First Chef Knife

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
I had forgotten how nice it was to finish a knife in less than 4 months. :o;)

Blade length: 8 3/8”
OAL: 12 1/2”
Grind: Flat
Steel: CPM154
Handle: Stabilized spalted Maple
Guard: Brass

chef01.jpg


This is my first chef's knife. I always use a pinch grip so I thought I'd make a handle that is primarily suited for that. But with the concave butt, you can still use it in a full grip.

I wanted to give it a little “humph” so I went with a small round clip at the tip. I know it is not the best thing to do since it might weaken the tip a bit but I am the one who is gonna be using this knife so I'll know to be careful. :o And I thought that combined with the handle shape, it gave the knife some character.:cool:

Still need to be sharpened and put through its paces. As you might see form the pic, I left a little more meat at the heel for heavier cutting tasks. It tapers down a lot after a little over an inch and a half. Not sure it is the way to do it but since this is my first, I wanted to try a few different things that I can test myself through daily use.

Hope you guys like it. Critiques and comments welcomed.

Thanks
 
Nice blade, beautiful wood, interesting handle. Never seen that type of handle. It looks strange but probably fits nicely in hand.
 
Beautiful knife Patrice. Love the handle. Most of my customers ask for a longer one on a chef's knife but I will be very curious to hear how this works for you with the contours you have given it. It looks to be very comfortable.
Kevin
 
Thanks for the good words guys. I know it may look a bit strange but as you say, very comfortable. I need to make a small video to show how it fits in the hand.
 
Hey Patrice,

I like this knife, the handle looks very comfortable to my old eye's.

Greg
 
I really like the taper in the thickness of the handle.

In the pic, is the edge sharpened? If not how thick is it?

Thanks

John
 
John, no it is not sharpened.
It measures 60 thou at the heel and tapers to about 30 thou at 1.5" and then to around 25 thou for the rest of the knife.
 
Interesting idea with the handle. I always feel like knife makers forget (or just don't know) that chefs use a pinch grip. I would be very curious to try that knife.
Anyway, looks great, way to think outside the box.
 
Salute Patrice couteau de drivés est très formidable! Vive le Québec M. et de dur travail maintenir. I'd like to see the video of you using the knife.
 
Very nicely done and as others have stated, interesting handle shape. I like it!
Cheers Keith
 
Thanks again for the good words.
Might take a few weeks but I'll try and get a video of the knife in actual use. It will be good practice for the shop tour video I've been wanting to make for a while now.
 
Less than four months?! Hahaha...

I'm with others and look forward to your action flick of handle in hand. How's that humpback secured to the tang? Will you include some two-handed rachet-style chopping in your feature film? I'm interested in seeing how that tip works out as well as the handle.

You're always blazing new ground in everything your do Pat...it's almost too much fun tagging along! :)

Aloha, Phil
 
hil, this is a hidden tang, just epoxied. I'll do my best but I am no Japanese restaurant show chef. ;) You may be disappointed by my technique. :o I never actually use the two hand rocking motion much but this is a false clip, with the edges rounded so I think it should work ok.

And thanks for the good words, I am sure happy to have you along for the ride my friend. As for blazing new grounds, this is still fairly conservative. Serge's coin knife made me realize that I am long overdue for a walkabout way outside the box. ;) That's where the real fun is. :D
 
Hi guys, sorry for the long delay in following with this. No video yet but a couple pictures.

Ok, Pics





Sharpened the knife and tried it starting with a buttercup squash (or butternut, I can never remember which :o). Pretty much the hardest task I use a chef knife for. Very positive results as far as the handle is concerned. Handles very well with a pinch grip. And also comfortable with a full grip, although if I was gonna use a knife like this for an extended period of time, I would do a full handle. Of course this is with the squash's peel, anything else including carrots was fine with both grips.

The only thing I realized, and I guess that it is the same mistake pretty much everyone makes on their first kitchen knife is that I need to go thinner. Again, with anything softer than the squash's peel it is not too bad but a thinner knife would still work better.

I still plan to make a small video description so stay tuned. Hopefully it doesn't take me as long as the last update. :o

Thanks for looking.
 
Patrice,
I really love the look of the handle and blade.
Go for it and push the envelope of design instead of just doing what everyone else does! If you don't have a good number of people scratching theirs heads when they see your design, you are not innovating!
 
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