Kitchen knife design (chef/slicer/filet hybrid)

[HallHandmade]

I just got my second commission for a kitchen knife, from a good friend who works in a small café, and he wanted to design a multi-purpose knife that could be used for the majority of his tasks, at least to some extent.

He wanted a single knife that functioned as close as possible to a:

traditional chefs knife (taller blade, easy to rock, with pointed tip for precision work)

slicer/carving knife (longer blade with gently curved edge and upsweep at the tip, for long continuous cuts)

filet (slim, flexible, maneuverable, with good control)

This is what I have so far (edge length is 8.375"):

I am probably going to go with 1/16" stock, and taper the tip down to about .015/.020". I think this should give a nice flexible knife that can mostly satisfy the above requirements. I tried not to get too complicated on the handle in my rough draft, but once I make a pattern and see how it handles in real life, may make changes.

 

[PT Doc]

How about drawing the blade edge on the graph paper's straight line if that makes sense. Would be easier to see how the blade would cutting on a cutting board.

 

[butcher_block]

for alll the different uses i think that might be about right. you really have to cover alot of uses tho so its not goingto be super at any one of them

 

[HallHandmade]

How about drawing the blade edge on the graph paper's straight line if that makes sense. Would be easier to see how the blade would cutting on a cutting board.

I based the handle angle (in relation to the blade) on my victorinox 8" chef's, but a tiny bit higher, because my friend and I are both sasquatches. I'm gonna cut out a carboard template to start, and see how it rocks.

for alll the different uses i think that might be about right. you really have to cover alot of uses tho so its not goingto be super at any one of them

I think he has one of every "prerequisite" kitchen pattern, he just wanted something that could stand in for constantly having to switch blades. I think if I can get it just right, it should be workable maybe 80-90% of the time.

In all honesty, I have a few different fancy kitchen knives, and my three most used are an antique schrade USA filet knife, a victorinox 8" chef's, and a german Wustof 6" utility (very hard temper, slim and stiff blade, holds an edge like crazy). The vast majority of the time I grab the 8" vic or the 6" Wustof and that is the only knife I use for the whole meal.

 

[PT Doc]

If he's paying and gives the ok, then it should be fun. Full flat grind?

 

[HallHandmade]

If he's paying and gives the ok, then it should be fun. Full flat grind?

Yep. I got a few different grits of the high end 3M ceramic discs for my 9" grinder, and I'll probably hand finish out from there, just to be safe.

for alll the different uses i think that might be about right. you really have to cover alot of uses tho so its not goingto be super at any one of them

I requoted you since I forgot to mention something else, I think the slicer/carving knife might be the only one that could have major trouble, as I typically see those with handles that are parallel to the cutting edge. I think that is since you're usually working a bit up off the work surface, but I could be wrong.

The customer knows that no "combo design" will ever do the work of three knives perfectly, but he said that he usually ends up just using his chef's for these tasks, so if he could get a knife that worked similar to his chef's but much better for those other tasks, it would be great for him.

 

[BluntCut MetalWorks]

IMO for a hybrid, I would like: a profile similar to Misono UX10 Suji however with a taller heel, hence the point need to drop down while preserving the same edge profile.