Butchers knife for a friend - WIP

Inside every chefs knife lies a paring knife waiting to be brought to light.
I commend you and your undertaking and thoroughly enjoy real WIP posts. I look forward to continue to follow this.
 
Good morning, all. It's been longer than I thought, but I'm finally able to get back to this project. I'm trying a different pattern, going for my river under cloudy skies motif:
1.jpg
And here we are with a bit extra material to cut off. Hoping to finish forging this afternoon.
20200610_172127.jpg
 
Very cool. I am looking forward to this new go at it!
BTW...your quote by Kevin Thunderhorse is great.
 
Didn't get much done today, but here's where we are: de-scaled and rough profile done.
20200615_174053.jpg
The spine is just over 5mm at the heel. Not sure how much this should taper to the point. Any suggestions? Remember, this is to be used for breaking down turkeys, so there has to be some meat at the tip.
 
I would not taper it since there is a core along the spine and you certainly would not want to grind into it.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I would not taper it since there is a core along the spine and you certainly would not want to grind into it.
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I'm not sure I'm following why. I built it this way so that the pattern will look like cloudy skies over a river. I was thinking tapering it at least to around 3mm (0.125") at the tip.
Wouldn't a 5mm (0.210") spine the whole way make for an extra heavy knife? Or is that thickness needed for popping joints open?
 
I agree that the knife is very thick. What I was referring to is the upper part is three layers with the outer layers much thinner than the core. If you taper the blade you may grind right through the outer layers and expose the darker core. This would run your "cloudy skies over the river" thing.

Honestly, I don't get your visual theme, but that doesn't matter. I look forward to seeing how it comes out.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
If you taper the blade you may grind right through the outer layers and expose the darker core. This would run your "cloudy skies over the river" thing.
Click to expand...
Perhaps I should have noted that the sketch of the billet was not to scale, but I am a little worried that I didn't make the outer 15N20 layers thick enough. The original stack was two 0.070" thick pieces of 15N20 on the sides sandwiching 3 pieces of .125" 1080 in the center. 2.jpg
 
Well, I finally got an answer from the end user, sort of... "I want it thick, so I'll leave it up to you to decide where to start tapering."
Because this is so far outside the box for me (my brain is used to thinking, thinner, thinner...), I would appreciate any advice.
Should I keep the whole spine at 5mm or taper it to ~3mm at the tip?
How thick should I keep the edge before quenching and sharpening?
Also, should I keep a full tang to help with the balance and not worry about the overall weight?
Thanks
 
Now I'm seeing what you mean with your pattern. I like it - especially like the bottom where the layers are laid on edge for forging. That brings out the layers nicely. Good job.
 
Here it is after final grinding and etched before adding the handle. Waiting for color choices from the end user.
20200710_124203.jpg
The pattern isn't quite what I was hoping for, not really cloudy but I think I know what to do differently next time, so I'm learning and that's a good thing, right?:rolleyes: I used 2 pieces of 1080 in the spine portion, and next time will only use one piece.
 
Nice! What is the bolster materiai? What thickness for the spacer (I’m still struggling settling on a thickness for that...)
 
Good morning, Cush, thanks. The bolster is some ebony that I got from a friend who's luthier brother died a number of years ago. It was originally a 2" square block by 6" long, I'm now down to only about 2" left.
The spacer is 3/32", I think, but it might have been 1/8" before sanding it flat before glue up. It's just a 1" wide brass strip that I got at a hardware or hobby store a few years ago. Should be pretty easy to find.
 
Thanks william. I asked about the spacer material because I started out with thinner material, and it was a real pain to try to get a reasonable hole drilled into it....
 
weo said:
When you drill through thin material, do you use a backer block of wood or something similar?
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yes. it wants to get about 3/4 of the way through drilling the hole, then tries to wrap up the material around the bit. smaller holes no problem .... the bigger holes like 3/8" are what cause problems.
 
Cushing H. said:
yes. it wants to get about 3/4 of the way through drilling the hole, then tries to wrap up the material around the bit. smaller holes no problem .... the bigger holes like 3/8" are what cause problems.
Click to expand...


Clamp the thin material between two pieces of scrap wood when drilling the hole. Or use a step drill. Or glue your material down to some scrap with CA glue, drill the hole, then release it with acetone. Twist drills, especially large ones, are terrible at drilling thin materials so you have to help them out by supporting the workpiece properly. Just putting it on top of a piece of scrap isn’t enough to get a clean hole.
 
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