A new website for selling custom chef knives

Brock, my understanding is that when using a soft cladding with a very hard core, cold forging is vital to "even things up" in order to prevent delamination during hardening. I don't think it's at all the same concept as "packing," though I don't doubt that there's ten thousand potential customers out there who are sure that it is! ;)
At this point I can pretty much walk through a knife show and point to the various tables and say, "that guy cooks, that guy has some actual cooking training, that guy works with chefs to tune his designs, that guy is a fabulous knife maker who thinks making a cooking knife would be cool, that guy thinks kitchen knives are pretty basic compared to fancy stuff."
All that stuff makes a difference and adds up- none more than having actual knife skills, just like with the guy who makes swords or combat knives or cutting competition work.
 
elementfe said:
Brock, my understanding is that when using a soft cladding with a very hard core, cold forging is vital to "even things up" in order to prevent delamination during hardening. I don't think it's at all the same concept as "packing," though I don't doubt that there's ten thousand potential customers out there who are sure that it is! ;)
At this point I can pretty much walk through a knife show and point to the various tables and say, "that guy cooks, that guy has some actual cooking training, that guy works with chefs to tune his designs, that guy is a fabulous knife maker who thinks making a cooking knife would be cool, that guy thinks kitchen knives are pretty basic compared to fancy stuff."
All that stuff makes a difference and adds up- none more than having actual knife skills, just like with the guy who makes swords or combat knives or cutting competition work.
Click to expand...

Great observations. The more I learn, the more I can see these things too. I've spent almost all of my making time with kitchen knives, and feel I am just getting to the basics of a good understanding of kitchen cutlery. It is a real study.
This is why I think it is a long road to US knives being perceived as competitive to J knives on a large scale. There are those makers who have it dialed in. But they are exceptions I think.

Thanks for the comments!
 
when i started making kitchen knives, I use the perceived advantages of Japanese knives as a starting point. thinner stock: all recent work is with stock 1/16" or less low edge angles: flat grinds with finished edge angle less than 10 degress higher hardness blades: most of my knives are Rc62-63 with a few as high as Rc65 I liked the shape of ajikiri/deba and continue to do my take on it with handle/edge angles such that you can cut anyway you want and not bang your knuckles. i cook alot at home, so my blades get tested to make sure they work well.
again we are back to marketing and that you can get an ok kitchen knife at wallyworld or target for $20 or less.
scott
 
I found something this morning that appears to perpetrate the myths about J-knives in a forum catering to chefs. Am I off in thinking there is a lot of misinformation here?

Google "Japanese Knives 101"
 
yeah that article is...at its best outdated, at its worst plain tomfoolery :) haha. ITs funny where they say, and i am paraphraising "should I buy a santoku? No you shouldnt." Oh, why is that? "because it is a housewife's knife" lol.

Also of note: The Honyaki meaning "true forged" is so expensive , that may be true if pricing was based from 100 + years ago. However, although laminated steel is much more expensive it may require less finishing time and offer more consistent QC for a smaller traditional shop. So I suppose in Japan as long as the laminated steel is cheap enough to procure the Honyaki may actually still be more expensive, especially if they are still quenching them in water. Its interesting I came across a very expensive Honyaki blade of blue#2 with what appeared to be some clever blade treatment to mimic a hamon. This thing was like 1200$ Now Am I correct in thinking that although you can have a blue#2 differential hardened blade, you cannot have one with a visible hamon? There is some silliness going on here with the mizu-honyaki blades.
 
Tim, I have said for a couple of years that Japan is the only place that I know of where a forge welded blade is considered to require less skill to produce than a forged monosteel blade. The highly skilled traditional Japanese smiths succeed DESPITE using some of their their age old techniques IMO. :eek: Let's be honest. Didn't you cringe a little bit the first time that you saw a Japanese smith beating on a cold blade with a hammer? ;)
timos- said:
yeah that article is...at its best outdated, at its worst plain tomfoolery :) haha. ITs funny where they say, and i am paraphraising "should I buy a santoku? No you shouldnt." Oh, why is that? "because it is a housewife's knife" lol.

Also of note: The Honyaki meaning "true forged" is so expensive , that may be true if pricing was based from 100 + years ago. However, although laminated steel is much more expensive it may require less finishing time and offer more consistent QC for a smaller traditional shop. So I suppose in Japan as long as the laminated steel is cheap enough to procure the Honyaki may actually still be more expensive, especially if they are still quenching them in water. Its interesting I came across a very expensive Honyaki blade of blue#2 with what appeared to be some clever blade treatment to mimic a hamon. This thing was like 1200$ Now Am I correct in thinking that although you can have a blue#2 differential hardened blade, you cannot have one with a visible hamon? There is some silliness going on here with the mizu-honyaki blades.
Click to expand...
 
timos- said:
yeah that article is...at its best outdated, at its worst plain tomfoolery :) haha. ITs funny where they say, and i am paraphraising "should I buy a santoku? No you shouldnt." Oh, why is that? "because it is a housewife's knife" lol.

Also of note: The Honyaki meaning "true forged" is so expensive , that may be true if pricing was based from 100 + years ago. However, although laminated steel is much more expensive it may require less finishing time and offer more consistent QC for a smaller traditional shop. So I suppose in Japan as long as the laminated steel is cheap enough to procure the Honyaki may actually still be more expensive, especially if they are still quenching them in water. Its interesting I came across a very expensive Honyaki blade of blue#2 with what appeared to be some clever blade treatment to mimic a hamon. This thing was like 1200$ Now Am I correct in thinking that although you can have a blue#2 differential hardened blade, you cannot have one with a visible hamon? There is some silliness going on here with the mizu-honyaki blades.
Click to expand...

Hitachi blue will hamon. I've done four of them myself.
 
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