Support BladeForums! Paid memberships don't see ads! I've been wanting to make a 1/16" thick chef's knife for a while now and it's finally done! This knife features a "gyuto" style blade with a "D" shaped handle made from Eucalyptus and African Blackwood. I wanted to go with ebony, but the prices at Woodcraft here in San Antonio were jaw dropping !! The Eucalyptus has nice chatoyance, figure, as well as a rich color. The blade is made from A-2 tool steel and features a slight convex grind that was taken down to a zero edge, and then backed off just slightly. The spine is 1/16" from handle to about 1 1/4" from the tip, so it is stiff with little flex. The photo of the choil profile shows off the grind, and in this shot what you see is the pre-sharpened edge geometry. This isn't meant to be a heavy cutter. Prior to the final blade polish and final handle fitting, I tested it on tomatoes, potatoes, and to dice carrots and a few other veggies. I just had to cut something with this thing! The experience was simply a LOT of fun! It's an amazing slicing machine. My wife doesn't want me to sell it, she wants to keep it. Well, she wants to keep all my kitchen knives, so there's that. The heat treatment is sort of unique for an air hardening tool steel, and the process was suggested by one of the well respected metallurgists that frequents the forum, Devin Thomas, but given a tweak or two. Basically it consists of a pre-quench, re-spheroidizing, austenitizng, oil quench/plate quench, sub zero, and triple tempers. This is supposed to refine the aus grain to give a slight aid in toughness. The hardness of this blade is right at 63-64HRC. It came out of the quench, sub zero, and tempers straight as an arrow (I like A2 tool steel!) The most difficult thing about this project? The final blade polish was tricky, but the photos. Ah! Those photos! I don't know why, but maybe due to the overall length of the knife and the polish. It wanted to reflect everything, even the corner seams in my light box. The black rubber pads were used to keep the blade off of the rock and to help angle away from reflections. Overall length is 14" with a 8 3/4" blade length. So glad this project is done, as I've been nagging myself to make a knife this size and that thin. I am proud of this one. Thanks for looking!
Awesome work Stuart! Gotta be careful not to lose a finger with that laser (As an aside gilmerwood.com has some reasonable West African Ebony if you need some in the future)
Looks terrific. I have made several kitchen knives from A2 (less sophisticated heat treat), and they perform very well. Nice patina too.
Support BladeForums! Paid memberships don't see ads! Thanks guys. And thanks for the info on the ebony, Robert!
