Feedback on small santoku

[jnaught]

This is knife 4 of 5 that I have made, and probably represents my best effort so far. It is also the only san mai I have attempted. The blade is 1084 core with unknown scrap steel cladding. The handle is oak and padauk with a leather spacer. There are a lot of things I see I could have done better and things I would change, but I'd like your feedback. Looking forward to hearing from you all!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Overall, a very nice job!

Blade looks nice. The little bit of kurouchi at the ricasso and upper bevel looks nice.
However, you should have sanded the bevels down a tad more to get rid of the cladding near and on the edge. That would have had a cleaner look and make a better edge. One way to prevent that in the future is start with a bit thicker core layer.

Handle shape is also good with grain aligned nicely. I might suggest taking a piece of 400 grit paper and slightly chamfering the edges at the butt. They look a bit sharp in the photos. Could be camera angle.
The only real issue was the bottom of the handle ... which you know about. We all grind into the tang hole and expose the epoxy sometimes. Just be aware of that situation in the future as you figure out tang height and drill the hole in the wood.

 

[jnaught]

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, the cladding didn't end up even. I lucked out that the scrap steel I grabbed seemed to harden as well. Not ideal for cladding, but serendipitous with it on the edge. The marks on the bottom of the handle are actually my somewhat sloppily applied serialization:

 

[12345678910]

Let's assume a Santolu is a cooking knife.

I'd polish out all the pitting for a smooth finish.

That's code for kitchen knifes in usa

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Got it.
Try lightly hand sanding then buffing with a brush wheel to make the numbers look better.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Tips on working san-mai:
Forge the bevels until the edge is around .050".
After forging the basic blade and before HT or starting to grind the main bevels, grind the edge at an angle around 15-20° to expose the core. Give it a dip in FC to see how the core is centered. Move the center of this grind to one side or another until the exposed core is as even as possible. If you can't get it even, you may have to forge the edge a bit out of straight to make the core look even. Once the core has been exposed to show as evenly as possible on both sides. you can start the bevels going up from the edge or do HT and then finish the bevels.

 

[jnaught]

Thanks for the tip! I haven't started another billet of san-mai, but after the next batch of blades clears the shop (which at my pace will be months), I think I'll give it another go.