# New Line - Integral full tang mono



## WillC (Apr 3, 2015)

I have been working on this on and the forging and heat treatment of this particular shape in this particular steel on and off for about three years.:bigeek:
It started with a Parer idea based on an old Sheffield pattern, but with a sweep to the heel rather than the huge chunk of metal at the heel of this design of sheffield knife you will be familiar with.

Mean time I have been playing with the forging process and die shapes to get these as close to all forged as possible for larger knives. This is not a huge knife but is a good test piece to base future efforts.

The steel is a very high carbon with tiny amounts of chromium and manganese, it is a shallow hardening steel and gets extremely hard, with the heat treatment I have developed it is edge stable at almost full hardness. This example is 65/66hrc!! And shows some nice edge flex, It would chip against hard steel or grit, but it would chip clean with no distortion. There is differential hardening using clay. I wanted to take this test piece to the limit, but I would fear substantial chance of tip loss at this hardness, commercial pieces will be a little lower at 64/65. Though I wanted to test its usability at its absolute limit. I can tell you it was an ass to hand rub!

The Shape is entirely forged to begin with, blade shape, taper, and bevels, this all helps with a shallow hardening steel all helps in the heat treatment, though hard to achieve, (why Ive been so long working it out).

So this is still a working process, Larger knives will have fuller handles from larger stock, the parer versions are very cute..... Unfortunately I broke the parer example on the hardness tester, which gave me a nice chance to see the lovely grain I have achieved with the steel, 

Handle on the test piece is Maple one side and spalted tamarind o the other, kind off offcuts two for one special.

Anyway here are far to many pictures. This is my test piece on which to base future work with design tweaks... not for resale.





























































Told you there was allot of pics.....was finding it rather photogenic:laugh:

Blade length on this one is 140mm 35mm tall.
Thanks for looking and commenting your feedback.:detective:


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## chefcomesback (Apr 3, 2015)

Looks great as usual Will, is this the silver steel?


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## toddnmd (Apr 3, 2015)

It is quite photogenic! Looks great! Very sleek.


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## cheflarge (Apr 3, 2015)

STUNNING........ Very streamlined look. :cool2:


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## Mrmnms (Apr 3, 2015)

It's beautiful Will. The handle appears well suited to the size of the knife.


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## WillC (Apr 3, 2015)

Thanks all, Chef your right however I tend to avoid the term silver steel, it is a broad term which can be applied to a range of steels. But its an engineers grade steel around 1.2-1.3 carbon, with a little manganese and a little chromium. Usually unusable above around 63 hrc but with my heat treatment it is edge stable at 65/66hrc, though I wouldn't want to stab it in the sink with this ht, could loose up to about 2cm off the tip. Therefore will be using a little more clay and a tad softer for sale pieces. Edge characteristics its fine/medium courser than 01 but finer than 1.2442 feels and sharpens like a white steel thats taken to the limit. I will let you know how the edge behaves after I have abused it for a while cooking at home. Oh and Happy easter everyone:biggrin:


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## Rosco (Apr 3, 2015)

I've never been a fan of western style handles, riveted handles or integral bolsters but that knife is absolutely beautiful. I think it's the best example of your work to date.


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## Godslayer (Apr 3, 2015)

That is absolutely mind blowing. I've never seen anything like that on a non commercial knife. I don't have a broad enough vocabulary to even began to describe just how beautiful that knife is. Keep up the good work.


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## Chuckles (Apr 3, 2015)

That is really cool. Good job! 

My very first though was: 'I want one'

It is very novel. I am wondering what inspired it?


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## mc2442 (Apr 4, 2015)

I agree with Chuckles, me like and want.


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## Nasr (Apr 5, 2015)

Very Sexy


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## timgunn (Apr 5, 2015)

Tis a lovely thing Will. 

I've always felt Silver Steel is very underrated for knives.


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## shownomarci (Apr 5, 2015)

I am not a big fan of petty/paring knives and tend use cheap ones but this one hits the spot for me.


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## WillC (Apr 12, 2015)

Thanks all very much:big grin: Very pleased with the most promising response for these.
@ Chuckles

Here you can see the influence and development. Some years ago I bought a reworked sheffield parer from Stuart Michael, and subsequently bought a batch of the sheffield blanks he had from the Sheffield works I believe they are drop forged, you will be most familiar with the shape and design, not dissimilar to the French versions.





Since then I have been occasionally trying my own power hammer forged versions, the design from there is simply the most elegant solutions to forging the shape. Forge work development you could say, which takes shape by designing and tweaking your tooling until you achieve the desired movement of metal, thats my forge work process anyway and it always brings its own character to the work.:biggrin:


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## Chuckles (Apr 12, 2015)

Cool post, thanks for sharing!

My Dad's side of the family is from Sheffield. My DNA must have been instinctively drawn to the design! :clown:

Really interesting to see the evolution.


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## zackerty (Apr 14, 2015)

You do have your own style, Will...that is a rare thing..
I have seen your stuff over in BB...


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## WillC (Apr 14, 2015)

Thanks Zackerty, I thought of you when trying to decide if the Sheffield originals were cast or drop forged, texture remaining on the tang part could indicate either really, the holes might be more indicative of casting. They are some fine grained stuff, something like 12c, not especially hard but nice to sharpen.


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## zackerty (Apr 14, 2015)

I wish that I had seen the Sheffield blanks from Stu M...

I have a Sabatier from 1981 very similar in pattern, but def not as shiny...


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## Andrey V (Apr 18, 2015)

Wow, Will, this is something really new, i feel beating my heart more intense.[emoji41][emoji41]. 
Please give it a good test in your kitchen- i would see the result. I would be happy to see such a knive in my kitchen. In this size. Very cool. Loverly shape. Very unique. Will, Will, Will, you make people star at your job more and more [emoji120]&#127995;[emoji120]&#127995;[emoji106]&#127995;[emoji106]&#127995;.


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## John N (May 17, 2015)

That's very pretty Will ! looks production clean (compliment!) dubyaone is a nice steel, ive got grain like wet fresh mixed smooth plaster of paris from it without trying, be lovely so see what you can do with it


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## WillC (May 23, 2015)

Thanks Mate I think Jack Jack has been using the same HT as me on it and is much better at explaining the metallurgical reasons why it works so well. 
The piece is holding up really well, edge holding very good indeed, it even got dumped in with all the knives and forks with the washing up, (not by me). Only damage was a couple of tiny chips about the size of a grain of sand. Which is exactly as I hoped


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## WillC (Oct 16, 2015)

Did a little more on this project, forging out a larger one.....:big grin:






















































To be continued.....:detective:


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## WillC (Dec 10, 2015)

Bit more on these....

























After HT, softening tang and spine.....





Tempered these to 64/65hrc. With the HT i have worked out with this steel, if you remember the test piece was at 66hrc and was like rather hard, indeed, and edge stable with it! But was not nice to sharpen or finish! So these are at 64/65 will be much nicer I think while still having excellent edge retention. Considering with usual heat treat the steel is not stable past 61 I'm quite pleased, looking forward to testing one of these in full size.


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