I want to make a kitchen knife. Chief knife or Santuko. Questions

M

Mike22

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Jul 27, 2015
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I am going to try this again. I have posted a few questions on this subject and so far my questions while they were mostly answered my questions were even hard for me to understand when I went back to read them again. I have not tried to make a knife like this so far an I am wanting try it. So here we go.
The steel I was first thinking about was A2 but after reading more while not a huge fan of stainless it is starting to grow on me. I am thinking AEB-L. But I have not worked with it all. Does this seem like a good choice? I think someone did recommend this in one of my last posts.
Heat Treat. Who should I send it to?
Scales? I am wanting a periwinkle blue. What are my options? G-10?
Yes these are probably newbie questions. This is a new hobby for me and I'm learning slowly. The tools at my disposal are drills, hacksaw, Dremel tool, files, and a gough filing jig. I know some people encourage free hand I feel more comfortable with the jig at this time.

Thanks for the help.

Mike
 
Hey there Mike. Just wanted to say AEB-L is a superb choice for a stainless steel kitchen knife. It is a pleasure to work, and I do bevels with a file as well. It has been dubbed, "the stainless steel that behaves like carbon steel". Takes a wicked sharp edge, and holds it quite well. Brad at Peter's Heat Treating has the heat treat down pat, as well. Scale choice...the sky's the limit. If you use wood, stabilized might be the better route, but not necessary, especially with a quality wood finish. Pics when done! We wanna see!
 
I agree with samurai on the Aebl and for that blue I would say g10 is your best bet. Most folks don't recommend freehand filing its more when referring to a grinder. Your only setback to filing is you will need to leave the edge about .020-.025" thick prior to heat treat and will want to take it down to .010" or so after. This will be difficult without a grinder.....lots of sanding! Anyway, give it a go and post your drawings first for some constructive criticism.
 
Aeb-l at Rc62 makes a great kitchen knife. Almost impossible to beat actually. It's available in kitchen knife friendly thicknesses, and priced very economically.

G10 on the scales would be good. Maybe kirinite if you are into something flashier?
 
Willie71 said:
Aeb-l at Rc62 makes a great kitchen knife. Almost impossible to beat actually. It's available in kitchen knife friendly thicknesses, and priced very economically.

G10 on the scales would be good. Maybe kirinite if you are into something flashier?
Click to expand...

Willie nailed it with this reply--if you wanted to go a little exotic on scales, you might look for some died bone, or you can look at Corian. I would definitely not start with anything thicker than 1/8", and would probably go thinner.

Good luck with your build!
 
Mike, I have recently got a little 1x30" belt grinder, but I did grind several blades with a file (filing jig). Maybe you could find some of my blog entries helpful (e.g. the Project #3 and Bevel grinding Jig by Aaron Gough)

I think AEB-L is going to be a great choice. I am just finishing a gyuto in D2 and I would probably not use that steel on a large kitchen knife in the near future - LOT of work (I have ground the blade pre-HT with a the bevel jig - it took me around 6 hours) :)

Have fun! :)
 
I like AEB-L at around .100 stock thickness for a 5-10" blade kitchen knife. I even used that thickness for a 3.5" paring knife but I did a full thickness taper on it as well.
 
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