Matching knife sets

[Happychicken]

So I would like to thank everyone again for your posts on the last thread about sharpening nitro v knives!
I make knives in small batches of 4 to 6 and give them to my friends or relatives.( I don’t think I am experienced enough as a maker to sell them neither would I want to at this point). So I will make a set with one gyuto style, santoku, nakiri, petty and either kawamuki and or slicer style knife. From some feedback I have gotten I understand people want all the knives to match. I find this limiting as I feel a small knife would balance better with a lighter wood and a larger with a denser/heavier wood. So I would rather use bubinga wood for a large knife handle as it is a heavy wood that will help balance the knife.

My question now is how many of you as makers sell knives in sets that all match. For example all knives have a maple handle with Blackwood bolster?
Thanks again everybody

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I do sets with different color dyed curly maple. A set with red, green, brown, blue, and black looks great in the block.

 

[Horsewright]

Yeah its popular:

These folks wanted two sets. One for the house and the other for the camper:

I've done sets outside the kitchen too:

Anyhoo ya get the idea. Sets are extremely popular and I make very few kitchen knives.

 

[DanF]

Matching woods for sets.

 

[Happychicken]

Wow those look really sweet!!
I make all wa handles and I feel the problem is I haven’t been adjusting the size of the wa handle to the size of the blade. Therefore when I use dense wood the bigger knives they balance great and the little blades have way to heavy of handle. I will make the handle for the small knives smaller rather than just using a lighter wood that doesn’t match. I feel stupid for posting this.
What size wa would be ideal for a larger chefs knife?
What size for petty?
Or a knife size between the two?

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks! Not the guy to answer ya on that. I haven’t made a stick tang knife in like 15 years. Fact I just made the first kitchen knife in a couple of years a month or two ago. I do have one at ht though. It’s for a chef ya see sometimes on tv. Interestingly, I’ve made her a lot of knives but they’re all individuals. None are a set.

 

[Nick-D]

Wow those look really sweet!!
I make all wa handles and I feel the problem is I haven’t been adjusting the size of the wa handle to the size of the blade. Therefore when I use dense wood the bigger knives they balance great and the little blades have way to heavy of handle. I will make the handle for the small knives smaller rather than just using a lighter wood that doesn’t match. I feel stupid for posting this.
What size wa would be ideal for a larger chefs knife?
What size for petty?
Or a knife size between the two?

Once you get below a certain size for petty/paring, they are almost always a little handle heavy.

Being lighter you don't really get the fatigue like when working with an off balanced full size chefs knife. I make my smaller petty/paring handles smaller, but more for use & aesthetic balance than physical balance.

 

[Happychicken]

Aesthetic balance!!! Poetry I say!!
Thank you that makes a lot of sense. Now I just have to work the aesthetic balance into every conversation I have today!