Are kitchen knives harder to make?

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
5,786
Ah Yes, but there are a couple very important issues with kitchen knives that don't come into play with others. The edge has to be fine, fine, fine, so it can be sharpened with a steel. It needs to be light, very light. And it will get used and abused everyday. No outdoor knife will ever get used as much as a kitchen knife, thrown in the dishwasher (despite admonitions not to do so) and be able to chop bone and slice tomatoes from one minute to the next. I think it is a great challenge.

Good luck, it's a worthy goal.



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Jerry Hossom
knifemaker
www.hossom.com


 
A dishwasher set to temperature boost and pots&pans cycle is not only hard on handle material, it is also a good way to remove epoxy. Use rivets and a very tough handle material--micarta or maybe rosewood. You may need to be careful to not warp the blades during heat treatment.
 
i like kitchen knives, my knives weigh alot, which is very good in a lrge kitchen knife, that will increase leverage in chopping. make them how you'd like em' then modify them to how the person buying it likes a knife, when you make them for the person. ask them what rc hardness they want it, becuase the shapening steel needs to be a certain rockwell hardness based on that of the knife.
i'm making a kitchen knife for my grandfather from bg-42, i'm sure it'll hold up to bone.
 
Does anyone have recommendations on steel type and blade thickness for kitchen knives? I was thinking AST-34 steel and 3/32 thickness, but maybe there are reasons to use something else?

Carl
 
My favorite kithcen knife in the world is the Spyderco Santoku, and it seems to be made from 1/16" stainless stock of some unknown type. The edge is simply a bevel like on any other knife, but due to the thinness there is no need to make it flat ground, hollow ground, etc. I have a Ross Aki machete designed like this, too, and it's fantastic. I would probably use 1/16" or slightly greater stock on knives that were mainly for veggies, but for a meat knife I would go to 1/8" and flat grind it. Any thoughts?

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