Santoku knife

I would round the spine and choil after the HT and leave some extra meat on for post HT clean up, also some on the tip for grinding to leave room for mistakes if grinding too hot or fast. Doing a very small step down on tang is a nice touch for easier and cleanet fit on WA handle. There is a nice video on YouTube by simple little life for this step.
 
FredyCro said:
I would round the spine and choil after the HT and leave some extra meat on for post HT clean up, also some on the tip for grinding to leave room for mistakes if grinding too hot or fast. Doing a very small step down on tang is a nice touch for easier and cleanet fit on WA handle. There is a nice video on YouTube by simple little life for this step.
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So you profile the tip after grinding the bevels? It is too late for this one, I just heat treated the blade and it is tempering right now. I did 1,725F for 20 minutes and then 1,975F for ten minutes. The blade came out of the oven looking like a wet noodle with a severe S-curve. Plate quenching straightened it a good bit, but it still has a pretty severe bend. The 0.04" blade was even worse. I did the dry ice + alcohol treatment, that was fun. They are both clamped to a piece of angle iron in the tempering oven. I'm hoping they'll come out a little bit straighter.

I do have a step-down on the tang. Before cutting out the blank at the bandsaw, I drilled two 1/8" holes on either side of the tang to have a radius at the step-down. I also drilled a 1/2" hole at the choil. The radius there is a bit larger so I can clean it up with a dremel (I don't have a small wheel attachment).

I looked for simple little life's video on youtube. He has a lot of videos and I have seen some of them. I just found one where he used a clamp-on jig to get the step down even on a pretty beefy K-tip kitchen knife. He has a step in both directions, but his stock appears to be 3/16". I like the jig. That would help a lot to get the shoulders even.
 
Well, I had to reprofile because I blown through the tip, my problem is no speed regulation on the grinder and thin stock + newbie, so take everything what I say with caution ;)

File guide is a great help, there are a lot of DIY videos on you tube for making one yourself.

There are 2 videos for WA handles by simple little life. The step down trick is showed in the other vid as you said but comes up in the WA vids as well, if I remember correct.
 
Ken H> said:
Here's a link to a place that seems to be a good source for building a Wa handle:
https://coltonhandcrafted.com/2018/11/11/wa-handle-dimensions-and-shaping/
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Thank you for that link, he makes it look easy. I have been wondering about this construction method. Do I need a drill bit that can drill to the full depth of the tang? My blade is only about 2mm thick and the drill bits I have close to that size are really short. I have a hard time envisioning how a jig saw blade would let me make the slot deeper. I have been wondering whether it would be possible to adapt an oscillating tool for this purpose, though.

The second thing I am wondering about is the taper of the handle. On the website you linked, he has the top of the handle parallel to the spine, i.e., all of the taper is at the bottom of the handle. I drew it symmetric, i.e., half the taper on top and half on the bottom, with the center line of the handle parallel to the spine. I just redid the sketch with the top of the handle parallel to the spine and I think it looks better. Even though the taper is very subtle, it changes the look a lot. What does everybody here do?
 
Hubert S. said:
The blade came out of the oven looking like a wet noodle with a severe S-curve. Plate quenching straightened it a good bit, but it still has a pretty severe bend. The 0.04" blade was even worse. I did the dry ice + alcohol treatment, that was fun. They are both clamped to a piece of angle iron in the tempering oven. I'm hoping they'll come out a little bit straighter.
Click to expand...
If you continue to battle the curvature in the blade .... you might want to review JT's comments on using a carbide peen to straighten blades - it seems like the technique works very well....
 
Hubert S. said:
Do I need a drill bit that can drill to the full depth of the tang?
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You do really need a bit to drill full lenght of tang. On the one Wa handle I made (plan more) I drilled larger hole than the thickness of tang, then filled with epoxy. To make it look good I used a 3/16" brass bolster in front to hide the larger hole in wood.

A jig saw blade wouldn't make hole deeper than the drill bit.
 
Cushing H. said:
If you continue to battle the curvature in the blade .... you might want to review JT's comments on using a carbide peen to straighten blades - it seems like the technique works very well....
Click to expand...
Murray Carter has a youtube video where he shows how to do it. I don't have a carbide peen, but I might need one. The first temper cycle did very little if any straightening...
 
Ken H> said:
You do really need a bit to drill full lenght of tang. On the one Wa handle I made (plan more) I drilled larger hole than the thickness of tang, then filled with epoxy. To make it look good I used a 3/16" brass bolster in front to hide the larger hole in wood.

A jig saw blade wouldn't make hole deeper than the drill bit.
Click to expand...
I have seen pictures of knives with a thin brass or copper bolster. How do you attach that? Is epoxy strong enough for the end grain joint, or do you have to pin it some kind of way?
 
I am happy to help out with Wa handle construction. I have made hundreds of them and at least half are used in professional kitchens. If you want to private message me or contact me on email (better), I am happy to help. BTW...I though your santoku design looked good. My email is: carter@ciibladeworks.com

A couple of knives I recently made
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The second tempering cycle helped a little bit in straightening the blade, but it still has a bit of an S-curve to it. I had shimmed it a little bit for the second run. I will try again tomorrow.
 
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