Last Saturday, January 6, my friend Mel and I drove 200 miles to see Luong at his shop. Mel had sent him two S110V blades for heat treatment a week beforehand and they were ready for pickup, so we made a day out of it. It was a very long day (400 miles round trip through the LA corridor) but well worth it.
We spent about five hours with Luong. He gave us a shop tour, we tested Mel’s blades by whittling on African blackwood and dried bovine bone. Amazing edge stability at Rc 66. We played with a 30 ounce custom chopper at Rc 65, cutting fir, oak, bamboo, and aluminum tubing.
We also got to handle some Bluntcut Metalworks originals with lovely wooden handles and very hard, thin BTE blades. Mel even bought a couple. Luong was most generous with his time and it was fun to spend quality time with not one, but two avid cutlery enthusiasts! When does that ever happen in meatspace?
The results Luong is getting with his heat treatment methods are very impressive. He was protective of his exact methods, but freely disclosed that the full protocol takes over 24 hours. Out of respect, we didn’t press for details. High hardness blades (mostly rather thin for performance) with great edge stability in the face of lateral loads and chopping impacts are hallmarks of his work. One 10V blade at Rc 69 (I think either a petty or paring blade) was the victor in a contest between the spine and a mill file’s edge. The spine scraped off bits of the file teeth while the file could only polish the spine. And yet this knife survived glancing chops on a dry coconut shell without chips or rolling. We were impressed.
After taking Luong out for a late lunch, we departed for home. All told it was 14 hours of time well spent. Hopefully we get to visit again.
We spent about five hours with Luong. He gave us a shop tour, we tested Mel’s blades by whittling on African blackwood and dried bovine bone. Amazing edge stability at Rc 66. We played with a 30 ounce custom chopper at Rc 65, cutting fir, oak, bamboo, and aluminum tubing.
We also got to handle some Bluntcut Metalworks originals with lovely wooden handles and very hard, thin BTE blades. Mel even bought a couple. Luong was most generous with his time and it was fun to spend quality time with not one, but two avid cutlery enthusiasts! When does that ever happen in meatspace?
The results Luong is getting with his heat treatment methods are very impressive. He was protective of his exact methods, but freely disclosed that the full protocol takes over 24 hours. Out of respect, we didn’t press for details. High hardness blades (mostly rather thin for performance) with great edge stability in the face of lateral loads and chopping impacts are hallmarks of his work. One 10V blade at Rc 69 (I think either a petty or paring blade) was the victor in a contest between the spine and a mill file’s edge. The spine scraped off bits of the file teeth while the file could only polish the spine. And yet this knife survived glancing chops on a dry coconut shell without chips or rolling. We were impressed.
After taking Luong out for a late lunch, we departed for home. All told it was 14 hours of time well spent. Hopefully we get to visit again.
As for proprietary BCMW ht 2.5 - yeah too bad, I had to solo advancing CWF HT and turned what could/should be community HT into proprietary because of costly research investment.
