The Chopaka model 9" chef knife.

[Salem Straub]

Here's a new model of mine. It's nothing fancy, just a solid no frills carbon chef knife, designed for hard use and cutting utility. I want one for my kitchen! Just shipped this to a customer today.

Materials: 52100 alloy blade, G10 mortised handle with stainless and mosaic pins.

It features a tall, thin flat grind with mild convexity beginning 1/2" from the edge. Edge thickness before sharpening was .007". The blade is hand rubbed to 600 grit and the spine and heel are fully rounded for comfort. The front of the scales feature a small bevel to making cutting with a pinch grip more comfortable. Overall weight is not much, I need to get a digital scale for these again but I'd guess around 9-10 oz. total.

Blade is 2-3/16 tall at heel for lots of knuckle clearance, and edge profile is pretty flat with a mild rocking tip, French style. Handle is shaped with a palm swell, to feel comfortable in the hand.

 

[shaymanx]

Very nice!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Question for you, Salem.

I am picking up a bunch of thin 52100 from Aldo tomorrow. I want to try it as an alternative to W-2 and blue steel. How does it it do in HT as far as warp and twist? Any tips?
Keven Cashen has some really good HT specs for 52100, which I am going to use.

 

[Salem Straub]

Mine is all forged down from bearings, so what I say may not fully apply. But:
After forging I first normalize once, then triple sub-critical anneal to soften it as much as possible. Got that trick from you.

I grind the blade. I've had good success with quenching blades down to .040" at the edge, .100 at the spine using Parks 50. Anything thinner in oil that fast, and BAD ripple warp happens. I've been trying using heated soybean oil for thin tall chef blades. It seems to work very well, too. I've never had it crack in P50.

Um, it's pretty easy to work with. It will work harden when drilling if the tang is not totally soft. It will bend/warp while grinding if one side is ground hard and long and heat builds up. Not as bad as Elmax or some other stainless, though. I normalize after grinding and before HT.

I just use a shimmed temper to correct warp if it's mild.

After tempering, it's not too hard of a steel to finish grind thinner with a sharp belt. A bit tough, but nothing like CruForgeV, which almost killed me.

That's all I can think of. I'll let you know if anything further comes to mind. Hell, I'd appreciate it if you gain any insight into it, working with it, that I've not yet found. Let me know!