Stock removal

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DaNoog!

Joined
Jun 10, 2022
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Just curious as to how others do things. Say someone is starting with a bar and wanting to put distal taper in. Do they put their taper in first before cutting out the shape and putting their bevels in? Other way around? Somewhere in the middle?

I'm not sure it makes any difference really but I'm just mildly curious how everyone else does it
 
Joseph brought up a good point - how thick is the blade? For a kitchen knife that's normally fairly thin grinding the bevels will almost get the taper you're looking for. When I read your post saying "distal taper" I thought it was a fairly thick blade, 3/16" or 1/4" or so. Then for sure as Richard said, first step is to profile the blade, THEN grind the distal taper in. After that the bevels are ground.
 
I did a santoku the other day out of 0.129" magnacut, not super thick or thin. I tapered it to 0.07" at the front before doing the bevels. I probably could have just ground bevels and arrived at the same place, but I like laying out some scribe lines with my new height gauge and trying to execute a plan more than winging it like I used to.
 
Here's a third option:

I'm just finishing a gyuto with a distal taper. I ground bevels before and after the distal taper! That is, I put in the initial bevel with 36 grit and a ~.040" edge, then I tapered it. After tapering I went back to finishing the bevels. I don't know why I did it that way. I guess I was just being indecisive and did it both ways. hahaha.

I'm going back to distal taper first.
 
so this blade starts out as a 48 by 1.5 in by 3/8ths thick. Yes its a sword.
Distal was always something i did as i went along, and i didnt always do it. Especially on knives.
and even large bowies and short swords.

At 50 I dont like wielding things that are 4 ft long and weigh 15 lbs!!

So this thing will be tapered and well fullered besides for weight reduction and to decrease wobble perpendicular to the edge/cut


Ken H> said:
Joseph brought up a good point - how thick is the blade? For a kitchen knife that's normally fairly thin grinding the bevels will almost get the taper you're looking for. When I read your post saying "distal taper" I thought it was a fairly thick blade, 3/16" or 1/4" or so. Then for sure as Richard said, first step is to profile the blade, THEN grind the distal taper in. After that the bevels are ground.
Click to expand...
 
I definitely profile, then taper, then do bevels. With something like the japanese kitchen knives, I feel like it's going to be pretty necessary to grind the bevels last. Especially if it's something that can get thick close to the tang, like a gyuto with an extreme distal taper.

To get a straight shinogi line, and for the hira and the bevels to be proportional on something like that, I know the method used in japan is to actually slightly change the angle of the primary bevel as you move along the blade. so towards the tip the angle is more acute, and towards the choil it's more obtuse.

An added benefit, is you end up with a slicier tip, and a more robust heel. I find doing this method, it's pretty much impossible for me to get it right without doing the taper before the bevels.
 
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