Kitchen knife questions

C

chrisa62401

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Jan 28, 2012
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My wife wants me to make some kitchen knives. I will be buying knife blade blanks as I'm not making my own blades yet. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions. I would like to stick with wood for the handles but am a little concerned about the finish. The blades on Jantz, are they OK for this project?

Thanks

Chris
 
Buy properly stabilized wood

Use at least two bolts in the handle construction

Use a good epoxy with clean scales and tang roughed up slightly.

Stabilized wood can be hand sanded to as high as your imagination takes you and will be near mirror finish if you want with a little buffing. Or you can apply oils, waxes, etc. to enhance the look. Nothing to be concerned about IMHO.

Think...plan...think again....execute. :D

Never got the blanks from Jantz, so can't comment on them.
 
I only have experience with a few of them, but have liked two of them enough to repeat and even use them for knives I sell. I generally don't get them from Jantz though, they don't have the second of the two I like.
http://www.knifemaking.com/product-p/ss107.htm is the regular chef's knife I use from them.
There are a few issues with it, but overall it's a nice blade. Issue #1 is that the grinder generally bevels too far back and you wind up with a spot at the bottom of your handle where it doesn't make contact with the steel. It's not always the same, and sometimes you can work around it. If you completely refinish the blade it's no problem since you just move the finish back a little further so you can move your handle back. I like my handle as far forward as I can get it though. I generally just make sure there's enough epoxy there that it fills the gap, it's small enough to be a non issue.

Issue two is that if you want to use larger pins, like 3/16" or 1/4", you have to either drill out the smaller holes or use the large ones. If you use the large ones it's very easy to wind up with things not aligned during clamping, one pin high or low.... It depends on how closely profiled your scales are of course, if you get them very close it's easier to be sure of your alignment. My solution has been to notch the large circles, create a distinct dimple toward the outside edge to the front or back depending on which hole. I then drill my handle material so the pins settle into those notches, keeping things from shifting while gluing up. Not a big deal, just takes a second with a dremel or any other rotary tool that can grind hardened metal. It's thin enough to not be a real problem.

The other blade I like is http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=2_302&products_id=1602
I like it better than the clean sided santoku that matches the chef's knife above. It's got a nice feel to it, nice handle shape... It is NOT a perfectly ground edge though, and I've had them come in needing refinished. Not a real issue, but something to keep in mind.

I use one of each of these blades every day in my own kitchen. I used red G10 on my own set and have liked it. I have sold and given knives finished with these blades, no complaints back, everyone's been very happy. The chef's knife in particular is a great slicer, it's a thin blade with a full flat grind. The stiffness is about perfect for me, but everyone has their preferences.

If you do wood, go stabilized, and I'll pass along what Mark told me recently when I was having some issues with it. It might be stabilized, but it still needs a finish to really hold its beauty. A natural danish or tung oil finish applied will really help bring out the beauty and maintain it. Then a paste wax finish and hand buffed. I've also clear coated some with good success. I have yet to do the danish oil AND a clear coat, I plan to test that next to see if there are any issues with the clear coat bonding with the oil in there. I've got a piece of stabilized maple I used Mark's suggested method on, the oil then wax/buff, and have been test washing it over and over. I leave it by the sink and regularly give it a quick wash down as if it was on a knife that was being washed. So far it hasn't changed or had issues, still looks great. Other pieces, just waxed and buffed, seemed to lose their luster fairly quickly if not rebuffed, so the oil is definitely helping. I'm only on about wash 20 though, I want to get about 200 wash/dry cycles and see where it's at.
 
Thanks Remy. Red G10 sounds great. Red is the accent color in our kitchen. Do you have any pictures of the red set?
 
kitchenset.JPG

The santoku is one of the ones that needed refinished, I cleaned it up and it's not really as bad as that pic makes it look, but it's still not shiny and nice. The angle of the sunlight is just showing every line on the belt finish. More recent blades have been much better finished. The poor chef's knife gets all scratched up since I use it more and often run the side along a pan's edge to scrape off diced or minced stuff.
The chef's knife is about two years old now, the santoku is only about a year I think, I can't remember exactly when I handled it. My web site has pics of the more recent ones, including the santoku I gave my dad as a gift recently. That one was a much nicer finish on the blade and I also cleaned it up further and gave it a little buffing. It's still not a mirror finish but a lot cleaner and brighter.

I should probably take mine out to the shop and pretty it up a bit. That angle on the sun makes it look really bad, but I tend to get lazy about stuff I'm keeping. Functionally it's great, and razor sharp, but I didn't sweat the finish.
 
The main thing you want to remember is to tape up the blade while working on the handle. The cardboard sleeve that comes with the blade can be slipped back over the tape to provide extra protection.
 
most of these knives are made of aus-8(iirc). can anybody compare the quality of these blades
with other commonly used steel for kitchen knives?
 
manassas dragon said:
most of these knives are made of aus-8(iirc). can anybody compare the quality of these blades
with other commonly used steel for kitchen knives?
Click to expand...


Aus8 is can be compared to 440c.

Like anything else if it has been heat treated well it will function just fine.
 
HUGE +1 for Stacy's tape comment. Don't rely on just the sleeve. It WILL move at the worst moment, and the blade WILL cut through it. Not to mention, it's cardboard, it's abrasive, dust gets inside... tape it, then put the sleeve back and a little more tape so it stays.

The heat treat on these appears to be pretty decent. I haven't encountered any issues. I have not intentionally tested it though, just hasn't come up. They take an edge, hold it a reasonable length of time, get restored with a steel, rinse and repeat. AUS8 is actually a better grade of steel than most cheap kitchen knives are made from, heck, better than many mid grade knives. They won't compare with the hand made tool steel beauties designed and sharpened to be a laser cutter, but for a stainless knife I think it's decent. After messing with a bunch of them over the past two years it seems pretty consistent too.
 
I bought a bunch of Dexter Russell blades, a bunch of the Early American Cutlery blades, Pakkawood, and accessories to hold them together about 20 years ago. I just put the Dexter Russells together, and they are working well. Jantz sells a complete set of blades for the kitchen. I'd suggest, at minimum, a benchtop belt sander, a drill press, and rivet drills. Corby rivets are easier to screw together than pounding on compression rivets and you do not need to be as carefull on the seating depth and on shaping the handle. Have your wife look at the patterns and stabilized wood with you. You should be able to come up with some good ideas.
 
Hell, I vote for mosaics and good epoxy, might as well make the darn things really stand out. Of course, that depends on what you can do for epoxy. It would be kind of silly to have you buy $40+ worth of adhesive and application hardware if you're not going to use it again. I wouldn't use cheapo epoxy and mosaics since the pins are just going to provide some sheer strength and eye candy, not hold the handles to the tang if the epoxy fails.
 
I think mosaics are a great idea. You could use rivets and place the mosaic pins as accents.
 
I agree. While pins, regular or mosaic, may hold for some knives, a kitchen knife needs a solid mechanical fastener. If you want mosaics for accent, use a larger one in the center with two mechanical fasteners on the ends.
Trust me, it will come back to haunt you if you don't use something mechanical. Even peened rivets will pull when wood tries to move in repeated washing/soaking/drying.
 
i am assembling several knives for the kitchen. i am using blanks from premimum knife supply that are advertised as 440C. the blade patterns are not traditional kitchen. the bird/trout skinner, minicaper, and texasholdem are small but for me very useful blades; when i cook i am a slicer not a chopper. mirror finish on blades and bolsters. handles of spalted maple and dogwood. Use BLUE PAINTERS TAPE, i made the mistake of using duct tape on one and am still cleaning off the adhesive. also be sure and cover bolster and guards. AUS8 is equal to 440B, less carbon and chromimum than 440C. have told wife and kids they will be shot if any of these knives see the inside of the dishwasher. I clean the blades after use with hot water and a spritz of bleach water, then dry.
 
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