20 x 6 x 4 x 4 x 7 so 10,000 plus.
> 
> Oh and Spoons!:biggrin:
> Thanks all.



I like the balance point rather forward, so please leave as is. 
Glad to hear the wood came out nice, it's a cool piece but it was a little bit risky...

Will there be other than marmelade spoons?

Thanks


----------



## WillC

Yes Robin, some forged stainless tasting spoons.:biggrin:


----------



## Lefty

Will, they damascus is the best looking I've ever seen. I'm honestly amazed!


----------



## marc4pt0

That feather Damascus is unreal. Seriously. Un freaking poopmypants slapsomebody real.


----------



## WillC

Thanks Guys :biggrin: Van Zanten, No I don't use a core in Mosaic, I find the pattern gets too lost and distorted. The 01 edge is part of the pattern.

I have given up smoking for 12 days now, also started doing Yoga, yep its some sort of new me:lol2: Honestly though I have a ton of energy all of a sudden. 

Anyway some pics of these 4 getting finished. Will do the very final touches tomorrow and these will be done.

Murray's Gyuto, had a bit of a mare with this one as we tried to use real jade for the handle bits, which ended up just being impossible with my tooling at least.
So we have Malachite, Jade powder/in epoxy, and the customers provided wood. This was not stabilized but doesn't really need it. Its from New-zealand I forget the names, was a pain to finish but we got there.

















Had to stop and add CA glue at this point because of the voids appearing in the eyes.
















Clayton, Long awaited...








Scot's Handle endcap in the etch....




Those blades and handles are all done now, just to attach and sharpen. All the blades have already been sharpened and tested on food once before final hand sanding. This just helps ensure the edge geometry is spot on on the stones before hand finishing. So final honing is not much more than a kiss on the hone to set a bevel.....then polish it.
Next lot of damascus getting started...




Thanks All, have a wonderful weekend


----------



## RobinW

Nice, but Im missing one....


----------



## WillC

Need to polish the highs on the dammy ones, I'll get some gallery pics when they are all spangling tomorrow.:whistling:


----------



## scott6452

Ok i'm getting excited now :laugh:


----------



## Chcmuzza

Hey Will

Looking good, the birdseye Totara has come up well and the kauri doesn't look too bad either!

Cheers


----------



## WillC

They are amazing woods for sure, Cheers dude.
Sorry, all these are finished, Gallery pics are done, I'll finish editing and get them up in the morning before I head to the workshop.


----------



## WillC

Stainless batch now in progress. Profiles are roughly there and tapering on the way.


----------



## statusquo

Aaaawww yeah, I think I see mine!


----------



## WillC

Heat treatment, Cryo...
The cleaver was obviously not going to fit in the dewar....




So a tray method was employed.

All heat treated









Thanks All:biggrin:


----------



## Igasho

sexy, i like the look of frost on them blades


----------



## WillC

Ok Mostly all ground. I had a problem with the Cleaver with the hollow grind, it got a bit too thin so will need to do a remake on that one.
Some handle part pondering.......








These two are for Matt, we had some amazing Rosewood from Mark for these, but I had not checked the width and they were a bit narrow to drill for dowels, So am using a hidden tang method, should go great with the style of knife and handle in this case.


----------



## WillC

A little update from my custom corner. I'm sorry I have been taking so long to get custom work out recently. It is because I have been trying some new things with the utility line and some experimental pieces. I think it is time to make a list of everything currently underway so you can see exactly where we are.
It is my 36th birthday on monday and I plan to have a short break next week. I am going to ride my motorcycle up the welsh coast and eat fish on the beach, and generally chill and see some sights. 

So before I go I am finishing of some of the stainless batch this week and over the weekend.

Kurt -ground - handle bits prepped
Matt x2- ground,handle bits prepped
Alan x 2- ground, handle bits prepped.

The rest will have to wait until my return.

These two had to be done again because of a warping issue.:sad0:

John stainless Cleaver - Profiled.
Alberto stainless suji - profiled.

David x3 stainless heat treat and tapered.
David x2 stainless dammy- carbon core- some test pieces made, yet to start on actual pieces.

Jim Trojan - material made, wood received.
Gary Cornell - Feather damascus x2. material under way, wood received.

That is all the stuff that is in progress at the moment and to be completed over the next 2 months or so I would estimate. I really appreciate your patience.:biggrin:


----------



## chinacats

Happy 36th Will, hope you have a great trip!


----------



## mc2442

Happy birthday! Sounds like a great way to spend it.


----------



## scotchef38

Happy birthday Will.Watch out for the Volvos.


----------



## WillC

Lol cheers Guys. Range Rover drivers seem to consistently try and kill me mostly, don't know why. I generally just assume everyone is going to pull out on me, just in case


----------



## theo59

Happy birthday Will. glad all is well, have fun, cheers!


----------



## zitangy

Happy Birthday Will...

Have fun and stay sharp...
Rgds David


----------



## TB_London

If you're coming by the South wales coast swing by for a beer


----------



## ejd53

Happy Birthday Will, have a great trip.


----------



## WillC

Thanks Guys, very much. 
Tom I'm heading to St Davids Via as many wiggly mountain roads as possible....Then up to Snowdonia from there. About Thursday I'm heading south again to go to a bash in Bristol, so if the timing works out a Cardiff stop may work out.


----------



## Mrmnms

Take some pix to share Will. Hope you're having great time. Savor every moment.


----------



## WillC

Finally, this stainless batch have taken forever, so sorry about that. Will be finishing on Kurts, A.B's and Matts pairs. The rest to follow as i'm starting on forging out damascus san mai orders next week. Then cracking on with the Feather damascus batch...which has grown somewhat

This morning,













All are finished shaped and shiny now, just have to etch my logo in the morning.

I'm working on some specials over the bank holiday weekend which I have been thinking about for a while. I got the wood for them a while a go, gona bit quite loud


----------



## WillC

More on these two Stainless clad specials. And some experimenting with the handles...







The split Ferrule is Nickel silver a 5 mm stainless spacer and nickel silver. Thought I would experiment with a fuller in the stainless spacer.








Mid grind 





Fully ground, ready for final finish and fit up....




As I remember they are a 260mm Gyuto and 280mm Suji. Will be finished and available next week.


----------



## ecchef

Drop dead gorgeous Will! Please excuse me now...I have to hold up a convenience store. :spiteful:


----------



## scott6452

I don't need another catcheside suji, I don't need another catcheside suji....do I need another catcheside Suji?!... I need another catcheside suji!!


----------



## WillC

Thank goodness for you knife knuts Thanks Fellas.

Polishing lots of little bits of steel all afternoon I was. Sometimes it helps to get a bit Zen with your work


----------



## WillC

Got around to getting these finished today, lots and lots of time playing with the finish. Fully polished out was too much, so settled on a very good even hand finish and a light buff.
You will see lots of activity here, because we have an 01 core then a layer of pure nickel then a very thin layer of more high carbon steel to get some nice frosty activity in the stainless cladding.





























Finished articles, now happy with the finish, honed, they cut fantastically, tested on dinner Rude not to , Gallery pics to follow.


----------



## Mr.Magnus

thay look sick Will. outstanding work!


----------



## chinacats

Gorgeous!


----------



## scott6452

Lovely! Man that gyuto would really match my suji...


----------



## GlassEye

:bigeek:Those are awesome.


----------



## WillC

A couple in progress.
Just finishing off this special ground Nakiri.
Gettin the hollows established and bevels flat and even, back and forth several times between grinder and diamond plate getting it right. Then I can move to finishing processes. Its very time consuming, but worth it for the results of cutting.







And a quick test piece for stainless damascus clad knives coming up. I may do something a bit different and just do this as double bevel, with very subtle hollows above the bevels, hand rubbed and etched, bevels stone finish..... maybe...what do you think?
After HT and temper cycles




After a quick grind and etch, core will come up a fair bit yet....


----------



## Mrmnms

What the core steel Will? Looks most promising?


----------



## WillC

carbon, 01 in the middle


----------



## Crothcipt

looks very cool, and time consuming.


----------



## Mike9

Beautiful work Will - really.


----------



## WillC

Thanks Guys, some more on these. Then I will be finishing Davids 5 pieces.

























The Stainless damascus clad Gyuto is 245mm and the Carbon Special grind Nakiri is 220mm. These will be up for sale shortly with full details.:biggrin:


----------



## WillC

Wood of good, Two pieces chosen by customers for upcoming work.
Ironwood from arizona ironwood, I will be getting some of this fro myself I think  and some amazing buckeye from burlsource. 



Mid grind, more stainless damascus san mai..... Teaser



Finally got my own Dewar, fed up with the terrible hold time and small neck on the rental.



This was brand new never opened as the chap said he decided to store his sperm somewhere else.:eek2: second hand price, couldn't refuse. Has a fantastic hold time and decent neck size. Finally got my furnace issue sorted too as it was going though coils every couple of months and leaving me in the lurch often, now sorted thank goodness.


----------



## zitangy

WillC said:


> Finally got my own Dewar, fed up with the terrible hold time and small neck on the rental.
> 
> This was brand new never opened as the chap said he decided to store his sperm somewhere else.:eek2: second hand price, couldn't refuse. Has a fantastic hold time and decent neck size. Finally got my furnace issue sorted too as it was going though coils every couple of months and leaving me in the lurch often, now sorted thank goodness.



Thats a real sexy Dewar...

Capable holding that many shots ? 

Congratulations......
D


----------



## ChuckTheButcher

I think that's my buckeye. Very exciting.


----------



## wellminded1

ChuckTheButcher said:


> I think that's my buckeye. Very exciting.




I was hoping it was my buckeye, hahahaha. We both have great taste though.


----------



## chinacats

That Ironwood is totally badass! The buckeye is pretty sweet as well.


----------



## CB1968

Will that Ironwood looks amazing can't wait to see it with Damascus ferrule and endcap, nice.


----------



## scotchef38

WillC said:


> Wood of good, Two pieces chosen by customers for upcoming work.
> Ironwood from arizona ironwood, I will be getting some of this fro myself I think  and some amazing buckeye from burlsource.
> 
> 
> 
> Mid grind, more stainless damascus san mai..... Teaser
> 
> 
> 
> Finally got my own Dewar, fed up with the terrible hold time and small neck on the rental.
> 
> 
> 
> This was brand new never opened as the chap said he decided to store his sperm somewhere else.:eek2: second hand price, couldn't refuse. Has a fantastic hold time and decent neck size. Finally got my furnace issue sorted too as it was going though coils every couple of months and leaving me in the lurch often, now sorted thank goodness.



Thats a big bucket of sperm!


----------



## WillC

Here is your piece of buckeye fella,




Finishing up Davids pieces.




























The customer favors a front of handle balance. With all wood handles balance will be a little forward of the choil naturally. Balance on these will be brought back with a brass dowl/stainless endcap combo.:groucho:

I am aiming to have two in stainless damascus clad finished next.
Blanks ready to forge out. 



The smaller one will be a good 240mm the big one will be bigger. They will be stainless damascus fittings and fullered spacer.
Everything I have to go out in stainless mono is heat treated ready to grind. Sorry for the delays for you chaps. Its been a pain to have both nitrogen and a working furnace at the same time. Problems now sorted.
Next week I hope to finally get around to finishing this latest feather batch of 6 commissioned knives, for the first time there will be none spare all spoken for. It is going to be something a bit different again from the last batch and very special.


----------



## ChiliPepper

I'm bloody speechless. Came late on this post and had to go through all the pics and WIP in one go... now I have an idea of what Stendhal Syndrome might feel like...


----------



## WillC

Thank you CP I had to google that. What an excellent syndrome! If you want even more my old WIP thread is updates from metal land.
A little more, I thought it was wednesday all day today, always dissapointing to have lost a day somewhere:sad0:
Balance achieved with brass dowel and end cap to suit each.



With a little testing 


All ready to polish and etch


----------



## WillC

These 5 are finished handles fixed on, just need honing, does not take more than a stroke or two to set the bevel on 1000grit stone when they are this thin at the edge. I will work the tips and hone them over the weekend , will ship to you early next week David.

Many pictures to follow hope to get a chance to do some gallery shots of them on sunday/monday. Making a start on the next two is stainless dammy tomorrow.


----------



## WillC




----------



## Mucho Bocho

lookers Will!


----------



## zitangy

Great balancing act Will. Tks for the adjustment of the balance point to where I like it..

Hv a nice week-end.

rgds

D


----------



## Aphex

Top class work as usual.

Will, has your grind evolved over the past year or so? It looks like the blades have bocome a touch thicker with greater convexity maybe.


----------



## WillC

Cheers my dear. Yes in the very start I had a 3/2/1 grind on taper. Usually forged pieces were just over 3mm. Whilst at the moment I have stuck with 3mm stock for mono knives. The damascus and san mai pieces have gone to a shade under 4mm over the year. This as a result of my own testing and customer requests for a firmer knife, or just to do my thing which has tended to be a thicker knife with more convex geometry but so very fine at the edge.


----------



## marc4pt0

Want to say something funny, witty and sarcastic too downplay the tremendous talent you're showing us here. But it's too early still. So, meh...

And I'm still saving my coin to get another knife from you!


----------



## WillC

You know you want another . Some little ones coming up in stainless damascus, and some big ones....

Her big ones forge tapered, profiles tweaked , pretty much ready for HT

Little ones rough profiled wanting a bit more forge tapering prior to HT.




Thats not a knife mate.....




Little ones after a bit more forging.





All got HT'd today also and got the stainless damascus for fittings drawn out and left to pickle clean too:viking:


----------



## Lefty

I need one. Yup...it's official. Man.....


----------



## chinacats

Sweet! Looks like you've been a busy man.

Cheers!


----------



## WillC

Playing around with the first two, (Smallest) Parers getting the dimension and feel of the handle correct........



100mm one next to an icle 70mm one.



Handle needs and endcap and thinning down..



I ended up narrowing down at the choil as well to make it comfortable.



Endcap on, now just over 9cm handle and slimmed down.






Much better






Other smaller ones handle done in the same way.


----------



## WillC

Little Dinky ones before fixing the handles on. 
























Just finishing them up and honing now


----------



## jigert

They look magnificent, Will! Great work!


----------



## ejd53

Boy Will, Damascus San Mai parers. Gotta get me one of them.


----------



## WillC

Thank you. Will get some proper pics and put them up for sale on monday. These two are the smallest at just over 70mm the rest are 80-85 and one 100mm.


----------



## Mrmnms

They are gorgeous Will.


----------



## bahamaroot

Excellent blades!


----------



## WillC

Thanks for the Parer love fellas. Will get these done tomorrow, bit under the weather today, having a day of rest


----------



## Don Nguyen

Those are some of the best parers I have seen Will. I've always been puzzled on how the choil/machi area should look like, especially with a wa, but you have nailed it.


----------



## Mrmnms

I dont think I've seen nicer anywhere Will . Feel better


----------



## WillC

I am feeling better this week by and large. Many Thanks
Here are some more on these two....








The Big Gyuto is gona be a 290mm, Its stainless damascus clad again, this time with matching stainless steel damascus split ferrule and endcap.


----------



## chinacats

Glad to see you feeling better...knives look sweet!


----------



## cookinstuff

Nice stuff Will. Killer profiles on those. I received the smallest paring knife today, wow that was fast to Canada, I have never had something come so fast before. I haven't tried it yet, I got it just now after work. Gonna bring it in tomorrow, have a bit of work for it, but Saturday should be a good test, it looks like exactly what I wanted. It's a very short paring knife, with an amazing profile, it's not too short at the heel, and not too tall, like I said, I will have to give it a workout before I know, but just looking at it, it seems perfect. 

The fit and finish on this is phenomenal, the polish/finish on the blade is amazing too. The handle has the perfect amount of flaring towards the butt end, even the space from the liner to the next ridge is all even. Been eying this for fifteen minutes and can't find a blemish, which for a knife this small is really something. Balance is just behind the jade spacer, which makes it feel like you have something in your hand even though it doesn't weigh much, it feels right. Thanks alot Will, this is a tool you should be really proud of, I'm honoured to have the oppurtunity to give your work a spot in my kit. Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Adam Bryant


----------



## WillC

Thanks Adam for the feedback, glad you love it


----------



## cookinstuff

Yup, gave this guy a good tryout today, had a fair amount of paring type jobs, it's to me the perfect paring knife. I like a good short blade, it's perfect for shrimp and for coring it's great for in hand work. Gonna call this "Little Willy". If there are any fence sitters out there, I would grab one of these ready mades as Will gets them finished. Or, when he starts taking custom orders I would hop on his list, this man is a pro. Thanks again Will, super sexy stuff here. Took a few pics and put it in my gallery, she is quite the sight.


----------



## WillC

Little Willy, lol, Thanks mate


----------



## Lefty

Adam (and Will), I agree with your comments on Will's work. I'm fortunate enough to have handled two of his knives, and the grinds are beautiful, and the craftsmanship is out of this world. I can't think of a more "perfect" knife than the one I have here, that is in for a saya. Just unreal!


----------



## WillC

Thank you my friend, where were we with these....


----------



## WillC




----------



## statusquo

Holy sh!t!!!


----------



## Timthebeaver

statusquo said:


> Holy sh!t!!!



This.


----------



## jigert

Damn, Will! I'm speechless. I have no speech.


----------



## CB1968

Will these knives look amazing your work is beautiful, very well done


----------



## cookinstuff

this is crazy stuff, good work Will, keep it up.


----------



## Nasr

These are absolutely Stunning!


----------



## Justin0505

Those very well might be the 2 most beautiful knives I've seen from you, and you've made A LOT of really beautiful stuff.


----------



## ecchef

Don't take this the wrong way Will, but those really should be in an art museum. :ubersexy:


----------



## WillC

Sorry for the lack of updates. My time is a little thin at the moment and to make matters worse I have had some returning lower back pain. It really knackers me out being in pain all the time, so I've decided the only way to combat it is to get as fit as possible. Plus im going to need to find super amounts of energy for the upcoming year training someone and making enough to keep us going. So have been in the gym, swimming or doing my bodybalance class nearly every evening. Good news its really starting to work
Anyway, some long overdue work finally getting done.
We have some progress on the remaining stainless. In between making damascus the warps are being taken out in a temper jig. So they will be ground next week.




Catcheside Feather damascus in progress for 6 ordered knives. This is a very special mix with bolder high contrast wity pure nickel on the spine, and a very fine mix of steel on the edge which can be left extra hard and remain stable.

Two billets on the left are fused, on the right stacked ready to be welded.



Welded



About to be welded



New burner from my clever friend, thing is a beast and can hold temperature on a dime in the upper or lower end of the spectrum. I will be getting another one for the big welding furnace I am building.






All billets welded



Drawn out on edge



All done ready for the next stage.




I also did two more billets for a new damascus I am working on, will surprise you with that later. If it works and there is enough could be for the first set of knives.


----------



## WillC

Feather Damascus, now on the second stack of 4. I will update you on that as I have some more pictures of the pattern development from the next stack.
Got the afternoon on this. It is a fairly traditional basket weave developing at the moment, from two different billets, one with nickel/01/15n20 and the other en42/15n20. Each billet was forged down square then cut in half, Each making up a corner of the start of the basket weave.
Its a huge chunk, it will get even bigger as it will be a composite with something else, not sure yet.....




This is about 3" square



By about 14cm



First set of dies in the press, make the weld and get us down to about 2" square









Next dies all ready set up in the hammer take us rapidly now down to about 35mm



And there we have it, ready to clean up for the next quartering.



I will either keep it fairly traditional and use it in a composite, or take it radial and combine it with another edge material, will see how it develops.


----------



## WillC

Soon as i get my software updated i will start to get some more video of these stages. Only real way to capture the excitement. Would be nice to edit a from start to finish knife on film ala pov shaky head cam


----------



## Don Nguyen

I like the pov shaky head cam!


----------



## CanadianMan

+1 I like the POV head cam also


----------



## WillC

I hear you, shakey head cam man will return soon. Hopefully I will have someone else around to take some action shots before long
In the mean time Dammageddon is upon me One more stack of four to do on the feather. I have 4 billets on the go, which will make two monster stacks when it comes to spitting....here is some pattern development from the bar ends....







And my basket weave, I have a plan for it now, for this batch, will need to make another material to combine it with. All will be revealed.... But not yet.
This has also given me a firmer plan on the pattern for the first uber knife set. I will need to draw some profile sketches and do some design work for that on paper first ±I think and for the storage.

Anyway I digress, basket weave......






Last stack of 4, then to compress it a little.....


----------



## dough

man i love checking out this thread. depending where all you are taking that shaky head cam id love more action videos.
Will Im sure i have said this before but thanks for sharing its a unique look at the knife making process.


----------



## Mrmnms

Part metallurgy , part alchemy . Too cool!


----------



## WillC

Thank you fellas, much appreciated. Apple are to blame for the lack of video, as I can no longer update to the new system, its a pain updating video editing software that will run with the Drift HD, but im working it out....

In this Dammageddon instalment we have all the feather billets ready to be cut and stacked. As there are 4 feather billets they will make 2 stacks of 8, the other is the basket weave which will get a stack to 4 , then everything is getting split. I need to do a high layer laminate to feather to be combined with feathered basket weave as the edge material/pretty combo. Also do a square billet of basket weave with a load of pure nickel for ferrule and end cap. This will be for the first knife set combo. I have a very clear Idea for 2 of the sets now, and a pretty good idea about the 3rd. I will make a separate thread shortly regarding that. The sets and storage/board combo will be drawn on paper first.
Anyway, feather dammy is on the last stage, so not long till I forge some blades out of that.:biggrin:


----------



## WillC

Some deep etched nickel/steel forms from the bar ends along the way.


----------



## Lefty

That looks awesome, Will! You can tell I come from a family of Jewelers; I looked at it and thought, "these would be amazing cuff links!"


----------



## WillC

Thanks man. Just to say I have been out of action with a tummy bug this week. Looks like I will recover for friday, (i hope) when i am attending a masterclass using power steel type damascus for 3 days hosted by Doc price with Ed Schempp among others. Will get some pictures.


----------



## Mrmnms

feel better Will, cant wait to see what you do with these


----------



## WillC

Thanks my friend, well after a fruitful and inspiring weekend am now winding up on many many billets of damascus, so will see some order work and available one of pieces coming very very soon from me.
Feather damascus on the very last stage.


----------



## statusquo

Nice work Will, any updates on the last stainless batch? :crazy:


----------



## WillC

Nearly ground....:biggrin:


----------



## statusquo

ullhair::begging:


----------



## WillC

Just to keep Status-quo, or quiet at least:laugh: Honestly you have been very patient and you deserve an update.
All now tapered and grinds well on the way. I wont tell you how many belts to taper the Cleaver, I had to HT it at full thickness as 14c28n has a habit of warping on HT, then again on cryo then again on temper and often warps during grinding. Its a lovely steel, but there is some art in keepin the bugger straight:viking:






Next to do the hollows on the cleaver behind the bevels.


----------



## statusquo

Schwing!!


----------



## WillC

Freshly baked damascus loaves, mmmm I love the smell of smoking flux in the morning.






Heat cycled and annealed these. Will fix my big donkey saw to slice them tomorrow, much less wasteful than thin cutting disc


----------



## ChuckTheButcher

I think I
Speak for the ahold forum in saying thank you for posting all these photos. It is really interesting to see how it is done.


----------



## Mr.Svinarich

Well done! Feathering Damascus without distortion is tricky.


----------



## cookinstuff

Your pics are always great Will, thanks for the insight as always!


----------



## Lefty

I don't think you get the respect you deserve. Just sayin'.



And I still think you should make me some cuff links with that....


----------



## WillC

Hello gang and thanks for the encouragement. Its a pleasure to do the WIP's over time it has become part of my thinking creative process. It also takes a load off sending e-mails and can all be in one place Lefty I will send you some chunks off the end of the basket weave, you can make it your mission to make them into cuff links. The etch is very deep in the end of the bar there, as the bar was pickled clean in strong muriatic, I reccon the deep etch with the nickel is key to the effect

First Mission sort out the old Donkey saw, thing is slow but its a beast and gets though eats through big bars while I'm getting on with something else. And much cleaner and less wasteful than a thin cutting disc on my feather loaves.

Not been run in a couple of years.......




After sorting a plug and starter box, a bit of a clean and top up with grease and coolant.....She runs and cuts, but needs a new blade and some shimming to cut square.





Found some blades locally and shimmed her to cut square.








Still cuts like a charm, this machine is probably older than my old man

Slight misstake with the damascus though. This one is as it should be. This is a structurally engineered feather pattern With fine carbon damascus for half the blade and more bold with very tiny amounts of pure nickel on the other.


 This is of course compressed into 2". On average this will be stretched out x7 when forged into a blade.
The problem is with the other billet.
One piece has been place the wrong way around at some point. however, I think it looks nice, and I am 99% sure the hardness will not be effected on the edge because of the fineness of the nickel and the amount of layers in the pattern, also the nickel does not cross the edge, so we will be fine. Hardness tests will confirm at various points in the pattern. And I think this pattern will look better on the narrower ordered blades, so the other will be used for the Gyuto's and the Nakiri. This one for the Petty and Suji.



Anyway I want to get one forged out to look at this slightly unplanned version of the pattern, Ht and hardness test. So Ed's 270 Suji for his carving set is up first



Forged a little bit over profile so it can be fettled on the grinder from here.


----------



## scott6452

Great stuff Will, I absolutely love the "problem" billet!


----------



## WillC

Yeah me too, I also think there will be no real noticeable difference on the edge in this case. However if that is the case it kind of undermines my structural pattern, but hey ho In any case both will be able to be left much harder and remain more stable than a standard carbon damascus mix. Like 63 hrc rather than 60/61.


----------



## Nasr

Next Level skill on display


----------



## WillC

Thank you Sir, well there is probably a saying about pushing the boundaries making mistakes and learning to get closer to perfection. 
Ed's Suji from the accidental billet.



I heat treated it, cryo to max hardness. There are large differences in hardness between my uber carbon mix and the mix with veins of pure nickel, (Which should be on the spine half only) The super damascus is 66hrc everywhere, the nickel veined parts test uniformly at 56 hrc. I'm surprised tiny veins of pure nickel make that much difference but it does as tested. I will finish this blade to keep with me as an example.
So I have enough of the stuff that works for 3 of 6 orders. it looks great on the blade too but i'll keep you in suspense about that. This stuff will not be wasted, I will mke a composite of it with and edge steel to use for wide blades like special grind nakiri, will look stunning in that format. I will make some more of the feather damascus as planned next week for the other orders. So bit of a set back, but it does all translate to more material and more great knives ultimately. 
I got a couple of stainless damascus clad pieces welded up at the end of today also, and a proper test of my new burner. Its the beans 
Held upper stainless welding temps to within a few degrees with much less fettling than my previous set up.



Equally accurate control at 800 degrees or so for heat cycling, turned down so much here its just pushing out a visibly slow rolling curtain of flame, bearly running and holding 800 degrees to within 10 degrees or so.



Someone clever worked this one out a long time ago and its put together with off the shelf parts, I'm sure you can get something similar out there, here tis


----------



## WillC

Here we have a 240mm Gyuto from the feather billet which was all the correct orientation. Ed's suji is a write off due to the soft Nickel parts near the edge. Gutting, but thats the way things play sometimes, I not be having any days off for sometime pushing through. But at least when I have finished there will be more damascus than planned.
Anyway this is a 240mm from the good billet. The bolder parts a little distortion but it should look fab all finished and polished.
Profile, this could be Chucks...







After cryo, 66 hrc everywhere on the edge half of the blade, 55 hrc spine half. Success.






Plenty of length for profile tweaks....


Out of interest this is the mongrel pattern. Looks ok in places, I have welded an 01 edge on the rest of the billet, will forge it out into a few Nakiri, hopefully will get something decent out of it, or hours and hours of work down the toilet, c'est la vit. 




Im going to coventry to pick up a new grinder for the Apprentice to learn on tomorrow, Something like a Raduis master, complete with guards and meets health and safety guidelines....So will be quite lonely in my shop:laugh:
Anyway the lad starts wednesday, I say lad, he is 40  And quite a skilled man. It will be handy to get some help prepping all these billets at the moment and getting the shop in order. So thats all good. :nunchucks:


----------



## Mrmnms

that blank is insane Will! Good luck with the new guy. Looks like we'll be seeing some new Catchsides more often. 2 thumbs up


----------



## WillC

Thanks Mike, we shall get there, would be nice to actually finish a knife of some sort this week. Damascus making is going on a bit longer than planned.:biggrin:


----------



## WillC

Sneaky peak of some just finished handles are now gluing up will sharpen get some photos and specs for each and add to my site over the weekend.
All in stainless/stainless dammy clad carbon.


----------



## sachem allison

Big Sigh!


----------



## ejd53

Boy Will, those are gorgeous. It was exciting to see my "almost suji", but that's the way things go. Only makes it that much better when it finally arrives. The feather Damascus is fantastic.


----------



## Twistington

One day... one day you will make a knife for me you talented SOB.


----------



## WillC

Thanks Guys, yep bit gutted about that billet of feather, The plan is to remake the whole batch as I have a better idea for the the construction with the nickel stuff and the edge material. Then I can use the pick of the lot for the commission pieces.


----------



## Mrmnms

ejd53 said:


> Boy Will, those are gorgeous. It was exciting to see my "almost suji", but that's the way things go. Only makes it that much better when it finally arrives. The feather Damascus is fantastic.


The almost suji is something else. Love the parers. They won't last a day.


----------



## Bacon Bandit

I really like your craft style!!!


----------



## Timthebeaver

Nasr said:


> Next level skill on display



+1.


----------



## jklip13

what is the yellow tape for?


----------



## WillC

Thank you fellow knife fiends.  
The Yellow Tape, is simply the prevent epoxy from getting where it dont wana be gettin.


----------



## WillC

I have a busy end of week, and weekend getting this lot all done I reckon  Finally getting the last of the stainless batch out. Laying handle parts out to be cut, prepped etc. 



I think thin black spacer between damascus parts and end cap here...



Buffalo/copper/walnut



Not forgetting John's....



Looking good this time around, A little more work to do on the bevel then a final grind in the hollows then finishing......

Got 3 blades HT'd too today, but they will be for next week now...


----------



## WillC

Silly little thing stopped progress on these today, I busted my little cutter I use to make the holes for the tang in metal parts and had to order replacements. So In the end I had to busy myself with other things today. But will will have what I need to carry on monday.


----------



## statusquo

Hey Will, any updates? :crossfingers:


----------



## WillC

Sorry for the pause...I had a terrible flu last week and was away for the weekend.
Anyway, Happy Thanks giving is in order I believe
A few pics of some work about to be finished.


[/URL[URL=http://s798.photobucket.com/user/catcheside/media/IMG_0729_zps04f1619d.jpg.html]














All the stainless lot will be finally done and out by next week, including the cleaver.
My focus before xmas is to get as much of the feather damascus batch done as possible. I think that will have me tied up until after xmas, when I do have the damascus clad knives to do, before I can crack on with 2014 orders. I will be officially opening orders again soon with the new years menu


----------



## V1P

Hi Will, been admiring your work for sometime now. I promised myself I would get one of your work one of these days.

What steel is the last one, really like that one. Handle combination is also perfect.

Ferry


----------



## WillC

Thanks very much.  
The last one is the Ladder stainless damascus carbon san mai. It has an 01 carbon core, I made a WIP on this knife, the handle is Flamed redwood and stainless damascus with Jadeite spacer. Should be all finished tomorrow and I can get some proper pics. The finish is close to mirror and Im looking forward to getting some quality pictures 
These are all spoken for though I will be adding more stock to my site for xmas and and taking orders again for next year very soon.


----------



## statusquo

Although you appear to be missing a gyuto these are super nice! What's the white ferrule made of?


----------



## WillC

Its a rather nice faux bone material from finland. Smells rather delightfully of coconut as I grind it Don't worry I will get to yours


----------



## bahamaroot

Will you make as beautiful a knife and handle as anyone! Maybe some day i will be lucky enough to own one!


----------



## pennman

What is the source for the Finnish fake bone material?


----------



## WillC

I have allot of handles to fix in place on monday now...... Here is one with my version of a D handle with damascus fittings. Looking forward to getting some well lit gallery shots next week...



















These are 3 for my shop all set to handle next week. The two stainless damascus D2 core, and one Petty in a sexy mosaic pattern, with matching ferrule. Will work out what Im doing with handles for these next week. That is like a side line to getting on with the major mission which is to forge some more feather damascus.


----------



## marc4pt0

Ok I'll say it. You D-shape handles looking freaking amazing!


----------



## WillC

Thanks. Im particularly happy with it. The shape has evolved a little for the better I think. I have left the rear flared and only tapered in th front. This feels really good in hand and I like the shapes. Really pleased also with the split ferrule with two aspects of damascus on display....I will have to play with this idea further....
It is however an utter pig making this shape with damascus parts, therefore this shape option in damascus will have to be somewhat taxed over Octagonal/taper.


----------



## Mrmnms

Man those are nice Will!


----------



## WillC

Mountains and mountains of damascus in production. We have the feather damascus for the last of last years blades, and random for san mai. Enough Feather for a few of the first 2014 commissions too, A basket weave, which I am going to feather and cross with half a feather billet. Another billet of basket woven W's, in two types of material. And finally the billets from my powder experiments I have combined with an 01 edge, and am stacking now for the loaf. Lots of damascus, will see some blades taking shape next week!










New bandsaw is working out very well, super fast and easy to use. This will allow me to take very accurate slices and angle cuts, making all sorts of possibilities.





Slice off the experiments with powered steel and nickel, before last couple of stacks for the loaf.


----------



## Lefty

Sigh...that parer.......


----------



## riba

WillC said:


>



Out of this world!


----------



## WillC

Pretty cool isn't it. I finished the Loaf of it today, may have compressed the pattern too much will have to see. From a slice off the end that I heavily etched I also noticed a few voids, where something was trapped and got stuck until the acid removed it. On one particular part of the pattern, so may have been an issue in one of the start cans, will have to see, but we will make something nice out of it. 
the powders are not available in the uk, I have to get them sent form the states, but I will be trying some more in the future....
Some pictures coming shortly from todays damascus times. Really getting into the swing again to be honest. :biggrin:


----------



## WillC

Some stainless steel clad cpm 3v blades forged, profiled and heat cycled. Lots of heat cycling and annealing with these to ensure the 3v is prepared for heat treatment......

Looking forward to trying this steel, I'm really pleased to have cracked the welding of this steel, it was very very heat and soak time critical, I had a fair few failures. But these billets welded up very nicely.





This is my current HT set up, Oven is for materials which need a pre-temper as soon as they have been quenched. The HT over gets used allot for heat cycling and annealing of billets during damascus production too. A very important step in damascus production is heat cycling, especially when you get into anything more spicy than a standard 1095/15n20 mix.

Damascus Loaves get 3 heat cycles followed by a full anneal before pickling then slicing for individual knives on the bandsaw.





I love watching the textures in a lump of damascus as it shimmers and cools. scale forming and popping off revealing luscious textures.

Some pattern development to get an idea of the type of pattern we are looking at for one of the finished billets. 
We have two different billets. One with more simple carbon steels and pure nickel, there will be two bars of this pattern repeated across the knife. It will be very pretty with the nickel and will be of medium hardness and more tough.... compared to the edge material, which will be very harder...





This is the edge material with a harder mix. 01 and 15n20, in a finer pattern to get the best out of the combined steels.



Something like this but with a second bar of the nickel pattern, middle and spine. This repeated across the blade. Depending on how good I get the compression etc.....






I think this will be one of the custom 2014 options, see how it turns out....

Material that goes to plan will be offered to those waiting for options on 2014 mosaic...


----------



## WillC

Well I am still working through the damascus. Had a break from it today to heat treat the cpm 3v san mai blades.





There is a hell of a lot to getting the Ht of this steel right, fortunately I found a guide from someone who actually knows what he is doing.

In an ideal world and referring to my Verhoven. Cryro should be immediately after quench. 











In this case, the difference in expansion rates between the 304 and the 3v split the core straight up the middle upon deep freezing....

Still at least I know my welds are very good, and we can have a look at some grain breaks.

Very fine grain, somewhere between 01 and Aeb-l
Note the difference in the smooth core compared to the granular grain of the 304 cladding. 




This is all exposed grain from the centre of the core, very nice.







Anyway the others stayed in one piece by snap tempering briefly before cryo.

Here is what I'm using for handles, they will for a change be all made from man made materials, even the dowel. The blocks are Kevlar Micarta with brassy bits...







Should polish up nice, deep browny red with shiny brass bits.


Then to Finnish off some more damascus... Excuse arty texture shot attempts.








Got this big Suji forged out of half of the powder damascus billet. Has a killer taper forged in from 4mm down to about 1.5mm currently before HT and grind.


----------



## CoqaVin

what is the height on the suji?


----------



## WillC

By the time it is Heat treated, profile trimmed a bit more and ground will be about 45/46mm Currently 310mm length.


----------



## CoqaVin

that is a big guy


----------



## WillC

Feather damascus, final stacks. Very nice being able to make a precise cut for the last stack using the stop on the bandsaw:big grin:

















Welded and cleaned up ready for the big split the splits:bigeek:





Heat cycling some other finished billets while the fire is hot, excuse more arty fire shots....


----------



## WillC

Weather is horrid, continuous high wind and torrential rain for weeks now. Lots of flooding......But not in my workshop, so shut the door and power on through

Feather damascus lumps, pre split, make sure they are split the right way.....







































Half of one and half, tother...















Pairs all matched up size wise...









And final job for the day. First 3v core blade ground for abuse and comparisons. 








And sharp. Quite tough stuff to sharpen, but not impossible and boy does it get sharp! More to come on that.


----------



## CoqaVin

what are the size on the 3v's?


----------



## WillC

I think about 180mm on the two Petty. And one 210 Gyuto.
Gona give this one some abuse and testing first though, straight off I am unable to warp or chip the edge on a brass rod, so the heat treat looks to be spot on. It harder to sharpen than the D2, but probably harder with this heat treatment than I took the D2. Its not impossible to sharpen, easier than say cpm 30v. I'll do some proper testing at some point over the weekend and see how I like it in food..... I'm forging again tomorrow....... on a mission


----------



## CoqaVin

good stuff are yo ugoing to sell them what hrc are you trying to achieve?


----------



## foodaholic

Thanks for the WIP pics, I am constantly amazed at what you are able to achieve. Hopefully one day I will be able to own one!


----------



## WillC

They will be 61/62 rc. Hard to test in san mai. I could test a slice off a billet after heat treating... But the edge characteristics tell me what I need to know. Yes I will send out a mail shot when they become available


----------



## WillC

foodaholic said:


> Thanks for the WIP pics, I am constantly amazed at what you are able to achieve. Hopefully one day I will be able to own one!



Much appreciated, I'm enjoying my new documenting rig, an old canon 20d and a fast 50mm lens, on a tripod. I have a timer thing on the way too, to make these "selfies" a bit easier to pull off...:biggrin:


----------



## CoqaVin

what are the specs on the 180 and 210 sorry for asking so many questions


----------



## WillC

The Petty, just over 40mm height, 3mm over the heel, full distal taper, 170-180mm length.
The Gyuto, not ground yet but looking like it will be 50mm, 3.5mm over the heel, 200-210mm length......
They are 3v clad in 304 stainless. I was going to try out that new kevlar micarta with the brassy bits and black faux bone with suitable spacers, to follow the elegant but hard core theme of these...


----------



## Bill13

Really looking forward to seeing the handles. I can't figure out what they are going to look like.


----------



## WillC

Nor me, lol, not used micarta much before let alone kevlar with brass thread micarta! Hoping it will look like nice coffee bag type with shiny brass bits.


----------



## WillC

Feather damascus finally finished and heat cycled ready to slice on monday. Got another blade forged out and a quick grind and dirty etch on both these. The Suji is from the powder billet, quite allot of distortion but should be very pretty when its all polished and etched properly. I figured out what the pitting is, its just the mild steel from the original can over etching when pickling, hopefully will get it all out on the final grind. The other i'm very very pleased with how it looks.


----------



## icanhaschzbrgr

Awesome blades Will!


----------



## erikz

Looking very good!


----------



## Burl Source

Thank you for posting the great photos Will.
Sounds like you and I are having similar weather.
Sure we need the rain, .....but sideways?


----------



## scotchef38

That suji looks amazing!


----------



## ejd53

Stunning work as usual, Will.


----------



## WillC

Thank you kind sirs. A couple about to be completed....









Next week, 4 feather damascus blades and one of my forged damascus forks.


----------



## WillC

These are basically done, will post some completely finished tomorrow. I feel like it should be friday already, enjoying a glass of plonk before I join the land of never never, zzzz
Tomorrow forging more blades from the feather damascus loaves....


----------



## marc4pt0

Man, these are absolutely stunning!


----------



## WillC

Cheers Ears, the steel situation has evolved a fair bit, there is a differential heat treatment, but its in the choice of steel, the spine bad has pure nickel and 1080, will be about 57hrc, the middle busy explosion band will be about 58hrc, the 01 on the edge in this case will be about 61hrc. 
Straight out of the etch the blacks are super black due to the 01 and pure nickel, there are a few stages of finishing beyond this to remove the oxides but leaves some darks, after this you can see all the different materials more 3d.. after the etch though with plain black/silver is very easy to photograph. After all the finishing processes, everything is more polished and looks so much better in the flesh, but much harder to photograph, everyone with me


----------



## split0101

That pattern is tremendous. I cant wait to get my name called!


----------



## Nuts63

Great looking knives Will


----------



## gavination

This is absolutely unreal what you can do with steel. I'm in utter awe and amazement... and drool. Nice work!!


----------



## V1P

Wow, is that one of your composite damascus Will?

Ferry


----------



## apathetic

That really looks stunning!!!!!


----------



## wellminded1

Looks amazing Will.


----------



## WillC

Thanks guys, its mosaic with an edge weld.


----------



## WillC

This is leading on from making the feather damascus Loaves.....

Now I cut slices off the loaf and forge each into a knife....










































Look at the way the feather damascus pattern flows into the forged tang. This is a big advantage of forging, and gives a different look to grinding from blanks, more organic, less controlled.

















Will grind from here, 




These two profiles done, Bryce 210mm chef, actually 215mm





Charlies protein slicer, currently 240mm 

Hope you like the profiles Fellas 





Eds Suji and one more tomorrow, then to heat treatment, grind and reveal the magic.


----------



## WillC

Missed Bryce's 210 gyuto profile picture.


----------



## Burl Source

I sure enjoy seeing these photos Will. Thank You


----------



## Chefu

Very cool pictures of the WIP.


----------



## WarrenB

Really nice pics, did someone take them for you or are they a tripod and timer set up?


----------



## WillC

Hello Warren, sorry for my lack of reply, I have been having a tough couple of weeks. I got myself an old canon 20d and a 50mm lens, I have it set up on a tripod with a timer.....It makes for some nice surprise shots....Since I have been using the dslr I can't bring myself to use anything else
Lots going on in the workshop, will get some pics up soon.


----------



## WarrenB

WillC said:


> Hello Warren, sorry for my lack of reply, I have been having a tough couple of weeks. I got myself an old canon 20d and a 50mm lens, I have it set up on a tripod with a timer.....It makes for some nice surprise shots....Since I have been using the dslr I can't bring myself to use anything else
> Lots going on in the workshop, will get some pics up soon.



Hi Will, no worries about the lack of quick reply as I know how busy most of the people on here are:thumbsup:
Have you tried doing any long exposure shooting? might look good with the trails of sparks flying about I am in the Nikon camp myself at the moment:scared2: love the 50mm lens on it, got the older manual focus one and it takes beautiful pics for the £50-£60 you can pick them up for:biggrin:


----------



## WillC

Im sure Nikon are fab, I went canon as I picked one up at a bargain price and I can borrow my brothers expensive lenses if required. Between the kit lens the 50mm plastic fantastic and a rather nice 60mm macro seems to have it covered for workshop and end product photographs. 

I had to have a break from grinding today so I set about forging damascus carving forks and a cheeky little, well quite chunky tasting spoon from stainless....

Soon to be forks, the process for these is to forge to shape, then grind the last of the profiling in as these are damascus and will want to be hand finished and etched....
































Now split for the tines, next step will be to separate the them and forge them out... then I will draw the rest from the rest of the lump...

I have been wanting to try a forged tasting spoon for a while, so here is one, my way, forged from 20mm stainless steel.









































She is pretty an authoritative spoon I would say, suitable for a sharp clock to the head from senior chef if the flavour does not meet his exacting standards...













And finally what is in grind process.....lots 

Feather damascus.....




This is the slice off the end of the loaf, the pattern will stretch out from here as its forged into blades but just for a taste....





And some others...


----------



## WarrenB

I hate this forum sometimes!!!! I could end up with a kitchen full of handmade everything if I keep seeing stuff like this:biggrin:


----------



## erikz

Wow Will, thanks for the pictures, great to see the different stages your work goes through!


----------



## Mrmnms

"She is pretty an authoritative spoon I would say, suitable for a sharp clock to the head from senior chef if the flavour does not meet his exacting standards..." Almost wet my pants Will. Gonna try this at home... fist with a rubber spatula or sponge
Spoon looks like a WINNER. Maybe for a Fall Collection?


----------



## Erilyn75

Beautiful spoon. I love how it's not smoothed out. Reminds of something our ancestors might have used back in the day.


----------



## WillC

Thanks guys n girls, yes sometimes the simple ways are nice


----------



## WillC

This batch are all getting finished off, just the polish and etch on the handles to go, two more Gyuto's to etch too.





Honing the whole bevels after the etch, a great advantage to having the hollows for maintenance.

















1500 grit prior to the etch.





Two different feather variations side by side. On both the edge and spine side are different materials. Edge side is double high carbon, very hard yet tough still due to the combination and fineness of the pattern. 62/63hrc Spine side has pure nickel in the mix.









Still got to polish and etch the damascus handle parts.













This shows up the extra shine in the pure nickel, it also etches a bit deeper than the double high carbon mix.







Getting there!


----------



## WillC

All the bold pattern knives are to commission. Some of the others will be available as well as some san mai this month. I have to move workshop at the end of the month! So will help with the couple of weeks downtime during the move. To be fair I give my mailing list first priority of any extra knives before they hit the store. You can get on my mailing list here,
http://www.catchesidecutlery.com/shop.html
And you can get an idea of pricing from blade size from my custom order page. Thanks.


----------



## icanhaschzbrgr

Damn Will! Those aren't kitchen knives, those are work of art! 
Stunning look!

 I'm seriously considering robbing some bank or selling a kidney in order to get myself a nice damascus Catchside knife


----------



## erikz

You can't do this to us Will... you're killing me!


----------



## Matus

That is amazing work.


----------



## jimbob

Sweet knives mate. But seriously, i want that spoon..


----------



## wellminded1

San mai you say????


----------



## WillC

San mai I say!
Yes we have progress, after the move, I shuffled around in there for a while, realising I had run out of this and that, and lost this and that. Then my back started playing up, finally all sorted and really happy working in there now.
Anyway a few different things so Ill put them here in general updates.
A couple in san mai. One damascus clad 01 one plain clad.
This is the plain clad before the weld, thats all 01 in the middle, will be a nice high weld line as the customer would like an almost hazy hamon like effect, which is what I will go for on the finish.....





This is the Dammy clad after the weld.





The workshop is actually not unbearably hot despite the heatwave.....it helps that I have this chair to sit for a second.....





With a 2hp forge blower pointed directly at me 





So here are these 3 about to be heat treated........ the third is another blade in the powder damascus....





Last week I also made a sort of start for the first composite set in getting the Ladder made and set up. I needed to do a test piece in a simple laminate before using it on a mixture of 6 different damascus billets that will make up each composite blade.......

The press tool...... I've made it for a deep, tight ladder, may not need to be this much, will only be able to tell from the finished test piece....





Here was a test bar in 600 plus layers of double high carbon. I have already ground one side off, but it was like this both sides, and staggered...... You loose half the thickness of the piece to the workshop floor!!!





This is where a big Mill or a surface grinder help the grinding tedium...... I ground the lumps down with a 9" grinding disc by hand then, ripped it down flat with a 36 grit belt on my big horizontal linisher.....









We have left a still rather sizeable blank.....





From which I decided to make a nice big meat slicer....





Blade length 360mm, 









She is beefy!! Will get a tad more taper but lots of meat left in, will have a wide double bevel, should look great with the tight ladder.













I played around with the profile a bit, will probably fiddle some more after HT.









And something western style will be happening, but will have to take my time over that..... The main goal for now is to see what the steel looks like then get on with the first set commission. 

[



And `i think I settled on the wood for the powder, one of the hardest knives I have chosen wood for for some reason 





Cheers all, more updates next week, and any advice on the slicer/carving knife/mini fish sword??welcome. The plan is to use my damascus at normal hardness, 62/63 hrc, take it thin but leave a little of a wider steeper. edge bevel than usual. I know these steels are super tough together even at this hardness, together they make a steel capable of greater stability at a higher hardness, which is why I love the combo......here I have to allow for being used against bones etc, a slightly wider bevel I think will allow for that......will see.... Will be as hard and thin at the edge as I dare go given the use..... To be honest I feel if the HT is right I am more worried about chips from against the fork. But if I make the fork softer, and give it a slightly more robust edge geometry you will just have notches in your fork instead
Would be very invested to hear on what your all out carvers are like, hardness, and the geometry you like to maintain for working around large boned joints and fish.


----------



## Burl Source

Congratulations on getting things going in the new shop.
I can't wait to see how these turn out.
Looking good so far.


----------



## wellminded1

Amazing.


----------



## Lefty

Love these threads from you, Will. That Western will be really cool to see.


----------



## WillC

I have started to think about the western construction on the slicer, despite it being a bit of a distraction. :spankarse:
I found a chunk of damascus for the bolster to forge down, tried some colour case hardening on it, ( hot bluing) Im going to try and use this treatment in this Slicer handle to test it out. Its a good semi permanent finish if done right, it can be buffed to a high finish like on case hardened shotgun parts.






I had to grind the slicer to check my ladder dies are going to be ok for the sets.









Its double bevel, some nice taper now, from 5mm down to about 2.8mm before it tapers down with the bevel....
Im conferring with a meat expert......But this will be like a heavy Suji, slicing Proteins in larger sizes. Or a show off sunday dinner:knife: As such I'm grinding it thin at the edge.....and have taken the temper a touch over what these steels can be down to around 61/62. These are super tough together at around this hardness. 

After the etch, Im pretty sure I want to fully grind/convex it the rest of the way, make the most of that pattern and shed a tad more weight......Just a quick etch after a belt finish....













The ladder dies were a success though, I'm pleased with that tight even ladder.............
360mm heel to tip.

Next to grind these san mai having completed all the temper cycles on those while messing about with handle parts and grinding.


----------



## marc4pt0

That's some seriously sexy Damascus!


----------



## WillC

Cheers Mark, Cant beat a good old fashioned ladder! Pleased the dies worked out.


----------



## Lefty

Man, I need more of your work.


----------



## Mrmnms

The Damascus looks beautifully executed Will.


----------



## erikz

Mrmnms said:


> The Damascus looks beautifully executed Will.



**


----------



## Chefu

Very nice work, looks like it is going to be a head turner when finished!


----------



## daddy yo yo

Stunning already!


----------



## WillC

Made a little progress on the 360mm Slicer today whilst damascus was heat cycling and while waiting for various supplies......
Grind completed. I decided to fully grind it, glad I did it will work best with the pattern and it is a heavy knife, needed the extra taper and weight loss that a full grind provides......
Its just over 5mm thick spine over heel, to about 3mm around 50mm from the tip, from there it tapers down to a thin but convexly robust tip. I have tried it on a joint of meat and it works very nicely I think.

Spine is rounded now, everything down to about 200 grit, so the hard graft done, just finishing to go.









Kinda gives an idea of the taper, but distorted by the camera.....





Next I've been mulling over handle construction given that I am going to be surface treating the Bolster after final finish so will need to fit exact.....

So I've been machining a cunning bolt arrangement for the back of the handle...... will thread over a threaded bar welded to the tang. You might not quite see how this is going to work at the moment but all will become clear....

















Next to glue on the angle end cap and make a slightly different sort of jig to rough cut the handle shape......

But for now back to damascus......


----------



## marc4pt0

Whoa!


----------



## Bigbadwolfen

Amazing looking carver! Have you stopped updating this tread or just very busy lately? Do you make pettys ~150mm in your feather Damascus?


----------



## CowichanBay

marc4pt0 said:


> Whoa!



+1!!!


----------



## Mrmnms

What an awesome knife. If If only it was just a little longer for me . My Catcheside petty is used every day


----------



## WillC

Have been doing some more san mai as I have some different core materials to play with. 01 has been causing me a huge headache with plain clad, it likes to split up the core as it seems the expansion rates are too different. They split on HT, usually not all the way, but enough to make a large piece quite allot smaller  
Besides that I have a small bar of White 1 steel, a gift from Maxim at the Gathering, thanks mate

I wanted to make the most of the steel and also try out a process for some single bevel work in the future. So I did these a very traditional way, which is very frugal on core steel

I made up a slightly different mix of flux too, with heated borax, steel filings and graphite.

After heating it all until the moisture is removed from the borax, it gets pulverised into a grey powder......





Mild steel and white 1 core steel. The core is L shaped, the long side is for the edge side, therefore infront and into the tang is soft steel only. 





Pieces fluxed and brushed clean and refluxed, then put in place....





And into the forge, did not tack them the molten flux sticks it in place enough and long as you don't knock it over!!!





So these are some san mai to add to the Mono blades coming up on my site over next few weeks.





Mono steel pair on the left, then a Stainless clad Suji in 1.2442 core, a plain clad 1.2442 and the two plain clad White 1 knives, these were of course brine quenched

The 1.2442 steel I ground and tested at home, very nice steel, great hardness, similar to Blue 1 on the tungsten but should have a finer grain with less carbon and chromium. Tests would confirm this, very hard, but still on the tough side, edge is more toothy to the touch but it takes a super edge on holds it very well.


----------



## WillC

Here is the 1.2442 steel composition. I will be using it with stainless and stainless damascus clad work. Its designed to be used hard 65 hrc. Performs best at this level of hardness.
http://zknives.com/knives/steels/steelgraph.php?nm=Blue 1 , 1.2442&hrn=1&gm=0


----------



## WillC

Needs a more catchy name than 1.2442 steel though? Its been around a long time and was an early HSS tooling steel. Achim Wirtz sell it in the EU as a blade steel.


----------



## Mangelwurzel

I know that Tilman is a big fan of 1.2442 as his carbon option. I think it's also quite similar to O1.


----------



## WillC

Thanks bud, its a different beast to 01.....1.2442 has 2% tungsten, 1.25% carbon and no vanadium. 01 is very fine grained indeed with very little excess carbon, (above 0.8) and only small amounts of alloy ,this one is most similar to Blue paper 1, with a slightly finer grain as it has less excess carbon and less chromium, (compared to blue 1) however Its on the medium/toothy spectrum as far as edge behaviour. Both are great steels, but different flavours really.


----------



## marc4pt0

looking fwd to seeing these come up, Will.
Always enjoy the depth in which you take you WIP's!


----------



## chinacats

marc4pt0 said:


> looking fwd to seeing these come up, Will.
> Always enjoy the depth in which you take you WIP's!


+1

BTW, I love 1.2442, nice choice!


----------



## Mrmnms

Count me in for one with this steel San Mai .


----------



## Andrey V

WillC said:


> Here is the 1.2442 steel composition. I will be using it with stainless and stainless damascus clad work. Its designed to be used hard 65 hrc. Performs best at this level of hardness.
> http://zknives.com/knives/steels/steelgraph.php?nm=Blue 1 , 1.2442&hrn=1&gm=0



Hi, Will, did you mean this steel while our last discussion?


----------



## WillC

Kind of, its an excellent steel. Im hoping Achim makes another batch of 145SC pure carbon steel next year also. Which would be more like White 1, a simple 1.5% carbon steel. But this steel is fantastic and gets great hardness, but if you prefer white 1 to blue 1, maybe we use something else.


----------



## Mangelwurzel

Hey Will, I heard there was only one tonne of it made. I'm lucky enough to have a suji in SC145 in the pipeline  I'm very excited to see the results!!


----------



## WillC

Next lot will be 4 tons, but not sure when that will be. Hopefully next year and I will stock up. Congrats on the Suji!


----------



## WillC

Quick phone snaps of how the first 1.2442 core stainless san mai turned out, and this weeks mono knives.


----------



## daddy yo yo

Man, I have been to Hereford twice in the past years without knowing that you live and work there... Too bad!!!


----------



## WillC

Well you should drop in next time, Im in a little village called Peterstow, in the heart of cider country


----------



## WillC

Some general workshop Updates, here is a list of what is on my bench at the finishing handling stages.

Stainless damascus batch, finishing two up for customers this weekend.
Yanagiba project, test piece at this stage
Composite test piece Nakiri, finishing handle over the weekend, Will be available next week.
Carving Set, spoken for.

In grinding stage we have....
3 blades from stainless damascus batch.... one will be available due to a cancelled order.
Stainless San mai, 1.2442 core spoken for.

In Heat treatment next week we have the last of the composite blade commissions, 3 altogether.

In Damascus production I am just finishing Feather damascus for a few of the Mosaic commissions and some high layer double carbon for Ladder....And am a few stages in to Production for my last set commission for this year, but will keep that under my hat for a while 

So next to the bench after this lot will be Feather damascus pieces for customers, hopefully in about 3 weeks time if I all goes well 


In the mean time some random shots during hand finishing from the Stainless damascus and Yanagi-ba.... A quick dirty stone finish to show the pattern in the stainless damascus before full polish.

Im using various stones and grits at various stages of finishing both edgewise , controlling geometry precisely into the edge and surface finish, not just for the look but for the mechanical way they cut or prepare a surface for the next stage, will go more into details of this another time





















http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy262/catcheside/2015/IMG_1826_zps6fdf****.jpg


----------



## WillC

Laying out handle parts for the stainless dmazzzzcuses.....

These are my stainless dammy front and end cap.....some possible layouts here.....










Endcaps, laddered for a bit more visible layers on the end... One extra for a special something else i thought of today.


----------



## WillC

And the Jewel in the crown of my day....... finishing the blades......

Made using my special extra secret ingredient.........elbow grease......dam I let slip 


Laddered 180mm stainless damascus 1.2442 @ 65 hrc





















And the 240mm stainless damascus clad 1.2442 @ 65 hrc core......, classic random......oil on water.....

















All in all a rather productive day.

Have a great weekend everyone


----------



## Timthebeaver

...smh

Unmatched levels of craftsmanship. I'd love to visit your shop someday Will.


----------



## WillC

You would be most welcome, its good to have visitors  A couple of weeks ago I gave a kind of talk and demo to 30 Steiner school children, all about 8 years of age, full of beans and questions, I did some forge welding and showed them some etched pieces of laminates with some basic as possible explanations. It was an exciting half an hour, I should have got it on video really but in the excitement did not think of it. It was a struggle to find enough safety glasses, fortunately they brought a few from the science lab.


----------



## Timthebeaver

No problem with bringing safety glasses (Professor, Chemistry). Doing schools outreach myself I know how much fun it can be.

I lived in Bristol (and in Bath) for a while - right place, wrong time. I'm back in the West Country a couple of times a year though, I'd love to take you up on that someday.


----------



## WillC

Thanks Tim, It was fun, many were asking the right question, but over and over again Some of the boys just wanted to know about the drill press at the end after showing them forge welding and pretty damascus.... I said its just a drill....it drills holes.... does it work upside down on the roof they asked..........its a bit heavy to be up there I said...


----------



## WillC




----------



## WillC

Customers went for solid pure nickel spacers on one and nickel silver on the other, All are hard silver soldered to the stainless damascus, looks luscious and one less glued joint to worry about, Metal/metal glued joints are always the most iffy, especially when they get warm on finishing. So makes for the strongest possible construction as well as having a nice detail of a hairline of Silver in the joint.


----------



## WillC

Handle shaping today.......


----------



## mark76

This is wicked. Very beautiful!


----------



## WillC

I have been rather neglecting you all, sorry about that, but Ive been here in the background, and pretty much in the workshop dawn till dusk

Here are a few things on the table at the moment.

Feather Damascus custom batch with custom profiles, in the grind....

Will be my old school tight feather pattern but in my latest materials. Will update as we go...





A Huge Gyuto in the works, In the Historic weapons grade iron clad 1.2442 core.

Here forging the tang then entire geometry of the knife, taper , and hollow forged bevels.













































End result, 320mm length 60mm height. 5mm spine over heel, full distal taper and bevels, current edge is at around 2mm, soft hollow forged. May do this one forge finish and just grind lower bevels, or may just follow the forged geometry with the grind to show off the gorgeous iron....See how it turn out. Beast for sure though.....One for those Tuna!

In heat treatment this weekend we have...





Thats the two new Catcheside Integrals, triple quenched silver steel. A long overdue stainless san mai!
The iron clad Giant, and a couple of pretty nickel damascus clad parers.

Some close ups of the integrals raw forgework before HT and grind.....





















And here were this weeks sale knives, Will update some finished pieces to the gallery later. 





Thanks All


----------



## Matus

Super cool Will, thanks for sharing.


----------



## Mrmnms

Man do I love your wip's. Amazing work. Worth scrolling back some.


----------



## WillC

Thanks you two 

Heres some more random progress...

Composite piece in the works...



















Integrals


----------



## WillC

Yep your right there there bolster has nearly as many different parts as the blade, I can always rely on myself for a decent conversation.


----------



## WillC

Working on some sale pieces the last few days, monos with the new HT and a forged one in the very special iron clad.

Heat cycling.







Heat treated a few to grind over the weekend. The Jersey Canon iron one, really deep profile, due to forging bevels, very softly hollow, then a wide bevel and leave the forge finish as it came out so nice and geometry spot on. Test cutting went very very nicely  Core is 1.2442 @ 65hrc





This one to grind up tomorrow, a fillet, all forged thus far including bevels giving it its shape, thickish at the handle with some wicked taper, will have flex for the last half of the blade. Will have a nice western amboyna handle with a soldered nickel guard


----------



## HHH Knives

Will, Always impressive. Thanks for sharing!


----------



## WillC

Thanks Randy your a gent


----------



## WillC

Sneaky peak at these two contrasting pieces, ready to etch logo and continue finishing tomorrow.

























And a rough grind on the boner....










Thanks for looking 

Will


----------



## Pensacola Tiger

Loving that integral bolster, Will!


----------



## Mrmnms

+1


Pensacola Tiger said:


> Loving that integral bolster, Will!


----------



## malexthekid

Pensacola Tiger said:


> Loving that integral bolster, Will!



+2 it looks sexy as


----------



## chinacats

Will, both look outstanding, what would you call the finish on the other (non-integral) knife? Looks almost like nashiji (?) or pear finish.

Cheers


----------



## toddnmd

Big wow on the integral . . .


----------



## WillC

Thanks all got these all finished this morning, will get some pics tomorrow showing the details.

The Gyuto is forge finish I just like to remove the scale/oxide and polish it up a bit to show the metal. Very proud of this one as the geometry of the knife is entirely forged right down to the ground bevel. Distal taper, and softly hollow forged bevels all the way to the bevel. Less grind but lots more forging, I like forging


----------



## erikz

Wow, just wow! As the others I love the integral bolster!!!


----------



## CowichanBay

erikz said:


> Wow, just wow! As the others I love the integral bolster!!!



Agreed!!


----------



## WillC

Thanks all for comments, it keeps me going, 

And I don't need much encouragement though. I've been on finishing the grind on the 12 bar composite basket weave twist piece and getting the hand finish started so its at the same point as the three Feather damascus pieces, all four of which I will be handling next week....exciting times 

Here are the blades laid out with some of the handle materials, some will have sterling silver in the handles some copper, together with damascus. The end one is going to be sterling silver/ Musk ox/and the nicest piece of snakewood I have ever seen.....

All spoken for.....


----------



## WillC

Carving set in progress today, waiting on some of Marks lovely Desert ironwood for the handles


----------



## mikedtran

FREAKING AMAZING!!!


----------



## WillC

Thanks Mike...She's a stripe one isn't she? Twisted nickel between 15n20 and good old 1080, all forged to shape before finishing. Little bit of drop point on the carver for a change, the idea being it won't catch the tip as easily working against a bone, I like the look, a touch of the bowie?


----------



## aboynamedsuita

Like :thumbsup:


----------



## mikedtran

WillC said:


> Thanks Mike...She's a stripe one isn't she? Twisted nickel between 15n20 and good old 1080, all forged to shape before finishing. Little bit of drop point on the carver for a change, the idea being it won't catch the tip as easily working against a bone, I like the look, a touch of the bowie?



Definitely loving the twisted carving fork and the shape of the slicer. Will this be going to the store or is it for a customer?


----------



## WillC

It is one of the commissions from the simple damascus material.....customs jobs offered a couple of months back.


----------



## Johnny.B.Good

That fork is incredible.


----------



## Matus

Stunning work Will.


----------



## mc2442

That is one wicked looking fork! Very nice Will!


----------



## DanHumphrey

I don't even do carving and I am jealous.


----------



## MAS4T0

That fork is *amazing* Will!


----------



## mark76

It's really really beautiful!


----------



## WillC

Thanks all, heres what I've been working on recently...

























Some of the finished Carving set...













And the finished Honyaki Pair, only the final polishing to go, this starts from the edge up, with natural stones using the grit to blend into the hamon and further bring out some details, love this way of doing things and ultimately provides a very practical platform for future maintenance. The end caps on the handle are basket weave damascus, for a little extra detail. Deep etched on the ends only at the moment. These will be up for public sale tomorrow and will be coming to Denmark with me for further polishing and demonstration.


----------



## Johnny.B.Good

Beautiful work, Will.


----------



## WillC

Thank you Sir


----------



## WillC

Back from denmark and fired into the Forgies, this time in the new Catchy-blue core 











This is the first rough forging, followed by two more forgings at lower temperature then much straightening to ensure the forged geometry and hollows are even.





But most of the material is where I want it at this point.





And two in Stainless clad Catchy-blue, again all forged geometry, not an easy trick but the first forging went well. Fingers crossed the steel plays nicely with the stainless in heat treatment.





Stainless clad rough/first forgings....


----------



## Matus

Super cool. It is that the new core steel you were talking about not so long ago?


----------



## WillC

Yep, along the blue steel lines still, more carbon to the 1.2442 and less tungsten, surprisingly needed quite a different HT to the 1.2442 during testing ... . We will see


----------



## WillC

After second stage forging, done after descaling, now just one more forging descale and forging step to go to get the forged geometry perfect.
One with the tick is where I want it already. Will just have a surface finishing light run in the hammer.





Measured 15mm behind the edge at the heel





Spine exactly over heel, as it swells into the tang.





These 3 are all 240mm carbon clad






Headed for about 220mm stainless clad, forged geometry, don't see that everyday 





All completely forged now, and left to sub critical anneal for a couple of hours.





Yummy forged stainless clad mmmm




One in carbon 1.2442 nearly finished









Finally some mosaic on the go..;





New steel testing also done, compared to 1.2442 the Catchy-blue has a considerably finer grain visuallycomparable to perfectly heat treated 01, therefore catchy-blue may not be the best name, but will stick with it as it designates it as a tungsten based high carbon steel, it has a smidge of vanadium which attributes to the grain refinement, it got a few points harder as quenched, its a beast. Hope it plays nicely with the stainless, the forging has been a little more quirky with more heat cycling necessary after welding to avoid micro cracks whilst forging. It also requires a much longer temper time and slightly higher temperature to get the beast down to 65/66, edge characteristics from the off a harder glassier feel than 1.2442 which will be the extra carbon forming cementite..... but shows great edge flex followed by a clean teeny chip with no distortion when pushed to destruction, was very hard to chip though, feels nice on the stones. On the surface fits perfectly with my goals and the perfect oil quench companion for my san mai and damascus to use along side the sc125 honyaki. 

HT tomorrow, wish me luck,


----------



## bryan03

:hungry:


----------



## WildBoar

Hey, why are you showing photos that are almost 7 years old? I thought this was a 'current' WIP


----------



## WillC

Ha ha, if they were 7 years old they would all have those funny rounded profiles and reaaaaallly long handles that poke you in the privates while chopping, (special early feature of my work), think my phone date is wrong 

Thanks Bryan


----------



## Matus

Fantastic WIP


----------



## Lars

Will, thanks for sharing. Really enjoy following your venture into kitchen knives.
And that golden nugget about thinning into the edge absolutely turned my thinking 180 even though I have been sharpening for a couple years now.
Never too late to learn new tricks..

Lars


----------



## Twistington

WillC said:


> think my phone date is wrong



There is more than the date that is wrong with your phone.


----------



## milkbaby

Even if these photos were from 2010, they're pretty darn cool to see... 

Thanks for sharing!!!


----------



## WillC

Thanks Matus, Lars glad the thinning/finishing tutorial helped Thanks Milky, ha its an old camera, never bother to set the date, I should because its a pain in photobucket as it plays a cool game where it just drops the photo somewhere randomly in my library, then I have find it. Will have my trusty D20 back soon, so will have some proper macro again soon 

Dan my water logged phone is fixed, (Danish adventures) new screen, but still sounds like people are underwater on the phone.
It was fun getting back from Denmark on a motorbike with no mapping, actually the hardest bit was getting to my sisters in Camden, london, I had to shout at cabbies at nearly every junction , Camden, wheres camden.........Camden? your in south london mate....you want go back over the bridge.....etc


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## apathetic

Great looking WIP as usual 
Also, I have no doubt that London would be the most difficult part to navigate


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## WillC

Thanks dude 

Few more stainless clad rough forged , A cleaver, lots more forging to go on height...and a couple of petty/suji.





Followed by straightening and heat cycling for the 5 Gyuto, the straightening for these is very involved, involves planishing to get the hollows even then working down towards the edge, checking the evenness and repeat as necessary........Then check after each heat cycle. Finally they all get quenched in oil at 90 degrees C, and immediately into the first temper. Gives me the best chance of the stainless not splitting up the core on cooling by not letting the blades cool until after a full temper cycle. Where upon I can check straightness again 

















So will know later if the stainless and catchyblue is a go go, or a no no


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## Mucho Bocho

Absolute mastery and mad scientist. Always impressive!


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## WillC

Thanks Dennis.....Mad, maybe 

One more update before the weekend, while the Gyutos were tempering I had a crack at the second forging on the Cleaver. Not done loads of Cleavers but a few, mostly using a fuller Geometry like a gyuto. With the forged geometry though want to go nice and thin just leaving some meat on the spine. Definitely the most fun job of the week.

Forging starts into the edge and lower portion, the blade curves up, I then bring the hollows of the formwork up swelling just bellow the spine, eventually straightening the piece which has now grown in height about 20mm to 78mm tall.













Finally I readjust the tang in line and forge that out a little more bringing everything in line, only part left to forge from here is just a little more on the spine into the top of the choil otherwise will catch on the stones.

Here is all the forged thicknesses on the spine and edge, heel spine thickness will come down to 4mm on final forging done at a very low temperature.





Here are the thicknesses measure up to the line, approximately where the bevel will come up to...





Barely a few grams of material wasted to grinding happy days 










So will have a few for sale next week, make sure your on my Mailing list to know when stuff is in store.

Thanks All


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## Mrmnms

It's humbling to watch these WIP's. Amazing. Love to see some videos. "Catcheside... Part Metallurgy, Part Alchemy "


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## zetieum

WillC said:


> Thanks Dennis.....Mad, maybe
> 
> So will have a few for sale next week, make sure your on my Mailing list to know when stuff is in store.



BTW, how to ge on you mailing list?


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## WillC

Thanks Mike  Will do been meaning to do some formwork videos for these and some quenching for the honyaki.... Have a fun weekend 

Zeteum click my website in my signature, or here
www.catchesidecutlery.com



Go to my store/shop page, scroll down to the bottom and subscribe there, or there is a subscribe button on my contact page too, same mailing list. Any difficulties drop me a message. Thanks


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## MontezumaBoy

Amazing work / WIP Will! Thanks for putting this together and showing some of the inner workings ... much appreciated!

Quick question - For the blades you are looking to go on sale (stainless San Mai question for me anyway) will they all have handles pre-made/installed or were you open to customizing the handles at all?

Thx Tom


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## WillC

Thanks Tom, Shoot me a message on my site outlining what you fancy for the handle and i will reply with some pricing on Monday, 
I bought some wood for handles for these and have a plan in mind for the cleaver but no handles made up yet so open to your input  
Thanks
Will


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## milkbaby

That was so cool showing how close to the final thicknesses you get with just the forging on that cleaver!

I went to the website to sign up for email updates but it said I had already signed up. I guess I got so excited by these WIP that I forgot I already signed up in the recent past. LOL

Thank you for sharing and keep up the great looking work! :doublethumbsup:


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## WillC

Ha ha, awesome, thanks for signing up  Yes forging is my area of work for a long time, so it's nice to be able to use these skills more than grinding on this aspect of my work, actually these forged pieces are only ground on the lower/wide bevel after ht, so although the forge process takes sometimes, once done there is very little material to remove, barely a few grams, this allows me more time to get the bevels really nice and a nice process through the stones to final geometry and thinness. First time I've forged a tallish cleaver like this with fully forged geometry, was lots of forging but it certainly beats grinding from what would be something like 5mm stock


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## WillC

Some grinding on the carbon san mai ones, 

Got my canon dslr back, I missed it 

















First grind off the 36 grit big 3" linisher, 





Down to 300 grit by now on the 2" belts.





This one now stone finished and handled


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## Matus

Fantastic. That 3" grinder - do you use it just for the higher efficiency, or because you can use the steel sides as guides?


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## malexthekid

Awesome photos


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## WillC

Thanks, a big powerful grinder really helps a course ceramic grit to cut efficiently. This one runs a 75mm wide 2m belt @ 3kw or 4 hp, running a 36 grit ceramic.. and it works much better and faster with course belts than a standard 2hp 2" grinder. I have fitted a ceramic platen to the machine bed and an angled rest, so I can push into the bevel evenly, other than that its a standard 2 speed 3phase industrial linisher. 

When there is more material to be removed the 10" wheel is also a beast to use on this machine, I use it for anything from rough tapering lengthways like a manual surface grinder, to hollow grinding the initial bevel against the wheel, after this moving to a flat platen it goes very quickly to make a nice initial bevel.

After that its very quick to bring the bevel up with a 50 grit belt on a 2" 2hp machine, 2hp copes with 50 grit very well over 2"

An alternative for 36 grit efficiency is to run a 1" wide belt on a standard 2hp machine, thus doubling the hp/inch, but the beast is better if you can learn to tame it.


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## Matus

Cool, thanks for all the details. And I though that my future 2hp grinder is a 'big' one


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## WillC

2hp works ok for 36 grit, over 2 inches but it works even better over a 1" belt, to give you the extra torque to get the pressure into the cut. Deeper cut takes more pressure, torque/hp and speed...For years I did this running a 1" belt on a 2hp machine instead of a 2"....... it helps

My friend Owen has a giant grinder set up for roughing out sword bevels, something like a 6m belt with 6hp at some rate of knots, for course belts it helps to have the torque there so you can properly lean into the course grit to make it bite deeply and cut as designed, the belt actually cuts relatively cooler and lasts longer like this too...... Owen has a huge wooden free platen that holds the sword, and he can lean he whole weight on it, looks like he is riding a wooden motorbike with a sword handlebar. That machine is strictly out of bounds to students for health and safety reasons


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## WillC

Some more heat treat today while handle making......tried to get all arty and capture the travel of the blade to the quench tank with a long exposure, nearly worked 













Some Spark tests, Catchyblue, reddish short sparklers typical of a tungsten based carbon steel.





Sc125 white fireworks - lots of carbon, little alloy.





And a grain comparison, both just cut from the bar, factory anneal, and quenched.
Sc125 big one left, Catchyblue small right, both are very fine, Catchyblue is notably more so in direct comparison, will be the smidge of vanadium I expect.


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## DanHumphrey

Why Catchyblue instead of Catcheblue?

Also, please keep us posted on the stainless! I'm about done with iron clad (sick of my Tanaka turning brown if I hold it while thinking about an onion), so sad I missed the last of your monosteels.


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## MontezumaBoy

Will - Just wanted to say that the carbon knives (from your recent WIP) which you put in your store/website today are absolutely stunning ... can't wait to see what comes next!

Tom


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## WillC

Thanks Guys, ha ha yep sorry for lack of updates, If your on my mailing list you will know Ive been working on a new site just for the Forgies and their maintenance.
www.chefknifeuk.com


You will find my latest stock there, the site shares the store for my main site.

Stainless didn't work out the first time, forging went perfect but too much carbon loss I think, due to the higher temperatures involves and amount of forge time. Huge shame and loss in what I already forged, but I have some pure nickel to use with the next ones, sometime in the future. Meantime the fantastic carbon ones are up, and very very nice cutters  I love the new steel.


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## WillC

Been really poorly with some kind of digestive infection or possible Ulcer the past week, which has made things difficult, but antibiotics are working....... But I got two more little forged Petty done to add to the store tomorrow, one carbon san maiPetty and one stainless san mai Wife Knife 





Theres a 230mm Gyuto going up tomorrow as well.

And I will have a little work in progress for you coming up to xmas on these steak knives, they are forged integrals from silver steel, the will be a tapped through tang handle design allowing me to do some stacked handles, using up some funky stab wood offcuts by making discs up for the handle stacking. Looking forward to that, sounds fun?

What you see here is 100% forged, no grinding whatsoever other than briefly running a file over the tennon shoulder. Just need to thread the last part of the tang before ht.


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## bryan03

125sc !!!! 

:bliss:


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## WillC

Ha ha, not these......though some integral sc125 is on the cards in the new year. The steak knives are forged from silver steel round bars, it is about 1.1C a little manganese, chromium and vanadium, aggressive medium toothy, will be great for little steakies.

Have you tried the sc125 Bryan? Its a bit more problematic to water quench i think than the sc145 but i've been managing water quench/hamon by going into water briefly then into oil. Fast oil would be easier to get right.


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## bryan03

yes, you have enough Mn for (speed) oïl quenching.( or hot oïl if you don't have a real speed oïl) .
water quenching "brings" ( is it correct ? brings ? ) nothing more, even for the hamon.
if you realy want to play with water you can ( keep more than 1mm thick to the edge) , with 40°C water for 2sec and go faster as you can  in oïl ( 130°C) for few minutes , time to chill out , after that you can go to the tempering. and after that you have a crazy blade  ( probably in one pièce ) .


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## WillC

Thanks man...so just as good in oil, nice to hear.... Yep water quench has been working for me like that, but I broke a few getting the temperature and the time held in water just right and the geometry very critical, it certainly keeps you on your toes though!! Im going to import some oil that Achim recommends in the new year, the fast oil we can get here in the uk doesn't quite cut it as far as getting vivid hamon. 

Catchyblue is this steel, I don't mind revealing now, really I just needed to make sure there would be an adequate supply for me to have a constant foreseeable future for the forged geometry knives, but there looks to be plenty... as well as close relatives. 

Catchyblue - 1.2419.05 
*
- carbon 1,3 %
- chromium 1,0 %
- molybdenum 0,3 %
- tungsten 1,3 %
- vanadium 0,2 %
*


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## milkbaby

WillC said:


> Been really poorly with some kind of digestive infection or possible Ulcer the past week, which has made things difficult, but antibiotics are working....... But I got two more little forged Petty done to add to the store tomorrow, one carbon san maiPetty and one stainless san mai Wife Knife
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Theres a 230mm Gyuto going up tomorrow as well.
> 
> And I will have a little work in progress for you coming up to xmas on these steak knives, they are forged integrals from silver steel, the will be a tapped through tang handle design allowing me to do some stacked handles, using up some funky stab wood offcuts by making discs up for the handle stacking. Looking forward to that, sounds fun?
> 
> What you see here is 100% forged, no grinding whatsoever other than briefly running a file over the tennon shoulder. Just need to thread the last part of the tang before ht.



Beautiful work as usual! Pure skillz on them 100% forged integrals... :doublethumbsup:

Looking forward to seeing the detailed pics on your store site. Hope you feel better soon too!


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## WillC

Thanks Man, very much appreciated, yep on the mend now with the antibiotics


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## Matus

What, forged integrals? I am listening


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