Santoku finish

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
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Hey guys, after several German chef knives im making my first santoku. I have been looking at the shun knives and see many of them have a "hand hammered" pattern which appears to be nothing more than dimpling caused by a small dome punch or ball peen hammer, with the stated advantage being lower friction. My question is do you think it is worth the time? i can make a small dome punch pretty fast, but i dont know how much this finish adds. Thanks guys.
 
Is this on the bevel or the main part of the blade? Seems like it would matter less there than on the bevel.
 
Its on the main part of the blade. I cant post pictures but if you look up hand hammered Shun you will see what im talking about. It starts about 3/4 of an inch above the bevel
 
hellspawn415 said:
You mean just angle grind the peen a little more narrow?
Click to expand...

The head doesn't have to be round, it could be a cylinder and just have a rounded head. With enough depth, it would break surface tension of a cucumber but some will say it's not needed. I say go for it. Down make them too small. Cleanliness in the kitchen is a necessity. Keep us posted.
 
Wow, looks really hard to clean.

I have kitchen knives with the scallops cut into them for the same reason. Doesn't seem to help. But they're attractice, as is this peening on the Shun knives.
 
Stacy has tremendous experience in jewelry manufacturing, hopefully he will jump in and give you some other options. A random pattern would be really nice so either 1 point or a head with multiple points that would help speed things up. Putting the dimples in prior to bevel grinding and prior to ht should make it quite easy since you won't need to color in between any lines. I say go for it. Please take photos so that we'll can see. Alow, wear eye, hand and face protection when applying the dimples. Be safe.
 
I have a slicer ( can't remember the mfgr.) with oval indentations starting at the edge and going up the blade approx. 3/4". As far as I can tell, they don't reduce the stiction worth a damm. Think they are just a marketing gimmick.
Tim
 
Williams. & Sonoma and sur la table generally have cooking sessions, do they have food on site. ask if you can use the shun product and try slicing something like a cucumber. then you will know how they work and if they are worth the time. I say do it since it could be a cool finish that people would post for. shun has demonstrated that.
 
Use a 320 or 400g satin finish on the bevels. It helps with food stiction. Going for a more polished look doesn't work well in the kitchen. From previous threads, scallops, or dimples are a marketing ploy. Geometry (I use a convex on the right side, and full flat on the left) with a 70/30 offset, for a right handed user, is important. Lefties are opposite of course. Stiction is a minimal issue with this geometry.
 
Sorry for the delay in responding.

Take a 1# or 1.5# ball peen hammer and re-grind the ball into a tapered cylinder that ends in a point. Round that point to the sphere shape you desire (1/8", 3/16", 1/4" ).
Hand sand and polish that small dome to a mirror finish.

Practice on something soft, like aluminum or brass. Get a rhythm going and "walk" the hammer blows across the area you want textured. Then practice on some scarp steel. Before texturing the steel, first fully spheroidize it.
 
I should hammer it in cold? And since im using O1, i think i found proper spheroidizing info. Would heating to critical then leave it in the forge with a couple pieces of hot scrap give me a good ductile structure?
 
You can cold work it or hot work it.

To spheroidize steel, the simplest way is to bring to sub-critical (1250) and hold for 30 minutes, then cool to black.
 
Just finished testing in some brass plates. It looks like a denser pattern than shun uses gives a very nice look. Will post pics when able.
 
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