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Thread: My second knife

  1. #1
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    Default My second knife

    I started this knife around March of this year. I ended up making a small skinning knife out of one of the off cuts from this blade first, I wanted to use it as a "practice" knife. The blade itself came out pretty good but I got impatient and rushed the handle part and ended up ruining the whole knife. The skinner is still functional but doesn't look very nice so I don't have any pictures thereof. I began work on this blade shortly after messing up the other and I think it came out pretty good considering this was my second attempt and the fact that I chose (stupidly) such a large blade.

    I chose to make a chefs knife because I couldn't decide what else to make and I thought I could actually make use of a nice kitchen knife since the only one I currently have is pretty crap and constantly needs sharpening. I made a bunch of drawings and cut out templates ahead of time but when the day came to go to the place where the knife would be made, I completely forgot the template! So when I arrived there I had to start over. Fortunately there was a box of templates that I could pick from. I picked a template and traced it onto the steel sheet. I now realize that a knife looks smaller on a drawing than when it is done. This blade ended up being huge!

    Anyway, I changed the template to what I wanted which ended in quite a weird design. I like the shape and look of the Japanese type handle but preferred the western style blade and decided to make it a full tang (I have no idea what I was thinking! ) hoping it would be easier. After we cut the blank out and drilled the handle holes they decided there were enough blanks to fire up the kiln to do some heat treating. I was told that this steel buckles quite easy when quenching so the grinding would be done after the heat treat and tempering process. The blade was oil quenched until it just lost its colour and then plate quenched to make sure it didn't buckle. I did all the grinning, making sure not to overheat the edge and lose the heat treat, and then spent quite a bit of time sanding the blade by hand up to 400 from 120. Once I had done all the sanding and was happy, I decided what wood I would use and began shaping the handles. After some basic shaping I cut the pins and stuck the scales. Once the epoxy had set I started working the handle into its final shape and I taped up the blade tp make sure I didnt mess this one up too (I got to tape up the previous blade which was the main reason it got messed up). I went with a simple handle to keep things easy.

    I am quite pleased with how it turned out. There certainly is alot of room for improvement but it could have come out alot worse so I am quite happy .

    Steel- Sandvik 12C27
    Heat treat-1050 degrees and left there for 5min, quenched and then tempered in the oven for 2 hours.
    Wood- Wild Olive wood
    Pins- 2mm stainless
    Total length- 368mm
    Blade length- 240mm
    Width- 67mm at the broadest point
    Thickness- 2.5mm

    PS, the smudge just in front of the handle is an imperfection in the steel.


  2. #2
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    Mar 2011
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    Durbanville, Cape Town
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    Default Re: My second knife

    Well done SAS! Looks pretty neat

  3. #3
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    Apr 2009
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    Default Re: My second knife

    That looks awesome, enjoy it man.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  4. #4
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    Stellenbosch, Western Cape
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    Default Re: My second knife

    Thanks guys

  5. #5
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    Jul 2011
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    East London
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    Default Re: My second knife

    Looks really nice, it's always feels better using a knife you made vs the factory stuff.

    Sent from my SM-G900F

  6. #6
    Banned
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    Stella
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    Default Re: My second knife

    Simply beautiful! Please keep going.

  7. #7
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    Feb 2013
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    Default Re: My second knife

    I like that. really nice.

  8. #8
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    Jun 2014
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    Pietermaritzburg, kzn
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    Default Re: My second knife

    Simple, yet elegant

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