Chef's/sushi knife

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,060
Here is a knife I finally finished, a chef's or sushi type knife, blade is 1084, handle is sugar maple. The blade is chisel ground for a right hand (I think), it is flat ground on the bevel side and flat ground then slightly convexed on the other side. The sugar maple is gorgeous stuff. Comments and critique welcome.

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looks cool
also looks right hand grind
one thing is most the single bevel knives in the kitchen are concave on the back side to help with sharpening
you lay them flat on the hone like a straight razor and hone the spine and edge
you end up getting a really nice looking C thats mirror finished as thats the edge

lots of good info over at the knife forum that has a big kitchen subforum :)
 
the urasaki has little to do with sharpening, and more to do with keeping the flesh from sticking to the blade:)
 
Butch, concave on the backside? I thought they were flat but what you say sounds better, that would mean the spine and the edge would touch the stone, very hand for sharpening. The slight convex I find is handy also, slack belt sharpening is easy to just touch it to the belt. next one perhaps I will try a convex, after I get a 14 inch wheel though. What other knifeforum are you talking about Butch?
 
nice knife im doing a handle in maple right now ive got about 30 ft of maple so ill be useing maple for a while lol i think if you had a bolster it woulda finished it off a little nicer. still very nice
 
Nice job Sam. Glad to see one get finished.:D
BTW, the style you are referring to is a sashimi knife ,not the commonly (and wrong) called sushi knife. Sashimi is sliced fish,sushi is rice.

For some tips for Japanese sashimi blades:
Make the blade edge a little straighter, with almost no curvature until toward the tip.
Glue a 1" block of ebony or blackwood to the end of the handle block, sort of like a bolster, and the handle will look much better.It will make the handle longer,too (7-8" is good). I can't tell,but the photo looks like the blade is not aligned with the handle straight (might be the photo?).

Stacy
 
Sam Salvati said:
Butch, concave on the backside? I thought they were flat but what you say sounds better, that would mean the spine and the edge would touch the stone, very hand for sharpening. The slight convex I find is handy also, slack belt sharpening is easy to just touch it to the belt. next one perhaps I will try a convex, after I get a 14 inch wheel though. What other knifeforum are you talking about Butch?
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The backside of a few Japanese style knives are concave: Deba, Yanagi, and some kiritsuke.
BUT, there are also quite a few that have an asymetrical edge similar to what you made. They may still have a primary bevel on one side, but the other is slightly convexed.
 
Cool guys thanks for all the info!

Stacy, I was already corrected for the sashimi name, I was informed it was not close enough to a sashimi knife to be considered a sashimi knife so I opt out for some slang and called it a sushi knife (mainly because of the chisel type geometry). I will be giving a more traditional sashimi knife a try this weekend, a bit simpler with better fit and finish than this one.

Hellgap, thanks! I did not have a small enough drill bit to chain drill for the slot, so I ended up burning it into the handle. The next one though........
 
Ah-ha Sam, You have hit on the solution to your handle problem without knowing it. Drill the main handle block out to a 1/4" hole that is 1/2" shorter than the tang to be buried. Burn in the tang until it is a good fit (still leaving that extra 1/2" exposed) clean out the hole with a long thin scraper hook to get out all the char. Take a piece of 1/2" thick ebony, about 1"X1" ,and drill two 1/8" holes to start the tang hole. Using a coping/jewelers saw, saw out the web and then file the wood until it is a perfect fit for the tang. slip this on the tang and glue the main block to it with 5 minute epoxy (just the two wood pieces, not the tang). Carefully, pull it off after the epoxy sets, but before it can firmly attach to the tang (I wax the tang before this step). Let it cure, pre sand the end to get the face smooth and polished (as in any knife without a guard). When all is ready, drip in some slow cure epoxy and install the whole assembly on the tang. After cure, grind the block to shape (This is where you can trim out any slight misalignment with the handle and blade). Sand and polish as desired. The black bolster and light handle is the classic look in Japanese food knives. I like an oval to slightly egg shaped profile. Avoid thick handles, but long is good. Depending on the knife most of my handles are somewhere around 5/8"X1" oval and about 6-8" long. Small handles are 1/2"X3/4" and 4-5" long.

As to the shape, It would be best described as a Japanese grind butchering knife. I can not recall any blade shapes that have a curve like that in classic Japanese cutlery. Maybe you can market it as a 4S knife (Sam Salvi Sushi Slicer). BTW, the forging method you are using is honyaki (One steel forging). Kasumi is the forging method using two pieces of metal ( san-mai forging).

I am going out to the forge now. I have an order for a D-2 sashimi knife that I am going to grind. I'll try and post some photos later.
Stacy
 
Thanks for the info Stacy! Great stuff!

I will mount this one from the tutorial the way you described, thanks. I like the sound of the 4S knife :D . Does Kasumi have to involve san mai? Or can it also mean where they just stick the carbon steel to the iron on only one side? Let's see that D2!
 
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Sam,
San-mai means two-piece. In knives it is traditionally done with a piece of high carbon steel and plain iron (or low carbon steel). San-mai can be made many ways, the usual way for a knife is an iron spine ( and part of the back side) and a steel edge.
Stacy
 
kasumi can also refer to 3 layer, or cladded construction.

Actually Stacy, san mai means "3 layer" in americanized terms.

in Japanese terms it can open up a whole can of worms in respect to layers and construction
 
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Of course you are correct, san-mai means three sheet/plate/layer. Nibu would be two piece.
I was typing too fast and rolled my answer into too short ( and incorrect) a response (was heading for the bed). What I meant to say was:
San -mai done on a chisel grind knife is often done with two pieces of metal ( kobuse san mai kitae = folded three plate forging). One is soft iron, and the other HC steel. The iron is bent into a "U" with one leg slightly longer than the other. The steel is inserted into the "U" and all is forge welded together. The knife is forged from this san-mai billet. The flat back will be the side with the longer leg of iron. The edge and bevel on the other side will be the high carbon steel. Done right, the transition line on the bevel side and back looks nice.

A tip when doing this technique is to taper one side of the HC steel insert to a wedge. This wedge is inserted into the iron "U" (thin edge inside the "U"). When the billet is being welded, give the insert a few taps to seat it fully back into the "U". The insert will seat flush with the iron.There is much less chance of a pocket forming in the fold when done this way.
Stacy
 
I really dig the knife, Sam, but there's one part that gets to me:

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That divot takes away from its effective length on the cutting board. Is there some use it facilitates that'd make the user not mind the decreased cutting surface?

Love the handle and overall look of the blade. For next time, though, the bevel/chisel-thingy should be on the left-hand side with a slight concave surface on the right-hand side. Right-handed people don't need any more knives. :)
 
Thom, just consider it a choil :D . The use of it was to end the edge definately, as well as grind off a bit of scale that I could not get out from regular grinding hehe. It is also handy like a regular choil to choke up on the blade if need be, but also it just looks pretty cool I think. There is more than enough edge to get the job done.
 
Thanks, Sam. Reminds me of a quote I once read: "Bladesmiths never made mistakes; just modifications."

On a cooking knife, I prefer to do all choking up along the spine (otherwise, using a 10" chef knife to hull strawberries would be awkward and stupid-looking instead of just stupid-looking :o ), but if your customers enjoy using a choil like on a hunting knife, it makes the world go round, too.

Thanks much for sharing!
 
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