# Lotfong and his pointy sharp things in progress from the frosty northern lands



## lotfong (Nov 24, 2020)

BIO

Hi folks, let me introduce myself.

Brace yourselves thought, as there is quite a lot of stuff to read, you can pass on straight downwards to photos instead if this is not your cup of tea.
I simply felt it was important for me to write all these things down so people can understand better what's behind my work.

My name is Ludvig, I am a 27 year old guy from Quebec, Canada, and I am an aspiring bladesmith who has been doing it on and off for 10 years, but did delve seriously into it only a year and a half ago.
I have been also a sculptor by trade, documentary photographer and a circus stage builder for Cavalia, I have travelled quite a bit around the world and I am always curious about many different things of various origins, especially anything that relates to craftsmanship.

It was quite a weird, long path that led me here right now showing my first knives, long story short I wanted to make knives since I was 8 or 9 years old, and it always paced back and forth in my mind.
I had the opportunity to forge and make knives for the first time 10 years ago during my sculpture classes in art school.
As we had access to a forge and a teacher who was also a toolmaker and teached us basics of metallurgy and heat treatments, I got to make my hand at blacksmithing and got alright results under the supervision of my teacher.
In the years following my time there I repeated the experience on several occasions, but always while using very limited equipment and without proper preparation, so I always got mixed results in the end.
As I considered it mostly a small hobby I didn't push much more in that direction even thought I really liked doing it anyway, and the fact was still lurking in a corner of my mind that it could be something nice to do later on.
I got to do photography instead, which was a great passion of mine and became something that could have passed as a beginning of a career in that field then, and indeed brought many interesting opportunities, especially overseas.

But two years ago, a series of weird life events got me quite sick and put me in a pretty f***ed up state of mind, in a zone with a lot of free time and a deep void in front of me .
I wasn't working much anymore and relied on help from family and government and had just enough to get by, and was way too weak physically and mentally to go work as much as I used to do beforehand.

One thing I started to do as a manageable sideline was to do knife and woodworking tools sharpening.
8 years before that in my sculpture classes I learned to do it properly with waterstones, and I worked in restaurants for a good while afterwards to sustain myself and did sharpen occasionally my friends knives back then, who were always pleased with the results.
So as this was quite the only thing that I earned money with, I took as many sharpening and refurbishing jobs as I could, and after a while I got to be quite busy and I was having really good feedback on my work, I decided to push a little more towards that direction.
Surprisingly, my mind and body were geting increasingly better and my mood was getting much more joyful and got to enjoy life again as I was quite happy to do this sideline sharpening thing, sometimes for quite long hours without getting too tired, which was unusual considering my poor health at the time.

Also I got to take on much nicer jobs, like proper japanese handcrafted blades, which I knew about since a really long time but never had one in my hands before.
At first I refused these jobs as I was scared sh*tless of messing these up, but in the meantime I grew increasingly curious about the ins and outs of these type of blades and started to do web searching to be sure not only to quench my thirst of knowledge but also to try to take care of one blade I had in my posession from somebody who had an unusually great amount of faith in me regardless of my inexperience.

That is how I stumbled on this forum.
I have to acknowledge first and foremost the fact that I owe a good deal of my knowledge and motivation to push forward in the craft to this forum and all its members.
Little by little I gathered every bit of information I could like a working bee to make sure I was doing things proper, and fixed that blade for my trustful friend, which turned out quite good for a twisted chipped overground Takeda nakiri.
After a couple months daring to accept these kinds of jobs and sucessfully not messing them up I built myself a small reputation for this specific type of work in my hometown and had a lot of japanese blades passing on my bench for servicing.

And as I really loved working with these kind of blades, I then asked myself if I could try my hand at making one of similar fashion. I did forge knives before but japnese san mai is a whole other leage in therms of difficulty.
At least to do properly I mean.
I then spent at least a couple thousand hours reading various topics here for the last two years, and also got to connect with some makers popular here, who were really helpful with their well advised remarks and explanations.
I am thankful for their patience and willingness to share their wisdom, it is worth a whole lot for a rookie like me.
So that solidified my confidence to put my bollocks on the table and attempt it. I did start to do tests and experimentations with the little gear and materials I had.
And then Covid arrived.

I have since then tried to take the spare time I had that was caused by this global pandemic to put it to good use towards that direction anyway.
So I spent the last couple months to equip myself properly to make knives.
I had some gear and a very basic charcoal forge, but many things that are much more specific to bladesmithing that I had not in my posession were needed, and now I am quite proud to say that a couple thousand dollars, dozens and dozens of failed knives, pints of coffee, sweat and tears, cigarette cartoons, pile of old plywood, old pierced car shelter tarps, tons of sand, hundreds of kilometers on the road gathering stuff, a built up from scratch power hammer, hundreds of hours of help from friends and family and an awful amount of passion and perseverance later I have a functionnal workshop that helps me give birth to little (and not so little) sharp things.

So with all this being said, here is what I do.

Japanese styled san mai carbon steel blades.
Kurouchi, forged geometry (not a whole lot yet but still as much as I can, I am still a rookie), Cold forged, water quenched (or fast oil when necessary), Japanese natural stone polished.
I make my own san mai construction with either reclaimed mild steel or brand new bars of 1018 for the cladding, and use mostly water quenching steels like 26c3.
I do use sometimes Cruforge V for its edge retention and ease to work with, and love it for woodworking tools who don't need an awful lot of polishing.
I am greatly inspired by the likes of Will Catcheside, Bryan Raquin, Yanick Puig, Milan Gravier, Robin Dalman, Comet, the.9nine, Isasmedjan, Halcyon Forge, Jean Jose Tritz, Dan Prendergast, Heartwood forge and TwoSticks Forge amongst others.

This thread will show you what I do so far and will keep updated as I go.
It will also describe my process and reflexions about the craft.
I am not at a point right now where I would dare sell my knives, as I deem myself not mature yet for that, but I must acknowledge that I am extremely curious to have somme feedback from you guys, especially as I looked for info right here on this forum since the beggining and wonder if I did my "homework" well.
So there ya go, hope you guys will enjoy.

Best regards, Lotfong

(Here I am when I dwell in my natural habitat, doing what I must while feasting on my diet of nicotine)


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## lotfong (Nov 24, 2020)

First project : 110mm petty

This is a petty knife that I did forge recently for a friend as a gift for helping me out for carrying materials to build the shack where I am settled right now.
It am making its handle right now, a small octogonal wa handle of wenge and deer antler.

san mai reclaimed mild steel/Cruforge V
110x30mm
Rounded choil and spine.
No way to know for sure but I'd guess it around 63-64hrc, very fine edge albeit quite bitey, tough and it seems to want to last.
Normally that steel is infamous for its abrasive resistance but in a san mai construction I haven't found it worse than aogami super.
okudo asagi for the hagane and uchigomori finger stones for the jigane

it might require further refining as it isn't completed yet without handle and I wouldn't be surprised to pass it on the water wheel to make it slightly thinner behind the edge but it seems good enough to show off for now.
Please feel free to comment and constructive criticism is more than welcome.





So anyways here are some photos


















... and here is the choil. it does taper quite a bit to the tip which is much thinner than the heel.


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## birdsfan (Nov 24, 2020)

Fine looking work Ludvig. I love the hammered KU! And I love how your polish highlights the contrast of the core steel. Would enjoy seeing a distal taper picture. The one bit of critical feedback I might provide is that the neck of the blade, between the machi and the heel is a bit long. I am not a smith, but I think I read somewhere (likely on this forum) that particular measure should be about 80% of the width of your middle finger, allowing comfortable placement of that finger in a pinch grip.

I will look forward to seeing more of your work posted!


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## lotfong (Nov 24, 2020)

Making of :

Forge welding is hard.
It is quite tricky, but once you get to feel and see, know and recognize every aspect necesary to do it sucessfully it becomes really nice to do.
This was one of the first billets I did sucessfully weld without issues.
Normally I spend a whole day only making billets, and then I simply sort them by core steel type and afterwards whenever I feel like forging a blade I choose which one I'd like to use considering what type of blade I have in mind.
I did it this way as it is quite a tiresome job to laminate and forgeweld by hand on its own and I feel much more fluid in my workflow to just forge the blade or just forge billets.
Doing a blade one shot (laminate, forgeweld and forge to shape the blade) I have done quite a bit but I find the failure rate was higher due to fatigue.
With the power hammer it is a whole different game thought.
This was done before I came into possession of my power hammer, so the lamination of mild steel and core steel was done by hand, as was the whole forging process.

PHOTOS

Here is the san mai billet on the anvil.








And here is the tang formed, blade slightly elongated.






Pre-curving to anticipate the shaping of the geometry of the bevels with the hammer.








Some pretty severe recurving due to hammering the bevels.( EDIT: Also I use reducing temps to mitigate carbon migration while forging. A low oxygen atmosphere in the coal forge helps too.)








Hot forging done. The heel part was hot cut with a steel chisel and was cleaned afterwards on a bench grinder.












Then the blade was annealed, profiled, cold forged, normalized, got through a grain refinement cycle processd and austhenitized and quenched into parks 50 oil.
Then it received a tempering treatment.

Afterwards came the time to make the bevels. I do have a belt grinder, a small 1x42 but with proper belts, but it is infamously fast and I do as little as possible on it. I wildly prefer spend an jhour more and use my old wather wheel grinder from my grandpa who used it in the lumberjack camps in my area 70 years ago. not only for the cultural heritage but also because it doesn't f**k up my stuff.

Here you can see it with the blade.






It is quite soft and at around 180 grit, it isn't nearly as fast as a belt gringer or a proper japanese styled gigantic wather wheel sharpening machine but it does work. I then switch to an atoma 140 to flatten the blade road, which takes almost two thirds of the whole knife polishing process in my case ( I spend at least 2-3h on the atoma alone).

Then I switch to proper stones.
My collection of stone is as follows :

Shapton pro 120
JNS 300
King 800
Shapton pro 2000
JNS Red Aoto (the big red synthetic brick that is now sadly no more in production I've heard)
JNS 6000
Aiiwatani Koppa
Naniwa 12k
Okudo asagi
Uchigomori finger stones

These two photos are at the king 800 level











So yeah that shows a good bit of the process, I'll post in the next few days the handle and the saya too. thanks for looking.


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## lotfong (Nov 24, 2020)

birdsfan said:


> Fine looking work Ludvig. I love the hammered KU! And I love how your polish highlights the contrast of the core steel. Would enjoy seeing a distal taper picture. The one bit of critical feedback I might provide is that the neck of the blade, between the machi and the heel is a bit long. I am not a smith, but I think I read somewhere (likely on this forum) that particular measure should be about 80% of the width of your middle finger, allowing comfortable placement of that finger in a pinch grip.
> 
> I will look forward to seeing more of your work posted!



Hey thanks for the good words and the feedback.
That point about the neck is a good one.
The thing is I prefer to do it slightly longer than it needs to be so I can adjust it with a file afterwards when I fit the tang in the handle, to fine tune the fitting a bit more. I prefer to leave more than removing too much, but yeah I can attest that it can look a bit odd otherwise without knowing that !

I will most definitely post pictures that properly show the distal taper ASAP, that is a good point.
Thanks again for your input it is really appreciated !!!


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## AT5760 (Nov 24, 2020)

One heck of an introduction! Welcome and I look forward to seeing more of your work.


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## lotfong (Nov 24, 2020)

AT5760 said:


> One heck of an introduction! Welcome and I look forward to seeing more of your work.


Ahhah yeah I did spill them guts I admit, thanks for the interest!!!


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## daddy yo yo (Nov 25, 2020)

Great photography in the first post, really like the colour tone of the images...


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## WildBoar (Nov 25, 2020)

You have had quite a journey. Pics of your grandfather's water wheel, please


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## nakiriknaifuwaifu (Nov 25, 2020)

This is really great stuff. PM about nakiris incoming


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## Dhoff (Nov 25, 2020)

I am not at a point right now where I would dare sell my knives, as I deem myself not mature yet for that, but I must acknowledge that I am extremely curious to have somme feedback from you guys, especially as I looked for info right here on this forum since the beggining and wonder if I did my "homework" well.

If you do not feel comfortable selling, maybe make a pass-around. Maybe two (one in US, one in EU, maybe australia if enough interest is there?)

Or maybe, just send it to me, and I promise to treasure it and make it feel loved.


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## lotfong (Nov 25, 2020)

Dhoff said:


> I am not at a point right now where I would dare sell my knives, as I deem myself not mature yet for that, but I must acknowledge that I am extremely curious to have somme feedback from you guys, especially as I looked for info right here on this forum since the beggining and wonder if I did my "homework" well.
> 
> If you do not feel comfortable selling, maybe make a pass-around. Maybe two (one in US, one in EU, maybe australia if enough interest is there?)
> 
> Or maybe, just send it to me, and I promise to treasure it and make it feel loved.




Hey there !
thanks for the kind words I appreciate.

Regarding what I said about not selling yet, I will keep it that way for several reasons.

One of great importance is that this publication is almost threading on the line of what isn't allowed here (self-selling, I am the only one guilty for that) and I want to respect the rules of this forum. I did ask mods before making this thread to make sure I wasn't violating anything but now I feel like it would be much wiser to suscribe to a hobbyist profile and move on from there before advertising anything else here.

But yea when I see the response here so far I think that a pass-around would definitely be something doable and a great idea indeed once I've figured out how to do it properly in the ways of this forum.
It would be a practical way to get actual reviews from knowledgeable people and really improve my work, and after I could maybe let the blade go in a draw in the end between everybody who participated in it, I guess.

Thanks again for the interest, I am grateful for that.
Best regards,
Ludvig


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## lotfong (Nov 25, 2020)

daddy yo yo said:


> Great photography in the first post, really like the colour tone of the images...



Thanks !!! I picked the camera for documenting my progress on this project, pretty simpel photos but the evening light with the snow and warmth of the wood does pop well. It was fun to do, I hadn't picked my camera in months before that, 2020 wasn't a really photogenic year for me !! haha


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## lotfong (Nov 25, 2020)

WildBoar said:


> You have had quite a journey. Pics of your grandfather's water wheel, please



Will do !!


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## lotfong (Nov 25, 2020)

In the meantime I finish the handle on the petty, here is a blade I did last summer for a friend who works at ARVI, a restaurant in Quebec City that became #1 new restaurant in the country in 2019 according to the EnRoute magazine of Air Canada. 

It is a 180x48mm bunka.
San mai mild steel/Cruforge V.
61-62 hrc
Naniwa 12k and uchigomori finger stones
Oval wa handle, curly birch and purpleheart ferrule.

He loves it so far.


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## Dhoff (Nov 26, 2020)

If you have an instagram, please share, if needed in DM. Would like to see more of your work


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## birdsfan (Nov 26, 2020)

Really beautifully done work!


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## lotfong (Nov 26, 2020)

Thanks y'all


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## Luftmensch (Nov 26, 2020)

@lotfong,

Sorry you had a rough two years. I am glad you climbed out of that hole. Thanks for sharing your work with us. You are coming along!




lotfong said:


> I am extremely curious to have somme feedback from you guys, especially as I looked for info right here on this forum since the beggining and wonder if I did my "homework" well.



 

Your work is looking good. Careful though! Everyone has their different definition of aesthetic beauty and their own preferences on profile/grind. You might have to 'average' over community feedback. 

It is worth reading @Kippington's back catalogue of posts. You can see the thought process he was going through as he made the shift from professional kitchens to blacksmithing. His insights generated some interesting threads that dissect the subtitles in design choices. To some degree, you can find a community thought process in those posts if you read between the lines.

My last piece of feedback would be to spend time experimenting and optimising your heat treatment. Apologies if that is obvious advice and you have already done so! While people might not agree on aesthetics and geometry... a good heat treat is a good heat treat! Make sure you are getting that nice balance between hardness, toughness and grain size for the target task/application.


Thanks for the post! I look forward to your future work!!


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## lotfong (Nov 28, 2020)

Luftmensch said:


> @lotfong,
> 
> Sorry you had a rough two years. I am glad you climbed out of that hole. Thanks for sharing your work with us. You are coming along!
> 
> ...



Hi there, thanks for the kind and advised words. Things are 1000 times better now, health is the key. Gotta stop smoking thought... 

Regarding various people's preferences:
Indeed I will have to take some and give some, especially about grind, profile, polishing, etc. and assume certain choices.
I am quite specific in what I aim for my knives stylistically and functionally speaking, and I say it upfront. 
I am perfectly aware that some people who favor laser mirror polished honyaki blades without kurouchi and with a western handle might not find my knives to be appealing and I am fine with that, I can't please everybody.

But in the meantime I feel it will potentially appeal to quite some people here anyway, and I am eager to know how my work can compare to other bladesmiths who do similar things generally speaking (san mai, kasumi finish, pronounced distal taper and forged geometry), to know if I did get some things rights and what can be adjusted. 
I don't want to copy other's work either, but I feel I must get some sort of frame of reference for my work, to then delve and explore creatively speaking with confidence that I am doing something good and valuable in that market that is within certain technical standards of ergonomy and functionality. 
But yeah I can't reinvent the wheel thought !! just want to see if it is round and sturdy !

Regarding Heat treatment:

Even thought I have been working on that part for quite a lot of time already, this isn't a misplaced advice, there is always room for improvement.

Luckily I had some good knifemakers sharing technical tips with me that I had the chance to test in the kitchen, and results from the heat treatment were pretty much on par with what is expected to this level of blade according to my experience based on handling a couple dozens of japanese blades of various steels through my sharpening experience. 
This is also where I am eager to see the point of view from people who do have probably a more extensive frame of reference regarding edge stability and edge retention than I do. 
But I am definitely still improving my heat treat to reach a good balance of toughness, fineness and ease of sharpening. 

So far I tend to make blades a bit unnecessarily tough for kitchen applications and I am working on that, as they are not as crisp as I'd like to deburr on the stones, even at pretty high hardness like hrc 64-65. There is a whole lot of different reasons to this that have no link with hardness, thought. 
I am working on this specific point at the moment.
That is one reason why I will work a little more with water quenched steels from now on as I get better results on this aspect with these straight off without much tweaking.

As you recommended I have started to look at kippington's posts regarding its work, it proves to be very informative. 
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate. 
It is really insightful about the whole process, and it is also interesting to see the progress and explorations he has done.
I do have quite a different style but regardless of that I feel I can definitely learn a whole lot from his experience.

With all this said, I am glad you gave me those advices and I am really happy you showed some interest in my work, I am eager to show you more !!
Best regards, 
Ludvig


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## Luftmensch (Nov 30, 2020)

No worries!



lotfong said:


> Indeed I will have to take some and give some, especially about grind, profile, polishing, etc. and assume certain choices.
> I am quite specific in what I aim for my knives stylistically and functionally speaking, and I say it upfront.
> I am perfectly aware that some people who favor laser mirror polished honyaki blades without kurouchi and with a western handle might not find my knives to be appealing and I am fine with that, I can't please everybody.



Definitely! You can't please everybody. KKF isn't the end of the cutlery, culinary universe either! It is a pretty niche community. People outside of the 'bubble' (those who havent turned kitchen knives into a hobby) may have a different view to the preferences expressed here.

Tool making raises an interesting dilemma for the craftsman. You want to maintain your art/craft whilst producing a maximally functional piece. At times that may raise compromises. But therein lies the challenge and the fun. How to impart your unique style on a common object that already has a well established design language?




lotfong said:


> As you recommended I have started to look at kippington's posts regarding its work, it proves to be very informative.
> Thanks for sharing, I appreciate.
> It is really insightful about the whole process, and it is also interesting to see the progress and explorations he has done.
> I do have quite a different style but regardless of that I feel I can definitely learn a whole lot from his experience.



For sure! You are quite different. As far as I know, Kip doesn't do san-mai? I just enjoyed his philosophical and thoughtful approach - I think that could underpin any style!

Be well!


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## birdsfan (Nov 30, 2020)

Luftmensch said:


> Tool making raises an interesting dilemma for the craftsman. You want to maintain your art/craft whilst producing a maximally functional piece. At times that may raise compromises. But therein lies the challenge and the fun. How to impart your unique style on a common object that already has a well established design language?




I couldn't agree with this more! And was typing a similar sort of response last week that was interupted by my days events. 

You draw on your experience as a cook while you design, create and finish your pieces. One of the cool things about being an artisan is making your internal vision, the form, into a finished product. I can only speak for myself. but when the finished item matches my vision, I gain great satisfaction. When I am making something, I tend to gravitate towards the styles, and techniques that I personally like and enjoy doing. As a result, I am usually good at executing those same things. 

So I guess what I am saying is....don't worry too much about what the masses think. You arent trying to be Shun. Stay true to your vision, do the things that you enjoy and are good at, and make blades that satisfy your your drive for quality, and make you happy. And likely you will find your following.


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## lotfong (Nov 30, 2020)

You guys are wise, it feels good to read. Thanks a lot I think I'll just go with the flow and I will see how it turns out. Have a great day y'all !!


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## lotfong (Dec 27, 2020)

Merry christmas everybody !!! I hope all of you get to have decent holidays amidst this pandemic we all go through.

Here is a small blade I just finished before christmas, a gift for a friend I used to work with.
No kurouchi this time, all polished convex geometry.

110mm office
45 grams
It was made out of a pre-clad bar of suminagashi with aogami 2 as a core steel.
water quenched and tempered back to approx. 63 hrc
uchigomori finger stone integral polishing, okudo asagi edge touch up
Small octagonal wa handle, masur birch and african blackwood ferrule.
Balance point right at the ferrule.

This guy is THIN, 0.1mm average behind the edge, 13 dps.
It gets from 1.8mm at the choil to 0.6mm at 1cm from the tip, it does have a slight distal taper but as it is so thin it isn't significant.

It has been kinda tricky to forge so thin, even thought it is pre-clad the lamination isn't even on both sides of the blade, I'll work to improve that for future blades. I did mostly low temp forging so carbon migration from the core to the jacket is absolutely minimal.

Overall a really fun blade, very sharp and laser-ish in its behaviour.
My aogami2 heat treatment seems to make it a bit easier to sharpen than what I am used to with japanese blades in aogami2 of similar hardness.
63 hrc ain't soft by any means so I am kinda amazed by this behaviour.
Maybe it is because I do several grain refinement cycles and a proper normalising step to make sure the tungsten carbides are as fine as possible, with a annealing cycle to prepare all those carbides to stay fine during austenitizing prior to hardening in water with a thin clay slurry all over the blade.
It seems also pretty solid for 63hrc, I did a mule to test the exact same heat treat as this knife, the grain came out extremely fine and it had only minimal chipping occuring while testing, even on hard crusty 3day old sourdough bread.
Pretty happy with it, might allow myself to run the next blades a little harder around 65hrc to see how it will behave and see how much I can push the hardness before it becomes too brittle.

Here are some images for you to see.

Curious about your feedback,
Thanks a lot for looking and I wish y'all happy holidays!!


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## birdsfan (Dec 27, 2020)

Nice! I can see from the bevel that you really thinned it out at the tip too. Very nice knife for fine detail work!


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## cotedupy (Dec 27, 2020)

These look great Ludvig, congratulations! To my eye you're nailing it in terms of both aesthetics and grind


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## lotfong (Jul 6, 2021)

Hi there, long time no see!! Things keep being hectic, moved shop a month ago, got some time to do some orders, including this one blade I recently finished.

K-tip gyuto with a hell of a belly, as request by my friend
190x47mm, 175g
Balance point around 3cm after the heel, quite blade heavy for its size
Suminagashi clad takefu shiro2, around 64hrc
Kurouchi finish with a surface polish to give it some shine, as requested by my friend
Pretty low bevel, with convexed assymetrical right handed geometry
Quite beefy at the edge, around 0.010inches 1mm from the bevel, gets to 0.005 at the tip, the convex geometry makes it glide through stuff easily
Polished on a fine but not too hard nakayama asagi, no fingerstones used
Edge finished also on that nakayama asagi
Octagonal wa handle, masur birch with african blackwood for the ferrule
Masur birch saya with african blackwood holding pin

Things I like:
- Polishing altought still a bit scratchy still looks clean with a good contrast
- Sooo sharp. Takefu Shiro2 is fun to sharpen and gets stupid sharp quickly, seems a bit more resilient than standard shirogami2. The convex bevel done on the stones helps for the cutting feel
- feels like it can handle well various jobs with that shape

Things I don't like:
- Neck is too long, would have been better 6mm deeper in the handle, epoxy pushed it out so there is an unpleasant machi effect that was involuntary. Didn't bother the least bit my friend but next time I'll do better. 
- not enough distal taper, feels almost like a suji in hand. Still cuts good IMO but I'll push it more next time
- I was happy to play with the kurouchi, but I prefer raw finish to this
- that belly is really not my cup of tea, I prefer a flat heel with subtle curve through the length that gets steeper at the nose, but hey, client ask, client get!
-I prefer 50-53mm heel height but that's just me

Curious about your opinion on this one.
Have a great day guys
Btw sorry for the ****** pics they were done in the shop with my cellphone, didn't have my camera close by


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## lotfong (Jul 6, 2021)

That's how well it cuts




And that's how it looks after the polishing job


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## birdsfan (Jul 6, 2021)

Fine looking work! I am a fan! Agree with you on the neck, I prefer a slightly shorter stretch between the end of the handle and the heel. The profile looks good to me. Looks to be a generous flat spot on the cutting edge and a little upsweep towards the tip. From the polish video I can see that there is distal taper, and a little thinner towards the tip would be welcome. Looks to be a real workhorse.


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## lotfong (Jul 6, 2021)

birdsfan said:


> Fine looking work! I am a fan! Agree with you on the neck, I prefer a slightly shorter stretch between the end of the handle and the heel. The profile looks good to me. Looks to be a generous flat spot on the cutting edge and a little upsweep towards the tip. From the polish video I can see that there is distal taper, and a little thinner towards the tip would be welcome. Looks to be a real workhorse.



Thanks for your feedback!!
It is indeed a workhorse. I've been influenced by my munetoshi 210mm gyuto, my most used knife at the moment, I wanted to emulate the cutting feel. This one is a little bit thinner BTE but the distal taper is less pronounced so it feels a bit heavier in hand, it feels awesome for cutting meat, but not as much for veggies compared to the munetoshi


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## cotedupy (Jul 6, 2021)

Ah now I'm going to have to disagree with you (and my learned friend @birdsfan) with regards the neck - I quite like that distance personally. I understand you didn't intend a slight machi gap, but the length of that bit otherwise would be good for me - I find it too short on some knives. Though maybe I'm holding them wrong, it's the kind of thing I'd do!

Like you - the belly wouldn't be for me - but actually it may not be a bad idea at all... I sell a few things to ordinary people, who might not frequent online kitchen knife fora. And the only breakages I ever get asked about are from people who ordered flatter profile 'kiritsuke' gyuto, and then tipped them by digging into a board when rock chopping. So perhaps your friend is actually rather cleverer than mine are!


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## lotfong (Jul 6, 2021)

cotedupy said:


> Ah now I'm going to have to disagree with you (and my learned friend @birdsfan) with regards the neck - I quite like that distance personally. I understand you didn't intend a slight machi gap, but the length of that bit otherwise would be good for me - I find it too short on some knives. Though maybe I'm holding them wrong, it's the kind of thing I'd do!
> 
> Like you - the belly wouldn't be for me - but actually it may not be a bad idea at all... I sell a few things to ordinary people, who might not frequent online kitchen knife fora. And the only breakages I ever get asked about are from people who ordered flatter profile 'kiritsuke' gyuto, and then tipped them by digging into a board when rock chopping. So perhaps your friend is actually rather cleverer than mine are!



Thanks for the good words
That choil clearance would have worked for me for a 250+mm lenght of blade but on a 190 it feels a bit overkill, this being said if it pleases some people it is good to know!! 
The profile lends itself wonderfully for a rock-chopping motion, but less so for push cutting, and my friend wanted specifically to have it as a rock-chopper, hence that profile. I am more of a push cutter myseld so that explains my reticence towards such a profile, but I have seen in my short experience as a bladesmith that very few people outside of pro cooks use a push cutting technique, at least where I am from, so that might prove useful to keep doing it once in a while. But in the meantime a good flat spot at the heel and a gentle curve feels more versatile for me


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## LostHighway (Jul 6, 2021)

Great to see you back on KKF. The style of that particular k-tip is probably not for me (too much belly) but the execution looks excellent, it is a beautiful knife.
Did you get your new power hammer yet?


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## cotedupy (Jul 7, 2021)

lotfong said:


> Thanks for the good words
> That choil clearance would have worked for me for a 250+mm lenght of blade but on a 190 it feels a bit overkill, this being said if it pleases some people it is good to know!!
> The profile lends itself wonderfully for a rock-chopping motion, but less so for push cutting, and my friend wanted specifically to have it as a rock-chopper, hence that profile. I am more of a push cutter myseld so that explains my reticence towards such a profile, but I have seen in my short experience as a bladesmith that very few people outside of pro cooks use a push cutting technique, at least where I am from, so that might prove useful to keep doing it once in a while. But in the meantime a good flat spot at the heel and a gentle curve feels more versatile for me



Absolutely - I think your friend knows what they're about, and very well executed .

And as you say; it's a useful thing to be able to offer, as I can certainly assure you that people who use pronounced rock chopping are liable to break the ends off flatter profile k-tips.


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## Justinv (Jul 9, 2021)

You mentioned issues with epoxy affixing the handle. Hot glue is preferred by many for attaching handles. Dries quick. Its easy to remove the handle if you heat the knife gently in an oven.


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## lotfong (Nov 17, 2021)

Hi guys, long time no see.
I finally got a shop with everything needed to be able to pull out a couple blades, got myself a brand new power hammer (anyang 33lbs) got a huge stash of wrought iron and in the meantime I managed to get some orders from local chefs and line cooks.

Here is the new toy with a happy kid. that thing smashes fast and hard, it is a breeze to make laminated blades. Especially with wrought iron, it welds so easily. But you've got to be careful, it does sometimes tends to split itself apart, it means it is quite gnarly. The more gnarly it is to work with, the more gnarly it will look thought !






So yeah, for today here are three knives I especially like.

First one
Bunka with a good amount of belly
170x45mm
130grams
Wrought iron clad aogami super, water quenched, tempered at 65hrc
Polished on nakayama asagi and uchigomori finger stones
Cherrywood octagonal wa handle
Heavily convexed bevel














Looks kinda thick as photo is a bit blurry but this guy is around 0.1mm thick behind the edge, it is one mean cutter.

Second one is a small gyuto, first of a set of two matching knives for a friend.
Gyuto 190x50mm
150 grams
Wrought iron and old file steel, water quenched and tempered at around 64hrc
Convex grind
Polished on nakayama asagi and uchigomori finger stones
Morado wood and african blackwood for the octagonal wa handle, Morado wood saya









And here is its little brother
Office 95x28mm
70grams
Wrought iron and old file steel, water quenched and tempered at around 64hrc
Semi-convex grind
Polished on nakayama asagi and uchigomori finger stones
Morado wood and african blackwood for the octagonal wa handle, Morado wood saya









the two of them together in a (******) photo






I used for both of the blades the exact same piece of wrought iron, an old anchor chain, from the shores of the st lawrence river in quebec, and the same coresteel, an old black diamond file I got checked out at the university with a metallurgist, who analyzed it and it turned out to be some kind of w1 tool steel with around 1.3% carbon and not much else, used my 26c3 ht recipe and it turned out pretty great, I used slightly lower aust temperatures and quenched with a thin dried slurry of clay on the blade in warm water. The blades got a very refined edge in no time, reacts very well to natural stones the way shirogami can do.

I am fulfilling a load of orders and after these will be done in january, then I will get to have a working website, and start to take international orders, through paypal. I have been very lucky to have a lot of people in my area interested in my work, but it has been honestly quite overwhelming and I had to learn to deal with this accordingly. It is still new to me, I didn't expect to attract so much attention and I have a hard time to make things work properly logistically in order to keep up with the demand, and since I work sometimes 100h a week on this project (that's all I do basically for a living) I tend to go deep into the workshop stuff and skip the networking stuff such as this forum, which I like a lot and would love to be active on more often. Maybe I could make that passaround happen in a not so distant future.


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## nakiriknaifuwaifu (Nov 17, 2021)

@lotfong glad to see you back my friend  


@Illyria 33lb any


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## kozzman555 (Nov 18, 2021)

lotfong said:


> I am fulfilling a load of orders and after these will be done in january, then I will get to have a working website, and start to take international orders, through paypal. I have been very lucky to have a lot of people in my area interested in my work, but it has been honestly quite overwhelming and I had to learn to deal with this accordingly. It is still new to me, I didn't expect to attract so much attention and I have a hard time to make things work properly logistically in order to keep up with the demand, and since I work sometimes 100h a week on this project (that's all I do basically for a living) I tend to go deep into the workshop stuff and skip the networking stuff such as this forum, which I like a lot and would love to be active on more often. Maybe I could make that passaround happen in a not so distant future.



Absolutely loved reading this thread, fantastic work and it's really neat to be able to see your evolution as a bladesmith. Hopefully you get things up and running to where we can place some orders! Pretty sure I need a new petty knife lol.

I did want to comment on this quote of yours though. I'm on a different knife forum that's mainly centered around pocket knives and bushcrafting type knives and it has a lot of custom knife makers advertise there. That website does have a feedback section and when I read through it, most of the bad reviews for custom knife makers are due to a lack of communication to their customers and excessive delays with the knives being delivered, and not because they make bad knives.

It seems it's decently common for the bladesmiths to spend all of their time in the shop and neglect the communication with their customers, not responding for weeks or sometimes months at a time. It's also not uncommon for the bladesmiths to take too many orders and can't meet their deadline that they have promised. Just make sure you are not overextending yourself. I just would feel remiss if I did not give you a heads up about this, as once you get a bad reputation, it's really hard to get rid of it.

Anyway, I really hope to keep seeing your work on here, and thank you so much for sharing your knives and your journey with us!


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## birdsfan (Nov 18, 2021)

Welcome back! You have been busy, but the hard work has paid off. It is nice to be inside as winter approaches! Love the look of your blades!


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## brimmergj (Nov 20, 2021)

This is quite the thread. Real awesome to see the progress of the blades and to get the personal background on you. I eagerly look forward to more postings from you, as well as that website.


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## lotfong (Apr 20, 2022)

Hi y'all
Long time again, with the spring I come out of my cave it seems!

I have started doing knife making classes for a local community based workshop and half the funds of these classes go to them, it is a fun and wholesome endeavour altogether. 
I split my time there with my own shop still busy with local orders, but I am getting close to be done with my list and will get to make some stuff for sale then.

But untill then I'll keep busy with the classes at least.
I use mostly reclaimed stuff whenever possible as base material, wrougjt iron or very low carbon steel for the cladding, file steel for the core steel, and wood scraps from the woodshop beside where I am set up to give classes.

I do laminate myself some steels billets beforehand, and then the students forge to shape the blade under my supervision and bad jokes.

I then do most of the heat treatment afterwards back at my shop (normalizing, grain refinement, subcritical anneal)
They then the second day cold forge the blade, start assembling the handle and pre-pierce it on the press drill, and then we do the quenching.
I teach them how I do water quench with a clay slurry on the blade and warming up the water a little. After this is done I bring back the blades at my shop, do a second and third tempering around 375f to get below 65hrc (I estimate 63hrc so far) and then I do most of the bevel stuff myself on the 2x72 belt grinder.
Finally before the last day of class I make sure the bevel is even and slightly convex on a rough 60grit stone, a debado 180 and then on a pink brick.

At the third and last day the students get to polish that blade up to wherever they want, most of them stok at the king 800 but some take it higher up to 6k and then naturals. After that they shape the handle, sand it, oil and wax it and glue the blade in, and last but not least they get to screw their finish while cutting a tomato/cabbage/whatever vegetable we have handy at the shop to amaze themselves with a knife that cuts better than most of them are accustomed to.

All in all it is a lot of fun and we always have a beer after each day to discuss, the fact they worked their asses off makes it tastier.
Here is some things my good students have done so far

It isn't perfect but for people who likely never handled a hammer to pound some hot steel I am proud of them.


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## brimmergj (Apr 20, 2022)

Those classes sound awesome. I may have to make the 7hr trip up North some time


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## MoabDave (Apr 20, 2022)

Wow, all that looks great! A fun time is had by all.


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## lotfong (May 20, 2022)

Howdy folks
Another one off the shop I just finished today

Special order for a friend

Sujihiki 260x38mm
238 g

san mai wrought iron/old nicholson file
Water quenched, approx. 64hrc hardness

Polishing and final edge done on japanese natural stones

Sculpted moose antler handle with a forged iron ferrule


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## lotfong (Jul 23, 2022)

Mornin' guys

My last order for a gooood while.
A butcher knife I made for a friend of mine who's been starting a butcher shop 3 years ago, just before the pandemic. The shop slowly got on the rails and now business is booming, he wanted to celebrate this milestone achievement with a special knife. 


Curved paring/deboning knife
Saber type tip (kissaki)
Hammered finish with a ball peen hammer on the kurouchi

180x38mm 
145grams
Taper on the spine from 7mm to 2mm, strong convex grind

Very simple polish with a king 800
Edge finished on shapton pro 2k with some very light stropping on a nakayama asagi, very aggressive edge

Homemade stainless san mai with 410ss on the sides, core out of Aogami super, water quenched and tempered down to ~62hrc

Handle made out of some mexican ebony with a brass plate ferrule
Saya made out of the exact same piece of mexican ebony, with the wood grain continuing from the handle in line with the saya wood grain (I litterally cut the handle piece flush to the piece that would become the saya)

Hand sanded to 400grit and finished with some woodturning wax (mix of carnauba wax, beeswax and tung oil)

That knife was a piece of work

Spent a dozen hours more than I would have normally, the brass was a thing I wasn't used to work with, the core steel exposition was a bit flush near the tip, and I spent quite a lot of time perfecting a heat treatment that would behave adequatly for rougher use, no small feat to do with aogami super. The client was quite determined with the steel choice. I kinda tried to school him on steel types, and suggesting some that would be more adequate for rough use but it was sort of a deal breaker for him if something else was used as a core steel. So I put it on myself to make it work and after a couple tests I did a ht that would handle heavy bone contact without much chipping, but I kinda believe that the point of using aogami super is a bit lost here, it ain't designed for that kind of job. Something tougher like 52100 or cruforge V would have been superb. 

But still I am satisfied with the job and anyway that mexican ebony is pretty lovely and things are well overall.

Some photos for y'all to see.
Have a great day folks


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## MoabDave (Jul 23, 2022)

Wow. I hope the user is as impressed as I am!


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## Dhoff (Jul 23, 2022)

lotfong said:


> Mornin' guys
> 
> My last order for a gooood while.
> A butcher knife I made for a friend of mine who's been starting a butcher shop 3 years ago, just before the pandemic. The shop slowly got on the rails and now business is booming, he wanted to celebrate this milestone achievement with a special knife.
> ...



Looking great 

Mind me asking why it will be the last order for a while?


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## WilliamDallas (Jul 23, 2022)

That is an absolutely beautiful piece of work man.


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## lotfong (Jul 23, 2022)

Dhoff said:


> Looking great
> 
> Mind me asking why it will be the last order for a while?


Hey thanks

I did absolutely nothing but custom orders in the past two years, and it's been overwhelming. 
I need a change of pace.
I will do some later on, just not to the point I used to.
This being said, this two years of intense custom work has been a very good learning opportunity on so many aspects of the craft and I am thankful for that.

I will post some knives for sale on instagram (lotfong).
It will be either very simple work knives in familiar profiles and sizes with good steel sandwiched by either mild steel or stainless and simple polish, and at very interesting prices, or some more creative and fancy stuff priced accordingly.
I'll let y'all know then


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## birdsfan (Jul 23, 2022)

Beautiful work as always! I have done those brass ferrules before. They are very unforgiving!


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## LostHighway (Jul 24, 2022)

Lovely knife and saya, your work always shows great attention to detail.
I really don't understand your friend's fixation on AS as that would have been one of the last steels I'd choose for a boning knife but I'm glad you found a way to get the most out of it for this application. Hopefully, your future boning/butchery knife commissions will be in 52100, V-Toku2, CruForgeV, ApexUltra, AEB-L or some other steel better suited to this application.


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## lotfong (Jul 24, 2022)

LostHighway said:


> Lovely knife and saya, your work always shows great attention to detail.
> I really don't understand your friend's fixation on AS as that would have been one of the last steels I'd choose for a boning knife but I'm glad you found a way to get the most out of it for this application. Hopefully, your future boning/butchery knife commissions will be in 52100, V-Toku2, CruForgeV, ApexUltra, AEB-L or some other steel better suited to this application.


Thank you!! Yes it has been a strange request IMHO but damn me if I don't try to make it work!!
I will be ordering some Apex Ultra when it gets to be available in North America, that will be fun to try out


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## lotfong (Jul 24, 2022)

birdsfan said:


> Beautiful work as always! I have done those brass ferrules before. They are very unforgiving!


Thanks a lot!! Oh yeah they are quite something, especially to glue on the handle. Had to do hidden pins to make it work, and the blade fitting in the handle secured it altogether so it will be sturdy enough for deboning jobs, that was the main goal


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## Dhoff (Jul 24, 2022)

Happy it was not a break altogether.

Maybe consider just signing up for a length?


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## lotfong (Jul 24, 2022)

Dhoff said:


> Happy it was not a break altogether.
> 
> Maybe consider just signing up for a length?


What do you mean by signing up for a length? Sorry might be my english is a bit rusty I am not familiar with that term, enlighten me !! Hahah


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## lotfong (Jul 24, 2022)

Besides I didn't forget about a possible passaround it's just been long to fulfill my last orders so I had to deal with this beforehand but it would be another option for people to make their own mind if they are still interested to buy afterwards


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## Dhoff (Jul 24, 2022)

It was just an idea, and I think I was a bit too short in description

I really get that you need a break from customs, but maybe if I'd like your work I could sign up for "a 200mm" no more. Then when you make a 200mm Id get the offer to buy. If I pass go to the next in the list and Im off or bumped to the bottom....

Writing it out I can see it would likely be a pain to manage. I just feel sad that some without the time or fast fingers often miss out on raquin etc.


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## lotfong (Jul 24, 2022)

Dhoff said:


> It was just an idea, and I think I was a bit too short in description
> 
> I really get that you need a break from customs, but maybe if I'd like your work I could sign up for "a 200mm" no more. Then when you make a 200mm Id get the offer to buy. If I pass go to the next in the list and Im off or bumped to the bottom....
> 
> Writing it out I can see it would likely be a pain to manage. I just feel sad that some without the time or fast fingers often miss out on raquin etc.


Ohhhhh now I see
Actually that was something like that I had in mind, like a list and people that are higher up the list have priority of choice over what comes off the shop periodically. It can be manageable I think and it seems like a great idea if well done. Won't be just right now tho but that is definitely something I will look forward in the future. Thanks for bringing this up


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## lotfong (Aug 12, 2022)

Hi y'all
Two new knives out of the shop
These are not custom orders

Gyuto 255x61mm
210g
Octagonal wa handle made of zebrawood, reindeer antler and african blackwood

Distal taper from 6.2mm to 1.1mm
Balance point about 3cm from the heel
Slightly convex geometry, pretty average thickness mid height section for that knife type, leans slightly on the workhorse side of things but is very fine at the edge (0.006 to 0.003" thick 1mm from the edge from heel to tip ) and does have a very nimble tip. Reasonable food release and very good cutter overall.

The cladding was an attempt to make it work well with low carbon plain steel as a cladding but I must admit I am struggling to make it visually attractive. This being said, the bevels hav le been worked on the stones nonetheless and they are clean and ready for future stone polishing. One thing that redeems it is that the kurouchi is quite lovely, I passed a small piece of uchigomori to polish the very small high spots of the slightly textured ku to give it some glittering shine, I quite like that effect.


Santoku 168x61mm
San mai wrought iron and old file
Octagonal wa handle
Purple heart and african blackwood

Distal taper from 7mm to 1.4mm
Balance point about 1cm from the heel.
Convexed geometry, this guy is thick. A proper workhorse, but is still reasonably fine at the edge (from 0.006 to 0.004" thick behind the edge from heel to tip). The tip is quite short but is still able to do fine stuff quite well. Very good food release and a good cutter

The cladding on this one is from a piece of 1"thick nail from a pier on the shores of the St. Lawrence river, it must be at least 100 years old. It is quite fibrous and does show good activity once polished on natural stones, but wasn't too delicate to work with, which is normally the case with wrought like that.

Both knives were made with the same old 3/8" thick black diamond file from the 80's, it is a simple carbon steel that is close to 1.3% carbon, behaves similarly to 26c3 but with slightly more bite.
Both have been forged at temps below 1800f after initial forge welds and gradually forged at lower temps through the forging process on the power hammer. Final forging of the geometry was adjusted by hand hammering. They were then normalized, grain refined twice and DET annealed in my kiln using a custom HT that is very close to the 26c3 ht process suggested in Larrin Thomas book. They were then cold forged by hand to pop the scale and refine here and there the geometry, especially near the edge. After that they were profiled, straightened very carefully to male sure everything was clean and even, and they were then coated in ash/clay slurry, held at 1440f for 10min and water quenched in lukewarm water for 3seconds, and then immediately tempered at 330f for two hours, twice. The final hardness is around 65hrc. They get a very fine edge easily and were sharpened at a 11°angle on both sides. The final sharpening was done on a Aiiwatani koppa from JNS and they were then stropped on newspaper, they both pass HHT test.

Here are some photos for y'all to see.
Have a great day











The gyuto choil shot















The santoku choil shot


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## brimmergj (Aug 12, 2022)

I saw these on your Instagram page and they are beautiful. The shape and cladding on that gyuto look really, REALLY nice.
The forging info is really cool to see, thanks for the info


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## lotfong (Aug 12, 2022)

brimmergj said:


> I saw these on your Instagram page and they are beautiful. The shape and cladding on that gyuto look really, REALLY nice.
> The forging info is really cool to see, thanks for the info


Thanks!! I like that profile for a gyuto. It has a two inch flat spot near the heel and then gently curves upwards up to near the tip where it has an even more pronounced curve to the tip for a fluid rocking motion. I tend to make the profile flatter than this usually but with a knife this big it felt right. Next time I might make the tip section (the last third of the blade) a bit less tall, so it can do fine jobs even better. But in any case it already cuts very well IMHO.

The cladding in real life is slightly more visible than in photo, but it sure is subtle. I tried lower welding temps, but it didn't do much difference. After talking with other smiths, they pointed out that this kind of mild steel benefits from having nickel layers to mitigate carbon migration if a bold lamination line is wanted at the polishing stage. Even then with 0.25% carbon it will always be less matte than wrought iron


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