# Unfinished projects and whatnot. From Russia with Love



## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 16, 2021)

I mostly use IG to post finished projects and WIPs, but I have way more pictures/things to share than I could post to IG and I like ability to post large images. So here we go


Will start with a bunch of photos I took yesterday. The first one being a small storage bag that I repurposed for finished handles





Last August we had our first newborn baby and it took almost a year before I could get back to knives. Most of the handles above were made in 2020. This year I managed to finish only a couple of handles before cold weather arrived.

Next comes a short 180mm chefs knife in Niolox. Could be the thinnest knife I've made to date. Tin foil tip, just like on Kato's knives. I'll probably regret about it, when it will be returned for a tip repair 
Handle isn't glued. And no maker's mark yet, otherwise it's good to go. Made this as a present for a nephew who's graduating cooks school soon.





And few pictures of chefs knives that were started 1.5 year ago. Still needs proper satin polish. And saya pins. And handles glued. Handles made of Tasmanian Blackwood.
Steel is a laminate of Rex121 core in 440c stainless.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 17, 2021)

I think it was somewhere around August when I posted an ad on local bulletin board about knife repair services. I offered a free of charge repair services for high end kitchen knives. I though it would give me some practice and provide ability to handle something special. What I was expecting? Bent Shigs. Broken tips yanagibas. A badly rusty Don Nguyen unicorn maybe. What I actually got? Well… a super boring german petty knives after dish washer  Owner claimed that those were ~20 years old and present a huge sentimental value. That sentimental thing was the only reason why I accepted that job.

Haven't took photos, cause it looked unbearably boring to me. Some black pakka wood that was broken and split in several places. Owner just wrapped handles in duck tape and kept using them as is. Needles to say those were as dull as my sense of humour. I offered to regrind/sharpen them, but owner said he would pass them to professional sharpener afterwards. Ooook.






I was given full freedom of materials and design decision on new handles. I decided to keep them simple stupid. Opted for Ironwood in the hopes that it could withstand abuse a tiny bit longer. And it would darken over time making them closer to their original boring look.












After clearing up all that rust things started to look a bit less grim. Just rough cut everything and glued together









 
Western handles aren't my thing and makes me struggle every damn time I try to make one. This time wasn't an exception. There are few minor issues that can be detected upon careful inspection, but most non knife nuts wouldn't even bother.

It took me few months to finish them. Mostly cause I could devote just few hours a week on that task. Original owner was pretty excited and I received the practice I wanted.










After that I removed my original ad about repair services. No unicorns were harmed. This time.


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## tostadas (Dec 17, 2021)

That's CLEAN


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## ian (Dec 17, 2021)

Those look great. Nice job. All your stuff looks great, really. I hope you sharpened them for the client anyway, just out of spite.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 17, 2021)

ian said:


> Those look great. Nice job. All your stuff looks great, really. I hope you sharpened them for the client anyway, just out of spite.


Thanks Ian
Friends of the owner of those knives reached me and asked if I could do something a bit of repair on their rifle bayonet. And then presented me with a huge piece of rust. I told them it would probably take another half a year but they accepted. So more weird projects ahead.


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## ian (Dec 17, 2021)

You gonna glue the rust together into steel? Solid.


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## chefcomesback (Dec 17, 2021)

Good to see you working on knives and handles again Anton !!


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Jun 5, 2022)

A piece of knife for dealing with cheese


















This handle was made few years ago and sat in the rejected box since then. Can't even remember why, cause it there wasn't anything wrong with it (except for questinable design).


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Jun 23, 2022)

Experiments with ferric chloride.
Blade made from PGK (which is D2 variant from Lohmann) hardened to 63-65 HRC.
















Andrey Markin sent me a piece of R18 steel a year ago. I made a short but tall chef knife from it. Somehow I liked that profile and decided to make another one. So here's 55mm tall knife that's just 170mm on the edge. 

One day I'll probably make a handle for it. Hopefully in 2022


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## Barmoley (Jun 23, 2022)

The profile looks good even though the dimensions are unusual. PGK is an interesting steel, closer to cruwear made with traditional (ingot) process.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Aug 12, 2022)

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First time worked with Damascus steel. Etched in sulfuric acid. So far I like what I'm seeing. And it turns out Damascus isn't that demanding in terms of polish quality as minor scratches are hidden by pattern


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Sep 5, 2022)

View attachment _AKA0591.jpg


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View attachment _AKA0594.jpg


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Sep 8, 2022)

Steel is 14c28n gifted by @Isasmedjan about a year ago or so. 

Octagonal Ringed Gidgee handle was made years ago, but wasn't a good fit for any of my knives. I shortened it and rounded bottom part. After that it became a rather nice shape to hold.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Sep 8, 2022)

The same blade that I posted earlier in post #9 now a dry fit handle. 
Tried to capture distal taper. I learned basics of distal taper grinding from Robin Dalman, but then Andrey Markin taught me an even simpler and effective way of making even and consistent taper (check Andrey's IG to see some really crazy distal tapers made with stock removal method)





Normally I use a micro 43 camera on tripod, but these photos were shot on phone. It's impressive how big of a progress phone cameras have made in last decade.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 30, 2022)

Last knife of 2022 packed and ready to be gifted. I'm so glad this year is over.


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