6 knife set of Viking (Gude) kitchen knives in Leopard Skin Jasper

[Redrummd]

Yesterday I finished a six knife set of Viking (Gude) kitchen knives in Leopard Skin Jasper. We seem to be missing a kitchen knife forum here at Blade forums so I thought I would share the pictures here.

These are a Christmas present for my daughter and son-in-law.

Here is a bit about the knives -

Hand-crafted in Solingen, Germany, they meet the uncompromising standards that have made German cutlery famous. Blade feels weightless since most of the knife's weight is in your hand. This means perfect balance and knife control.

Full tang - from the tip of the blade to the heavy counterweight at the end of the handle, these knives are one piece of forged high carbon, ice-hardened, stainless steel. No weld between tang and blade!

 

[Sevorius]

gorgeous :thumbup:

 

[waterdogs]

Beautiful ! They`re almost too pretty to use....






(I said "almost"

 

[bearcut]

Beautifull set. Viking makes some great knives, full bolsters, forged. The balance of the forged European designs is so nice, they know how to do it right. Those handles put them over the top.

 

[Jaxx]

Wow... :thumbup::thumbup: Well done, I cannot stop looking at them!

 

[Lanza]

Very nicely done!!

 

[Peregrin]

What a wonderful Christmas present! Great work!

 

[Redrummd]

bearcut - Yes they are great knives and a real challenge to do. As they are one piece forged, and come with a black molded plastic handle ,the forging under the scales is rough as in right from the forge. In addition the bolsters have a slant to them and where they meet the tang is slightly rounded on most of them. A further complication is there is a variance in the length of each scale and even from side to side on each knife.

This means a lot of filework was needed to get the tangs flat to mate to the stone. I had to buy some very top end files as the ones I had just skipped over the metal taking nearly nothing off.

I then had to mark each scale as to what side of the knife it was going to be on and then hand cut each to fit the exact dimension of the knife and side it was meant for.

The real tough part was the angles of the bolsters to the tang and keeping the stone for a scale "square" to both ends of the knife. As the bolsters are fully hardened steel there is no movement of metal toward the stone in polishing so a fat seam will stay fat.... Tight fitting stone is very difficult under these parameters.

Once a Leopard Skin scale was correct to a few thousandth's I then had to take off the right amount to fit the slight curve where the bolster rounds into the flat of the tang.

I do all of this by hand with nothing more than good eye/hand coordination - on a ROUND diamond grinding wheel turning at 1750 RPM in a water spray!

INSANE - yes and we haven't even covered how I have to deal with sharp blades so long they reach across the equipment to other wheels turning at 1750 RPM!!!!!

 

[Mike Fitz]

Wow! Those are really over the top. Nice work, I hope they appreciate them and take good care!

 

[yiterp]

excellent work--they will be proud to use them

 

[Seals]

Those are family heirlooms already.Beautiful work.