Francisco Vaz
fvazknives.com
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2017
- Messages
- 284
Hey guys!
After 2 days without sleeping doing myself a personal challenge of crafting 2 BIG honyaki gyuto, i finally finished the first one! Posting this and going directly to the bed.
Im proud to bring this unique beast for the forums.
Doing this knife took me a bit closer to losing my sanity.
This knife is the synthesis of the last 3 years of deep studying differents approaches to make a hamon on carbon steel.
In advance i would like to say that ill be soon receiving Sheffcut steel which is expected to produce better hamons than W2 and perform a bit better too. It contains, among a few others, even niobium in its composition and
it is one of the most recent knifemaking steels produced. I strongly recommend for those who are kitchen knife entushiast to be trying a knife on this steel, even if it is a smaller one to see how it feels in honing stones.
Feel free to contact me about custom orders on sheffcut steel, im really hyped to study this alloy.
In my opinion, making a honyaki blade is the perfect ratio of science/art. There is a lot of science happening on a blade that has a hamon like carbon migration and such as well you need a lot of feeling to make a good hamon.
Its all about timing, temperature, geometry (which expands to thickness, pre heat treatment grind or not and many more).
And thats literally only half of it. Im not even entering in the part of creating a proper clay which can produces different results based on what ingredients you put on it.
The real challenge is properly polishing the hamon, which there are a LOT of techniques, many ways to do so.
For me, after studying many different ways to proper etch it, i like to hand rub the steel with kanahada. This technique is highly time consuming and frequently can take more time itself than all others combined in the
entire knife build.
The technique i use is quite similar to the method used for polishing traditional katanas.
This is for sure the most time consuming hamon polishing i have ever done. It was really hard to create that difference of crispy texture next to the smooth texture of the hardened steel.
This blade deserved my japanese kanji "Kando" mark, that being said, i did it really light and hidden so it wouldnt affect the overall look of the blade.
BALANCE POINT
158 grams for a knife this size is insane. Im confident to say you will love it in the very moment you grab it.
It is stunning to see the hamon by different perspectives.
FEATURES:
Rounded choil and spine for increased comfort
Hand rubbed finish - i honestly dont even know how much hours it took me to get the hamon and texture to this
A+ grade ironwood
1095 steel 61HRC
Light, agile and easy to handle despite being big. This knife will "connect" to your arm like a natural part of your body
Really thin geometry but not quite laser, i build this knife to be a daily, something in the middle of a workhorse and a laser
250mm blade - 380mm overall - 158 grams - 3/32" at thickest point - 45mm wide heel to spine
Smooth distal taper towards the tip, creating a flawless balance
100mm flat zone in the edge (flat edge touching the board before doing a slight curve)
Hand sharpened to 2000 grit
Very thin behind the bevel - this means you will need less pressure to cut food as well it will sharpen faster and easier for a very long time of use
Horizontal direction of sanding - easier to clean the blade after use
Polished hamon with multiple textures - the patina on this blade will be a painting itself
PRICE: SOLD$ shipped with zipped pouch included ( 5~8 days worldwide)
As mentioned previously, this knife is part of a pair of honyakis i challenged myself to make. Honyakis are bad boys to craft and they often will snap and crack just for fun to see your soul slowly fading away.
That being said, im at this very moment buying a big batch of steels like CPM magnacut, sheffcut and CPM S90V, the reason i made these two honyakis are for raise funds fast so i can buy more steel in the same shipment and save some cost.
Honyakis like these run at 600~1000 from me, doing this situational price only for swapping it for steel. Tomorrow ill be posting one similar but in full tang custom design with full carbon fiber handle and pins.
I strongly recommend adding this one for any collection of kitchen knives, if you never tried a honyaki, this is a nice knife to get some experience. While some people avoid big knives, this one will move like a regular 190mm gyuto in your hand, i carefully set the balance and weight to give you that experience.
REFERENCES: Im new to this forum but ill be happy to provide tons of references (mostly based on US). Feel free to take a look on my website fvazknives.com
Im considering to open a spot for a beast like this in CPM S90V or magnacut, if you like the idea, contact me for more information.
Thanks and hope you have enjoyed!
After 2 days without sleeping doing myself a personal challenge of crafting 2 BIG honyaki gyuto, i finally finished the first one! Posting this and going directly to the bed.
Im proud to bring this unique beast for the forums.
Doing this knife took me a bit closer to losing my sanity.
This knife is the synthesis of the last 3 years of deep studying differents approaches to make a hamon on carbon steel.
In advance i would like to say that ill be soon receiving Sheffcut steel which is expected to produce better hamons than W2 and perform a bit better too. It contains, among a few others, even niobium in its composition and
it is one of the most recent knifemaking steels produced. I strongly recommend for those who are kitchen knife entushiast to be trying a knife on this steel, even if it is a smaller one to see how it feels in honing stones.
Feel free to contact me about custom orders on sheffcut steel, im really hyped to study this alloy.
In my opinion, making a honyaki blade is the perfect ratio of science/art. There is a lot of science happening on a blade that has a hamon like carbon migration and such as well you need a lot of feeling to make a good hamon.
Its all about timing, temperature, geometry (which expands to thickness, pre heat treatment grind or not and many more).
And thats literally only half of it. Im not even entering in the part of creating a proper clay which can produces different results based on what ingredients you put on it.
The real challenge is properly polishing the hamon, which there are a LOT of techniques, many ways to do so.
For me, after studying many different ways to proper etch it, i like to hand rub the steel with kanahada. This technique is highly time consuming and frequently can take more time itself than all others combined in the
entire knife build.
The technique i use is quite similar to the method used for polishing traditional katanas.
This is for sure the most time consuming hamon polishing i have ever done. It was really hard to create that difference of crispy texture next to the smooth texture of the hardened steel.
This blade deserved my japanese kanji "Kando" mark, that being said, i did it really light and hidden so it wouldnt affect the overall look of the blade.
BALANCE POINT
158 grams for a knife this size is insane. Im confident to say you will love it in the very moment you grab it.
It is stunning to see the hamon by different perspectives.
FEATURES:
Rounded choil and spine for increased comfort
Hand rubbed finish - i honestly dont even know how much hours it took me to get the hamon and texture to this
A+ grade ironwood
1095 steel 61HRC
Light, agile and easy to handle despite being big. This knife will "connect" to your arm like a natural part of your body
Really thin geometry but not quite laser, i build this knife to be a daily, something in the middle of a workhorse and a laser
250mm blade - 380mm overall - 158 grams - 3/32" at thickest point - 45mm wide heel to spine
Smooth distal taper towards the tip, creating a flawless balance
100mm flat zone in the edge (flat edge touching the board before doing a slight curve)
Hand sharpened to 2000 grit
Very thin behind the bevel - this means you will need less pressure to cut food as well it will sharpen faster and easier for a very long time of use
Horizontal direction of sanding - easier to clean the blade after use
Polished hamon with multiple textures - the patina on this blade will be a painting itself
PRICE: SOLD$ shipped with zipped pouch included ( 5~8 days worldwide)
As mentioned previously, this knife is part of a pair of honyakis i challenged myself to make. Honyakis are bad boys to craft and they often will snap and crack just for fun to see your soul slowly fading away.
That being said, im at this very moment buying a big batch of steels like CPM magnacut, sheffcut and CPM S90V, the reason i made these two honyakis are for raise funds fast so i can buy more steel in the same shipment and save some cost.
Honyakis like these run at 600~1000 from me, doing this situational price only for swapping it for steel. Tomorrow ill be posting one similar but in full tang custom design with full carbon fiber handle and pins.
I strongly recommend adding this one for any collection of kitchen knives, if you never tried a honyaki, this is a nice knife to get some experience. While some people avoid big knives, this one will move like a regular 190mm gyuto in your hand, i carefully set the balance and weight to give you that experience.
REFERENCES: Im new to this forum but ill be happy to provide tons of references (mostly based on US). Feel free to take a look on my website fvazknives.com
Im considering to open a spot for a beast like this in CPM S90V or magnacut, if you like the idea, contact me for more information.
Thanks and hope you have enjoyed!
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