Finished my first kitchen knife! Lessons learnt and some new methods...

[Yo Mama]

Aaron, I also wanted to echo a thanks for your threads. I appreciate your humbleness, I'm just getting into knife making, and I'm so thankful to learn from others challenges and successes. Thanks for your honesty, and I think your blade came out great!

 

[aarongough]

I have long wondered why the disdain for CA. I don't use it in my glue ups simply because of the flak, however, I have never had a failure in any case where I have used it. I guess I'll also look forward to the long term test results. I feel like the only way to discredit it's use is to detect failure after a period of time, but however long that may be I don't know. I guess it brings to mind the fiber spacer argument. I've had great success with it (pre-soaked in CA mind you), but folks started to see issues with it from makers that had used it many years ago.

Aaron, do you have any ideas on accelerated wear testing for this? Water sounds smart, what about some rapid heating and cooling cycles? I'm no engineer so I don't know the validity in terms of how quickly found data translates to the actual long term. Maybe there's a chemist roaming the boards? In any case, I look forward to your discoveries.

Anthony

Hey Anthony!
I'm going to be doing some more research and testing before I actually start using CA on any knives I send out, I will make a thread when I do so. For me the water resistance, and also overall resistance to separating from the blade/scales are the most important aspects. I'm using the glue more as a sealant than anything else. I rely on the corby bolts to provide the bulk of the actual strength in the handle.

I'm going to begin experimenting with new fasteners shortly as well, I haven't had any issues with the Corbys but I don't think they're the strongest fasteners I could fit in that space...

 

[aarongough]

Aaron, as a friend and colleague I feel compelled to warn you... making kitchen blades is remarkably addictive. I've made all sorts of knives and I don't think there's any other style that has so much challenge in it when it comes to design and performance. It's a subtle science... but truly really fascinating and fun

After speaking with several clients and spending many hours discussing this topic with the guy who wrote the last few editions of "Joy of Cooking" (Ethan Becker, sorry for the name-drop ) ... one thing I can say about the edge profile is this: straighter is better, and a lower tip is better. There's a dang good reason santuko's are so popular... they're very easy to use. It doesn't take much curve to get a good "rocking" cut on the board, and the point doesn't do a whole lot of good if you have to raise the knife way up to use it.

Also, the handle should mostly be "not in the way". Less is more. Almost every "proper" chef knife technique involves a pinch grip.

I've only ground a few kitchen blades out of AEB-L... my experience so far is that it's best to take 'em right down to finished dimension before HT. .005" at the edge or less. I've had zero problems with warpage. HOWEVER, bear in mind that I have Peters HT my blades... I have no idea if that would work in your shop with plate-quenching etc.

Simpler steels like O1, 1095, etc are MUCH more likely to warp badly when ground that thin before HT, in my experience. I've come to accept that as not worth fighting, and in future I will just grind 'em after HT.

As for hardness... I continue to experiment with that. My current batch of AEB-L was tempered back to 60Rc, and I'm pretty happy with that. One of these days I'll have some run at 62Rc and see how that goes. My current thinking is this... anything less than 60Rc with full cryo simply isn't making the most of that steel... might as well use AUS-8 or 440A at that point.

I've definitely enjoyed the challenge so far, I also love that a kitchen knife is a tool that gets used every day. The primary focus for me is making working knives, and kitchen knives fit into that very nicely!

I agree with you about bringing the hardness up. I would love to try A2 in this application because I could really thin out the blade and still have something that's durable, I will make sure I get around to that sooner rather than later!

 

[aarongough]

I think it's already too late for Aaron

Far too late

James makes great points. When I started with chef's knives, I thought "how hard can it be?" Well..... There is a lot to learn. I am doing blades nearly flat now for most users. As James said, you don't need a lot of belly. Edge geometry is very critical, and this is where my current learning is focused. At first, thin is the focus, then appleseed, offset, microbevel etc all start coming into play. In terms of hardness, I was using Rc60-62 a year ago, and now am Rc62-64. I can feel a definite difference in wear resistance when sharpening. I strongly suggest octagonal Wa handles for most users now. A lot prefer the esthetics of the western handle, but in use, the Wa wins hands down. 3/4" at the blade end in height, and 1" at the heel less than 1/2" wide at the blade end, and under 3/4" at the heel adjusted until it feels neutral is working for me right now.

This isn't a pure Wa handle, but I convinced this customer to try it, and his next knives have all been Wa handles, including an order for 6 steak knives, and a parer.

[/url]IMG_5865 by Wjkrywko, on Flickr[/IMG]

The Wa handle sounds interesting and I will have to try one! I have an acquaintance that runs a high-end japanese knife shop here in Toronto so I'm sure he could hook me up with a few good examples!

 

[aarongough]

Aaron, I also wanted to echo a thanks for your threads. I appreciate your humbleness, I'm just getting into knife making, and I'm so thankful to learn from others challenges and successes. Thanks for your honesty, and I think your blade came out great!

Glad the thread has been helpful mate! I also love having the opportunity to learn from others here on BF, it's always a great experience!