Japanese Styled Kitchen Knives

[EdgarFigaro]

Here is more of what I've been working on.
Kinda been playing around with doing some japanese styled kitchen knives.

Links go to my site where there are additional pictures.


http://www.erwinknives.com/galleryht...nakkiri01.html
Blade : 1095 Core between Mild Steel skins - 5 1/8"
Spine : 3/16" tapering to 2/16"
Handle : Round Curly Walnut with a Copper Ferrule - 4 1/4"
Overall : 9 3/8"

A kuro uchi nakkiri I'd done. It's a san mai, I'm planning to do more in this style but the other shapes as well.
got the grind a little higher than i'd planned since the blade is still a tad thicker than I'd wanted.
Fairly happy with it, and have used it a lil, it cuts quite nicely.

handle has a little curl to it, and I'm thinking of giving it a few coats of tru oil, it's been soaked in some danish oil.
The idea behind these is to have some that are a bit lower priced, and meant as users.
They're also fun to make, so I'll be doing more once my forge is back up and running.

Also have learnt a fair bit on burning the tang in, that on the last one I got a real nice fit.




http://www.erwinknives.com/galleryht...santoku01.html
Blade : W-2 - 7 3/4" Long, 1 1/2" Wide
Spine : 1/8" tapering the last third to a point
Handle : Round Curly Walnut with a Copper Ferrule - 4 1/4"
Overall : 12"

Here's a W-2 Santoku. I'd forged it a while back and it's been sitting around on the bench waiting for me to get to it.
Just decided to put a handle on it like these i've been doing recently.
Satin polished, I'd etched it to see if it had a hamon, but it doesn't, and after etching i remembered I'd done pretty much a full quench on it.
Reasoning was that you'd not be able to eventually sharpen through the hamon.
I am thinking I may do some with a hamon though.
I think the reason I've been doing some san mai was to have blades where it has a hamon-like effect but you'd never be able to sharpen through it.



http://www.erwinknives.com/galleryht...ughtsan01.html
Blade : W-2 Core with Wrought Iron Sides - 7 3/4" Long, 1 1/2" at it's widest.
Spine : 1/8" tapering the last third to a point
Handle : Round Curly Walnut with a Copper Ferrule - 4 1/2"
Overall : 12 1/4"

At Bowie's Hammer-in, guess it was year before this last? Bruce Norris was there and before he'd left, he'd passed off a bar of wrought iron to my dad.
Well that bar ended up getting drawn out and layered up with some W-2. Forged out 4 blades.
One is still a tad on the thick side, so I'm gonna draw it out some more.
The rest were forged into these.



http://www.erwinknives.com/galleryht...ughtsan02.html
Blade : W-2 Core with Wrought Iron Sides - 6 1/8" Long, 1 5/16" Wide.
Spine : 5/32" tapering the last fourth to a point
Handle : Round Curly Maple Stabilized by WoodLab with a Copper Ferrule - 4 5/8"
Overall : 10 3/4"

This one was also an experiment to see if the tang can be burnt into a stabilized block.
It can, it just takes longer to do. I'll have to play with it some more as stabilizing would make a more durable knife in a kitchen environment.



http://www.erwinknives.com/galleryht...ughtsan03.html
Blade : W-2 Core with Wrought Iron Sides - 7 3/4" Long, 1 1/2" Wide.
Spine : 5/32" tapering the last fourth to a point
Handle : Round Curly Walnut with a Copper Ferrule - 4 1/2"
Overall : 12 1/4"

Think this one was one of my favorite due to shaping and the size.





Been thinking about getting some different woods and doing some sets that'd be sold as a set.
Wanting to have some variety, and I've got some other metals on order for ferrules.
I'd ordered wrong size and getting some more, but the first size will work for some smaller blades.
Planning to have copper, bronze, and stainless and pairing them up with woods depending on color combo.
Also gonna try some in buffalo horn.


I'm looking for feedback on them, so comments and thoughts are appreciated, as well as questions.

[Martin Brandt]

Edgar, These kitchen pieces are great looking. I really like the wrought clad pieces. Only criticism I might have is on handle shape. It appears totally cylindrical at the ferrule. It may not be, but from the photo angle it appears so. I would suggest a gentle squeeze on the ferrule mtl. in a padded vise, to an oval shape and match handles to that. Just my two bits worth. Great work.

[EdgarFigaro]

But then the ferrule wouldn't match the handles! lol

The handles actually are round just like the ferrule, might be hard to tell in the photos. They do taper a bit as well.

Attempting some oval handled might be interesting to try, then seeing if I could get the ferrule to match.

The idea was a quick easy to make handle so I could make some less expensive user kitchen blades. I'd been watching how the japanese do their handles, and I'm actually jealous.
I'd love to have the lathe they use to do their oval ho wood handles.
They'll place a block of wood between two points on the spindles, and behind ti is a faceplate that spins with blades, once engaged it moves against the face plate but is also set on a cam so it turns it as an oval instead of round.

So yeah these were just turned on my lathe.
I'm wanting to try some with an octogon shape.
Gonna turn a tenon on the end with the lathe, then drill a hole in some buffalo horn, put that on the tenon and then sand everything flush and square or maybe a little rectangluar. Then either run it through the router or just sand the corners to 45s. Be fun to try it and see how it comes out.


I've a little wrought iron knife I've been using in the kitchen for a few years now that I'd made early on when i got into making knives. It's wrought with a file steel core (1095), then has a spacer of ebony, and handle of cobobolo and it's relatively round as well, has a slight oval to handle, but not much.

[Tai Google]

Those look real nice.

I do the handles and ferrules oval, all by hand. It's not that hard to do.

[EdgarFigaro]

I'd like to learn to braze a ferrule from sheet, so could make some from other materials.
I like those reticulated silver ones you've made before, Tai.

How do you go about doing the oval handles and ferrules?

[Tai Google]

I mark the ends of the handles with a template, I think they are called drafting templates. They are clear plastic and have graduated ovals of different types. I usually do the handles on a taper using a smaller oval in the front and slightly larger one at the back. Then, I rough them out with a hand plane, rasp then sand.

For the ferrules I usually bend a sheet around and solder it, but have also used copper pipe. It?s helpful to have a mandrel to form the oval over. I usually just use a round spike type mandrel, but if I were going to do a lot of them the same, I?d make an oval mandrel.

[EdgarFigaro]

Is soldering the ferrule very difficult?
I've thought about just trying to do one. Just get the ends to match closely and have a go at it?

I wanna get me some of those plastic templates, I've just been printing out ovals for guards and such via the computer. I've a program where I can make just about any size.

[Tai Google]

No, it's not really that difficult. Use high temp., silver solder, get the ends to butt up to each other nice and tight, be sure surfaces to be soldered are free from fire scale and/or oxidation, use plenty of flux, and remember to heat the metal being soldered (not just the solder itself).

[EdgarFigaro]

May have to get a little copper plate and try some, then once I've got it down try something a little more interesting.