First chef knife. W2 - Smoky Island Gyuto

PaulDiStefano

PaulDiStefano

Joined
Nov 14, 2016
Messages
636
Hey everyone, here's a gyuto I made a couple of months ago. This was the first chef knife I've ever forged. I'm hearing chef knives are a big trend now(?) so I figured I'd practice making some.
I was experimenting with the clay thickness on this blade and made the mix very watery. I've seen people say less clay is better so I was trying to find out what very thin clay would do. It was probably a little less then 1/16 thick or around there. I think it was too thin because the hamon barely went where any of the clay was and crawled back a bunch.
I am happy with how the hamon looks though. Not what I was going for but in my eyes it's a fun decorative hamon. It reminds me of a hidden island chain shrouded by fog or clouds or perhaps smoke from a volcano located on one of the islands.

It is a little over 10 inch blade. probably 62-63 hrc. stabilized Bog oak wood/stainless steel spacer/composite malachite/buffalo horn bolster.
I've really come to like stabilized bog oak. I love when its buffed and gives a nice gray/black shine. I just bought a big piece from burlsource and am really excited to make a bowie out of it soon.

Pictures suck I know.. i'm still working on setting up a photo booth.
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Awesome! I'll take it!
Oh wait, this is not the exchange.

The bog oak is really nice and the overall design is appealing to me.
 
Haha thanks Elite_KG. The cool part about the bog oak is that there's hidden figuring that wasn't on the outside when it was in block form originally. It's like a fun surprise as you grind material away!
 
Very nice! I notice you did round the spine but not the back of the blade where ones index finger would rest. Is that for a reason? Like the hamon, very playful.
 
Munckmm said:
Very nice! I notice you did round the spine but not the back of the blade where ones index finger would rest. Is that for a reason? Like the hamon, very playful.
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Thanks, glad you like it! I actually did round that spot and broke the sharp edges slightly for comfort. I'm glad you pointed that out actually because when I etched it I accidentally never cleaned off the really dark oxides which is why it might look flat and sharp. Haha I'll have to go back and clean it up. Whoops
 
W2 ticks all of the boxes for a kitchen knife carbon steel. Fine grain, high fine edge stability, can be left as hard as woodpecker lips, etc The ability to take a cool hamon is just a bonus.
 
Thanks willie71.
I'm with you on that jm62, it's really proving to be some good kitchen steel and boy is it fun to slice food up with a super thin blade.
 
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