Kitchen Knife Set Mega WIP

[Brian.Evans]

A little back story:
Several weeks ago I sent three knives to Texas Knife for heat treat. They sent two fixed blades and a slipjoint spring back to me. They were unable to find my slipjoint blade when I called them, so they made it up to me by sending me a piece if 1/8" x 1 1/2" x 36" and promising to heat treat any knives from it and send them back free.

I've wanted to make a replacement santoku for my knife block, as the set I have is a cheap China set and I use the santoku for almost everything (I'm a good cook, but not overly creative with regard to knife skills). I knew Stacy does a lot of Japanese kitchen knives, so I emailed him and imposed on his good nature a bit. Apparently, 1 1/2" is too narrow for a decent santoku. He did suggest I make a basic kitchen set from it. He also offered to send me cocobolo burl blocks and brass cutlery fixtures for the handles and of course I said yes. He also offered to sketch a layout pattern on tape and send it.

I drew a santoku pattern and set to finding some steel. Stacy recommended S35VN. I couldn't afford a huge piece from Aldo, so I was going to buy a small piece from AKS. They have stopped selling it, for reasons I will not discuss here. I called Aldo and an hour later I got off the phone. I forgot about the time difference, but he still answered the phone, after hours! He sent me a nice chunk of S35VN to prove that it was good steel and a few days later I received it.

A couple days ago I received a small flat rate package from Stacy. Keep reading for it's contents!

Now for pictures.

Here's the steel. 1/8" D2 on top and 0.110" S35 on bottom.

Stacy had told me the cocobolo burl blocks he was sending were beautiful and looked like desert ironwood and he wasn't kidding.

This are the darkest two sets of the bunch! They are incredibly beautiful.

This is the most highly figured piece and a close up of the fixtures he sent along with them.

Also in the box was a long piece of blue tape, the aforementioned patterns.

A bit of cussing and scrapping off stuck paper later, I had the tape transferred to the steel. Also shown is my santoku pattern.

Some close ups of the patterns.

The knife set they are going to replace.

So, there you have it. I also have plans to make a smaller Japanese vegetable knife, but the name escapes me at the moment. I want to grab some thinner stock for it though, maybe .065-0.80" or so. I will make a nice block for all these from maple or similar when I'm done.

Now, to buy some new belts and get busy! I've never done anything like this, but that's never stopped me before. If you choose to follow this WIP, be forewarned; it is going to take me some time, with possible long periods of inactivity between spurts of hard work. I have to balance work and family, and my wife occasionally likes me to come to bed with here instead of waiting until midnight or later! Hopefully sometime during the build I get my grinder completed as well, until then I'll be proving how much can be done with a Craftsman 2x42.

 

[peppen108]

This is going to be great!

 

[night man]

I will be following this for sure, my mom wants a 3 knife set for Christmas.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Great story and I am looking forward to this!

We have some really generous and helpful people here, it is great to see.

 

[PT Doc]

I too have visions of reaching into a knifmelock and pulling out a knife I made.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

That cocobolo wood was from a plank I got at my local woodcraft. They had three 4 foot long by 10" wide boards of it all the way in the back, where they set unique pieces of wood. The tag was marked cocobolo and it was reasonably priced, but it looked very different than most wood of that type. It looked like desert ironwood. I picked up all three boards, and took them to the checkout. One of the sales guys saw them and said, "Wait a minute, that wood was supposed to be put in the office for the manager, he wanted it." I said it was in the racks in the back, and it was tagged with sales stickers. We decided that I would take one board, and they would put the other two away for the manager. I cut it up into blocks, and use it for kitchen knives and hunters. Wait until you see the pictures of it when Brian sands and polishes it.

 

[Horsewright]

I too just got a board of similar size of Cocobolo. Looks like it was cut from the same tree! Mine was 10"x1.75"x48". I traded with a dealer in wood for musical instruments here in CA for it. Simply superb. I too will be following this thread. Stacy, just sending the tape would of been cool. Throwing in the Cocobolo and the Corbys is above and beyond. I raise my glass (Highland Park) to ya.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I'm getting ready to head to my Buddie's for dinner. I will raise a glass of Balvenie 21 and a Cuban to you,too, my friend.

BTW, the scales were pre-drilled for the Corbies to make the project easier . I often do this to speed things up.
Take the solid block and drill it for the rivet holes. Then cut it into scales. Flatten as needed, and then drill the step seat with a counterbore bit. Screw in the Corbies, radius and buff the front of each set, and toss them in the bin of scales ready for assembly when you need them. When you take out a set, no need to look for the bolts or set up the drill press....it is all in your hand ready to install.

 

[Horsewright]

Now that's a handy trick right there. Thanks for sharing it. For those of us old enough to remember; "Duh, could of had a V8". Read of your Bowie mishap. Twa Balvinnies lad, twa. Dang forgot the Cuban. Gonna go pull the cork on the Hielan' Park me self.