San Mai Nakiri Bevel....Thoughts?

S

Shane Csepp

Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
83
I have been asked to make a custom nakiri style blade from .112" AKS 410/26C3 San Mai material and am curious as to what everyone's opinion is on the best way to grind such a blade.

Unlike a traditional squared tip nakiri, this one will have a clipped point. Let's say roughly 45deg from the cutting edge to the spine, however it will still maintain the straight cutting edge and spine.

Would you grind the bevels FFG with a plunge, blended without a plunge, bevel halfway up the blade? Distal taper or no at .112 thickness? I'm having difficulty visualizing what the final grind would look like with the san mai. Given that the material isn't the cheapest in the world, I'd like to try and get it right the first time around.
 
I would grind the bevels about 1" high and see how it looks after an etch. Raise the bevels a little at a time and etch until you like the look. It may well end up being a FFG depending on the thickness of the stainless cladding.
 
Being over .100" thick, would the performance be enhanced from some distal taper or is a spine of that thickness ok for its intended purpose?
 
On san-mai, you have to forge in the distal taper. If you try and grind it in from a flat sheet, the ha-gane of carbon steel will climb higher as the bevel goes toward the tip until there is no ji-gane left.
It is best to leave it without any taper, anyway. On a nikiri the taper isn't a feature.
 
.112" stock is extremely thick for a nakiri. Most I've used are either ~0.060" stock and the bevel is brought about half way up the blade or are more like 0.084" stock and the bevel is brought most of the way up the blade. I'd also never add a distal taper to a nakiri because it's a knife designed for push or tap chopping, neither of which are enhanced with a taper. San Mai will also look a little odd with a distal taper. The exposed carbon steel will be higher up towards the tip of the knife.
 
CallumRD1 said:
.112" stock is extremely thick for a nakiri. Most I've used are either ~0.060" stock and the bevel is brought about half way up the blade or are more like 0.084" stock and the bevel is brought most of the way up the blade. I'd also never add a distal taper to a nakiri because it's a knife designed for push or tap chopping, neither of which are enhanced with a taper. San Mai will also look a little odd with a distal taper. The exposed carbon steel will be higher up towards the tip of the knife.
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I figured it may be a little thick, but at this point that's the thinnest I can get from AKS that's long enough. Maybe I'll look at surface grinding each side by .010-.020" to get down a bit thinner.
 
I agree with Shane thatb .112 is twice the thickness desired for a nikiri. However, if that is all you have, you have to go with it.

Be cautious about removing too much of the cladding. That will make it basically disappear when you grind the bevels.

Call Chuck and ask if he has anything thinner and long enough.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I agree with Shane thatb .112 is twice the thickness desired for a nikiri. However, if that is all you have, you have to go with it.

Be cautious about removing too much of the cladding. That will make it basically disappear when you grind the bevels.

Call Chuck and ask if he has anything thinner and long enough.
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I was able to get .095" stock instead so that's a bit better. Thank you for the suggestion. Those guys are always super helpful.
 
Our goal is to have .060" and thicker san mai on the website as a standard stock material. Right now this goal is very difficult. Over time we will improve our processes and tooling until we meet the goal.

We've achieved a similar goal with Timascus. Five years ago it was challenging to go below .100". Now we regularly have .060" billets.

Today we can consistently forge .140" thick san mai and have almost no scrap. Part of the difficulty is keeping the core centered and having equal cladding thickness on each side. We will keep pushing ourselves to make thinner material.

Chuck
 
I can say that I'll be much more excited about purchasing AKS's San Mai as soon as it's readily available in ~0.085" thickness, ideally with a 52100 core. I make kitchen knives and I like them to be thinner than the ~0.120" stock available now.
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
Our goal is to have .060" and thicker san mai on the website as a standard stock material. Right now this goal is very difficult. Over time we will improve our processes and tooling until we meet the goal.

We've achieved a similar goal with Timascus. Five years ago it was challenging to go below .100". Now we regularly have .060" billets.

Today we can consistently forge .140" thick san mai and have almost no scrap. Part of the difficulty is keeping the core centered and having equal cladding thickness on each side. We will keep pushing ourselves to make thinner material.

Chuck
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Awesome! Thanks for the update Chuck. I can certainly make the .095" stock that I was able to get work for this go around, but I will definitely keep any eye on the website in the future.
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
Our goal is to have .060" and thicker san mai on the website as a standard stock material. Right now this goal is very difficult. Over time we will improve our processes and tooling until we meet the goal.

We've achieved a similar goal with Timascus. Five years ago it was challenging to go below .100". Now we regularly have .060" billets.

Today we can consistently forge .140" thick san mai and have almost no scrap. Part of the difficulty is keeping the core centered and having equal cladding thickness on each side. We will keep pushing ourselves to make thinner material.

Chuck
Click to expand...

Yes .90 and below san mai would be awesome!
 
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