Learn me... please and please be patient

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rsrguy3

Joined
Dec 11, 2023
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FNG here, I'm literally overwhelmed. I'm Guy, I live in northern Utah. I garden, cook and bbq (alot) restore aircraft and hotrods, and fab anything I can.

The bride of Frankenstein (my wife) had me look around for cleavers for my boys for Christmas, I have five.... including sons in law.

Anyway, it sent me down a rabbit hole.
I've been working with substandard steel in the kitchen for decades, I'm very proficient at sharpening, which is why I've been able to endure a string of ancient (80's vintage) chef and ikea knives.

I got to thinking what if I make my boys chefs knives for Christmas... one a year for the next decade? The hole deepens.... Grinders, forges, and wet wheels oh my.

Anyway I understand many of the concepts of pattern welded, Damascus and other alloyed stuff, tempering, etc. The challenge is making some sort of conclusion regarding the myriad of these knowledge points.

I've been jumping from thread to thread looking for some type of primer on the different desirable aspects of both diy and off the shelf chefs knives.... Nada, it's out there but it's a wide spread.

I spent a little time in a local Japanese knife shop yesterday, beautiful stuff, blue and white core, Damascus hi carbon stuff with high hardnes... magnificent offerings to be sure.
However how is a guy supposed to pick? Can a craftsman approach the type of quality of these blades on his own? How about Alabama Damascus steel? How about stainless damascus clad high carbon core? Do I want one type of blade construction on all of my chef blades, what about a Damascus high carbon blade, are they really prone to voids that chip on the cutting edge?
A deep and gooey rabit hole to be sure.
 
Hi Guy and welcome.
I'm going to try and answer you without also deepening the rabbit hole if I can...
I am not qualified to answer any of your questions regarding making your own knives, so strictly regarding buying knives:
rsrguy3 said:
However how is a guy supposed to pick?
Click to expand...
First, I'd say, pick according to HOW you intend to use the knives, and if they are gifts, WHO you intend to use the knives.
The "who" is important so that you take into account how much maintenance the blade will require and who is responsible for blade maintenance.
For example, you mentioned Japanese Blue and White steels. Those steels will require more maintenance than VG10, but all of them can be quite sharp and very functional.
And the other thing to consider is HOW will the knives be used? Do you want a vegetable knife, a chef knife, or a do it all knife?
In my opinion you are looking at this from the far deep end of the rabbit hole.
Climb back up to the shallow end, and approach this from the starting points of WHO and HOW, rather than from the finer points of pattern welded steels and you might find the answers you seek.

Good luck!
 
I have a harder comment.....:/

How are you supposed to make FIVE chefs knives before Christmas....
This year???
 
However, trying to give some Useful information......

As was said before, I think kitchen knives are a whole new universe onto themselves.
I Just started making them, and don't really know anything....

I think it's important to think like the user?
Does stainless matter for maintenance?
Hardness. Good kitchen knives are HARD. Can they sharpen 63-64HRC?
How rough are they? Do they need tougher steel? So tips don't break easily...
Hand size?
Hand strength?
Grip preferences?
Handle material....synthetics, or stabilized woods?
What foods?
Blade length, and ballence?
Cutting style?
Something I try to imagine is their standing height, and angle to the cutting board?

-All kinds of stuff
 
The bride picked them out for this year... ugly Serbian style cleavers... it bought me a buffer for this year into next year. I'm ok with rabbit holes, I restore vintage aircraft, it's more of a steady state for me. The one I'm leaning towards for my boys next year is buying a given style of blank, beveling, and setting the edge. Then building individual grips for each kid... it would easily take a solid chunk of time.
 
These guys(my kids) are just getting started, they'd be stoked just to have a custom blade. I had found 15n20 blades ready for handles and final honing for $60. Couldn't sell the the cfo on the idea of gifting them a project so I decided to pass for this season.
 
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For what it's worth, my brother in law made me two kitchen knives as his first attempt ever as a Christmas gift last year. Both from old lawn mower blades. Are they perfect? hell no, funnily enough, the blog he read was anti-convex edge, and so when he didn't have a platten linishier and just a bench belt he felt bad about the edges, but they about as good as the edges I've seen from Bark River (is that damning with faint praise?) He did the heat treat and quench in his front yard to the amusement of his neighbours and while they are not my first "go-to" they do get used, and the larger one will easily hack chicken bones with no issues at all. Don't focus on perfect, you have another year (ideally) and just make something that seems to be right. It'll be fun, it'll be a learning experience, and even if they are not "perfect" they will still be good gifts, becuase you are a tinkerer, make something kinda basic, and then tell them to use them, and ask what they would change about it. Then the year after they all have a knife that is a little different than the rest, and on it could go. Tinker, enjoy, repeat. What could be better?
 
rsrguy3 said:
The one I'm leaning towards for my boys next year is buying a given style of blank, beveling, and setting the edge. Then building individual grips for each kid...
Click to expand...
Boring! You were just talking about carbon core knives with stainless Damascus cladding and now you’re finishing blanks?? ;)

Mostly kidding, but in my opinion if you’re going to make a knife, then you’ve gotta design and make the blade too.

Luckily it’s really not that difficult, (especially if you’re set up with tools as you seem to be) but as you say it’s a rabbit hole because there are so many variables to consider.

My suggestion is to avoid fancy steels/damascus, etc., and instead pick a simple steel to work with first. Once you’ve decided on steel, design your first knife and try it out for awhile before gifting it so you learn what worked and what didn’t.

This will inform your second knife design, and so on…

I love 5160 steel as it’s very tough, takes a sharp edge and is easy to temper in a regular oven.

I personally wouldn’t try to compete with generations of Japanese blade smiths and attempt super hard, super thin blades, and instead at least start with more general utility blades while you’re learning.

Good luck and keep us posted!
 
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